My Latest Impulse Purchase
Okay, this isn’t completely impulsive. For a few weeks now I’ve been searching online (and in stores the one day I went to a mall) for a new winter coat. There’s nothing wrong with my black peacoat except that it doesn’t go with any of my brown pants / skirts and it’s not dressy enough for winter parties and things or Christmas, etc. I really wanted an off-white, knee-length coat.
I found one that I liked a lot at J.Crew online, but it was far too expensive for me. Around $280 or so. Everywhere else I searched just didn’t have what I was looking for. Then last night, R told me that I should look at Victoria’s Secret because she’d gotten a coat from there recently for about $100. Well, that sold me enough to look!
Look I did. Finally I found this coat and decided to order it (even though it’s backordered for another couple of weeks):
Cute, huh? It was listed as $99, but Victoria’s Secret is awesome in that they let you type in three coupon codes at checkout. So the first thing I did was go to ebates.com and saw that I could get 4% cashback on whatever I spent. Sweet. The next thing I did was pick out a lip gloss ($7) to make my subtotal $106, so I could qualify for a free shipping code.
I used three codes:
1. FA813573 For $10 off (using the Victoria’s Secret Angel Credit Card)
2. SHPSAVE For free shipping on purchases of $100 or more
3. FA813441For a free tote bag with a purchase of $75 or more (Tote bag value? $75.00, according to them)
This brought my total to $100.80. But since I went through ebates, I should be getting $4.03 back to make this purchase (of coat, lip gloss, and tote bag) $96.77.
R said that she’d buy the lip gloss off of me, but I might wind up giving it to her as part of a Christmas gift. I don’t know what I’ll do with the tote until it gets here. I’ll either keep it, give it as a gift, or sell it.
So I’m pretty happy with the purchase, even if I REALLY shouldn’t be buying anything right now. I’m hoping that this will curtail some of my purchasing for the rest of the month. Last week I bought a black flannel dress from J.Crew that needs to be altered. It’s just a little too big in the bust area. Otherwise, this is a perfect dress for work, church, and winter parties…all for $85 (including taxes and shipping, but not counting what it’ll cost for tailoring). On Monday afternoon I bought a pair of chrome (?) flats from Gap on the $50 gift card I got from Mypoints.com back in August / September. I NEEDED shoes like this, though I could have found them for less than $41. On the other hand, it was still a free gift card, so money didn’t come out of my account for it at least.
Anyway, there you go. I’ve decided that this was a smart purchase because I didn’t have any feelings of buyer’s remorse as soon as I submitted the order like I sometimes do.
My Clothing Swap
A couple weeks ago I mentioned that my friend H invited me to a clothes swap; well, yesterday I attended and I’m so glad that I did!
There were only seven of us gals, of assorted shapes and sizes. The general consensus was that we were all nervous that people would reject some article of clothing that we once liked well enough to buy, but it turned out that we had nothing to worry about. Most of what I brought, for example, are clothes that I would still wear if they fit. I brought a bunch of shirts and a couple jackets that would be awesome if they were just a few inches longer–this is my problem because I’m VERY long-waisted. R and I realized this back in college when we stood hip-to-hip and our hipbones matched up, but I was still three inches taller than her. I’m glad that a lot of stores offer tall sizes now, but for years I was unable to get a decent button-down shirt for work.
I digress. Anyway, the swap itself wasn’t terribly organized. We all hung up or placed our clothing folded on a table and mostly just drank wine and snacked on some fun food. We all started just kind of grabbing things at the same time with the understanding that if two people were “fighting” over an item, they’d have to try them on and leave the judgement to the rest of us over who it looked better on. Luckily it never came to that.
I probably brought all total: a jacket, a blazer, one dress, three pairs of shoes, two pairs of jeans, and 10 shirts / sweaters. I came home with a handful of my original things that no one wanted AND a wool work skirt, a never worn pair of jeans, and a never worn party dress!
I’m wearing the wool skirt to work today. I’m so excited because it’s something that I actually needed. My friend R2 ordered the jeans online and thought that she had ordered a petite size but received regular instead. We were amazed that someone six inches shorter than me (with a quite different body type) would have things (the jeans and the dress) that can fit me. The dress is black with tiny pink polka dots and it hits right below my knees, I think. The bust is a little funny on me, but I think that can either be helped by a padded bra or by being tailored.
Anyway, I definitely recommend putting together your own clothing swap. You never know which one of your friends can’t fit into some gorgeous thing that would fit you perfectly. Here are some rules:
1. Any clothing, shoes, or bags are welcome (this was never addressed, but I’d say no lingerie)
2. Everything must be clean and pressed
3. All items should be on a hanger or folded neatly (I folded everything and brought it in a box)
We arranged everything by clothing type, but others might want to arrange it by high end versus low end items or by size. The problem with arranging by size is that different clothing lines have different sizes. I walked off with a couple size 8 items, even though my size 6 New York & Company jeans are falling off of me.
Most of all, look at it as a great way to spend time with some gals and also a great way to give away clothing and maybe get something for yourself at the same time. At the end of the party, all leftover clothes go back to the owner or to charity.
If you have any questions about it, let me know! Also, if you end up doing one of these, I’d love to hear about it.
My Expenses, 30 October 2008
Up-to-Date Expenses:
Gas x 7: $299.00
Car Tax and Decal fee: $89.38
Bank fee: $25.00
Maryland Renaissance Festival: $48
Parking: $1.50
EZPass x 4: $140
Car Loan: $88.71
Student Loan: $174.01
Church/Charity: $130.00
Groceries: $15.42
Gas bill: $25.28
Internet: $44.99
Panera: $6.55
Verizon: $59.52
Power: $31.73
Baptism Gift: $13.18
Metro Pass: $10.00
Soda at MCM: $2.00
Rent/Water/Fees/Cable: $1055.83
Dinner at RC’s house: $5.00
Income: $2775.60
Expenses: $2265.10
Net Effect: $510.50
I also bought a few things at CVS for B before his marathon, but I paid cash and I don’t remember how much it was. It was less than $15, though; I know THAT. I don’t have the receipt in my purse, so I’m going to have to look at home for it. I hope that B didn’t throw it out or take it with him because there were some Extra Care Bucks on it and I need toothpaste!
Also, I’ve been looking online for clothing and shoes like crazy. I found two dresses for $22 each that I was going to buy from New York & Company, but a few hours (HOURS) after I saw them online, I checked again (so I could get R’s opinion) and they were already gone! I was so bummed. I’m still bummed, actually. Back to online window shopping!
My Wardrobe
After reading Finance Girl’s post this morning on “Must Have” items for your wardrobe, I started thinking about all the things that I “need” to buy.
Since I’ve lost weight, two pairs of pants that I bought back in November/December do not fit anymore. They’re entirely too big, but I still wear them because I have so few things that fit now, especially since it’s started getting cold here and I can’t wear my cropped pants or my single work skirt without freezing.
I also don’t have a light jacket. I have a heavy sweater, but it won’t keep me warm in weather below 50 degrees. I need something that’ll work for fall and spring when I don’t want to pull out the heavy winter coat.
Shoes are a big thing. I wear three pairs of shoes to work; gold flats, brown flats, and cream/brown heels. The heels I only wear once or twice a month because they’re open-toed and they pinch the heck out of my toes. By the time I walk several minutes downhill to get to my car in the afternoons, my feet are screaming to be free. The brown flats I only wear with my brown pants, my brown skirt, or a pink/brown dress that I have (but rarely wear as it’s a couple inches shorter than I’d like), so that averages to 3-6 times a month. Otherwise I wear my gold shoes. I adore gold flats because I can wear them with navy blue, brown, and black, but mine are falling apart. It’s getting embarrassing. I know that I should buy new shoes, but I just never go shopping anymore because I don’t want to spend any money. It’s also because I don’t know what to buy first. Do I go with shoes, pants, jacket, or what? I need more than just one more pair of shoes, too. I need heels that don’t make me want to die after wearing them for eight hours. I have a ton of shoes, but most of them are flipflops, dressy shoes that are inappropriate for work (freaking bridesmaid shoes), or they don’t fit anymore…or never fit well.
So here is a short list of the things that I’d say that I want to get for this fall/winter:
2 pairs of winter work pants
1-2 winter dresses, appropriate for work/church/weekend
1 fall coat/jacket (goes with black or brown pants)
1 fall/winter skirt
1 pair of winter work shoes, appropriate for black or gray pants
1 purse/satchel bag that goes with black, gray, blue, or brown pants/skirts
I’d say that even with discounts, all of this stuff together would be over $300. I currently have a $50 gift card to Gap (remember those pants I wanted back in August? They sold out before I could get them), and money leftover on giftcards to Kohl’s and Macy’s. I also have not bought any clothing items for myself since the end of June. For the year, I’ve spent $274.22 on clothing/shoes/accessories. So that’s averaging to almost $28/month (I round up) even though in my mind I usually budget for $35-40/month for these things. It’s one of the few categories that I haven’t really gone over in this year. I need to suck it up and buy a couple things, I think, hopefully using the giftcards to make it hurt a little less.
Before I go shopping, though, in two weeks my friend H is hosting a clothing swap party! I know that I have a bunch of things that I no longer want/wear that someone else might like. I’ll go with my list in hand and see what I can get to fill in my wardrobe blanks. After that I’ll look at shopping for the things that I still want/need.
