You won’t believe how much I spent – Tips on thrifting in Abuja.

Hey guys!

On Tuesday last week I went thrifting or as I like to call it “okrika”, “seconds”, or even “O-K” (typing this just showed me how bush I am 😂). Anyways, I went with my mom to the Karimo Tuesday market, and from what I was told by one of the traders, the Karimo market is an actual food market but on Tuesdays it is a market for buying “seconds”. Now don’t get it wrong, they still sell foodstuffs on Tuesdays but the market is filled with mostly thrift sellers than food sellers.

I’ve experienced thrifting so I guess it’s only right for me to give you a few tips on what to do and expect;

1. Know your size; except you want try out all the clothes you pick, then “do you boo!” But if you’re like me or you just hate stress, know your size before you come shopping.

2. Have a vision on the things you want to get; to avoid excessive spending and impulse buying. Almost everything is cheap, you won’t know when you’re throwing your money at the people selling the items. I can say that I overbought, cause I came back and was questioning some of my decisions.

3. Go with the exact amount you set out for spending; or you’ll buy what you don’t need. Like the second point, to avoid overspending go with the actual amount, no “what if” money or “in case” money. Okay I’m exaggerating but you get the gist right?

4. Dress down; for comfort and to avoid them inflating the price, before one Oga will charge you extra because he has seen that your outfit is “tear rubber” 😂.

5. Price down; whatever price they gave you is not the price, no matter how cheap it sounds price it down, you’ll be surprised at how low they are willing to go. Side note: I’m not wicked, just telling you the right thing to do.

6. Drink water and sanitize; you’re probably not going thrifting anytime soon because of how the world is right now. But when you do stay hydrated and sanitize you hands, you’re touching so many things and you don’t want to use that same hand on your face or food. So sanitize durling (in James Brown’s voice😂)

WHAT I GOT

I’ll be categorizing what I got in three segments; the tops, bottoms and dresses.

1. Tops: I got three shirts, a green one and two white ones. Believe it or not the green one cost 200 Naira and the white shirts were 1300 Naira each.

2. Bottoms: I got three trousers as well, absolutely love the blue one and purple. For the black one, I’m just mmeehh (trying to explain this emoji😕), the fact that my mom warned me about it is proof that we should listen to our parents. I got all three for 1000 Naira each.

3. Dresses: I got four dresses in somewhat different styles and I’m absolutely in love with all of them. Can you believe when I tried them on the first day I wasn’t really feeling them!? I got the cream pinafore for 100 Naira (yeah you read well, 100 Naira), got the gingham print one for 700 Naira, the plain black one for 800 Naira and the black with prints for 100 Naira.

In total I spent 7500 Naira, you’ll probably spend less but that’s what I (mom😅)spent.

We’ve come to the end of this blog post guys! I hope you enjoyed it and learned a thing or two. Let me know if you did. Comment down below if you like blogposts like this, so I can give you contents you want.

Thank you for reading. Remember to wash your hands, sanitize, avoid your face and stay at home!

Be safe,

Chika ❤️