I recently had big plans to shop my way through my weekly thrift route. I wrapped up work early and was really looking forward to a solo afternoon of thrifting.
Two hours and two stores later, I quickly realized this day was not going as planned.
My carts were…gasp! Empty!
I simply wasn’t having any luck. I couldn’t find anything on my thrift wish list and nothing was catching my eye.
I typically go shopping early in the morning to avoid crowds, but this time I went later in the day and it was a little too crowded for my liking.
I was really counting on finding 50% off sale items but because I went so late in the day, everything was already picked over from the sale.
Also, not to mention the weather warmed up outside so the inside of the store felt like it was 100 degrees, and this pregnant mama was uncomfortable! I wasn’t in the right headspace.
Despite all of the amazing thrift hauls we see on Instagram, even avid thrifters will admit they experience bad thrift days. Here’s how I like to recover from mine:
- Go often. If you’re a new thrifter, the key is to not let the bad days make you give up on thrifting all together. I file it under Thrift Fail, dust myself off, and try again another day.
- Don’t buy something just for the sake of buying something. Sometimes I’ll find myself doing this to make it “worth my time,” which is a complete waste of money. If there’s absolutely nothing that caught my eye that day I’ll try my hardest not to force the trip to be “successful” by buying things I don’t actually need.
- Get into the right head space. Keep an open mind, but level your expectations. I’ve been thrifting my entire life, now I thrift professionally and still make the mistake of having unrealistic expectations.
- Know when it’s time to take a temporary break from a store. Last year I decided to take a temporary break from a store that just wasn’t delivering time and again. I returned after a few weeks and was pleasantly surprised by their new inventory and sales.
How do you recover from thrift fails?
