Today was a bit of a sad day.  For years Value Village has been my favorite thrift, and most Thursday mornings I can be found at their $2 tag sale, looking for clothes to flip.  In fact, Value Village is the only thrift store I visit regularly, and other than a rare yard sale find, the only place I buy clothes to resell.  A couple weeks ago I found out that our local Value Village location is closing.  I was surprised by how sad I felt.  I have literally spent hundreds of hours there.  It’s hard to believe by the end of the weekend it will be no more.

It’s not that it wasn’t making money.  It was.  The issue is the location, which until a couple years ago it shared with a K-Mart.  Since K-Mart went out of business the other part of the building has sat empty.  Word on the street is that our local hospital has bought the location and is going to use it as satellite parking.  So, poof.  Farewell Value Village.  And at this point they aren’t looking at finding a new location, although I have already gone to their website imploring them to do just that.  VV will certainly be missed in our community.

This morning I stopped in for my normal VV Thursday morning shopping.  The entire store is 50% off, but there isn’t much left.  Over half the store is already empty.  What’s left is fairly picked over, and to be honest not that great of a deal anyway, at least for flipping.  I really loved their $2 tag day, and could often fill a cart with NWT items I found throughout the store.

And so it goes.

Speaking of Value Village (and probably Savers too, for those of you that live in Savers territory) – if you are a Swagbucks user, you should think about linking your credit card for local rewards if you haven’t already.  Every week after shopping at VV I would get an e-mail about points I had earned, which equaled 7% of my purchase price.

Each Swagbuck loosely equals a penny, which means I have earned at least $1778.42. (This estimate is actually low because I often redeem gift cards that are on sale, which cost fewer SB.) I have kinda fallen off the Swagbucks bandwagon lately so I haven’t been earning them as quickly, but my husband still regularly earns $50+/mo, which he usually uses as his movie money. (He most often redeems for Regal gift cards.)

If you are not yet on Swagbucks but are thinking about joining, please consider using my referral link HERE. If you use my link when signing up we will both get a bonus 300 SB (roughly equivalent to $3). There are dozens upon dozens of ways to earn SB in addition to shopping at places like Value Village – which I would be doing with or without the SB reward! (My husband got 800 SB a couple days ago for signing us up for Disney+.) Gotta love free money.

Do you shop at Value Village?  (I believe it is also known as Savers in some parts of the country.)  And, do you use Swagbucks?  (If not, why not?!)  The last few weeks Swagbucks have been magically appearing in my account after I have thrifted at Value Village, as shown in the activity log below:

Yes, I actually had three transactions at Value Village last week (long story), and the Swagbucks have already been credited to my account!  Apparently I enrolled in Swagbucks Local at some point, so each time I shop or eat at specific stores or restaurants and pay with a linked card I get Swagbucks back.  Each Swagbuck is essentially one cent, so for my purchases last week I got 704 SB which will equate to approx $7.04.  On a purchase I would have made anyway.  Awesome!

Swagbucks has a bit of a learning curve, and can take some time to build up.  You can earn Swagbucks in dozens of ways, and then cash out the points for gift cards.  I have known people who entirely pay for Christmas this way, use it to pay for vacations, etc.   About a year ago I finally talked my husband into earning SB too.  He usually cashes out SB for Hulu and Regal gift cards, but for the past couple months he has saved them and he just accumulated enough to buy a PS4.  If you look at the screenshot below (top right corner) you can see that I have earned 140,620 SB on this account, which translates loosely to $1406.20.  (It actually equates to even more because gift cards can occasionally go on sale and require fewer SB to purchase).

I would recommend looking into Swagbucks if you don’t already use it, and if you are already signed up and shop at Value Village make sure you are enrolled in Swagbucks Local!!

 

(This post includes a SB referral link.)