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.
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My Spring 2006 Template Project
I need to go back to the personal idiom kick-off project and consider my uniform templates for this spring.
The short version: sit down at the dining room table with a piece of scratch paper and at least one other family member. Brainstorm.
Racing through this project, it became obvious that I don’t need much. I already have 3 pairs of jeans, 3-mile everyday shoes, and a crew-neck tee-shirt in just about every color I wear. Topped with a cotton sweater (or equivalent) for leisure or a blazer for casual, that will be my uniform this spring.
What’s missing is a coat. Because of the variability of the weather (it’s likely to be sunny and 60 when I leave here at noon and then raining and windy when I arrive downtown 7 minutes later for my walk), I end up wearing my wool “city coat” quite a ways into the spring. But the color isn’t right.
So, while I am shopping for the perfect spring coat that I can afford, I am going to try this: a hooded windbreaker, topped with a fleece vest, with my washable suede jean jacket over the whole thing. Sounds crazy, but it just might work.
