Brand name coats for a song!

One of the best ways to stay happily inside your budget and yet still look good in fall and winter is to get your coats, of course, at thrift stores. "Uh duh," you say, "isn't that what your cheap little blog is all about?" Well, yes, but we still want to look fabulous! My (Sarah Jane) brother is way ahead of the game because he's been "thrifting" since about the 9th grade. Here are two genuine leather jackets he found at GoodWill. The black is Drag Specialties (normally no less that $300) which was $20, the brown is no label, genuine pigskin leather, $10.























For myself, I happened to stumble upon a mint condition Limited trench coat on Salvation Army's (Sal Val for the sake of typing) half off day. Oh yes, that's another great thing, most thrift stores either have 50% off all clothing days (Sal Val does at least one day a week, the day usually depends on the area), or they have a color-coded tagging system that they use for sales. Sweet! For example, whatever has a green tag is 50% off or 30% off or whatever else that day. So technically, you could even cut your spending down to almost nothing if you know what days or what tags to shop. Ahh the awesomeness of thrift shopping just gets better and better, doesn't it? Anyways, the trench coat was half off, so I paid a total of $7.50 for it. Yes, that's right, $7.50. It was missing one button in the back, so I bought new, girlier marigold brass buttons and added my own little flair to it. By the way, as a frequent Limited shopper in the past, this coat in store would have been no less than $60.00 at the lowest sale price. Probably would have been at least $120 new.

Who says you have to break the bank to stay in style? Not me, hehe

Ok, now it's Adele's turn to reveal her amazing outerwear finds. Unfortunately, I have only one good find to speak of, as far as coats are concerned. Here's my one "steal:"

It was around $70 if I remember correctly. Now, that price still does sound quite high, and I agree, it is. But this coat is genuine leather, name-brand Liz Claiborne, originally almost $300. I found it on a fluke -- my husband had been wanting a leather jacket for a while, and I wanted to get him one as a Christmas gift our first year of marriage. I just happened to check out a thrift store locally, and there on the rack were two. Both the same size, color, and label. I took a gamble, hoped it would fit, and snagged the coat! What luck! It fits perfectly, TOTALLY surprised Hubs, and is GREAT quality to boot! In fact, I just have to share with all you lovely viewers the Christmas morning pic as Hubster realized the awesomeness of his gift. :-)

Haha. Let's not tell him how I've exploited his "bedhead" on the interntet, k? Thanks. Besides, the bargain is the beauty of this picture!

~The Frugal Friendzies