Speaker 1: Episode four twenty four, How to shop secondhand Online.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to
Speaker 2: save money, embrace simplicity, and live a life here your
Speaker 2: hosts Jen and Jill.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen,
Speaker 1: my name is Jill, and I am so stoked on
Speaker 1: this episode because I am obsessed with shopping second hand
Speaker 1: but only online. This is your baby. I hate thrifting, yard, sailing, estate, sailing,
Speaker 1: all and all the things Jill loves like in her core.
Speaker 1: I hate, but.
Speaker 3: And yet we do love each opping.
Speaker 1: We do.
Speaker 3: Don't get it twisted.
Speaker 1: I but I love and am passion about buying second
Speaker 1: hand as much as possible. And so if you are
Speaker 1: like me, then this is a gen episode. Jill has
Speaker 1: a ton to say. I'm still here, But if you're
Speaker 1: a gen then this is for you. But this episode
Speaker 1: first is brought to you by trash. It's not so
Speaker 1: bad when it's actually treasure, like your stale bread that
Speaker 1: you don't want anymore, but I'll gladly make into creu
Speaker 1: toons or that painting that's about to be thrown away.
Speaker 1: But it's perfectly gaudy and you just need it for
Speaker 1: your house, or the plant clippings on the ground at
Speaker 1: home depot that you're definitely gonna propagate and turn into
Speaker 1: larger plants.
Speaker 4: Trash. It's not always junk, and you can claim that
Speaker 4: second hand treasure more easily with Benny. It's a free
Speaker 4: browser extension that allows you to find clothing and accessories
Speaker 4: on second hand sites and buy that thing instead of
Speaker 4: the brand new thing. Frugal friendspodcast dot com slash Benny.
Speaker 4: B E and I Frugal friendspodcast dot com slash Benny.
Speaker 4: Jenn and I both have hats that say Benny on
Speaker 4: them and they are great hats, and anytime people are like,
Speaker 4: what's Benny, we just say Frugal Friends podcast dot com
Speaker 4: slash Benny because we actually.
Speaker 1: Really love it. We will say it at the same time.
Speaker 1: But you can't find gaudy paintings through Benny. It's clothes.
Speaker 1: It's men and women's clothing that you can go like
Speaker 1: to Lululemon and look at that have zip pull out,
Speaker 1: pull over, and then Benny pops up and be like,
Speaker 1: don't buy it new buys. Buy the exact same thing
Speaker 1: and the exact size you want from like here, and
Speaker 1: then It just shows you all the options on the
Speaker 1: side and you're like, thank you, Benny, I will buy it.
Speaker 3: Brilliant.
Speaker 1: Yeah again, get and your laptop. They don't pay us
Speaker 1: to say this, but if you sign up through Frugal
Speaker 1: Friends podcast dot com slash b E n I, we
Speaker 1: do get a dollar, so maybe they do pay us.
Speaker 3: This is what we're relying on for groceries.
Speaker 1: Next, how did Jen and Jill make money every time
Speaker 1: you listen to us in the in our This episode
Speaker 1: is brought to you by we make a little money,
Speaker 1: just a little every time you listen to the ads
Speaker 1: in our show. Bless you. Thank you for your support.
Speaker 1: That actually that's how we ourselves.
Speaker 5: Not gonna lie.
Speaker 1: That is how we support ourselves. But we would rather
Speaker 1: take money from from those companies than from you. So
Speaker 1: thank you. We love you. We do it because we
Speaker 1: love you. So if you want to buy more second
Speaker 1: hand clothing products whatever, we and maybe you love to
Speaker 1: buy a second hand in person, so we have a lot.
Speaker 1: We have a lot for you. Episode four oh three
Speaker 1: how to make the most of yards sales and then
Speaker 1: episode three forty one Why you Shouldn't Sleep on estate sales.
Speaker 1: So those are two favorite ways. We'll definitely need to
Speaker 1: get in a thrift store episode soon, so that's like
Speaker 1: our next second hand episode, but I had to I
Speaker 1: had to fit in the online one before we put
Speaker 1: in thrift stores. Uh so this is this is our
Speaker 1: online and we're covering everything, not just close. But our
Speaker 1: first headline is and it's our primary headline. It's from CNN,
Speaker 1: and it's how to secondhand shop online according to experts.
Speaker 1: We love experts, right, they didn't. They didn't consult us though,
Speaker 1: so I love this. So this They start off with
Speaker 1: a Instagram post from thread up, which we will talk
Speaker 1: about later. But it's kind of like a scale like
Speaker 1: annual car been savings on how to reduce your fashion footprint.
Speaker 1: And so if you were to buy, the biggest impact
Speaker 1: you can have is buying half of your clothes secondhand,
Speaker 1: not even all of them. Just buy half of your
Speaker 1: clothes secondhand. You can save six hundred and fifty six
Speaker 1: pounds of carbon emissions following by reselling or donated unwanted clothes.
Speaker 1: And then next one is not returning online purchases, which
Speaker 1: I'm not about but and then the next one is
Speaker 1: air drying clothes. But it is a it's like a
Speaker 1: small portion versus just buying half of your clothes secondhand.
Speaker 1: The following ones are mending one garment each season, washing
Speaker 1: clothes on cold, and choosing standard shipping. But those are
Speaker 1: all like super small. By the way you consume products
Speaker 1: is going to make a much larger environmental impact than
Speaker 1: what you do with them after you consume them. Just
Speaker 1: keep that in mind. The consumption is always going to
Speaker 1: make a bigger impact than how you dispose or get
Speaker 1: rid of or whatever. Manage your consumption.
Speaker 3: Mmmm, that's a really helpful takeaway. Wow.
Speaker 4: Okay, So the first thing to be aware of when
Speaker 4: we're shopping secondhand online is making sure that the photos
Speaker 4: you're looking at are of the actual items that you're buying.
Speaker 4: And this might sound really silly, like why wouldn't it be,
Speaker 4: but there are plenty of people who will try to
Speaker 4: resell preused, pre owned items using the pictures from the
Speaker 4: website when they are brand new. Like I talk a
Speaker 4: lot with furniture. Yeah, like here's the bed how it
Speaker 4: looks in the stock phote, But it's like, but what
Speaker 4: does it look like actually the one I'm going to
Speaker 4: get from you? So making sure that what you're looking
Speaker 4: at is the actual thing, and that that can be
Speaker 4: pretty obvious whether or not it's a stock photo. And
Speaker 4: if there's only stock photos, then that should be a
Speaker 4: red flag to you. Yeah, should be obvious that this
Speaker 4: is the person's item being they're taking pictures in their home.
Speaker 4: Still nice pictures, but not the stock photos.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And another thing that some people will try to do
Speaker 1: is use other people's photos of their resale items. So
Speaker 1: something you can do is so one of the experts
Speaker 1: in this is Emily Stokel who's one of our Internet friends.
Speaker 1: She hosts the pre Loved podcast. If you are into
Speaker 1: vintage fashion amazing podcast pre Loved podcast, and so she says,
Speaker 1: don't hesitate to ask for additional photos of something, whether
Speaker 1: it's poshmark eBay, you can always ask for an additional photo.
Speaker 1: But I think even easier would just be to Google
Speaker 1: image search the image in question. If you're not one
Speaker 1: hundred percent sure if that is the actual photo of
Speaker 1: the thing, drag it to Google and you can see
Speaker 1: if there is another identical photo from somebody else's eBay
Speaker 1: or poshmark post. Now, knowing that sellers will cross post,
Speaker 1: so if you see the exact same one, on a
Speaker 1: different platform. Just check to make sure if it's a
Speaker 1: similar seller name, because that's usually the tell that it's
Speaker 1: it is the same item, just on a different platform.
Speaker 1: But you can also save money by doing doing that.
Speaker 1: Sometimes people will post things more expensive on poshmark than
Speaker 1: they will eBay, but it's the same seller, same item.
Speaker 1: But yeah, you can see if the seller is using
Speaker 1: somebody else's totally different seller name that's already been sold,
Speaker 1: you know, a year ago or something. So next is
Speaker 1: start with what you know. So it can be overwhelming
Speaker 1: to buy secondhand online.
Speaker 3: It's much.
Speaker 1: You know, there's usually not free returns, or you know
Speaker 1: you do have to pay for shipping both ways, and
Speaker 1: it can be a little overwhelming. So start with brands
Speaker 1: you're familiar with. Start with items you're familiar with. And
Speaker 1: I would say I have gone into stores like Anieman,
Speaker 1: Marcus or high end stores to try on items and
Speaker 1: brands so that I know my size in each of
Speaker 1: the brands. Because when I'm buying secondhand, I'm not just
Speaker 1: buying cheap stuff. I'm buying high quality because I can
Speaker 1: because I'm buying secondhand, so I want it to like
Speaker 1: if I'm buying a secondhand fast fashion. Well, that thing
Speaker 1: was on its way out of you know, your home
Speaker 1: before it even got to your home, right like with
Speaker 1: all the people that have tried it on and stuff,
Speaker 1: So when it gets to your home, it hasn't even
Speaker 1: shorter life band. So when we're buying secondhand, we still
Speaker 1: want to buy sustainable fabrics and well made garments. So
Speaker 1: definitely familiarize yourself with the nice stuff. You might think, Oh,
Speaker 1: I'm not like a good American girl or a mother
Speaker 1: Jeans or like all these brands you probably may not
Speaker 1: have even heard of, like the nice fancy brands. Become
Speaker 1: that girl. You are that girl now I have just
Speaker 1: dubbed you that girl. So become familiar with your sizing
Speaker 1: and stuff with well made quality products so that you
Speaker 1: can start knowing your sizes and fits. And then also
Speaker 1: don't be afraid to get it tailored either. We'll talk
Speaker 1: about that a little later, but just because it's not
Speaker 1: perfect in the store, you can still buy it secondhand
Speaker 1: and then get it tailored.
Speaker 4: I think that's one of the benefits of something like
Speaker 4: Benny is you can look up these different brands that
Speaker 4: you know and love or you've heard great things about
Speaker 4: and it'll automatically feed you the secondhand sites that have them.
Speaker 4: So yeah, starting with what you know, I think is
Speaker 4: perfect because really, especially with pants and anything, really every
Speaker 4: brand is going to have different types of sizing, so
Speaker 4: that's going to make it really hard to find something
Speaker 4: that then gets shipped to your door and you've got
Speaker 4: to ven try on. So whether you've been to the
Speaker 4: store in person and you know what works on you
Speaker 4: and then you can look for it secondhand or this
Speaker 4: next one is important is paying attention to measurements and specifications.
Speaker 4: So along the lines of every retailer kind of having
Speaker 4: different types of sizing, oftentimes you'll actually be able to
Speaker 4: get down to the minutia of the measurements rather than
Speaker 4: just saying, oh, a size six, a size eight. Instead
Speaker 4: we can look at what's the end seam, what's the pantle,
Speaker 4: what's the waste on this dress, and you can take
Speaker 4: your own measurements. I mean, simple YouTube search on how
Speaker 4: to take your own measurements would be really really helpful
Speaker 4: when buying clothing online to actually know that it's going
Speaker 4: to fit you. And this is particularly important because the
Speaker 4: one and I'll say probably only downside of buying secondhand
Speaker 4: is you can't return it, So really being sure that
Speaker 4: this is what you want. You're pretty positive it's going
Speaker 4: to fit you, or you have a solution for if
Speaker 4: it doesn't fit you someone you'll give it to a
Speaker 4: plan to resell it if you're fine donating it and
Speaker 4: calling it a wash. But these are the things you're
Speaker 4: going to really need to know about. Is the brand themselves,
Speaker 4: your own measurements to be sure that what you're buying
Speaker 4: you're going to stick with.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and don't be afraid again to go a little
Speaker 1: bit higher in your measurements so that you can get
Speaker 1: it tailored, so if you already know. For me, like,
Speaker 1: it's hard to find genes, that's my biggest thing because
Speaker 1: I have a very pear shaped body type and genes
Speaker 1: do just just do not like a big booty and
Speaker 1: a small waist, like they just don't. And so it
Speaker 1: is hard for me to find genes even in nice brands.
Speaker 1: And in my head, I don't want to go up besides,
Speaker 1: because that number is a block for me, Like it's
Speaker 1: such a mental thing, right, Like what the solution might
Speaker 1: just be going up a size, right, and I can
Speaker 1: always tailor it tighter, but it's a lot harder to
Speaker 1: let out. There's only so much fabric that you can
Speaker 1: let out. So be you know, if you're with me,
Speaker 1: if you're a gen, let's get over the mental block
Speaker 1: together and go up in size if we need to.
Speaker 1: So next is to keep a thrift list. And we
Speaker 1: always talk about this, whether it's online or in person.
Speaker 1: We look at the things we need in our home.
Speaker 1: So right now, for me, that is art, that's wall art.
Speaker 1: I am so so bad at decorating, but there are
Speaker 1: some now open walls where I want to put some things.
Speaker 1: So that is like, that's on my list, barstools, rugs,
Speaker 1: and then I'll just go and instead of browsing, I
Speaker 1: try to keep myself from browsing just willy nilly, but
Speaker 1: I'll just do those specific searches and I'll look every
Speaker 1: couple days to see what's out there. But that is
Speaker 1: my actual thrift list right now. It's no clothes, just
Speaker 1: home things.
Speaker 4: I'm looking at my thrift list as well. I keep it, yeah,
Speaker 4: just on my phone, and I'm looking for a console
Speaker 4: table and I have them measurements of the table written
Speaker 4: in here too, so that if I am out and
Speaker 4: I see something, I can get the measurements and know
Speaker 4: whether or not it's going to fit the space.
Speaker 3: So pro tip for you.
Speaker 4: There, black boots and a slotted spoon. These are my
Speaker 4: current thrift loveeah and they've been on there for a
Speaker 4: long time. Like okay without them, Yep, you have to
Speaker 4: be fine.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's something where you have to have the patience.
Speaker 1: I have needed those bar those barstools. It's hard. You
Speaker 1: had a hard time finding barstools because I don't want
Speaker 1: to settle.
Speaker 3: Well, and they're so expensive.
Speaker 1: So expensive and so ugly.
Speaker 4: So many are three hundred dollars, so oddly, and it's
Speaker 4: also not worth that to me, right, So if you
Speaker 4: come across good barstools, just just get them.
Speaker 3: Someday you'll need them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Okay.
Speaker 4: The next is to read reviews and do your research.
Speaker 4: We all know that this is what we're already talking about.
Speaker 4: First of all, on the brand that you're looking at,
Speaker 4: make sure that you know what kind of quality it
Speaker 4: is and how durable and sustainable it is. But also
Speaker 4: you can do your research on the seller. What type
Speaker 4: of reviews do they have, what are people saying about
Speaker 4: how they handle exchanges, and that can really help to
Speaker 4: guard the experience keep it a good experience and not
Speaker 4: be just super bummed.
Speaker 1: The next one is don't expect perfection, And I think
Speaker 1: this one is very important to highlight. We have gotten
Speaker 1: really used to perfect reels, perfect pictures, this social media
Speaker 1: idea of perfection. All these influencers are getting sent all
Speaker 1: these free products, right, and they're making up parts of
Speaker 1: their house to be to look really good for social media.
Speaker 1: It's their job. But it's not your job to have
Speaker 1: a picture perfect home or a picture perfect closet or
Speaker 1: new clothes for every season. So it's the same in
Speaker 1: our thrifting, right, Like when you get something, you'll want
Speaker 1: to make sure you'll you'll appreciate that if the seller
Speaker 1: points out if there are any imperfections in the in
Speaker 1: the product, right, and hopefully we can usually nine times
Speaker 1: out of ten you get an almost new product. But
Speaker 1: we gotta we have to embrace imperfections right in our sofas,
Speaker 1: in our rugs, in our clothes, Like we have to
Speaker 1: embrace imperfection because a big barrier to buying second hand
Speaker 1: are those imperfections. We want to buy it shiny, brand new.
Speaker 1: But if we just get over that at like then
Speaker 1: then we can like really have the things that we
Speaker 1: want for half of the price. So and this is
Speaker 1: also a red flag in listings like specifically luxury, so
Speaker 1: we don't really buy luxury products. We do buy well made,
Speaker 1: quality brands, but we don't buy brand names. But a
Speaker 1: lot of people will post fakes. So if it looks
Speaker 1: too good to be true, it is too good to
Speaker 1: be true. So that's why we'd like, I would be
Speaker 1: very hesitant to purchase like any luxury items from an
Speaker 1: eBay or a poshmark or Willy Nilly. I would stay
Speaker 1: specifically to second hand reing sailors that are just luxury,
Speaker 1: that have that put every product through a vetting process.
Speaker 1: But that's that's not me. If you love luxury, then
Speaker 1: you'll pay a premium for that of course over eBay,
Speaker 1: but you'll be sure you're getting your money's worth. It's
Speaker 1: it's worth it. But even even still in there, if
Speaker 1: you want to be luxury girl, I'm gonna tell you
Speaker 1: you can be luxury girl. Now, I'm gonna I'm gonna
Speaker 1: tell you. I'm gonna give you that permission today. If
Speaker 1: you want to be luxury girl, you can be luxury girl.
Speaker 1: And uh, it is worth is worth your time to
Speaker 1: d money to a buy from places that vet their
Speaker 1: luxury products and not expect perfection. Be okay, with a
Speaker 1: little imperfection.
Speaker 4: You can have champagne tastes on a PBR budget. It
Speaker 4: is possible you can get the second hand. They also
Speaker 4: are referencing the fact that most of the secondhand shopping
Speaker 4: platforms will have some sort of customer support and protection
Speaker 4: in the event that the ad was misleading or you
Speaker 4: end up receiving defective product or of other issues that
Speaker 4: weren't disclosed in the listing, So keep that in mind.
Speaker 4: Also know that you can always resell some of these
Speaker 4: pieces too. I think one of the benefits is there's
Speaker 4: not a ton loss because they are a fraction of
Speaker 4: the price, not saying oh, money's throwaway, but it's not
Speaker 4: as if you're buying brand new with a zero return policy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and especially if you spend the extra money to
Speaker 1: make sure you're getting verified luxury items, then it's going
Speaker 1: to be easier to resell because you can have the
Speaker 1: receipts from that verification.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Okay. The final thing here is to be aware of greenwashing.
Speaker 4: So right now there are so many big businesses doing this.
Speaker 4: Giants like H and M and Lululemon are apparently some
Speaker 4: of the worst in this space of really trying to
Speaker 4: make it seem as though they are offering sustainable, eco
Speaker 4: friendly options, kind of this circularity that just in reality
Speaker 4: is not true. They're citing that there are some second
Speaker 4: hand components or reusing components to their business model, but
Speaker 4: it is not equating to cutting production whatsoever.
Speaker 1: So this is something to be aware of happening. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're just they're adding it up, producing more every year,
Speaker 1: year over year.
Speaker 4: So there are of course then a lot of these
Speaker 4: companies who even on their site you can buy secondhand,
Speaker 4: and that's something to be aware of. I think we
Speaker 4: would recommend that you go to more of these peer
Speaker 4: to peer sites like the thread of the Poshmark others
Speaker 4: that we're going to be mentioning, rather than being misled
Speaker 4: by large companies saying that you're buying secondhand from them.
Speaker 4: It's not actually helping the situation. It's just a marketing point.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I will say that maybe one uh company that that
Speaker 1: does have a good resales package, Yeah, yeah, say, but
Speaker 1: they're probably the only ones. So Emily points out the
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two remake Fashion Accountability Report, so remake, they're
Speaker 1: on social media as well, on the on the internet,
Speaker 1: but they have a Fashion Accountability Report where they every
Speaker 1: year they will research and interview uh like maybe fifty
Speaker 1: companies to see what their year over year sustainability. And
Speaker 1: these are specifically companies that have reported want like they
Speaker 1: use sustainability in their marketing, they have put forward plans
Speaker 1: to become more sustainable. So it's really just holding accountable
Speaker 1: these companies that are marketing to people who want to
Speaker 1: stay eco conscious. So and they're they're finding again not
Speaker 1: a single brand demonstrated that it's resale initiatives meant to
Speaker 1: slow down in new production. So this grainwashing is super
Speaker 1: evident in a lot of spaces, but especially clothing. And
Speaker 1: I think that clothing is just something that we buy
Speaker 1: much more frequently than rugs and sofas and all of
Speaker 1: these things. So it's a lot and usually when we
Speaker 1: buy it, we buy it quickly, we buy it impulsively.
Speaker 1: So if we can again just cut our clothing consumption
Speaker 1: just half of it to secondhand, we can still buy
Speaker 1: brand new underwear, brand new socks, brand new bathing suits.
Speaker 1: Like we're not saying go extreme, just half of your
Speaker 1: stuff to be secondhand, Like go in your closet and
Speaker 1: kind of take a read on what did I buy
Speaker 1: secondhand and what did I buy new?
Speaker 4: Okay, I want to do a quick rundown of the
Speaker 4: best online thing rift stores that you can be keeping
Speaker 4: in mind when you do now go and try to
Speaker 4: buy secondhand. So this list comes from readers Digest. It's
Speaker 4: twelve best online thrift stores for every style and budget.
Speaker 4: And I like the categories that they put out there,
Speaker 4: so I'll do the first sex you can do the
Speaker 4: last six. The best for wish list items they list
Speaker 4: as poshmark. You've heard us talk about them already. They
Speaker 4: say best for gen Z must be the types of
Speaker 4: clothing that they have on there. For gen Z style
Speaker 4: is d Pop Dpop. Best for anything and everything is eBay.
Speaker 4: I will second that. So we've talked a lot about clothing.
Speaker 4: But eBay is excellent for electronics.
Speaker 3: Car parts, vintage, yes.
Speaker 4: Kitchen items, you name it, and clothing if you're looking
Speaker 4: for anything eBay. Best for women and kids is thread Up.
Speaker 4: Best for handmaid and vintage is Etsy. Best affordable options
Speaker 4: is Swap.
Speaker 1: Yeah, SWAP's been around for a while. I've never used it,
Speaker 1: but it does. I would love to hear from somebody
Speaker 1: who has, because I've always looked at it and uh yeah,
Speaker 1: it's uh it's not as big as the other ones.
Speaker 1: I don't I don't know if it would be my
Speaker 1: first go to. I would definitely use the Poshmark, even
Speaker 1: the d Pop. The eBay. Thread Up is life like
Speaker 1: we and so thread up has so much stuff and
Speaker 1: Poshmark has so much stuff and that's why we use Benny.
Speaker 1: Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash Benny. You're gonna think
Speaker 1: that this whole episode is an ad for it, but
Speaker 1: I yeah, I can just go to the Old Navy,
Speaker 1: for instance, and look at the shirt and then Benny
Speaker 1: will pop up on the side and it will show
Speaker 1: all the similar or identical listings on Poshmark, threat.
Speaker 4: Up, eBay, probably d Pop, like yeah, if it's on
Speaker 4: the internet, it'll show up.
Speaker 1: And then another so another one that's similar since we
Speaker 1: already went through the vintage one. Another similar site to
Speaker 1: Benny is gem g e M and that is kind
Speaker 1: of like Benny for vintage so much much more of
Speaker 1: the fashion side, maybe more of the luxury side. Uh So,
Speaker 1: I I've like I've collaborated with them and they're great,
Speaker 1: So using gem for vintage stuff or if you're more
Speaker 1: like into fashion and you can't find what you want
Speaker 1: through Benny. But so, best for authenticated luxury is the
Speaker 1: real real uh. Best for men is men's wear market.
Speaker 1: Best for luxury accessories is fashion file. That's fashion p
Speaker 1: h I L E. The best user experience is Newly three.
Speaker 1: So I don't know if you've heard of Newly n
Speaker 1: U U L Y well, actually, okay, Newly Thrift is closed,
Speaker 1: but I will say that Newly is like a I
Speaker 1: think it's it's kind of like a a rent the
Speaker 1: runway sort of thing. It's subscription clothing rental, so if
Speaker 1: that's also something if you're look a lot of influencers
Speaker 1: will would do this, So I don't know if what
Speaker 1: other or or speakers. People that take a lot of
Speaker 1: pictures of themselves or video have have their lives documented
Speaker 1: quite frequently, and for some reason want to have different clothes,
Speaker 1: a lot of different clothes. So these subs, these clothing
Speaker 1: rental options could be good versus the buying, donating, buying, reselling.
Speaker 1: It's not our favorite option. I don't think you should
Speaker 1: feel like you need to have a different outfit in
Speaker 1: every picture or every speaking, you know, gig whatever. But
Speaker 1: if that's where you are and that's what you want,
Speaker 1: the rental things are good.
Speaker 4: I'm just realizing they have a maternity section. And for
Speaker 4: that reason I could understand renting, because who knows depending
Speaker 4: on how many kids you have, but you usually don't
Speaker 4: need you quickly grow out of the clothes, you don't
Speaker 4: need them potentially ever again, And so I could understand
Speaker 4: for that reason.
Speaker 1: Maternity absolutely, because also you feel so gross when you're pregnant,
Speaker 1: and if you're going to have beautiful clothing to make
Speaker 1: you feel beautiful, rent it, rent it. So so that
Speaker 1: best for designer handbags rebag. And then this one I love,
Speaker 1: best for high end brands is the Stare Collective. I
Speaker 1: don't know if I'm saying that right. V E S
Speaker 1: T I A R E. I love this site. I've
Speaker 1: never bought anything from the Stair, but I do. I
Speaker 1: do love looking at it because it is just like
Speaker 1: high end. I am not the high end girly. This
Speaker 1: is so like if you're if if you've accepted the
Speaker 1: permission to become luxury girl, the real real fashion file.
Speaker 1: Rebag vestare these are going to be your faves.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 1: If you've said no, I'm just high quality girl, I'm not.
Speaker 1: I'm not luxury girl. Uh Poshmark Deep Pop thread Up.
Speaker 1: These are Etsy if you're vintage girl, Etsy using gem Yeah.
Speaker 1: So these are these are your your sites for whatever
Speaker 1: girl you want to be or man, whatever man or
Speaker 1: woman you want to be. These are the sites for you.
Speaker 1: Do you know what else is? For me? Always? And
Speaker 1: this is for everyone, whether you're a luxury girl or
Speaker 1: you're just a high quality girl.
Speaker 4: The bill of the week.
Speaker 5: That's right, it's time for the best minute of your
Speaker 5: entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name
Speaker 5: is Williams. Maybe you paid off your mortgage. Maybe your
Speaker 5: car died and you're happy to not have to pay
Speaker 5: that bill anymore. Duff bills, Buffalo bills, Bill clion. This
Speaker 5: is the bill of the week.
Speaker 6: Hi, this is Jill in Virginia. My bill of the
Speaker 6: week is my composting bill. I am just so thrilled
Speaker 6: to be part of this composting service, which is run
Speaker 6: by kind of an industrial level composting company that provides
Speaker 6: service for the whole area, including my condo, neighborhood. Period
Speaker 6: as someone who lives in a den's urban airheah, I
Speaker 6: can't guard on myself. However, it feels really good to
Speaker 6: be composting my food scraps. And because it's an industrial service,
Speaker 6: I can also compost meat waste and napkins and things
Speaker 6: like that. I also save money because I share the
Speaker 6: service with two of my neighbors, so I pay six
Speaker 6: dollars a month for a huge reduction in my trash
Speaker 6: and not having to deal with food scraps in the
Speaker 6: trash either. Now I put out one small bag a
Speaker 6: week of trash and the rest is compost and recycling.
Speaker 6: The compost company comes and picks up the plastic container
Speaker 6: of compost once a week. It's absolutely delightful and worth
Speaker 6: every penny.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, fantastic jol. That is money well spent,
Speaker 1: because yes, even if you can't guard it. And this
Speaker 1: was my big hang up to not composting. It's like,
Speaker 1: I don't garden, and even after that episode with Nicole
Speaker 1: from Garden Area, it's just not It's just not the
Speaker 1: right time for me yet, So I'm like, why would
Speaker 1: I compost? But it's so good for the environment, it's
Speaker 1: good for the smell of your home. Honestly, like it
Speaker 1: keeps uh food waste out of the bin and it's
Speaker 1: the food scraps. Yes, they can decompose, but it's so
Speaker 1: compact in like landfills that they don't compose or it
Speaker 1: takes much decomposed and they or it takes much longer.
Speaker 1: And so if you can, if you can compost it
Speaker 1: at your home, you're giving that food a chance to
Speaker 1: do what it naturally was meant to do. And it's
Speaker 1: just it's just good for the environment.
Speaker 4: This is so great. I love that your city has
Speaker 4: an option for people who don't have a garden. And
Speaker 4: it sounds like even though you're paying for this service,
Speaker 4: it's still reducing your just overall waste and the amount
Speaker 4: that you're paying for garbage. So win, win, win across
Speaker 4: the board. Thank you Jill for sharing your bill. If
Speaker 4: you all listening have a bill that you want to submit,
Speaker 4: if it's about reducing waste or buying second hand or
Speaker 4: just living life in the world as a bill for
Speaker 4: friendspodcast dot com slash bill, leave it for us. We
Speaker 4: can't wait, and now it's time for the light being around.
Speaker 1: All right, So what types of second hand items? Oh,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm gonna amend it slightly. What kind of
Speaker 1: secondhand items do you typically purchase online? And then what
Speaker 1: would you never Yeah, I'm adding it, Okay, so online,
Speaker 1: I am including Facebook Marketplace in this. I think it's uh.
Speaker 1: Facebook Marketplace was not in the list that we gave,
Speaker 1: but I'm going to include it. So I will. I
Speaker 1: will buy almost anything, so our couch, our, the bunk bed,
Speaker 1: our mattress, rugs, because rugs are obscenely overpriced and they're
Speaker 1: all ugly. All rugs are ugly. It's just finding the
Speaker 1: least ugly rug is the is, the mission, lamps, tables,
Speaker 1: clothes I will buy. I there's very little that I
Speaker 1: wouldn't buy secondhand online. But what I wouldn't I think
Speaker 1: I think my three might like trifecta of like my
Speaker 1: brand new trifecta. Well, there's four things I don't buy underwear, socks,
Speaker 1: bathing suits, or running shoes secondhand.
Speaker 4: Right, I mean, I think that's just like across the yard.
Speaker 4: But I'm trying to think of would you not buy
Speaker 4: anything specifically because it's online secondhand? Would you be then
Speaker 4: open to buying it in person secondhand? Well?
Speaker 1: Facebook Marketplace is kind of like that hybrid, right, You're like, look,
Speaker 1: you're buying it online, but you get to see it
Speaker 1: before you actually hand over the money. So that's like
Speaker 1: what I really prefer. Gosh, So I know, I personally
Speaker 1: wouldn't buy luxury brands like online a because I don't
Speaker 1: know a lot about them. So it is hard to
Speaker 1: identify fakes if you don't know a lot about it.
Speaker 1: So that's why if you want to be a luxury girly,
Speaker 1: you have to be a luxury girly. You got to
Speaker 1: know what you're looking at. And so I would just
Speaker 1: be too nervous to buy it because I would think
Speaker 1: it would be a fake. Yeah, but when you have
Speaker 1: things like the Real Real where they have on staff authenticators,
Speaker 1: I would feel better about it. But I also just
Speaker 1: don't value it enough to be that girly.
Speaker 4: I don't think I have ever purchased clothing secondhand online,
Speaker 4: and it's not something that I would think I'm not
Speaker 4: ever going.
Speaker 1: To do it.
Speaker 4: Just is I have such success getting clothing secondhand at
Speaker 4: these in person sites that I'm just not the person
Speaker 4: to do it online. And I have that barrier of
Speaker 4: what if it doesn't fit it looks decent here, but
Speaker 4: I really gotta try stuff on So that's a personal
Speaker 4: barrier for me. But I do we Eric and I
Speaker 4: get a lot of things secondhand online line like electronics.
Speaker 4: We've gotten refurbished phones, computers, cables. He gets all of
Speaker 4: his music equipment secondhand online. If you're a musician, you
Speaker 4: probably know this already, but reverb dot com you can
Speaker 4: sell your stuff. Also, eBay is the spot for all
Speaker 4: that car parts, anything that a dishwasher parts. When something
Speaker 4: needs a fix, but it's so expensive to go straight
Speaker 4: to the manufacturer, you can usually find it on eBay.
Speaker 4: People will part stuff out all the time.
Speaker 1: Well even Amazon Warehouse. Yeah, used like new, like I
Speaker 1: just put a new page.
Speaker 4: Dig through Oh you mean online Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: Used like new, same product on the same page, save
Speaker 1: with Amazon Warehouse. I put my phone my phone case,
Speaker 1: I just put it in my cart is used like new. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so that's another you know it's not you know, super used,
Speaker 1: but it's also not probably super fantastic quality.
Speaker 4: Yeah. And I think big like big stuff is a
Speaker 4: preventative thing for me, Like you could potentially get pre
Speaker 4: owned furniture or larger items, but then you don't have
Speaker 4: the benefit of not needing to pay shipping or have
Speaker 4: minimal shipping costs. So that just is it really can
Speaker 4: price you out of it making sense. So those big
Speaker 4: things I will also just look for in person.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's definitely a big things are a Facebook marketplace
Speaker 1: thing because you're just going to get better quality because
Speaker 1: anything that has to ship is either not going to
Speaker 1: be it's going to be ike equality, or it's just
Speaker 1: going to be you have to really love the product.
Speaker 4: Except for bigger things like we've gotten cars, our fees
Speaker 4: and boats technically online. I mean we did eventually we
Speaker 4: were able to see them, but we've driven a distance
Speaker 4: for some of them. So yeah, some big stuff, no,
Speaker 4: some big yes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is. I think that like sites like that
Speaker 1: where they're local, it's a hybrid, right, you're shopping online
Speaker 1: but you're buying in person. Yeah, so yeah, that's love that,
Speaker 1: that's that. Thanks everyone so much for listening. We hope
Speaker 1: that we at least help to encourage you to reduce
Speaker 1: the amount that you buy new and even if you're
Speaker 1: not a dig at the thrift store kind of person,
Speaker 1: there is a way forward for you where you can
Speaker 1: get the things that you want at a really reasonable
Speaker 1: price and secondhand and we love that trifecta.
Speaker 4: Well. We also love are your reviews that so many
Speaker 4: of you have left. There is a room for so
Speaker 4: many more reviews. Please, please, please do leave us a
Speaker 4: review like this one from Erica thirty one, who says fun, fun, fun,
Speaker 4: Who knew financial advice could be so fun?
Speaker 1: Love the Bill of the week?
Speaker 3: Yes, she picked her favorite part.
Speaker 1: And there it is named it, and it's it's cryptic, right.
Speaker 1: People who'd never listen are like Bill of the Week?
Speaker 1: What they're going to listen to find out what the
Speaker 1: Bill of the Week is. Leave a cryptic review and
Speaker 1: we would love to hear, and we would love to
Speaker 1: see it. You know more, Just leave an inside joke
Speaker 1: like that we wouldn't even get honestly, you make it
Speaker 1: up and we'll read it and we'll be confused and
Speaker 1: we'll love it.
Speaker 4: We love being confused. Yes, well, thanks everyone for listening. Again,
Speaker 4: please do leave us that review. We've got a goal
Speaker 4: to get to one thousand reviews and beyond.
Speaker 1: It's an arbitrary goal, but by golly, we're working.
Speaker 3: Towards it so badly, and see you next time.
Speaker 1: Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Siriani. I buy a
Speaker 1: lot of clothes online, yeah, because I don't love to
Speaker 1: physically shop, and I do encounter every once in a
Speaker 1: while the piece of clothing that doesn't fit. And so
Speaker 1: some of these stores like thread up will let you
Speaker 1: return for store credit, which is great for me.
Speaker 3: Oh that is great.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but well, and I didn't say this. Many many
Speaker 4: areas anywhere I've ever lived, there are consignment type thrift
Speaker 4: stores where you can take in season gently used clothing
Speaker 4: and they'll pay you for it. So even if you
Speaker 4: don't want the hassle of I don't want to have
Speaker 4: to make my own thread up Poshmark account as a seller,
Speaker 4: don't feel like doing that, then go into one of
Speaker 4: these other spots. Chances are if it was being sold
Speaker 4: on Poshmark or thread Up, you'd be able to get
Speaker 4: some money for it at like my sister's closet or
Speaker 4: any other kind of more locally owned consignment.
Speaker 1: Well, thread up, you don't sell it yourself. Threadup is
Speaker 1: like you send it to them and they tell you like, oh,
Speaker 1: we'll give you this much for it, and then you're done.
Speaker 1: Poshmark mercari. Uh, those are the ones where you're like
Speaker 1: keeping your own inventory and selling. If you're selling clothes,
Speaker 1: you get a lot more money doing it that way.
Speaker 1: Thread up will give you virtually nothing. It's really just
Speaker 1: if you've got a lot of clothes and you don't
Speaker 1: care because they have such a large inventory and now
Speaker 1: they partner with Rent the Runway to resell their clothes
Speaker 1: that are no longer in circulation.
Speaker 4: Okay, here's so you rent the Runway. This has always
Speaker 4: been intriguing to me, Like there have been times where
Speaker 4: I just find myself scrolling through Rent the Runway and
Speaker 4: then I'm never what am I going to do with that?
Speaker 4: Would there ever be a circumstance where you do rent
Speaker 4: just some sort of beautiful dress, skirt, shirt, comp What
Speaker 4: would be the reason?
Speaker 1: Well, like what I was saying with Newly, if you're
Speaker 1: an if you're in media or an influencer, and you're
Speaker 1: your outfit, your life, you are documented more frequently. That
Speaker 1: is a that's really a way. Like if you're a
Speaker 1: public speaker, and I would say just documentation or out
Speaker 1: in the spotlight, like that's an that's a place where
Speaker 1: maybe you would get more Like I know a bunch
Speaker 1: of people for their author photos or for their headshots specifically,
Speaker 1: will do rent the runway for those photos because you
Speaker 1: want to have like hot, like very designer clothes like
Speaker 1: in photos that are not street clothes.
Speaker 3: Would that be the circumstances in which you would do it?
Speaker 1: Possibly because I own very mostly a f leisure I'm
Speaker 1: very casual clothing. But if I was going to take
Speaker 1: a do a photo shoot that was higher end, then
Speaker 1: I would want to take pictures in some thing that
Speaker 1: just the structure of the clothing, like clothing that has structure,
Speaker 1: And I don't own clothing like.
Speaker 3: That has structure.
Speaker 1: No, this is things that I really hard, No, like
Speaker 1: I don't know, just like something that.
Speaker 3: Is visually like we're styled or something.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the things I see people go on TV shows
Speaker 1: and you don't notice this unless like people have told you, right,
Speaker 1: that are in media. But like the stuff people wear
Speaker 1: on TV and in photo shoots, those things look good
Speaker 1: on camera, but if you saw somebody walking down the
Speaker 1: street in it, it'd be weird. Right, And so all
Speaker 1: my clothes are street clothes. I don't own media clothes. Ye,
Speaker 1: So if I had a reason to be be in media,
Speaker 1: I might rent something that's more media appropriate, and I
Speaker 1: don't think that's one hundred percent necessary, but I like
Speaker 1: having it as an option. Yeah, so that would be it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we just would show up in our Benny Hats
Speaker 4: Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash Benny.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would. I would, or I mean, it would
Speaker 1: always be fun to be in something like Designer, right.
Speaker 1: It just doesn't feel.
Speaker 3: Like me though. Yeah.
Speaker 4: If I got invited to some fancy gala, well obviously
Speaker 4: someone would make me address.
Speaker 1: You've skipped a lot of You've skipped a lot of
Speaker 1: steps on the ladder, like they close them the thrift store.
Speaker 3: Make me something, make me custom clothing.
Speaker 1: I think our friend Jen on a jet plane, Jen Ruise,
Speaker 1: she's going to I think Thailand or Taiwan or somewhere
Speaker 1: to get a custom wardrobe made. Like that's one of
Speaker 1: her birthday gifts to herself.
Speaker 3: That's right.
Speaker 1: She did tell us about the custom wardrobe, and I
Speaker 1: was like, based on your measurement, that could be you know,
Speaker 1: you could be custom wardrobe girly, Like you don't have
Speaker 1: to be high quality or luxury girly. You could be
Speaker 1: custom girly.
Speaker 3: I like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm a flea sure gurly. I literally an at
Speaker 1: fleisure all the time.
Speaker 3: I just like it stretchy, we like it comfy. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I just I like elevated comfort. That's my style.
Speaker 1: Yeah that is you. I maybe I do need Rent
Speaker 1: the one Runway because I have no elevation.
Speaker 4: I think something to be able to try. I don't
Speaker 4: think like I think Rent the Runway is out of
Speaker 4: our price point, but something to be able to try.
Speaker 4: Do styles nos on you. And there's the subscription boxes too,
Speaker 4: where they like send you clothing, but that's too that's.
Speaker 1: You don't have copy is doing. You can just get
Speaker 1: one box that you quote unquote subscribe and then you cancel.
Speaker 4: I guess I still wouldn't even trust myself to know
Speaker 4: does this work. I like our coloring. I just want
Speaker 4: someone else.
Speaker 1: Do it for me.
Speaker 4: Black and yeah, neither one of us should be wearing black,
Speaker 4: and we are both currently wearing black.
Speaker 3: Well that's because everything is packed away. This is like
Speaker 3: what I rarely wear.
Speaker 4: But Eric and I are leaving tomorrow and I don't
Speaker 4: want to I don't want to get dirty the things
Speaker 4: that I'm gonna wear next week.
Speaker 3: Anyway.
Speaker 4: Anyways, I need someone else to dress me, and I
Speaker 4: need it to not cost me.
Speaker 1: A lot of money, and it needs to be custom.
Speaker 3: And it needs to be comforting.
Speaker 1: So if we could make that happen, that'd be great
Speaker 1: for Jill.
Speaker 3: Thank you bye,