You’re reading Jersey Girl Thrift’s bi-weekly newsletter! A quick and fun read, full of second-hand trends, style tips, local sales, store reviews, great reads, and a recipe or two. It’s everything you need to live a thrifty and luscious life.

First Things First…

Happy New Year Jersey Girlies! It’s been a minute…did you miss us as much as we missed you?

📣 We know you’ve been waiting patiently, so we are excited to announce tickets to the next swap are are dropping Tuesday! We’ll be at Lacakawanna Station in Montclair and we’re doing 3 sessions 2/28-3/1, and as a subscriber you’ll have first access to tickets!

We’ve been quieter over here! The holidays are such a wild time of highs and lows, I know it was a busy season for us all! My holidays were an exercise in going with the
f l o w. Christmas Day plans? Canceled due to a family emergency. Other-side-of-the-family Christmas plans? Canceled due to snow. It was as my sister said, “the Christmas that never came!”

As events were getting canceled I found myself thinking “I wish I had made XYZ plans, if only I had planned XYZ different, maybe I should rush to fill the void with XYZ thing!” But after having a pity party for a couple hours, I had to push myself to really Let It Go. I had to let go of the expectations for what Christmas was and relinquish control of the moment.

And you know what? It was okay! I watched a ton of new movies I had been wanting to see but was too tired at night for. I had luxurious mornings of sleeping in, and reading for hours on end. I built gingerbread houses with my sister, I took a snowy evening walk with my partner. I slowed down for a little, which I so rarely do. And it gave me the word (phrase) of the year for my vision board…

Let It Go

I’m not big into resolutions but I am into manifesting, vision boards, and picking a word of the year to center your intentions around. The term “Let it Go” has shown up so prominently for me these last few weeks that once it hit me, I knew it was my mantra for the year.

What am I letting go of? The need to control everything. The sky high expectations I set for myself (big Virgo energy), and letting go of the feeling that if I don’t grip everything so tightly it will all instantly slip away.

For additional inspo: listen to Angie McMahon’s “Letting Go” - it hits every time.

Fave Reads of 2025

This year I spent A LOT of time at my local library and as someone whose always looking for more recs, here were just a couple of my faves:

Lorne - Lorne Michaels, the legend behind SNL rarely gives interviews but granted this author full access. The result is a giant in-depth, first person tome of his entire career, but if you’ve ever wanted the BTS, here it is

One Golden Summer- I love all of Carley Fortune’s books. They are always set in a beautiful lakeside town during dreamy romantic summers, it’s the perfect beach read. If you love a flirty heartfelt romp, this one is for you!

The Uncool: A Memoir - For anyone else who grew up with the movie Almost Famous as their religion, this is the memoir by Cameron Crowe about that time in his life (which the movie is based on). I even went to one of his book talks on his tour and got to see him chat with Quest Love! 10/10

Real Americans - A beautiful inter-generational story about family and destiny with many twists and turns that really stayed with me

Be Ready When the Luck Happens - Ina Garten is a legend, and her book is a lesson in believing you can do anything. As an entrepreneur I found it incredibly inspirational!

#thriftingtips for the New Year

As we go through the New Year and you’re popping by Estate Sales, keep your eyes peeled for any bows, wrapping paper, gift tags, and other holiday wrapping items!

I often come across completely unopened wrapping accoutrements in basements and offices and craft rooms for pennies on the dollar- I’m still working through a box of bows I bought on the last day of an estate sale for an extra 50% off! There is so much waste around the holidays, this is one small way to make an impact!

My other best tip? Keep a little list in your phone of things you know you need, like I added “trivets” to mine after I realized I need more for Thanksgiving for serving.

Rather than grabbing random stuff, when I’m at a big antique store I’ll take a quick glance at my list in case I spot anything I know I actively need- like last weekend when I found these hand-woven rattan trivets for $5 each!

What are we looking forward to in 2026?

More swaps of course! We want to be popping up all over town! We cannot WAIT to be at Montclair Flea next month. And just a note that with prices rising all around us in the New Year, you can rest assured the JGT swap ticket price won’t be changing this year!

That’s all from us- Happy New Year Jersey Girls, we can’t wait to see what this year brings us all 🔮