If you are new to the Frugal Fashionista series, begin reading here.
This past weekend I was in Myrtle Beach with ladies from my home school group, and thus the lack of blog time. The beauty of these friends is they know my frugal tendencies. While only a few roll their eyes at my two hour ” couponing and deals conversations,” most of them are right there with me.
In fact, those are my “couponing geek buddies.” Remember them?
While other much cooler moms were laying out on the beach, we were inside, curled up on the couch sipping coffee, cutting coupons, and solving all the world’s problems.
It was a blast!
Then, when “real” vacationers decided to go to the Tanger outlet malls, we scoured the highways and byways for thrift stores, and found them all.
We did complete damage in the total amount of $35… for all six of us (the others were at the outlets). Now, those are the kind of friends you love to hang around.
‘Keeping up with the Jones’ is not a problem for us. They zoomed by years ago, and when they did, true contentment settled in.
I had fun going through the thrift store racks after one of my sweet friends exclaimed she was “done” shopping for her pre-teen girls (without much luck). Guess what? After that, I found five quality core pieces for her.
We scored when I eyed a Tommy Hilfiger shirt for $0.75. We then saw the exact same T-shirt hanging on a mannequin at a retail store for $24.99.
Train your eagle eyes and you will never believe what’s lurking.
Here is one of my brave friends modeling her amazing Frugal Fashionista finds, purchased at the Salvation Army Thrift Store in Myrtle. See what you have to be willing to do if you’re my friend?
Cost of this classic dress that will never go out of style? $3!
It is a heavier fabric, so in the winter she can easily add a black dressy jacket, blazer or cardigan for a look that last year round.
Notice the rosette type pin that are so stylish right now. This was worth the price of the entire dress, just for that. We encouraged her to take it off and pair it on something where it will stand out more. It gets lost on this dress, and it’s too cute to not notice.
The down side of this post is that all my other pictures from these thrift store adventures are on my camera (which will not be in my possession until tomorrow). I saw a few comments last week from ladies who said they wanted to link up to the Frugal Fashionista Fashion Show today since they missed last week. I didn’t want any one to be left out, so I’ve added Mr. Linky just in case. I didn’t know if there would be enough interest every week, but if I have enough people who would like to link up, I will. Just let me know in the comments, otherwise, I will just do it 2x/month, and give notice, unlike today. 🙂
Please link directly to your Frugal Fashionista post, and as a courtesy to me, please link to Balancing Beauty and Bedlam so that others can join in the fun.
The link widget has been a bit feisty lately, so I apologize if it comes and goes with out notice.
Remember – thrift is back…it’s the new black!
First off your friend looks amazing. Looks like she walked right out of Macy’s. Nobody could tell that is a Salvation Army find. Who cares if they do. What a find.
Hey cool post!! she looks great!
suzanne
I obsessively checked your blog to see if you’d do this again – hurray! My vote is to do this each week – I love it so much!
I am thinking of doing my boys clothes, and they’re sound asleep in their room (where the clothes are…) so I’ll post mine tomorrow.
Is the dress your friends, or was she just modeling your dress for you? It’s a fabulous dress and it looks great on her!!
What a great dress your friend found. I love it and yes, the flower will be fantastic.
I can probably not participate tomorrow (getting ready for a yard sale), but I may participate in the future. We have found my daughter some great skirts recently. I really enjoyed looking last week.
OK, I’ve got a few finds to share if I can get over posting my picture online! HA! Either way, I’ll share my “finds” once they’ve been washed….
ok—I never go to thrift stores because I think they smell weird, but I LOVE that dress!! Maybe I need to plug my nose and go in for another try :)!
So, I am loving this Friday feature. Yes, I must participate as I ADORE trash to treasure and, like you, I am addicted to “the steal” and “the savings”.
The dress it super. I am thinking it has much versatility too!
Off for another bargain…not really…off to bed…but I am sure I will dream of bargains!!!
.mac 🙂
Ahhhhh…that dress is adorable! I want it!!!
love thrift stores! Honestly if you ca ignore the smell, you can come out with awesome finds! my daughter dresses in abercrombie, j crew, bananna republic, old nave, aeropostle all because of thrift stores!
Your friend looks beautiful! That dress really is timeless. I honestly haven’t taken the time to comb through the clothes at thrift stores. I’ll go through housewares. I really need to take that extra bit of time. (because I need newer clothes!)
I am in looooove with that dress! SHe looks fabulous!!
Gorgeous dress! That little pin would look great on a black blazer over the dress.
I’m linking up again, because I had so many thrifty clothes to share this week.
I would definetely link up as often as you offer it (as long as I’ve been out to do some Goodwill-ing and garage sale-ing!) I love showing off my steals…ahem…deals! Nothing to share this week, but I have a big post planned for next week! I’m off to Goodwill (sans hubs) so I can find a whole new wardrobe for my brand new job!
great dress!
I got a great thrifted dress last weekend, that I will wear this weekend-i’ll take a pic and post on it to link up next week-or whenever you host the linky party again-i love love love my dress and would love to show it off!
That dress is so pretty!
Such a cute dress! I love thrifting. It seriously gives me the biggest adrenaline rush to find a great bargain :).
http://paulsbride.blogspot.com/2009/05/dressing-boys-for-less.html <– my link disappeared from the Mr Linky. I posted it again, but there it is in case it disappears again!
The outfit is great! It’a a classic style. I love thrift shopping and will hook up again for frugal fashions.
You are such a good friend and stylist! She looks amazing!
Very cute dress! I was quite inspired to go out shopping this week. I have an award for you over at my blog so stop by!
I LOVE your friend’s dress and I LOVE this idea! I would definitely be interested in posting my frugal fashion finds and linking up here. I’m adding you to my blogroll so I can make sure not to miss your next carnival. Thanks again!
I have enjoyed reading your blog.
I am new to the blog world, but have seen the miracle of the blogging community and prayer in the last two days. Hope you will stop by my blog and pray for little Maggie.
I’m so looking forward to going back and reading this post but I have a quick spray paint question for you. Do you wear gloves or anything? I have spray paint ALL over my hands. 🙂 I’ve got a great project to show for it though! Kelly
I have always bought nearly all of my clothes secondhand, so obviously I get “okay” deals fairly regularly. But I’ve never gotten the really *big* deal that you just have to tell everyone about, if you know what I mean. Until this week.
I have a hard time finding anything that fits *really* well, ’cause I’m very small, but this week I went to Goodwill and found three t-shirt-style tops, that fit perfectly, in three different solid colors that are all great colors for me. For $3 each. In 100% cashmere! 😀 When I get around to actually uploading a picture, I will link them to one of your fashion shows.