The Frugal N Fashionista Find Back-to-school Thrift Store Treasures By Holly Hester
ot all thrift stores are created equal. Some are terrifying places filled with ceramic clown figurines, seventies gold-lamé jumpsuits, and bins of bargain underwear that say things like “I love to fart.” And other places, like the kind I visit, are well-organized and awesome shops where you and your family can get a complete designer wardrobe for about as much as you spend at Starbucks every week.
It is my personal belief that moms and children should never wear anything new. I have three kids and not only do they take great pride in wrecking their own clothes, but they have an incredible knack for wrecking mine. Whether I’ve sat on a big blob of play dough or someone’s accidentally just spilled a Slurpee in my lap, my clothes look like a Jackson Pollock painting of stains, which would be a big deal if I were wearing $100 jeans. But $5 jeans? Well, I say let the pizza sauce fly. So here are my favorite thrift stores. I promise that if you shop at these places you will never have to shop anywhere else again. Don’t forget to bring your Go Local card along for extra savings at some of these places. Good luck, have fun, and I’ll see you near the underwear bin. (I’ll be the one in the gold-lamé jumpsuit.) Holly Hester lives in Sebastopol and writes about life on her blog, Riot Ranch. Find her book, Escape from Ugly Mom Island!, on Amazon.
14 SonomaFamilyLife
July 2015 www.sonomafamilylife.com