Carnival of Couture: Best Bargain

The Bargain Queen’s invitation:

What is your best-ever bargain? Where did you find it, how much was it and why is it your favourite?


This is hard. As you are well aware, I buy alot at the thrift store on $1 Mondays. In addition, I have a number of favorites which were hand-me-downs or heirlooms; the rest of my wardrobe, for the most part, was purchased on clearance at department stores and such. Like my winter coat, $40 American at the Bon Marche!

For today anyway, the above-mentioned coat stands as my best bargain. I wasn’t shopping for a coat that day, actually we were looking for swimwear for my daughters (collective groan). But I did need a coat; and the fitted wool coats, above the knee, with or without the half-belt in the back, were everywhere. If there was one thing I was not going to do, though, it was to buy a black one. Ugh! And look like everyone else?

So I had in mind a color. Brown, charcoal, or a pattern would have done as well. But never in my wildest dreams would I have expected to stumble upon a coat in aubergine. Oh yeah! And $80, down from somewhere around $250. The catch? I only had about $70 to spend (until next month). Dare I ask if it would be going down again? Why not? I could always pull out the credit card, if I had to. Thankfully, it didn’t come to that.

The saleslady, and there was one, had a handy-dandy little hand-held inventory thingie that she just punched the numbers into and then she got this look. “Actually”, she said,”it will be half-price tomorrow”. How does one spell “WOO HOO!!!”?

That was several years ago, before the Bon Marche became Macy’s. My aubergine wool coat still makes me happy. That makes it a bargain.

See more great bargains at the Carnival and in the comments here.

8 thoughts on “Carnival of Couture: Best Bargain”

  1. Well, I am not sure this is my best purchase ever, but it comes to my mind first as I read your post, since mine is a coat also. In about January, Katie and I were at Willow Bend Mall (our mall that has the Neiman’s with Chanel Boutique) and walking through Foley’s ( I think) and Katie noticed a cute wool coat and so we walked over to look at it. I honestly had forgotten how the large department stores really do have great sales (shopping away from Dallas for too many years) and even though it was mid-winter here in the Northern Hemisphere, the coats were already on sale here. The coat we both liked and eventually purchased one of each, is an Anne Klein that originally sold for about $200.00; we got ours for $79.00 each. I bought a grey one; Katie bought a light navy one. In this case, the name does mean something – the fabric is divine, the tailoring beautifully executed, the lining supreme, shall I go on? And we both did need those coats for Germany :-).

    Susan

    It’s before 4 AM so perhaps as the day wears on, I’ll think of another great bargain, although most of my bargains have been fabric that I later sewed up

  2. SCORE!! You might think of something better, but there’s really no need. And no black!!

    My coat is Nine West. Not sure why it was so expensive to begin with, but it feels like a good fabric and everything else seems to be in order (not really my area of expertise, since I’m not a tailor.) I would happily have bought it for $80 and thought I had gotten a good deal if it were not for the discipline of stewardship.

    Thanks for sharing! And are you up already or still?

  3. I’ve also gotten some great buys at your thrift store, Rebecca. Remember the orange cotton sweater? But one of the best was just this year when I picked up the paisley blouse. It wasn’t so much that it was less than $5, fits perfectly, and matches practically everything I own [except blues and the orange sweater:-]. It was what a Granddaughter said when I wore it that evening — something like:

    “That blouse looks like you’ve always had it; doesn’t it, Mom.”

    My best coat buys were the emerald green ones I bought when we had to quickly fly to Portland and then attend your Grandfather’s funeral. I didn’t have a ‘serious’ coat with me. So, I walked into the store (Penney’s, I think); they had all these coats on sale, I tried on a mid-calf length and a hip length jacket; both fit, I bought them, and left. You know how many years that’s been and they both still look brand new.

  4. Wow, Rebecca great score. Mine was a double breasted gray and pale blue plaid coat. Reg. $200 got it for $20 and at Macys !! But I do not know were you shop to get $1.00 days. The used stores around here are so much more expensive then that !!
    Clarice

  5. Clarice wins!

    About the used stores, now that I know that you live near Beth, I’m not surprised that you don’t find as much good stuff. The two of you can commiserate.

    I have seriously considered some sort of scheme to buy stuff for a dollar over here and sell it over there.

    Good that you can sew, but can you find good fabric?

  6. Let me say, I use to sew a lot and HATED it. But I am forcing myself to sew again. I only do very basic stuff. I would much rather hand sew any day then use a sewing machine. There is an amazing fabric shop on Bainbridge but it is expensive. I have found a little wonderful fabric at Joanne’s. But I do not think that sewing saves me money but I can get it to look the way I want. And that is important to me. Clarice

  7. *sigh* about Bon-Marche. When the chain bought it, they made a big deal about it wouldn’t be any different from being locally owned because they respected our culture, etc.

    Then it became Bon-Macy’s.

    And now it is just Macy’s, just another generic old department store. *sigh*

  8. Pingback: The Space Between My Peers » The Red Coats Are Coming!

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.