Find Hidden Savings at Salvation Army!
If you’re anything like me, you love thrift store hunting.. for anything! 🙂 Shopping at Salvation Army is a great way to save big on things like furniture, clothes, home decor and MORE! Think about all the wonderful things you yourself may donate to Salvation Army throughout the year.. other people are donating amazing things for YOU to find there too!!
I’m lucky enough to live just a three-minute walk from a Salvation Army, so I have the luxury of implementing these tips I’m about to share every time I shop there! You can too, just read through my tips below and you’ll be finding hidden savings at your local Salvation Army the next time you head there!
BIGGEST Days to Save: Monday and Tuesday at ALL Salvation Army locations are half-price color tag day. On those two days each week, whichever selected color tag of the day is you can score HALF OFF everything of that color tag in the whole store. That means ANY department.. you can find the biggest savings on those days if you are in the market for bigger ticket items. *Call ahead to verify half-price tag days, just to be sure they don’t vary by area
Other Promotions: Every day they have some sort of promotion, but it usually will only apply to one or two departments. So you really can find hidden savings any day of the week, but the remainder of the week, the promo color tag usually is in the clothes/shoes, linens or books department(s). That’s what I’ve noticed over time.
Seasonal Markdowns: Around the holidays, items will start to be marked down before the holiday – usually the week OF a holiday you’ll start to see the items marked half-off. After the holidays, they’ll sometimes drop the sales price even lower, and one Halloween they even did a promo where you could fill your bag with Halloween items for $1. I scored BIG that year 😉 Always keep an eye out or call your store around the holidays to see when they’ll be marking seasonal items down.
Coupons: You CAN also occasionally find coupons in-store. Around the end of November last year, Salvation Army handed out coupons (if you bought something) that were reusable through the entire rest of the holiday season. It was for $5/$25, but it was stackable with any of their in-store promotions as well!!!
A few other tips just to make your experience easier:
- They no longer accept bills over $20, so be sure to come prepared with smaller bills.
- Always bring your ID/license if you’ll be using a credit card; Even if the cashiers get to know you, it’s still required every time.
- Remember that all sales are final, so if you’re buying something for someone who isn’t there to try it on (yes, they have dressing rooms!) I suggest being 150% sure or go a size up – you’ll be stuck with it even if it doesn’t fit.
And in general, just get to know the wonderful staff that works at your local store. My staff will often give me heads up when things will be getting marked down, sell me an item without a tag (which they DON’T regularly do) or if they’re just getting a truck in of great stuff they’ll tell me so I make a trip back later that day 😉 It’s always nice to befriend the staff at stores you shop regularly at for the chance at little perks like that! You can see from my picture collage, I’ve found some great ways to save on things that could’ve run me a lot of money if I had to seek them out elsewhere!
Check out below to see some of these killer finds of mine!
Clothes: $13.39 OOP!!
The promo that day was .99 for anything with a yellow tag
Would’ve been $60.86, but I saved $47.47
Work Station: $23 (desk + file cabinet)
This was a score! I found this great desk for just $15, and the file cabinet for $8 which fits perfectly aside the desk.. giving me an organization, comfortable work station for under $23 oop. Not sure where else I would be finding those two pieces of wooden furniture for that price, do you? 😉
HTSFF Chalk Board: $1.75
Here’s something I scored on a Monday, when I only shop the half-priced color tag, and it was NEW in plastic – wow! I scored the small chalk board for $1.50 (regularly $3) and then just bought a box of chalk at Dollar Tree (I kept only 1/4 of the package, which was a multi-pack – donated the rest; = only .25 worth of chalk used) to do the design. So for less than $2, I have a super cute decoration for above my inexpensive work station! WHOOP!
Hope you’ve enjoyed this article! ^_^
The salvation army nearest me provides a military discount also. I just have to show my ID before we start ringing things up and POOF – an extra 10%off 🙂 it’s worth asking everywhere you shop if you hold an ID!