Hello Suger lovers, firstly I must say a huge thank you to Melissa when she contacted me tell me that I had won an ad spot for this month I was over the moon. Then she reminded me that with winning that spot I could do a guest post if I like. So I got to thinking what a Suger lovin’ crowd like yourselves might like to know, that might be up my alley. Then it comes to me Melissa is in the middle of doing a summer fashion series and it’s Christmas time and we all like to save a buck where we can and find unique stuff.
So with me being the vintage loving, thrifty, op shopping, penny pinching crazy that I am. I’m constantly getting asked by friends, family and strangers where and how I find such cool and unique stuff when out op shopping and thrifting. I often hear from others that they never have much success when popping into their local charity shop in hope of finding a little score.
Therefore I’m going to share some thrifting secrets of mine to help increase your chances of finding some totally cool stuff.
- I have found visiting op shops Monday mornings handy, many stores especially smaller church based ones have deliveries coming in from people’s clear outs on the weekend or excess from garage sales.
- Church run charity shops often have more reasonably priced items as well as older community members donating unwanted goodies. I can’t begin to tell you how many gorgeous items I’ve picked up recently that are from the 60’s and 70’s.
- Always check out the racks marked as dress ups, you will often find the coolest vintage clothing there.
- Check out every nook and cranny in the store, open doors and drawers on display cabinets especially…….often excess items are stashed in there and because non-die hard op shoppers just think what’s on display is it, but some of the coolest stuff is yet to be put on display.
- Ask staff when they get new stock, places like Vinnies, Lifeline, Salvos usually get a delivery from their main warehouse site once a week on an allotted day. Find out which day your local oppy has their delivery and head in that afternoon or following morning to get early dibs.
- Get friendly with staff let them know what your looking for, if you’re a regular they might even put things aside that will interest you for your next visit.
- Again get friendly with staff just because you don’t see something of interest on display they might have something out the back or behind the counter. I’m always after vintage buttons and so many op shops don’t have them out anywhere in the store, but I have learnt to ask and suddenly biscuits tins of the most awesome vintage buttons appear for me to look at.
- Don’t be afraid to ask for a reduction in price if something has a stain, tear, chip, crack. Often you will be able to do repairs or adjustments at home.
So there you have it, a bit of a pointers list to get you started on your path to thriftiness and über coolness amongst your friends with some cool scores that didn’t cost you the earth.
Thanks to Trudie from My Vintage Vow for her guest post this month. And WOW, what an awesome bunch of creative and useful people we have hanging about here. I know that some of my Hot Park Mum friends will love this, they are always rejoicing in the spoils of their op shop finds. So thanks again Trudie. Stay posted, our December sponsors feature post is coming up!
Suger 
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