Daily Cud Fashion Edition

Since I have to replace my 'Factory Worker Slob' outfits with 'Professional Business Lady' outfits I've been doing a lot of clothes shopping lately.

I'll wait while you try to wrap your head around that seismic reality shift.

Of course, like I mentioned earlier, I'm not wasting my money at Macy's or Neiman Marcus. Not even Sears or Walmart. I'm a resale junkie and proud of it. My favorite store right now is Value Village. Twice a month they have clothes half off, so for the price of one new shirt at a department store I can get an entire outfit, complete with shoes & an ugly hat.

I usually skip the ugly hat.

Right at the front of the store they have racks with brand new clothes donated from department stores. One shirt had a tag from some store for $125, that was discounted to $75, but the tag from Value Village was $8 and since it was 50% off it was just $4.

That's what I'm talking about.

My coat looked like I fought a homeless person for it, so I had to buy a new one. I got an absolutely beautiful long black wool coat and a real London Fog raincoat that's even longer, and both of them together were less than $10. Today I bought another coat for off work, walking the dogs purposes. It was $10 but I got it for $5, even though it isn't officially half off day.

How did I manage that, you ask?

Because I got screwed last time it was half off day. Let me tell you the long, sad story.

Christmas was pretty slim pickings here at Casa de Cud. My husband got me a couple of small things. Candy & shit. The best present he got me was a $25 gift certificate for Value Village. He knows what I like. Their half off days are the second and last Wednesdays of the month, so last Wednesday I left for work early & browsed around. I picked out a bunch of clothes. Nothing I had to have, no beautiful coat or cashmere sweater. A couple of things I liked, but nothing I couldn't live without. Went to check out and gave the cashier the gift certificate.

Now, keep in mind this wasn't a swipe card like you get from most stores. This was just a handwritten note from the manager on some kind of receipt form. I hand it to the cashier & she gives me a sad face. Can't use it on sale days. I'm not sure if she meant you can't use it on sale items or if you can't use it on anything on a sale day, but either way I wasn't getting any of the clothes I picked out.

I was pissed. Sure, it was just a bunch of random clothes, not anything special, but I spent an hour going through the racks & trying things on. Plus I still dislike clothes shopping just on general principle. I would have argued with the cashier, but I had to get to work. I just barely got there in time. I called Keith & told him what happened. He told me don't worry about it.

He has a real talent for straightening out shit like that. He said he talked to the manager when he bought it & told him I wanted to use it to get clothes on sale days & the manager said it would be fine. So he called the main office & basically got me a 1-time pass to use that coupon any day & have the clothes be half-off. I would have been happy to just be able to use it on the next half-off day, but I wasn't going to argue with whenever I want.

So I went in today with Keith & my mom and used that coupon. In addition to the running around coat I also got a knit cap, 2 pairs of pants for Keith, and 6 shirts for about $30.

How can you not love junk stores with prices like that? They even have a bunch of real fur coats and nice leather jackets. Not fake fur & pleather, and they're just $20 or $30, which would be just $10 or $15 on half off days. Last month I bought a black suede jacket for about $4. It's kind of thin, more a fashion statement than something to wear out in the cold, but it looks brand new. I love it. I think next time I go in I'm going to look for a nice blue jean jacket for my days off.

So far I have about 8 or 9 nice slacks, a dozen or so decent shirts and 5 or 6 jackets to pull everything together into actual outfits. After all, I've got to look Business Casual, not Midnight at Walmart Casual or Hoochie Mamma Casual. I'm not saying some of the people at work look like they should be hooking on a street corner somewhere, but there are some people who dress like they should be trolling for dates in some dark smokey bar. And then on the other end of the spectrum are the people who look like they should be slouched down on their couch eating Fruitloops and watching Sponge Bob cartoons.

And, hold on, I think I'm going to look for skirts & dresses next time.

I'm not sure if this is a Sign of the Apocalypse or not, but it's pretty damn close.