Welcome to ThriftScore!

My fave clerk threw these nifty little numbers in with my other purchases today because I am such a good customer. 

Saved $6! 

This is a blog that's been brewing since before I was born. It's in my genes, from my mother, who is a huntress and a warrior of exquisite finds amid racks of junk. Some people grew up on fairy tales and war stories; but I remember my father recounting my mother's cleverness in finding him a vicuna coat that he wore for at least 30 years. My father bestowed upon me the gift and curse of avoiding paying retail whenever possible. When I was the scholarship kid at an elite elementary school on New York's Upper East Side, I remember skulking into the Chapin-Brearly Exchange to buy gently used uniforms and the occasional party dress, praying that my well-heeled friends wouldn't ever see me there, or, God forbid, recognize their tunic from the year before.

Now, however, I'm a habitual -- some would say obsessive -- thrift shopper. I rock it in a quantum way. It's good for the environment, because we're giving clothing and goods another go-around instead of filling up landfills, and we're cutting down on the resources and resulting carbon and pollution associated with making new stuff. Most thrift stores support a charity, so even though scoring a darling Nanette Lapore chemise for only $7 seems like you're getting away with murder, you are actually making life better for someone, somewhere.  ThriftScoring is insurance against showing up at work wearing the same top that your office mate got from Macy's or Target or Nordstrom -- especially as chain stores replace indie shops and you can't tell a person from Texas from North Dakota from California from Brooklyn because they all shop at The Gap. Finally, it's cheap and fun. Where else can you go in thinking about maybe finding black skirt and come out with a green silk ruffled Built By Wendy dress ($6)? Or a brand spanking new pair of Timberland 3"-heel boots with gold-embossed leather on black? ($9)? Or a Pottery Barn rattan hamper ($6)? I don't know about you, but I don't want to make clothing an either/or proposition. When you ThriftScore, you can have it all.

Here are some rules I find helpful for ThriftScoring:

1. Learn your store. Find what day of the week things go on sale. At my local Out of the Closet, for example, Sunday is the day when all the tags shift. So the new stuff all has red tags, the yellow tagged items are 30 percent off,  blue is 50 percent off, and everything with a purple tag is $1. People in my neighborhood are hip to this so there's always a little crowd standing outside the store before it opens to rush the $1 racks.

2. Be flexible and keep a mental list of what you want and need. You most likely won't find what you go in to get specifically, but if you know you have, say, a ball coming up, then keep an eye out for a slinky number that fits well.

3. Don't buy it if you don't love it. Even if it's cheap and you're on the fence about it, you'll just end up clogging your closet with things you will never wear -- and then you'll bring it BACK to the thrift store where you got it. Likewise, if something's stained, torn, chipped or doesn't fit, you probably won't wear it and could have spent that $5 on a soy chai at Starbucks.


4. Be nice, and get to know the people behind the counter. Look, would it kill you to put stuff back on the hanger and on its rightful rack? The people who work at thrift stores aren't millionaires and chances are, they're volunteers. Another perk of being a nice person while you're ThriftScoring? You'll get to know the employees and they may slip a little love your way if you ask for a discount, or just throw in those nearly new Nine West pointy patent pumps just because.

5. Keep things in perspective. You may begin to lose your point of view when you do too much thrift scoring -- like turning your nose up at a perfect Tahari suit because it's -- gasp!-- $15. But if you really need a suit, and if you were going to buy a comparable new one, you'd be looking at a couple Benjamins. Paying just $15, plus dry cleaning, and you're still way ahead.

6. Wash. Wash. Wash. I'd like to think that the people who donate to thrift stores are relatively hygienic and upstanding citizens. But in college, this friend of mine told me she knew someone who got pubic lice from buying jeans at a thrift store and not washing them first. This may have been an urban myth, because I've never heard of that since, but it's stayed with me. [ED NOTE: Martha says that this thought has ooked her out of thrifting now altogether, but who says someone loaded down with crabs doesn't try on new Lucky Jeans at Nordstrom? In fact, I think you're LESS protected buying new because you may be tempted to wear it straight away!] Always wash or dry clean whatever you get from the thrift store immediately, if for no other reason than peace of mind.

Happy ThriftScoring! I hope you'll come here to share your trials and triumphs with us.

Love,

Vanessa