When it comes to stretching a budget, 2020 has pushed everyone into thinking differently. No surprise, getting creative with personal finances has become a bit of a common practice regardless one’s background. And in that respect, a lot of people are realizing the value of thrift shopping. Often relegated to second-hand charities selling to low-income shoppers, thrift shopping has frequently been assumed where people’s donations go. While some of that is true, most thrift shopping is actually available to anyone as the goal of the operations is to take the payment revenue to actually help charities, not the goods themselves.
Lara Joanna Jarvis puts concept to practice as she shows off her very valuable finds on a recent thrift shopping splurge in her neighborhood in her YouTube video, Thrift Haul 2020! Thrifted Fashion & Home Charity Shopping. From perfectly brand new, still tagged sweaters bought for a quarter of the retail price or winter hat and scarves for British pound or two, to book gifts for her relatives to household accessories, Lara shows off her simple treasures that are in great or almost new condition as well as how much she saved versus typical retail.
For decades thrift shopping has been a bit of a culture stigma. On the one hand strapped university students have long taken advantage of thrift stores to make ends meet while working through their studies. Many a struggling family has also benefitted from these organizations, being able to find basic necessities, good clothing, and home tools every household needs for bargain pricing. That said, while many have gone into a store and won’t admit it socially, from middle class to upper class use of a thrift store was looked down upon socially. Then the 1990s came along and that generational stigma started to break.
As the Internet arrived, people started showing off some of the literal finds they had discovered that were not only darn good, usable products, they were in many cases practically new. What many had not realized was that thrifts stores were also repositories for a lot of surplus goods that simply had to be liquidated and could not be sold anywhere else. Ergo, why Lara above was able to find a brand new sweater with the retail price tag still attached to it. Since then, the stigma of looking in thrift stores for discount finds and treasures has gone away, and more people have realized they actually are a valuable option if one is flexible and willing to do a little time looking around. You’re probably not going to find the FitBit watch buried in a timepiece box somewhere or custom birthday T-shirts, but there’s a good chance you might find some classic vintage goods in great condition you always wanted to find again but never knew how.
The big thing to remember is to have fun with thrift shopping and not put yourself under the pressure of a shopping agenda. Instead, treat it like an adventure and be surprised what you might find, just like Lara was.
