Many folks wake up at the crack of dawn the day after Christmas to do post-holiday shopping. For some, it's to return gifts that didn't quite fit or weren't quite what they were hoping for. Others do it to take advantage of the big sales.
I've never really participated in this tradition until this year. I love to shop. I do not like to spend money. This make for a unique conundrum much of the time. Growing up, my family did most of our clothing shopping at thrift stores...specifically Goodwill. As a teenager, this didn't always thrill me (to say the least). I went through a phase where I didn't want to buy things second-hand. Now that I'm all grown up and have "learned the value of a dollar," I'm back to thrifting with a vengeance.
For our day after Christmas shopping excursion, my mom and I walked briefly around a department store, found the prices to be ridiculous and headed to the nearest thrift store instead.
Thrift store shopping is not for everybody. I know there are folks who can't get on board and I respect that. You can't look at thrift store shopping the same way you look at regular shopping. First of all, you never know what you're going to find. This can be good in many ways because every steal and deal you run across is, in essence, a surprise.
Some people say they hate thrift store shopping because they can never find anything good. To these folks, I say they need to stick it out for the long haul. Sometimes the good finds are few and far between, but they are always worth it to me. On our after Christmas clothes shopping trip, I only found one shirt. But the fact that it was a like-new silk J.Crew blouse that probably retailed for over $100 yet cost me only $4 made the shopping trip worth it.
I know there are other thrifty folks out there and I just wanted to see if any of y'all fit in that category. Did you do any after Christmas shopping?