One man’s junk is another man’s treasure.  Where can you find name brand products for 10% off their retail price?  That is not stolen.  In fact if you think about it, if I could have the hand me downs of a billionaires clothes or even a multimillionaire, would you take it?  Of COURSE!!!  No brainer.  Well, where can you get it all?  Thrift stores, Value Village, Goodwill, America’s Thrift Store, etc.  There are a bunch of them.  Now, I know it takes some humbleness and frugalness to even walk into the store, but there is some real value there. 

What is there at the store?  You name it?  Clothes, games, sports equipment, lamps, silverware, furniture, beds, electronics, toys, books, you just never know until you walk in the door.   Just like any other store they have sections for each area. 

Now there are some things you need to know to find that diamond in the rough.  First you should know what days to go.  Most places have a tag with a color code on it.  At Value Village the color rotates every five weeks so that on the fifth week that color tag is just a dollar.  Usually it is on a Monday is when the tag day sale is (around a dollar for each special color of the week tag).  So know what days have the deals and know how it works.  If you go early you will see some people that buy the dollar items and then resell them on EBAY.  Yeah, stuff on EBAY is from Thrift stores?!?!? Yep and you didn’t even know it.

Where to go?  Now I live in Seattle, Washington so where to go is critical as well.  I recommend high class areas where multimillionaires and billionaires live.  Those type of people 2nd hand items are the diamond in the rough we are looking for, so when they donate their stuff they do it close by.  That is why I don’t recommend rural area thrift shops in general or small town areas less than 30,000 people.

If you want you can also take a load of donations to the store yourself.  Make sure to get a receipt of the goods you donate so you can write it off on your taxes.  It adds up, so take advantage of it.  This is a great way to recycle as well. Think about it, if you were to just throw away stuff that someone else can use it would be going in a land fill.  So besides saving money you are help save the environment.  It is a true win-win scenario. 

I highly recommend bringing a senior citizen.  They usually get an extra discount and they will enjoy it especially if they are on a fixed budget.  Almost ever senior citizen I know appreciate a good deal like the old days.