Holiday shopping can be stressful for those who don’t properly plan things out. Fortunately, with some simple strategies and spending a little extra time creating an organized list, you can make holiday shopping a fun adventure for yourself and educate yourself at the same time. Andrea Pires is the Owner and Creative Director of the online Blog and Boutique, VintageDiggs.com, and shares some excellent shopping tips when it comes to being fabulously frugal by giving gifts of thrift.
Andrea says, “The key to discovering amazing thrift finds is to frequent the thrift stores that you like often.” You can do yourself a huge favor in terms of save time and stretching your dollar by calling ahead to find out what their sale days are. A lot of the time you will discover that perhaps Tuesday and Fridays are half off days for apparel, and if that is what you are looking for that is when you should shop! Other times stores won’t have set sales days, but will rather have 1/2 prices on certain colored tag merchandise. Another great question when you are making your calls is to ask if their shop does any bag sales, and if so when is their next sale date so you can mark it on your calendar. When there is a bag sale you pay a flat price for a bag, I’ve been to sales with bags ranging in size and price from $6-12 depending, and then you fill up your bag till it’s full. I’ve been able to fit so much into my bags before that each item has ended up averaging out at about $0.78 cents a piece!
Andrea also recommends to keep the individuals in mind of who you’re shopping for, what their likes are and their appreciation for the gift that you’ll be giving. Sometimes opening people up to the world of vintage and thrift is all it takes if they have a particular interest in fashion or collecting things. Andrea suggests using the power of Yelp.com when doing your homework for finding which places to shop at. This online review site can help you locate shops within your geographic area as well as read reviews from other shoppers who’ve purchased from those places before.
Lastly, Andrea suggests to keep an open mind when shopping and be sure to have your “creative juices flowing.” “If you find an item that isn’t so great as is but has a ton of potential that might be even better than simply finding a ready made object. The best gifts are the ones that are personal, so if you feel inspired to put a unique stamp on something so that it is just right, I can almost guarantee that it will be among that special someone’s favorite gifts this year!” Get creative; Redesign a piece of furniture, put together a unique assortment of teacups to make a pretty set, type up a favorite recipe and combine some kitchen utensils that would be needed with some of the ingredients into a holiday gift basket!
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