I remember those days, so far gone now, when I would spend $25 on a single item and think that I was getting a good deal. I cringe now recalling my years as a struggling graduate student when I would, near-empty-bank-account-notwithstanding, spend several hundred dollars a few times a year on clothes. Sometimes I would go to a store, spend $200 and only have a few items to show for it. I also recall, quite vividly, the tightness in my chest and general feeling of dread as I would watch the cash register ca-ching its way onward and upward. Shopping was a stressful affair and any feelings of euphoria I thought I felt were fleeting and certainly not worth the trouble.
Talk about night and day. Thrifting has put the joy, playfulness and sexy back into shopping for me. Whereas in times past, I would feel overwhelmed by the prices or the limited prospects of finding something flattering in my size, now I feel transported through the 7 heavens as I walk through the garden of abundance that is my thrift store knowing full well that I can and will find every thing my heart desires . . . and pay almost nothing for it.
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Brief intermission while I get on my knees to praise God for bringing me to THE store: Thank you, Jesus . . .
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Alright. Now what can $25 get you at my store? 15 items. FIFTEEN. That’s an average of $1.67 per item. Estimated value: $300+ Let us slowly and soberly examine the contents of a recent haul:
Perhaps the most unusual and interesting find was the red, vintage Gunn Trigère dress I snagged for a dollar.
Aware of Awareness 
Seriously?! How awesome! Where did you go?
I just posted some of my thrift finds on my blog – come stop by!
Thanks! The name of the thrift store is strictly classified information !! But if you email me, I’ll tell you 🙂
Alright 🙂 I just did!
There’s a deeper lesson here, from my observation. I noticed that you and I, as graduate students around the same time, both shared negative feelings around abundance and clothing (i.e., the more expensive the clothes, the more we would be visible in a career that is often about fighting invisibility and marginalization). But as I’ve seen you grow over the years, your internal mindset has changed and you’ve come to a place, it seems, that it is not the clothes that wear you, but you, as a whole human being, who can wear anything and make it look fierce. It sounds like the circle of self-acceptance is coming full circle. Not that we can’t enjoy nice things, but that nice things are a product of our mindset rather than a given, and the mindset is what we can change.
yes, yes and yes!