How I Bought Groceries with a Snowsuit

A few weeks ago, I decided to splurge. I had money saved in my "clothing" account and E needed a new winter coat. She has SuperDad's monkey arms, so her 3Ts are all getting too small. Not really a good thing to have in a coat, per se. I shopped and shopped and I shopped and shopped. Then I went to bed and dreamed about shopping. I dreamed about $8 snowsuits and matching boots and hats.

The best deal I could find was a $35 coat that felt like it was made for California "winter" not real live actual winter. So I decided to just bite the bullet and order a full coat and snow pants set online. $56. I could gag on that amount, considering I bought her last set at a department store end-of-the season sale marked down to $14 from the original $90. Oh. The shame of full-price. Anyway, I ordered the snowsuit.

And, immediately after that, of course, every store finally got their winter coat shipment. Hi, "Use your patience," much? And the one I ordered came in the mail and I wasn't so overly impressed with it. It wasn't as thick as I wanted. I swear that the people that make snowsuits have never actually seen snow. You know how in movies, snow will just land on someone's head and sit there all a-sparkly-like and never melt and turn their hair into a hat-o-frizz? This snowsuit was made for that. Hollywood snow.

Anyway. As I've mentioned, we were very bad at managing our money this time, and we were out of money for food. And cat litter. And most importantly, diet pop. So, do we whip out the credit cards? Do we borrow from our emergency fund? Or do we return the snowsuit and have faith that the bargain will come along?

Of course we returned the snowsuit.

And then, yesterday, I went to the Salvation Army. And found a coat, thick enough for actual winter, that looks brand-new, that matches the snow pants she already has, in her size. For, get this, $2.99. Praise the lord! I also bought two sets of heavy, insulated drapes to help keep some of the heat in, and some fabric, the same fabric I used to make our very favorite and much bed-hogged blanket. Total spent? $10.29. Total left over for food (shipping wasn't reimbursed, of course)? About $40.

YAY! (Okay, getting that a Salvation Army coat wouldn't feel like a success to most people, but at this point, every time we don't use the credit card when we would have just a few months ago feels like a major success to us.) Also, it was definitely about $40 worth of pain in the [neck], as I had to stand in line, with two tantrum-throwing little kids, with no stroller, carrying about 40 pounds of heavy drapes for 30 minutes! And at 25 minutes? Three teenagers bud (budded? budged?) in line in front of me. ARGH! To be rich! ;)