I did some serious thrift shopping on Saturday for the first time in a long time, and I was reminded that there is a strategy to the finding the best deals. You need to be prepared for a few problems that will inevitably come up. If you’re new to this, here are some solutions to get you started.

Here are my essentials: my (thrifted) MK satchel purse, water bottle, and trail mix. I have a great reason for each of these items.

First, food and water help keep you nourished and focused if you’re going to be out for a while. You don’t want to have to stop (and spend too much money!) when you can just bring some water and snacks with you. If you’re hitting a few rummage sales or estate sales in the same day, there will be plenty of time to eat while you’re driving between locations. You also need patience and tenacity to find those diamonds in the rough, as it were. You can’t do that with a rumbly tumbly!

The satchel serves a couple of purposes for me. First, since I bought it second-hand, it reminds me that there are jewels to be had if you’re willing to dig. Second, this bag is large enough to hold my new finds, so I don’t collect a (plastic) bag and yet I can keep my hands free.

I recently read this great article on Rookie Mag about how to find the best deals at thrift stores. (It’s really good! Check it out!) My number one take away was to wear clothes that are functional. In this case, it means clothes that you can easily try new things on over the top. Think skinny jeans, leggings, tank tops, etc. I did that this past weekend for the first time – I wore a tight t-shirt so I could try on other tops over the t-shirt. It worked great! (Except when I didn’t try it on beforehand. But that can be fixed sometimes!) No need to worry if the church rummage sale is going to have a fitting room. You can try on anything, anywhere!

The last thing I recommend is to plan your route beforehand. There’s nothing worse than spending more time driving and less time shopping. So use that GPS or Google maps or whatever to plan an efficient route before you leave home. Feel free to stop in to any other estate sales, rummage sales, or thrift shops that pop up along the way, but know that you aren’t wasting gas to find that next stop.

Anything I’m missing? Do you have any die-hard thrifting strategies to share? I would love to hear!