thrifty thursday: goodwill buy the pound.

as of last night, i am no longer buying clothes. so it only made sense to spend my last day being able to shop shopping. it was the first chance i had to check out the goodwill buy the pound store and i was so excited to see what it was all about.

if you don't know what this store is, it is the newest edition to goodwill here in southern maine. it is something like an outlet. located right next to their distribution center in gorham, it is a prime spot for items that may not be top choice to go out to stores. it also carries things that didn't sell in their stores over a certain period of time and hopes to reduce waste. unlike their other retail stores, you pay by the pound. some heavy items are individually priced, but a much deeper discount. the more pounds you buy, the lower the price per pound is.

i knew it was going to be a lot of digging, so i went prepared. i ate breakfast and had my coffee before i went. i wore comfortable clothes and a cross body bag, so my hands would be free and i could move around easily. i wanted to get their as close to the time they opened as possible, so it would be a little more organized. when i arrived about 10 minutes after 9am, there were already about 8 other people there. i sort of had an idea of what to expect, but still wasn't sure. there were about 20 blue bins set up holding clothes, shoes, bags, and other knick knacks. there were a few bins of records, movies, and kids games. there were housewares and furniture lined up against the wall. since it was my first time here, i wanted to look at everything. i started to the left and worked my way to the other side of the room. i grabbed a few records for the first bin, but moved quickly on to the important items, the clothes. after the first few bins, i was beginning to worry. i hadn't found anything and was hoping that my first trip here wouldn't be a bust. but as i got going, i started to pull out some gems.

i will be honest, this is not for the faint of heart. you have to dig and it does seem a little unpleasant at times. but it was totally worth it. there was lots of really nice ll bean pieces ( mostly men's), gap, and other well known labels, but there were also a lot of cool things that didn't need a name brand.

i spent $19.94 and with over 13 pounds in my cart, here is what i got:

household items:

blue ball jars, big and little.

two records.

diy project in the making. love the wheel.

clothes!

shirts:

white embroidered blouse & striped sheer ralph lauren blouse.

 outerwear:

floral blazer & neon spring jacket.

 sweaters:

cable knit cardigan & vintage varsity sweater.

 dresses:

stripe shift dress & floral romper.

bottoms:

printed pants & polka dot culottes.

polka dot pleated skirt.

gap & ll bean overalls. 

(i have been obsessed recently. looking forward to seeing what i can do with them!)

shoes:

ll bean boots.

so basically i got 19 things for $19. there is nothing a little laundry detergent can't fix to make this shopping trip well worth it! now i want to know who else has been and what you scored!