I'm still frugal, but now I get compliments on my clothes

Sooooooooo, the whole reason I decided to start this blog was a very lucrative trip to the mall.  And by lucrative I mean I GOT ALL KINDS OF STUFF FOR PRACTICALLY NOTHING!

Sorry, I don’t mean to yell, I’m just so freaking excited about it.  I usually never shop at the mall.  It’s too expensive.  The stores don’t have the sales, or the clearance racks, that I covet so much.  Sometimes their return policies aren’t up to my standards.  But mostly I just can’t justify paying 70 dollars for a pair of pants.  Granted, I know these clothes are generally of a better quality than the ones I buy at Target.  But I’m okay with only being able to wear a cheap shirt for one season.  I like to shop and if I buy a top in May and have to get rid of it in October that’s okay.  It just means that I’ll get to buy a new top in another 6 months or so.  And I’ll only be spending about 4 bucks a top.  It might sound wasteful, but when all my discretionary spending money goes to clothes I like to have something to spend it on.

Anywho, I decided to go to the mall for whatever reason.  I think it might have been to spend the rest of a Macy’s card I got as a gift from my in law’s (Thanks Mom!)  Well, Macy’s didn’t have anything so I ventured deeper into the uncharted waters of the posh, upscale, located-in-the-fancy-part-of-town mall.  I passed New York and Co., a store that I had shopped ar back when I was in college (I even have a store card there, but of course I have a store card to almost every store in existence!) and they had big SALE signs in their windows.  I was intrigued.  And let me tell you folks, they were not kidding about their sale!  They had pants for less $9.99 and shirts on the cheap, too.  I even found a white summer jacket that I had been looking for FOREVER and I had vowed that when I found one I really liked I would spend whatever they were asking.  And they were asking $24.99, regularly 50 bucks!  So I bought a shirt, that jacket and a pair of pants.  Plus, when I was checking out they gave me an extra 15% off because I reopened my charge card.  (Have no fear I’ve already paid off all my charge card purchases.  A girl who hates debt LIVES to pay it off in a timely manner.)

Take a peek at my receipt from that first foray into fancy store clothes at cheap-o prices:

I know, right?!

But wait it gets better.  I went BACK after a few days or so because I got a coupon for $25 off a purchase of $75.  Now, usually I would never ever ever spend $75 on clothes in one fell swoop but I got such a good deal the first time I thought I could really get some nice stuff and at a great price. 

* Side Note: Now, I’m not just buying these clothes just to be buying clothes.  After years of wearing cheap colored t-shirts from Kohl’s ever day to work I decided it was time to give my wardrobe a little boost.  Plus, my current job is at a very conservative and professional place.  Although many of the lower level employees (myself included. Hey, I ain’t no big wig.) wear clothes like I had been wearing, many of the executive assistants and women in management positions wear very nice polished, professional clothes.  There is a saying that you should dress for the job you want (as discussed here in this HIGH-LARIOUS podcast my husband and I listen to) and I decided that I should really up the ol’ professional look.  And to do that I had to spend money *gasp* but in true couturelife-clearanceprice fashion (see what I did there?) I got the nice clothes at rock bottom prices.*

Okay, back to the shopping spree.  Check out this receipt and see my awesome bargains!

 My bad on the scanned reciepts.  Hopefully these will get better with time.

I got a watch for 13 bucks and a necklace for $6! Holy macaroni! And these are nice shirts.  I’m going to have to bring one back though; a little TOO revealing for the most conservative company in the city.  But everything else is really nice and pretty.  I’m gonna be honest with you people person, the shirts I used to wear were not pretty.  They were bland.  I am very pleased with my pretty purchases!

So there you have it.  That shopping trip to NY & Co. was the inspiration for this blog.  But the crazy couturelife-clearanceprice shopping spree does not end here.  Oh no! Stay tuned for my surprise encounter at another store that I used to think was WAY out of my price range.