GO VINTAGE OR GO BROKE

During high school and often times well into college, you may have become accustomed to living off your parents’ money. Perhaps your parents provided extravagantly for your needs, or maybe, like most of us, your existence was more modest.  Now, you are either working your first real job, or you may be entering college on a budget.   You may have Saks tastes, but are now on more of a Wal-Mart budget.  

Shopping second hand or in low cost department stores has historically had a negative connotation.  And rightly so in some cases, where the items were sold out of dusty buildings on the wrong side of the tracks and the air smelled a combination of moth balls and Windsong.  Recently second hand stores have gotten a face lift.  They are often called “consignment” or “upscale thrift”.  They are well lit, clean and most importantly the lingering odor of mothballs has been replaced by Febreeze.  

Back in the day, you wouldn’t be caught dead “shopping” the thrift stores, but now, thankfully, the fallen economy has shed most of us of our self-righteous paranoia.  No one wanted their frugal side to show. If anyone knew your jeans didn’t come from Gap or some other over-priced, trendy, uptown market, you would be cast into a vile pit of despair and human rejection.   Check yourself here.  Don’t let your extravagant tastes be your downfall.    Nowadays, getting a bargain at a second-hand store or pulling together a sharp combination of Miley Cyrus and Jacquelin Smith is something of a badge of honor.  Wear it with pride.  These New to U “closets” aren’t springing up on every corner for no good reason.  Now, more than ever, you have the power to look fashionable, trendy, chic, and even professional at an affordable price.   Check out some of these secondhand stores or even some Good Will or Salvation Army stores.  You are not only helping a good cause, but you may be able to find a $75 pair of jeans for $4 that fit you like nobody’s business.   Decreasing your clothing allowance can be made into a shopping challenge.

This theory isn’t just applicable to clothes; think cars, video games, furniture, electronics, books or decorations for home.  Now that you are in charge of your own shopping dollars you may soon discover money doesn’t indeed grow on trees, it is simply made from them.