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 happened to wake up early this morning, so I went to a bunch of different yard sales. I bought:
- a metal canister – 25 cents
- a pair of marble owls for my roommate (she collects owls) – $1
- a hand-cranked ice cream maker – $1
- a pair of stacking containers – $5
- a box of miscellaneous tupperware [not pictured] – $2

I also went to one yard sale where they were selling a whole bunch of amazing restaurant benches in purple and lime green velvet. they were around $100 each, but I seriously need a purple velvet sofa in my life. I resisted the urge, but they’re selling them tomorrow too…

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there haven’t been any posts recently not for lack of projects or lack of bargains, but for lack of camera. i brought my camera in to be repaired a few weeks ago thinking it would be a simple repair (and it’s still under warrantee), but really it got sent out somewhere to be fixed and i still haven’t gotten it back. i’ve actually done a lot of projects both big and small recently: turning old cabinets into a bench, installing a curtain, making a cardboard drawer divider, etc. but i’ll have to wait to get my camera back before posting them.

in the meantime, here’s a collection i compiled of the best items at Ikea for under $1. it’s no secret that i adore Ikea furniture, but their small items are equally awesome.

click “read more” for links, prices, and reasons you’ll love it.
Read more

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every issue of The Atlantic Monthly since 1995 online: free
caviar-fueled discussions about the social and intellectual impact of Google: priceless
all kidding of intellectual snobbery aside, The Atlantic has some really interesting articles about issues that the mainstream media isn’t always talking about.  and it’s free!

if you’re looking for something less nerdy, and probably a lot less legal, i just found out about the website mygazines.com, which houses user-uploaded scans of loads of magazines.

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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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[[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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