Looking fly on a Dime, H&M chiffon dress

Late last week we experienced a heat wave in NYC and besides being uncomfortable, it made getting dressed a bit tricky. Though the heat had me ready to walk around the city in the buff {it's totally legal for women in NYC to be  topless in public. Who knew?!}, obviously that wasn't going to happen. And I had to head outdoors to film my Savvy Shopper segment for WPIX. So that meant keeping cool while looking cute.Clingy material is a no-no when temps start to soar, so I grabbed my H&M  frock from Salvation Army. It's breezy, bright and the rosette details at the waist add a nice touch.

Are thrift stores too expensive
Maybe it's a product of living in NYC, or maybe this is something others are noticing in their cities, but it seems {some} thrift stores are becoming a bit more expensive, no?
The price tag above was for a dress at Goodwill. It was a pretty basic label and nothing fancy, so I was baffled at the $20 price tag. Really, $20 for a secondhand dress? For that price, you can get a frock from Forever 21 or the clearance rack at some stores.
Of course most secondhand garments don't fall in to this category, but I have noticed the occasional steep price tag. I typically chalk it up to the price you pay for thrifting in NYC but I've also seen some double take-worthy prices in other cities.

Another month down so you know what that means: time for my monthly Thrifty Threads 365 check in.

For the month of April I only spent $40 out of my $50 budget. Well, I can't say I faired so well for May but let me explain. I visited San Francisco for the first time last month and I hit up about half a dozen thrift stores {check out my San Francisco thrift shopping posts here and here}, so my $50 monthly budget quickly went out the window. Well, let me stop delaying and just reveal it.

You've been there before. You check out a thrift store you've heard about or maybe you just randomly stumbled upon it. But after a few minutes, you walk out empty handed. Your thrifty little heart is crushed and you leave discouraged.Though I've been thrifting for about 10 years now, this still happens to me. Last year I checked out the Salvation Army on East 23rd St and walked away feeling it was the Worst. Thrift. Store. Ever. I couldn't find anything and the racks were half empty. I vowed to never go back to this whack location, but after a few months, I went back and I'm so glad I did.

Last week I showed you part one of my San Francisco thrift shopping adventure {including a shop with vintage clothes for $10 per pound} and now it's time for part two. Towards the end of my trip I checked out the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood where about a half dozen thrift stores are all within a few blocks of one another.

My first stop was Goodwill {1700 Haight St}. Initially I was turned off by the rack of shirts where the average price was $12. Hmm, I can do better than $12 for a shirt a Goodwill. I kept it moving towards the dress rack and found two adorable dresses, $5 each...