I wanted to check in with you guys since I've reached the nine month mark of my year long shopping hiatus. Woo hoo, I'm in the home stretch. I started my Thrifty Threads 365 challenge on September 1, 2010 and vowed not to purchase any new clothing or accessories {except underwear} for the next year.I've found some amazing thrifted finds over the past nine months so as usual, I don't miss shopping for new clothing because I consider my thrift store items to be "new" to me.In the past couple of months, I've found...

A vintage dress from the Salvation Army for $5.

I'm gonna let you in on a little secret. I hate shorts. Well, at least I used to anyway. Though I love a skirt or dress, I just felt my legs looked chunky and stumpy in shorts. Until last summer, I hadn't worn shorts in years. I loved a pair of Banana Republic shorts I thrifted, but I wasn't super confident about wearing them. However, that's all changed this year. I actually wore a pair of shorts and felt super confident. Maybe it's a product of my NY Lean 25 workouts or I'm just letting go of foolish insecurities, but either way, I felt good. The NYC weather decided to skip spring and head straight for summer, so this was the perfect week to show off my gams. I opted for an easy breezy look with some fly accessories to top it off. The clothing costs less than $2 since I thrifted them from the Goodwill Outlet where items are priced at $1.69/lb. But the accessories were the real show stoppers.

I think I dress pretty casually but my family always says I'm overdressed. Maybe it's my love of skirts or my obsession with stilettos, but I'm the resident diva in the fam and this Memorial Day weekend was no exception.

My cousin, his wife and their three little girls came from Ohio for a visit and we took a quick trip to Van Saun Park in Paramus, NJ. I used to go to this park/zoo as a kid so it was nice to see my younger cousins experience it.I threw on what I thought was a laid back, day at the zoo appropriate attire but my look was met with "you're wearing that? We're just going to the zoo!"Humph, whatever. It was almost 90 degrees so I opted for a loose fitting dress and added on some accessories.

Ah, red. That oh so bright hue that you either love to rock or it's just too bright for your taste. I'm one who fully embraces color so when I found a pair of red pants at the Goodwill Outlet {clothing is priced at $1.69/lb}, I grabbed them with a quickness. Even in a bin full of clothing it was hard to miss them! I threw them in my basket unsure if I'd actually purchase them. As much as I love color, red pants are a bit much. And could I pull off high waisted pants? I finally decided I needed them in my life.

I'm a sucker for pleats and pockets and a bright hue.

This weekend was the inaugural Adventures in Thrifting and we had a blast. I met up with four readers for a day of thrift shopping. We hit up the "Big Three" on East 23rd Street: Goodwill, Housing Works and Salvation Army. Here's a peek at what I found.

We started at Goodwill where everything with a green tag was 50 percent off. I found a ton of goodies in less than 30 minutes. These Nicole Miller peep toes had me at hello. Believe it or not I don't have any red pumps, so I was hardcore crushing on these. They were only $12...but they were too big!