The Thrilling Thrift Hunt

Beware if you decide to jump on the thrift-store bandwagon. It becomes an addiction. The good news is that I can tell you the location of every top-notch bargain hunter's paradise from here to Evansville, Louisville, Dayton, and Cincinnati. Value World, the DAV, Salvation Army, St. Vinnies, Goodwill... I'm an encyclopedia of thrift-tasticness.

The bad news is, thrifting has become like crack to me. Well, at least it's generally less expensive. But seriously. I learned from the best. My step-grandmother's been at it for the majority of her 88 years. My mom's been taking me thrifting since I was a wee child of about 7. You get GOOD at sifting through diamonds in the rough when you start at so tender of an age. I have a talent. A gift, even. Everyone wants to go shopping with me, because the Thrifting Gods favor me so.

The itch hit hard again on my way home from my dad's parents' home in Milan. (Milan, Indiana. Not the more-exciting Milan.) Suddenly, I spotted the Goodwill in Batesville. I was powerless to resist her sweet siren call.

Fortunately, I was able to pay for most of the resultant haul with grandparent Christmas money. (Bless you, grandparents of the world!) I also befriended a bargain-conscious duo of elderly ladies, who let me in on their secret: This particular Goodwill sells everything half-price to the over-50 crowd every Sunday. They adopted me as a surrogate niece for the next fifteen minutes, so what would have been a $96 haul was only $48.

Needless to say, this weekend I have made a HELLACIOUS wardrobe upgrade, courtesy of the Batesville Goodwill.

With some aid from Rag-o-Rama in Indy, where I found a sweet pair of Steve Madden snake-printed platform sandals ($16) for next season, and some platform gothic butt-kicking boots ($15) for RIGHT FREAKIN' NOW. Incidentally, they look fairly like the Demonia boots I was about to drop nearly $80 for. Oh, I am a happy girl.

The haul includes:

•  hand-knit cream-colored shawl
• a scarf to match
• two berets in black and oatmeal (You could say I was inspired by Andrea's recent beret-laden hotness)
• a knee-length black sweater-jacket, perfect for layering
• a perfectly-fitting oatmeal jacket for spring
• a divinely soft white New York & Co cowl-neck sweater
• two delicious chunky, angora cardigans in grey and black
• some grey suede flat midcalf boots (Perfectly timed, since my black pair needs replacing)
• a velvet pinstriped J.Crew blazer
• a SWOON-WORTHY silk-velvet Elie Tahari blouse. I saw similar on the Bergdorf-Goodman website for $250.
• The perfect little leather overnight bag for my next weekend trip

A haul of this quality gives you a ridiculous sense of accomplishment. I mean, any fool with a ton of money in the bank can just walk into Saks and grab the "right" brands in the "right" silhouette for the season. The rest of us need to be more resourceful and better at the hunt. What's my point? The point would be that there's no POINT in paying full retail. For anything. Also, I'm available if anybody needs a shopping buddy and/or personal shopper. Because there is nothing like the rush of a hunt like this.