credit I am a thrifter of epic proportions - epic. It is not an exaggeration to say that ninety eight percent of my life was owned by someone else before me. And I love it that way! I am endlessly smug when I aquire a gorgeous, name-brand coat for a pitance. Or a swanky silk scarf for the cost of a cup of coffee. Or a bed for the cost of a nice pair of shoes.
So what, you ask, is the mother-loving problem, Ms. Von?
Friends, the problem is that I cannot, for the life of me, resist the urge to tell you that this dress? I got it at Goodwill. And you won't believe for how much ... $7! Yes! I know!
Now, it's not quite as bad as all that. I don't go around blurting out the cost of everything I own. But if you compliment me on something that I'm wearing/holding/sitting on, and it cost less than one would expect, for some reason I feel that the appropriate response to your compliment is to chirp "Unidale Salvi! $16! And then I spray-painted it green!" or coo "Unique Thrift! $7 and I talked them down from $10!"
My Chronic Pricing Disease (or CPD) is limited to things that were unusually cheap. I will never, ever tell you how much my brown Nine West booties cost or that grey wool shift from The Gap, but anything that I pulled out of a pile of clothes in a poorly lit warehouse? Lucky you, you're going to hear alllll about it.
Please tell me I'm not the only one that does this! Do you suffer from CPD, too?
So what, you ask, is the mother-loving problem, Ms. Von?
Friends, the problem is that I cannot, for the life of me, resist the urge to tell you that this dress? I got it at Goodwill. And you won't believe for how much ... $7! Yes! I know!
Now, it's not quite as bad as all that. I don't go around blurting out the cost of everything I own. But if you compliment me on something that I'm wearing/holding/sitting on, and it cost less than one would expect, for some reason I feel that the appropriate response to your compliment is to chirp "Unidale Salvi! $16! And then I spray-painted it green!" or coo "Unique Thrift! $7 and I talked them down from $10!"
My Chronic Pricing Disease (or CPD) is limited to things that were unusually cheap. I will never, ever tell you how much my brown Nine West booties cost or that grey wool shift from The Gap, but anything that I pulled out of a pile of clothes in a poorly lit warehouse? Lucky you, you're going to hear alllll about it.
Please tell me I'm not the only one that does this! Do you suffer from CPD, too?
37 comments:
I suffer from it as well. I feel I need to tell you what a great deal I got on things. I do it with really cheap and when I got an insane deal on designer items.
Did I tell you I got this marc jacobs dress for 85% off... yeah I can't stop myself.
In my family CPD is so severe that it extends to gift-giving: "Like that birdhouse I got you, Mom? Only $7!" My grandmother was notorious for telling us the original price as well as what she paid for it, so we'd know how much it was worth. Perhaps not surprisingly, no one ever wants to hear how little was spent on them...
I used to do that ALL the time. And then I started reading that it's bad manners to do that and I felt like I was being very ungracious so started just saying thank you. Now I only reveal those deets when someone probes further than 'I like your dress'. lol
One thing I will never thrift is a bed. I cannot stand the thought of sleeping where other people have slept! Hotels and friends spare bedrooms are bad enough, I couldn't sleep on one every night.
I have no problem wearing second hand clothes though.
"This top? I found this in the street!"
"Like it?! The dumpster behind the freshman dorms!"
I blame it on my mom, because I hear that CPD is hereditary. :)
I have the same issue. I think it stems from my inability to take a compliment mixed with a generous dose of bargain hunting pride.
Yes! I also blame it on my mom. Sigh. But it's something that I have to overcome.
From now on I'm going to let everyone assume that I spend loads of money on my clothing...rather than the truth (Salvation Army, Clothing Swap, Hand Me Down...)
Soooooo guilty on this one!
YES, or a cocky "Oh I made it" comment. I also like to price my outfit in my OWN head. Like right now... (so you can suffer with me!) $4 green leather flats from Goodwill, $12 F21 zipper jeans, $7 Nordstrom Rack tank top, shirt I bought at full price at Nordstroms... but have worn for almost 4 years, and a $7 Target cardigan. WIN.
Kate: I love it!
Meg: I think you are 100% right. I don't know what to say after people compliment me. I feel weird just saying "Thanks" and then staring into the middle distance.
Funnily enough, my mom totally DOESN'T ever reveal the prices of things. When people ask her how much something cost she'll arch her eyebrows and say "Just the right amount!" I think it stems from my grandma.
Renai: I do the same thing! Currently wearing:
tortouise shell open toed flats (Unique Thrift $5)
dark wash skinny jeans
(Unique Thrift $7)
brown tank top
(Unidale Salvi $3)
sheer floofy purple top
(Unidale Salvi $3)
clear bangle
(Goodwill $2)
fist pump!
Oh my god I do this too!!! I'll never understand people who do the opposite, like brag about how EXPENSIVE something was?! I'm sure it annoys people that we do this, but personally I love when something has a story behind it (which is part of the reason I love to thrift) and sometimes that story is that you got it for two bucks at a garage sale, or whatever.
Don't worry, I'm exactly the same ;D And love it.
Hehe
Holly ♥
All. The. Time.
Random Person, totally in passing, maybe even literally passing me on the street.: "Oh, I like your belt."
Me, shouting back, cheesy grin, pointing to said belt: "Thanks! 50 cents!! Goodwill!!"
RP: "Uh, cool...."
Yeah, it's a sickness.
I don't personally suffer, but my mom has somehow lived through this condition for years. I used to be embarrassed, but she definitely taught me how to rock a sale at a big store, and find the gems in a thrift store.
Bee: You're a girl after my own heart! Can you imagine us interacting with the public together? We'd be a constant embarassment to ourselves and everyone around us.
Which is how I like to live my life, honestly.
I do it too. Like just today, at lunch, I announced to everyone that I got my awesome solid-oak Pottery-Barn-looking dining table on Craigslist for a hundred bucks. It's hard for me to resist things that were bought on clearance, too. "Oh I like your shoes!" "Thanks! THREE DOLLARS at Target!"
Oh my lord. I thought I was the only person in the world who suffered from this disease. Sometimes the urge to blurt out a price gets so intense that I get dizzy.
When I came back from England I had a field day. Questions were coming left and right. "I love your dress!" "An old woman was selling her handmade creations on the side of Canterbury street in London, and she gave it to me for four pounds!"
By getting said deal in London, I had suddenly added lofty and holier-than-thou to the symptoms of the disease. Sigh!
Marley: I have that complication, too! "I got is for 100 NT from a sidewalk vendor in Taiwan!" "I got for 12 Euros at some weird corner store in Milan" "It was only $12 in Sapa, Vietnam!"
Good lord, I'm suprised people are still willing to compliment me on anything! ;D
Oh for sure! I will also tell people long, detailed stories about how to procure similar items for themselves ... even if they aren't interested.
I have it too. Well, I don't thrift( I am lazy). But if I got something on sale or at s store you might not expect and I get a compliment on it I will for sure share the source and the cost.
I TOTALLY do this all the time. I'm so glad to see I'm not alone!
I also find it difficult to take a compliment. It doesn't help that so many of the people I regularly interact with have the same problem; I can't even learn from other people!
However, I do find it amusing when I compliment someone and they react with, "I think so too." Silence.
I try to only do this when they ask where I get it from, then you WILL hear how much is was.
Oh god I do it too!
And it's worst when you find someone whos very anti-2nd hand stuff, because they then look at you like you crawled out of a bin.
I'm slowly learning not to do it though :)
I have the disease, it's time to conquer it!
Oh yes,I do! I found a designer skirt, washed and in mint condition, from a thrift store here for about 3.60 euros and I'm loving it. :)
I'll be happy to tell the price of anything if I got it on bargain.
Definitely no shame there! Thrifty and proud of it, nothing wrong with that.
I have this disease too, so don't worry. I know most people do this with expensive items, but I love telling people how cheap I got something.
I used to think of it as a disease also. Then I realised that it was a good thing. It means people who may not think about it, may realise you can dress well and cheaply. Usually it also means you're being much more environmentally friendly as well if you are thrifting.
hahahaha i am so ridiculously guilty at this. my sister and mother and i are all second hand devotees, to the extent that the part of my 21st speech that got the most laughs was 'we love char because everything she owns is from the op shop'. chur.
oh sarah, how i love you. haha. i totally have CPD...and i think i really enjoy the jealousy it inspires in my friends. haha. it's typically that fakey kind of jealous anyway, and usually just prompts them to beg me to take them thrifting. that's actually been the way i've made some new friends at a brand new university when i transferred last year! people love to think there's some magic touch, but it's just thethriftshopper.com and a good eye. :) i like showing my friends they can be thrifty vixens too! hahah :)
me, too! bargains are meant to be shared. = )
Oh man, I feel like you're describing me in that post!
haha! I can identify with this disease! :) I think I inherited it from my mom.
Oh my god, DO I EVER! I never actually noticed that I did either, until about a year ago when my sister, after observing a stranger compliment me (and hearing me quickly rattle off the details of how my dress cost $7 from a charity store), politely pointed out: ''um, Corrine? You don't have to tell someone EVERYTHING about your outfit every time they compliment you on it!'' Oops. Point taken. I am so relieved to hear that I'm not the only one guilty of doing this!
xoxo
I wish there was some sort of code sign, so you could tell people who suffer from those that don't. Then we could all find each other and maybe even thrift together, ohhhing and awwwing over our finds!
Ha! We are not alone. My mother also does this, but then turns around and tells me not to.
"Just take the compliment. Let them think you spent a lot."
Often times, however, if I feel that there is a chance that this person who has shown some interest in this great new thing that I have, that didn't barely cost me a dime, might have a shot at also owning this amazingly affordable wonderful thing - well, then I am going to go ahead and let them know exactly where to go to get their own!
"Two bucks at Target! Yous should go get one before they run out! Hurry! Then we can match!!!"
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