Thrifty Thursday: Thrifting Tip - Shop Out of Season

I think most normal people do their shopping according to whatever season is actually occurring at the moment. "Boy, it's really hot outside, and every morning when I get dressed I realize I have NO SLEEVELESS SHIRTS and I sweat to death. I'm gonna go buy some!" However, retail stores tend to stock their floors in advance of the upcoming season. Hence why you can buy a bikini at Target in February. If you're looking for something really specific and you want to purchase it secondhand, I recommend looking for it six months before you'll need it.

Great example:

I've been searching for a nice trench coat for about three years. It is hard to find a nice coat in my size at a thrift store - way hard. Invariably, all Goodwills have three or four really nice London Fogs on their racks,  but they're always men's sizes, and I look like I'm in a community theatre production of Les Mis whenever I try them on. But this week, I hit the jackpot - two lovely trenches for $3 each (they were half-off!).

Summer is the perfect time to look for secondhand outerwear. This is the time when everyone (myself included) is packing-up their winder clothes and donating all the stuff they didn't wear last year. I found another coat I just loved - this short pink pea coat with a detachable hood.

If I didn't already own three pea coats, I would have bought it.

Also, just for fun, let's look at how much money I saved by buying my coats at Goodwill. The white one was made by Braetan.

Their coats retail for around $120- less through Burlington, Amazon, etc.

The other coat is by ChatCwin, an Italian designer.

A quick Google search reveals that their coats usually sell for about $700. When I read that, I took a sip of water just so I could spit-take it. I've found some great steals, but this is by far my best. 

My Latest Official Thrifting Tip: Shop Out of Season