Friday, October 12, 2007

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! ;)

5 comments:

Mrs. Patton said...

Good Job! Stick to it! We are proud of you!!

Tread Softly said...

Salvation Army = Love

zdoodlebub said...

After half-heartedly shopping for Halloween costumes this year and not finding anything for under $39.99, I've decided that the boys can either recycle old costumes that still fit.

Or...

Salvation Army, here we come! Yay!

Meredith said...

Finding a secondhand Salvation Army coat would DEFINITELY feel like success to me!

Anonymous said...

I recently was snowsuit shopping too and almost splurged and bought a $5 one at a used clothing store. But I waited since the thrift store in town sells kids items for 35 cents or less apiece and sure enough I found a complete used baby snow set with booties and mittens attached for way less than I would have paid! Our thrift store is a blessing since many thrift stores aren't this cheap. Sometimes they have Dollar Days where they do everything you can possibly stuff in a paper bag for $1. Then when you're checking out they beg you to take a free coat too for anyone in your family! I guess they are just overloaded with stuff!
I'm so glad your money was refunded and you didn't use your credit card. Way to go!

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