Secrets of a Secondhand Shopaholic

Hello everyone! Thank you all so much on the great feedback I’ve received on my Top 10 things I love/hate about my new house.  Everyone seems to be enjoying coming along on my journey of new home ownership, so I will continue to write about that.

On today’s post, however, I’m going to get back to my roots and remain true to my blog’s purpose: writing about all the crazy secondhand shopping experiences I have on a daily basis. You know the ones where I end up with 15 short winter skirts or 20 brown boots, and I’m all proud of myself because they only cost me a total of $10?

I mean, my blog is titled “Secrets of a Secondhand Shopaholic”, so I want to assure you that although I’ve been writing about the good, the bad and the ugly of new homeownership, I am still going to continue to share with you all my crazy, out-of-control shopping experiences.

So here I go…..

My last crazy, out-of-control secondhand shopping experience was……………

………………………………????

oh good lord!

Unfortunately, there has been some weird shift in the universe and I haven’t had any crazy shopping experiences for months!  Is this a sign that there’s some truth to the whole May 21/rapture thing?  Has someone checked the temperature in H-E-double toothpick?  Because something is going terribly wrong (or right?) when this secondhand shopaholic can’t remember the last time she spent $30 on six ill-fitted but designer-brand jackets….

And it gets worse.   Because my last shopping experience really was crazy, but crazy for a whole different reason.

I only bought one item.

And it was from Kohl’s!!

Here it is – a Dana Buchman red flyaway cardigan (click here to see it at Kohl’s online):

Here’s what happened:

About 3 weeks ago, I was out shopping at Kohl’s with my boyfriend for his 11-year old daughter.  I was actually feeling quite proud of myself for not venturing off into the women’s department – I kept calm and in control, remaining in the girls’ department, focused on the task at hand. I was quite proud of myself, because I was, after all, in the lion’s den, and I was resisting the temptation to shop for myself.  But I knew at any second that could change – all it would take is for me to see one thing I like, and the flood gates would be opened, and my inner shopaholic would be released.

So I purposely put imaginary blinders on and kept my head in the appropriate game, and stayed in the girls’ department.

Since when did little girls’ clothes get so cute?

OK, stop it.  Focus!

Which I was able to do. However, as we were rounding the corner towards the check out counter, we did pass by the women’s department, and I saw the Dana Buchman flyaway cardigan out of the corner of my eye.  And I fell in love.

It was $60, on sale for $39.  I liked it so much, I actually considered purchasing it then and there.  I mean, I used to drop $200 – $300 a month on clothes, and since I hadn’t been shopping for awhile, what’s a measily forty bucks?

My inner tightwad frugal mind took over though, and I resisted.

After we checked out, however, my boyfriend received $20 Kohl’s bucks from his purchase, which he gave to me. So now the cardigan would only be twenty bucks…..that’s doable……

So to diminish my urge to purchase right then and there, I imagined myself  going to Goodwill to look for five sweaters to equal the twenty bucks that would only get me one sweater at Kohl’s.  I thought about whether or not I would like any of those sweaters as much as I love this DB cardigan. I thought about how long it would take to dig through all those sweaters that were crammed so tightly on the rack that it actually hurt my wrists to try to move the hangers over. I thought about how long it would take to find anything even remotely as cute as this sweater, IF I were to find anything at all.  I thought about that funky thrift store smell….

By that time, boyfriend and daughter were out the door, and I left, sans sweater.

But it remained on my mind for a week.

So the following Saturday, I went back to Kohl’s with my $20 Kohl’s bucks, just to see if the sweater still made me swoon.  It did.

I half-hoped they wouldn’t have my size, so my decision would be made for me.  They did.

I half-hoped it wouldn’t fit right. It did.

Now I really hoped it was still on sale. It was.

So I grabbed the sweater and went to check out.

Here’s wear the crazy weird-part kicks in.  I was standing there, in line to purchase my one sweater, and it was such a foreign, uncomfortable feeling to be standing in line without an armfull of clothes. There I was, holding just one sweater on a hanger.  I felt………well, I felt naked.

I used to look at people who stood in line with just one item like they had five heads.  Who stands in line for just one item?  Who leaves Kohl’s with just one item?  What a freak!

That’s it – I felt like a freak.

But when the register rang up $16.46 and I realized it was even more on sale than I thought, a wave of satisfaction swept over me.

Sure, I still felt like a freak, but now I felt like a really smart freak.

I could get used to this.