Gotta love those sales!

This weekend is the weekend my family has been waiting for…well at least the women in my family. Twice a year the consignment store in K-ville has their clearance sales. The first week they slash everything to 40% off, then 50%, and the final week of the season everything is 70% off!

That’s right – 70% off consignment store prices!! I typically end up getting tops and pants (brand names) for $2 and $3 each. Sometimes, if I find something I’m really in love with, I’ll splurge and spend $5 on an item.

This isn’t just a sale for us – it’s an event. We carpool and make a day of it. My grandfather went the first year and considered it a “twofer” (a two for one – the first and last time he’ll ever go). Early in our relationship Mr. Right went along with us. He was quite handy to have. He looked for stuff that he would like on me, and he held the stuff that I wanted to try on.

It’s hard to explain, but the entire store is a mad house. Women everywhere, grabbing up clothes, shoes, and handbags that they think they might want. If you’re not quick on the draw (and we’re all standing outside the door 10 minutes before they open) then all the good stuff will be snatch up. You snatch first, sort later.

Then it’s on to the community dressing room. The sale is so big their meager 4 dressing rooms aren’t enough, so they open up their stock room for anyone to go in, and sometimes even it gets full and you have to wait. Nothing like seeing 20 other women in their undies for a boost of confidence.

The community dressing room is also full of honesty. I’ve had complete strangers tell me that a pair of pants is too tight, or that a top just isn’t flattering.

My family usually spends from 10 o’clock to around 2 or 3 that afternoon shopping for deals. Lately, I’ve been the high spender, walking out with around $100 worth of clothing. This is my one area where its difficult to budget. I see all these great things for only a couple dollars and I want to buy them all.

This year, I’m accountable to more than myself (and God) for my spending. Mr. Right and I talked about it last night and I’ve set my budget at $70. I’ve been calculating my “dip money” since we got married. Basically, he wastes $60 a month on smokeless tobacco, and at one point (before we got married) I wasted about the same on fast food.

When he questioned my spending, I told him that was money that I blew, just like he blew too much money on dip. I started tracking my spending (and for weight loss reasons I stopped eating out as much). A friend suggested that I save up the money to buy something really nice. To sort of illustrate a point.

So Repeat Boutique here I come!!!

In other frugal news, I’m very proud of my Kroger deal from last night. I spent $2.05 (including our 8% tax on food in Tennessee and 9.5% on everything else) on the following:



Thanks to Money Saving Mom for the link to the Cottonelle coupons, which doubled for free TP!

I was proud of myself coming up with the Quaker Quakes (mini rice cakes) deal – I noticed when I was at the store earlier in the week they were on sale for $10/10 (or for $1 each) and got very excited when I clipped the $1 off coupon yesterday (I was a little behind in my couponing.

The soup was also on sale and I had a coupon, but it wasn’t a spectacular deal - $0.85 each. Mr. Right really likes the soup though, and I wanted something so that the cashier wouldn’t think I was trying to cheat the system by not paying anything. I know what he’ll be having for dinner tomorrow while I’m out shopping!

For more great frugal fun, check out Frugal Friday over at Biblical Womanhood.