Spice and I do a lot of thrift store prepping.
If you don’t mind spending a bit of time and effort looking around, you can find some great bargains, get ideas and make a lot of prepping progress for not very much money.
We also like shopping at mom & pop stores (CLICKY!)
After a while in this article, Michael shares some thoughts about another way of thrift store shopping that I had never considered.
Things to look for at a thrift shop
We’ve found a lot of really great stuff at thrift shops, starting first and foremost with medical support supplies.
Crutches, walkers and other medical devices such as ankle boots sell for a small fraction of a price you would pay from a medical supply company, and they are great to keep on hand as preps.
Another huge need we preppers have is for packs… backpacks are often, literally, a dollar each and if you dig through them you can sometimes find high quality packs in among the junk.
You can find stuff like aluminum water bottles, big pots suitable for water bath canning, fire place tools (that you can use for an outdoor campfire), sleeping bags and blankets that work great as winter-car preps,
Winter clothing is also dirt cheap, and again you can often find nearly new quality items winter items. A store near us carries new “seconds” wool socks that are perfectly usable for $1 a pair.
One of my favorite things to have around the house you can also get inexpensively at a thrift shop… little league sized aluminum ball bats. They are great to keep in every room… because you never know when somebody will break in on you.
I’ve found a great selection of hand tools and hand appliances that others have passed on.
The “Good Stuff”
I’m a camera hound, and I’m constantly checking thrift shops for film cameras that people have donated. Since film cameras are (basically) no longer made, certain ones have become extremely popular and prices have soared. Occasionally, you can still find a great deal (although not nearly as much as a few years ago).
One of the things that is happening is that staff members have caught on to check the value of a camera by looking it up on “the Bay“.
This cherry picking thought brings me to a point that Michael made in a recent conversation.
Michael talks thrift shop
If you can make time to volunteer at your local Thrift Store or Food Bank you will find many blessings on the cheap there.
First contacts with good people who may refer you to a temp job with promise to go permanent if you a good hard trustworthy worker. Worked for several friends of mine over the past few years. I’ve had to turn down or pass on job offers recently.
Second Thrift Shops throw a LOT of unsaleable stock that is just perfect for Prepping. They occasionally get items they do not sell there and workers get first grab at it. Excess of all types are often thrown away at thrift shops so workers need to “Dispose” of it.
Food Banks often have perishable foods and non-perishable foods too old to be issued. Still quite edible and the workers have to “Dispose” of it. A lot of good chicken feed there. In a few times of my life I was well fed thusly.
Helping older folks with yard work and gardening has yielded me many friendly contacts, occasional nice pies and cookies as well as first grab at older tools and even garden plants and cuttings. Older folks generally have little money but I’ve still been blessed by learning how to do cuttings and transplanting by a couple of them. Once or twice I was gifted some older hunting and fishing gear.
OH and don’t forget the public library for useful skill building books. Your taxes paid for it and the Interlibrary Loan system still works. You tube is full of useful videos to learn almost anything you can think of.
Who says being a nice guy is the way to finish last?
Great article. There are ways to prep on very little money.
My previous job required LOTS of travel. My wife was able to travel with me.
One of our favorite stores were the Goodwill outlet. Different stores had different pricing. Most of those we went to sold by the pound. It was very cheap. When the new stuff came out to the sales floor, and they said “GO” it was a mad house. It was safe from a distance, but to be in the mob, football gear would be good to have on. 🙂
Another favorite place we would shop at were Amish stores. They would purchase close to expiration date, or discontinued items. They sold it cheap.
We bought 40 lbs. of individual wrapped beef jerky for $20. We could also get 50 lb. bags of steel cut oats. I bought a 5 gal. bucket of honey very cheap.
Unfortunately we live lots of miles from those stores.
The best time to get winter gear at garage sales is when it is 100 degrees outside.
Our local library had a bin of free books and magazines. Great way to build a prepper library.
A great prepping skill is keep your eyes open for things you can use. There are tons of good usable stuff that get thrown away each day.
I love your articles. Keep up the good work.
We are fortunate to have two very upscale retirement communities both less than an hour drive. I make it a practice to frequent the thrift stores near these since they generally get quality items. I have found several name brand heavy wool shirts and sweaters (new still with tags!) for $4.00 each. Used or without new tags for $2,50 or $3.00. I now have 2 lifetime supplies of wool clothing for about 5% (or less) of the cost of new. Same for cooking equipment, best quality pots, pans, etc for next-to-nothing prices.
Why can I no longer share the blog to FB?
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