Food? Or clothing? Decisions, decisions.

Where we used to live there was this great little thrift store that I loved to go to. Mostly they were like a normal thrift store, except that they had this section where they sold their marked down stuff.

This stuff was seriously marked down. It was all the stuff they hadn't been able to sell for one reason or another - lost buttons, odd colors, just plain ugly - all marked down to 10 cents each. And on a regular basis, they'd have sales where all the marked down stuff was 50% off. Five cents each.

Do you have any idea how quickly you can fill up garbage bags full of clothing when it's that cheap?

Since we were unemployed for that first year after the preschooler was born, I made heavy use of that place. Most of the stuff they had for that price was children's clothing and I made sure I got not just baby clothes but larger sizes, too, for when she was older. It wasn't hard at all to find things that just needed basic repairs to be entirely usable. Cute, too. Oh, sure, there weren't the nice things, like jeans and tennis shoes, but the way I looked at it, she didn't know and didn't care what she was wearing. I knew, but still didn't care. It was clean, it kept her warm, and cute doesn't lie in a brand name.

I've been thinking about that lately, because I've had to go shopping for clothes for the preschooler. She's run out of almost everything I had stockpiled in the larger sizes. So, we went to a local consignment shop last week. Things were cheaper than Walmart, but still, after paying five cents for a dress it's hard to start paying $10.

Then I went to the store Saturday (I had a whole two hours with the husband watching the girls, to do whatever I wanted! Yippee!) and bought some clothes for myself. I haven't gotten anything since before the move, and that shopping trip was only out of desperation because I didn't have any nonmaternity clothing that fit anymore. So I bought a couple of shirts, a pair of jeans and a pair of denim capris. $60. Ouch. They look really nice on me and I'm happy to have something I don't feel like a complete mess in, but still. Ouch. I need to make more time for sewing.

You should see how pretty I look, though! Wheee!