Half Price Day at the Thrift Store

I am a homemaker, a home economist if you will.  My husband works very hard, easily 60+ hours a week, and more when he is really busy.  I stay home with our two daughters and run our household.  My husband and I make our financial decisions together, but we made a quick discovery at the beginning of our marriage.  After a bit of a comedy of errors, hmmm...shall we just say that we decided that I would make the better bookkeeper?

I am what you may call a nerd, and proud of it!  I run my household on a budget every month and I do a pretty good job of sticking to it.  Groceries, clothes, pet food, restaurants; everything has a designated amount at the beginning of the month and I do the nerdy cash-in-the-envelope bit.  I get enjoyment out of stretching our dollars so we are able to accomplish our bigger goals.

Anyway, all that to tell you the following story:

This month I performed a major closet purge.  I only meant to put away my laundry, and I don't know what came over me!  I started tossing clothes out of my closet and out the door into the hallway.  I was merciless!  Everything I didn't wear last year went flying.  With that finished, I made my way into the boxes in the spare bedroom.  I dug out what I called my "wishful thinking" clothes (aka all the clothes I was still clinging to from before my first pregnancy) and out it went!  "YOU WILL NOT MAKE ME FEEL GUILTY FOR NOT BEING A SIZE 6 ANY LONGER!!!!" I silently declared. Ok, now what?  Alright, we aren't planning on any more children so my maternity clothes made their way into the pile.

I have FINALLY de-cluttered.  I should have done this two or three years ago!   I feel free and refreshed...until I peek out the door and see the mountain that I created in the hallway.  And there it sat for the next week.  Oops.  I believe I mentioned to you before that I am not perfect, and that includes housekeeping.  Fortunately I have the blessing of selective tunnel vision and I am able to ignore stuff like that for at least a short period of time.  This time it only took me a week. Now everything is organized and priced for our June garage sale.

Unfortunately, I am now painfully aware of what is lacking in my wardrobe.  If you remember my aforementioned nerdiness, perhaps you can understand why I was a little bummed when I realized that I had not put any extra pad in my clothing allotment this month. We were closing in on Memorial Day weekend.  We live 40 minutes from an awesome outlet mall that always has great Memorial Day weekend sales.  Crap. Twenty bucks in my clothing budget.  I resign myself to the fact that this is just not going to happen this month.

Then I get the email of awesomeness!  Half price day on clothing, shoes and accessories at my favorite thrift store!  Yes I am on the thrift store's email list but I swear, I am not crazy cheap.  I do not shop at the scratch-and-dent, mystery meat section of the grocery store.  I am happy to use a coupon but I do not have a 50-year supply of beenie weenies and 3,000 flea collars for a cat I don't have stashed in my basement.  I am, although, very excited about half price day at the thrift store.  I have no problem with my family wearing "experienced" clothing.  Probably 95% of my girls' clothes are second-hand.  If they aren't old enough to care, why should I?  We took the girls and loaded ourselves into our SUV for a shopping trip.  I spent an hour and a half (sorry hubby and kiddos) digging through name brands.  Banana Republic, American Eagle, Lands' End, Gap,  Anne Taylor Loft, Eddie Bauer, Abercrombie and Fitch and, oh yes! Old Navy, you were there, too! Most of the stores I would have hit up at the outlet mall.  I found myself some cute tops, some slacks and a pair of capri pants.  The older daughter needed a new light-weight jacket and they each got a new swimming suit. The girls got to take out their little purses and buy themselves a "new" toy and a book.  My husband found some work jeans and a new beer mug.  We even found a replacement for our broken floor lamp.

Grand total...$38.51 (Nerd Alert!  I know it's over the previously mentioned $20 but I used a little cash from the babysitter envelope since we did not have a chance for a date night this month).  Half price day at the thrift store is now one of my favorite days:)

Do you have any recent money-saving victories or any great tips?  If you do, please share by commenting below:)