Embraced the color of this spring and went a little sage green crazy. Spent $70 on non-leather sandals from Zara, because those heels. Had a Banana Republic shopping spree with my credit card rewards. Sure, a cash back card is more sensible, but this is an excuse to shop! (Not that I ever need one.)
Probably delusional, but this was me being 'better' with my shopping habits. Not included, a couple of final sale sweaters ($30 for both), a tee ($10), and a tank ($24) that I forgot about. Also the final sale boots ($40) I bought that don't fit, and the mules ($30) I bought to get free shipping on the boots. They fit, but did I really need a pair of snake print mules when I already have a pair of snake print flats?
Nothing new here, just a sever lack of impulse control and the deep set idea that if it's on sale I'm somehow losing out by not buying it.
The most expensive and unnecessary purchase being the Retrofête sequin wrap dress, but when an $800 dress shows up at tjmaxx.com for under $200, at the very least, I have to order it, and try it on (size way up on this one, by the way) and pretend I have some fabulous place to wear it. Then I ordered the BB Dakota sequined duster, which I liked a lot - it had pockets, was lightweight and easy to wear - but the sequins were catching on each other every time I moved my arm, and one of the pockets had a hole in it. And it was $148! (I got it when it was 30% off, but still.) So $180 for this glamorous, incredibly heavy, designer dress seemed like a very sensible purchase in comparison.
How did you fair this shopping weekend? Were you good and bought gifts for others, or were you indulgent and bought things for yourself? Admittedly, I did try to get the bulk of my holiday shopping done, but the draw of a sale was, as per usual, too much for me to resist. None of those purchases are included in this list however, as they haven't arrived yet and I tend to return almost as much as I buy.
Another month of using shopping as the replacement for everything else in life has resulted in this mess, and I'm going to be honest, I didn't include everything. T.J.Maxx OCD online order placing aside, I did find some unique and gorgeous secondhand pieces at Coco's on the Green, and the prettiest little vintage tapestry bag at Vintanthromodern that I may have spent a tiny bit more on than I should have, but certainly couldn't let anyone else buy them!
The biggest time, energy, and financial drain of the month was that damn leopard dress from L.K. Bennett. It's my fault for following bloggers in the UK, then breaking my rules of not making purchases where I'd have to pay shipping, returning, and restocking fees. Despite how globally connected we are, and the fact that I can get a dress at my doorstep from the UK in three days, size charts and customer reviews are still utterly useless. Based on the size chart I should have been a perfect UK 12, so I took the chance and placed the order with it's $15 shipping fee. Naturally it arrived and was too big; I should have ordered the UK 10, which I would have, had I not scrutinized the size chart. Another $15 to send it back, as well as a $7 restocking fee, and then of course $15 more to ship the new dress... which arrived damaged. To be more accurate, soaking wet. Bizarrely, in it's plastic bag, drenched. It wasn't raining that day and it's hard to imagine what happened, but after a couple weeks and half a dozen emails with customer service, I got a full refund for the damaged dress and my return shipping fees reimbursed. Silver lining, when I placed the order for the replacement dress it was $16 less, so it was almost like getting my original shipping refunded. Now I just need to wear it before it gets too cold.
I recently found myself getting reacquainted with shopgoodwill.com, Goodwill's auction style site that operates like eBay circa the early aughts. If you were an eBayer back then, you might recall the anxiety of constantly needing to refresh the page to see if you'd been outbid and trying to stratigize how close to the last second you could place your bid and still have it go through. After losing an auction for the most beautiful and unique mother of pearl hoop earrings I'd ever seen, I was licking my wounds and determined not to get outbid on the next auction. This was foolish on me. The ram hoop earrings are far more widely available than I'd realized, I definitely should have let the other bidder win that one, and I feel like my determination to win led me to pay more than I'd have liked on the other two pairs of earrings I bought as well, especially since I wasn't considering they would charge upwards to $10 to ship them. Suffice to say, I hate shopgoodwill.com.
Meanwhile on the comfort of eBay.com, I submitted a 'best offer' for a leather blazer and got it for $30, which included shipping. Win some, lose some, right?
I also found myself seeking a pair of caned leather pumps (naturally, to keep on theme with the three caned bags I already procured this year) and ended up liking the pair on JustFab the most. I decided to take advantage of their introductory offer of $10 for the first pair of shoes. They ended up being a little too long for me, but since it would cost more to send them back, I placed both toe and heel cushions in them and have decided that will suffice. Worth noting - to cancel JustFab, you have to call, and the customer service rep will offer pretty much anything to get you not to cancel. Stay strong. Get your $10 shoes and get out.
I'm sure there is more to life than shopping, I'm just having trouble remembering what that is these days.
Since TJMaxx and Marshalls reopened their online shops I've been obsessively checking for new items and price drops every day. Each time my Gap credit card rewards arrive I try to convince myself to save them up for something special, but that typically lasts a day before I go and order another dress to try. I have no more room for straw bags, but when a bag with a $100 MSRP is on sale for $15, how do I not buy it? I did actually return the last two I got from TJMaxx, but now the price went down to $10. We shall see if I can resist buying it again.
I've also been convincing myself that spending more on 14k gold jewelry (as long as it's at the marked down TJMaxx price) is completely worth it, as I'm so tired of watching my gold plated sterling pieces tarnish and then turn to silver when all the gold eventually gets polished off. Though I finally bought a new polishing cloth, and have started putting desiccates in the pouches I store my gold plated sterling in. Hopefully this will help get some extra life out of the pieces, including the earrings I just bought, falling victim to their far too tempting $10 price tag.
It hasn't seemed to matter how many times I tell myself I need to stop shopping, I am always back, like a moth to a flame with a million ways to rationalize my purchases. Either I'm 'just browsing' and will inevitably return what I've bought, it's a 'necessity', like comfy lace bralettes, cozy loungewear, or cute face masks, and of course, the biggest of them all: 'it's such a good deal, how do I not?'
At the retailers where I typically shop, the pandemic brought forth such a copious amount of sales, it was hard to avoid temptation. Even as I purged my email subscriptions, Instagram was always there at the ready to remind me of promotions like half off plus an extra 20% (!) $70 off a purchase of $100 (!!) with free shipping and returns (!!!)
I clicked away, endlessly dreaming about places I would walk in my new shoes, how the sunlight might glint off a gold ring, straw bags full with fresh blooms from the farmers market, savoring an ice cream cone in a linen dress, being oh-so-careful not to let a drop of chocolate fall.
I'm not going to write some resolve to stop shopping, because at this point, I know it would simply be a lie. Not when I can slip into the zen of hearting new arrivals at TJMaxx and Marshalls while I lie in bed at 1 a.m. How else would I happen upon this dress or these shoes, or this bag? Besides, there is already another TJMaxx order on its way.
Rewardstyle is currently not active with TJMaxx and Marshalls, so I had to find other sources for the sake of this widget - just know that you should look for them there for the prices noted.
I guess the question is, what didn't I buy this month?
I said I was going to be adopting the shopping habit of buying less, yet, I've been doing anything but. I blame the inundation of sales, leading me to make purchases I might not normally make. I've also been stocking up on loungewear like they are going to stop selling it.
Items not included on this list are pieces I am hoping to exchange for a better fitting size, and a few pieces from my ThredUP order which didn't fit and are now listed on my Poshmark closet. I also just placed another large ThredUP order for lots of cute workout clothes (I need motivation), more loungewear, and a floral print Joie blouse. Typically secondhand is the only time I buy Joie, even though it's one of my favorite brands. However, in another quarantine moment of insanity I ordered this blouse because it was 40% off (but that is still $148 and I should probably return it). My compulsion to shop right now should probably be a concern, and there are at least three shopping carts sending me emails right now...
This month I partook in more than my fair share of quarantine stress shopping, aided and encouraged by every retailers' efforts to sustain themselves during this shutdown by offering sale after sale. My inbox feels like Black Friday, only worse.
Of course this is only the half of it, as in, the half which has already arrived. If my mailman hated me before, he really hates me now.
It's funny, I thought I'd been doing good this month until I sat down to write this post, but that is just how it's been going as of late. I followed my usually crazy person shopping habit of buying the same pair of boots five times in four different sizes from three different retailers until I found the right fit for my foot and budget. Well, I use that term loosely - the Aquatalia Karen boots were originally $659, marked down to $264, plus there was a sale over President's Day weekend for an additional 30% off, taking them down to a more palatable $185. However the boot shaft was too high for my short legs and my cobbler charged $60 to shorten them.
If you are particularly observant, you may have noted a similar pair of black boots in last month's budget post, and they were a much more affordable $40 (technically $80 before coupons) - but they were also too tall and would have cost $70 to shorten, and by my logic, investing in a pricey alteration for inexpensive pair of faux leather boots made less sense than spending over four times as much on boots which would need the same alteration. The boots were definitely a splurge, so lets hope they will be with me for a very long time.
I also made a few secondhand purchases this month, a fun round bag by Mark Cross I spotted at one of my favorite thrift stores, which I then patiently waited for it to get its first price reduction and scooped up for $35. (eBay is literally ruining thrift shopping, they just love printing out the pages of similar listed items so they can charge more.) Also mine doesn't have the chevron pattern, I just used the image because it was close enough!
Next I got a pair of the Target sherpa mules from Poshmark - I'd gotten a pair for my sister for Christmas and tried and tried to convince myself I didn't want them too, but clearly that didn't work!
I also broke my strict rule of only one case per iPhone and grabbed this cute Kate Spade case at TJMaxx - even though my phone was paid off in December, I decided not to get a new one to save the $52 a month, so a $14 case seemed completely justifiable.
I also had to grab the cardigan dress from J.Crew when it finally went on sale, plus when it arrived without the belt I contacted customer service and they offered to ship out a new dress or give me an additional 35% off - I took the discount.
I bought a dress for New Year's Eve, before having made any plans. Then an opportunity to board the world's cutest dog came up, so I spent the last hours of 2019 with a puppy curled up on my lap and a glass of wine in my hand. I even managed to fall asleep about ten minutes before the ball dropped, so it was a pretty enjoyable evening. I should probably return the dress, but I likely wont. I'm thinking I could dress it down with a white blazer?
I tried to make sensible purchases this month, like comfortable boots, warm coats (not pictured is the coat I got care of Express Factory, since you can't shop them online), and velvet pants I dressed up for Christmas day, and then dressed down for a cozy evening in an 'igloo'.
However, there are the adorable Loeffler Randall sandals I won't be wearing for five months (if I'm lucky), another dress I have no occasion to wear, and some possibly over-priced and over-hyped ballet flats I have yet to decide if I love.
I wish I didn't love shopping so much, but alas I do, and rather than starting off the new year by saying I'm going to stop, I'm just going to focus on enjoying what I buy as much as possible. No more dresses sitting in the closet unworn, they need to go out into the world.
I know it's Black Friday and I "should" be posting about sales, but I think the sales started about a week ago due to how late Thanksgiving was this year, and I already did a lot of my shopping (Christmas and clearly for myself) during the Friends and Family promotions and more or less got half off everything without having to wait.
Which isn't to say that there aren't lots of good deals to be had today - just that I'm not posting them here. Instead, I'm marveling at how much I managed to buy for myself this month when I (once again) told myself not to be shopping.
The gold dress was for Thanksgiving, and the velvet skirt and camisole are for Christmas Eve. The rest I managed to rationalize into my cart for some other reasons which I'm sure were very good at the time, but are currently escaping me. The reason could have very well been "it's 50% off".
I think the worst part of writing this post, was that with all the ordering and subsequent returning I did this month, I was sure I'd left something out, which should be a pretty good indicator that it was not something I really needed or even badly wanted. But now that December is nearly upon us, I will most likely just be saving my shopping resolutions for January.
Do you shop for yourself during the holiday sales, or are you good and only shop for those on your gift list?
This month there were some scores and some splurges, some sensible purchases, and some less sensible purchases, and lots of returns. I joke that is my third part-time job.
Let's start with the biggest steal, a pair of Manolo Blahnik sandals for three dollars. I thought they were $30, but then the sales associate said the red dot on the tag meant they were only $3.
My most irrational buy? The J.Crew jungle print blouse. The list price is $110 and it's not even silk, plus it has been consistently excluded from sale promotions... except one day it wasn't. Could have been a glitch for all I know, but I scooped it up for 30% plus an extra 10% off (so roughly 37%?) I love it because it reminds me of a tee shirt I had in high school, just in the most grownup, J.Crew way possible.
After much deliberation, and the final weigh in from my sister telling me the Naturalizer sandals were "too much like sensible old(er) lady-esk" I decided to keep the Zara sandals. Only one small problem - I bought the Naturalizer sandals direct from them instead of through Zappos because I figured I could just return them in the store, and it turns out the closest store is in Massachusetts. I swear, I though there was one near me! So back to that part time job business... at least it's on the way to my brother's house, so now I have a reason to visit within the next 30 days, haha.
Also fun, I went shopping with my mom and we both got the same jeans at the Gap. The sales associate said we were so cute. I decided to get the petites so they would be the cropped length they were intended to be, where as she doesn't go for that and stuck with the regulars, because cropped regulars = full length when you are 5'1".
I also finally went to visit S.V. Decker in Milford, and left with the pearl necklace I'd been coveting on Instagram and a little gift for my sister for when she comes home. Of course you can shop online, but if you are in Connecticut you must go check out the store, it's gorgeous and seeing the pieces in person made me want them even more.
