The Bargain Life

So a few weeks ago I got the craving for a pair of saddle shoes. Yeah, those shoes that girls wore with their poodle skirts in the 50’s. I had at least two pairs when I was a little kid, a normal black and white pair and pink and white ones. It may seem like an odd thing to lust for, but they are black and white, retro, masculine, and little kids wear them — so that’s 4 things I like.

Problem is they’re hard to find in women’s sizes. Solution is…I can’t believe I’ve gone so long without knowing this, but girl’s sizes aren’t the same as women’s sizes, they are 2 sizes bigger. Since I am a 6 in women’s, I’m a 4 in kids. So I walked into Payless about 5 minutes before they closed, and walked out with a new pair of shoes for $12.99 (the cashier was quite surprised that I actually found a pair of shoes in 5 minutes).

So now I own saddle shoes, and they are awesome. When I wear them to work all the old people compliment me and talk about how they remember back when they were cool.

buy @ Payless

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why is the last thing you need always the hardest to resist? the logical part of me knows it’s not a bargain if you don’t need it, but 12 shirts for $4.21? i was looking for black tees to wear with all my crazy colored/patterned pants, but i found a lot of other really awesome shirts. and i may try to sell The Used shirt on ebay or something because i’m sure i could get back more than the 50 cents i paid and i’m not a huge fan of the band, but i do like them and it’s a cool shirt.

fronts:

plus a solid pink shirt i plan to do something crafty with
& top right has the back-side up – oops!

backs:

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i tend to do more shopping while i’m home for break than when i’m at school in Atlanta since there isn’t much else to do in suburban New Hampshire. plus H&M had a buy one get one free sale on all clearance items. here’s a round-up of my purchases:

clockwise:

teal skinny jeans – H&M – $19.90

plaid skinny jeans – H&M – $7.50

star sweater – H&M – $7.50

purple thermal – Wet Seal – $7.50

black thermal – Wet Seal – $7.50

printed tee – Pacific Sunwear – $4.20

teal cardigan – H&M – $16.90

leopard skinny jeans – Wet Seal – $15.00

striped skinny jeans – H&M – $7.50

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i’ve been doing a lot of sewing for my various furniture projects, but this is the first time i’ve sewn any clothes in a while. i started with a men’s extra large sweater that i got for $2 and altered it to make it fit me. now it’s slim fitted, but nice and long and with sleeves i can tuck my hands into.

before:

after:

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I went to the mall today for the first time in ages. I have lots of clothes, and I rarely actually need any (that will change when I start looking for a job, I don’t own anything professional), so I try to prevent myself from wasting money. But I needed to take my computer to the Apple store, so I shopped around the mall while I was there, and I bought a few things from Wet Seal.

houndstooth thermal – $12.50

teal houndtooth hoodie – $16.50

shiny pink leggings – 50% off – $8.25

and a note to all macbook users: apparently the battery is only made to be drained and charged 300 times, and after that it isn’t covered by applecare, so you should use it plugged in whenever you can. i just learned this today because my battery, which has been charged well over 500 times, now only charges when it feels like it. but they did give me a new charger, which i assumed wasn’t covered by applecare, so you win some you lose some i guess.

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My family and I went yard sale hopping this weekend. I was mainly looking for junk furniture to fix up, but I saw something so ridiculous/awesome that I had to have it. And so I present to you the 80’s bridesmaid monstrosity. Not only did it cost a whopping 50 cents, but it actually fits me really well, which pretty much never happens.

I’m not the only one in the family with the bargain gene. My little sister picked up the skirt that she’s wearing as a dress for one dollar, and the belt for free. It would look cuter if she didn’t try it on over her t-shirt, but oh well. She also got a super cute little league baseball tee for 50 cents.

I also picked up 2 pieces of free furniture: an end table and an old dining chair. I’ve been working for the past few nights on scraping and sanding the old varnish off of the chair, removing the torn seat cushion, and pulling out all of the upholstery nails. Maybe by tomorrow I’ll be ready to paint. I’ll have to cut a base for the new seat cushion out of plywood because the old woven base was torn, but luckily I have access to my dad’s tools now that I’m at home.

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When I first saw that Target was selling Converse shoes, I was excited. I saw the shoes, and they have some really cute stuff. Then I saw the prices. Most of the shoes are $30-$35, which is hardly cheaper than Converse shoes would be elsewhere, but more importantly if I wanted to pay $30+ for shoes, I wouldn’t be shopping at Target. Converse also has a clothing line at Target, but at $35 for a pair of jeans I might as well be in a department store. Payless has the same problem with their designer collections, and in my opinion it undermines the whole point of the store. I love that Target invests in having good designs, but talent doesn’t always come from a recognized name, and it doesn’t need to come with an elevated price.

If you actually want designer goods from Target at discount prices, the place to look is last collection’s clearance. This collection isn’t the type of clothes that I would actually wear, but I can imagine the pieces below looking really great on someone with a more sophisticated style.

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[[edited June 17th: replaced some mediocre hoodies with cuter ones]]

Alloy – $19.99
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delias.com has lots of cute things in clearance right now. Nothing amazing enough for me to place an order, but plenty of lust-worthy pieces. Here are some of my favorite steals:

items pictured:
Dino Pullover Hoodie
Fast-Food Friends Tee
Pop It Like It’s Hot Tee
What’s Up Tee
Aimee Buffalo Check Thermal
Aimee Victorian Thermal
Andie Heart Henley
Gingham Cinched Bandeau
Gingham Boy Short

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I was playing around on polyvore and came up with this outfit. It’s probably a little too straight-outta-Hot Topic for me to actually wear as it’s pictured, but it’s cool looking. And if it wasn’t obvious, I like bright colors. I’m glad that they’re “in” right now because it makes it easy to find bright clothes in stores, but maybe if it wasn’t so trendy I wouldn’t have to worry about looking like a Hot Topic mannequin or a 14-year-old.

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