Bargain hunter

I have a male FB friend who occasionally mentions that for some reason or another he may need to surrender his "man card." It just recently occurred to me that on some level I should probably have to surrender my woman card, and the primary reason is I really hate to shop.

My parents are extremely frugal people, and from them I learned the following fiscal habits:

1. Money goes into the bank to die (that is, once you put money in you never take it out...for any reason).

2. Live on a budget.

3. Don't go into debt for anything other than a house if you can in any way possibly help it.

4. Just don't buy shit because if you do you will feel an extreme amount of guilt that will make the purchasing of items a complete emotional misery.

So you see I am not a shopaholic. I more or less abhor shopping for anything other than books, and even when I buy books I either go to Half-Price Books or buy them used online.

In addition to being freaky frugal, I have also become increasingly insistent on doing the reduce, reuse, recycle thing.

What got me thinking about my shopping habits or lack of shopping habits is my utter love of children's consignment sales. I don't like to shop, but if I have to do it, I do get some nice jollies from saving money.

A friend of mine, who is preparing to sell some of her children's items in a local consignment sale, let me "shop" at her house today. I picked up a crib, mattress, Thomas the Train ride-on, 4 pairs of pants, 3 shirts, 2 coats, 6 pairs of pajamas, a sweater and a Reebok warm-up suit (all for G except the crib/mattress). The clothes set me back a whopping $36. And the Thomas ride-on I'm selling to my mother so she can give it to G for his birthday.

Next week, I will be hitting the consignment sale to find N a new winter coat and buy some neutral newborn sleepers for mystery baby.

I love to browse in boutiques but I just laugh whenever I see the prices because the idea of me spending $25 on a shirt for my kid is downright absurd (even if I'm going to pass it along to every child I have). And by this, I don't mean that I wouldn't love to sometimes do this because dagonit, those boutique clothes are super cute.

But spending that much money on an item of clothing for my child violates some deep family code of frugality; basically, I'd have to go to Catholic confession and sever an arm in penance to make up for any such purchase.

I must confess that I do tend to buy N "new" clothes, but they are always at crazy low prices. When we were in Gulf Shores, AL in May I bought her a bunch of fall stuff from The Children's Place Outlet and Gymboree Outlet....none of which cost over $4.99. And I've picked up some long-sleeve shirts from Old Navy and The Disney Store for $3.00. I figure everything I buy for N gets passed down to my 3-year-old niece, and then will either get passed down to my newborn niece and/or my baby if it is a girl. G gets hand-me-downs from my nephews when available or gets consignment stuff.

Usually I buy my own clothes new, but on sale. I discovered though, during that brief period of time when I had lost my pregnancy weight from carrying G but wasn't yet pregnant with this baby, that I will forever buy my jeans at Plato's Closet. I am uber -picky about jeans, and I quickly learned that consigned jeans are ALREADY FRICKIN BROKEN IN. They feel like jeans that have been worn a zillion times because they are jeans that have been worn a zillion times.....just the way I like for them to feel. And I don't have to do that crazy pulling-at-my-crotch stretch dance every time I put them on after washing.

I remember one night at bunco a friend showed us some dresses she had purchased from a number of stores in the Mall, including White House, Black Market and Ann Taylor Loft, for a wedding she was going to attend. God, they were fabulous. I wished that I could buy something like that.

But what I do whenever someone is going to be married. I think to myself, "No one is gonna be paying a lick of attention to what I'm wearing, and I don't want to spend money on a dress I'm gonna wear like 1 or 2 times." Because I am the most "come as you are" dresser on the planet. Especially now when only 1 pair of pants I own actually feels halfway decent around my midsection. I have cleaned up nice 3 times in my life--my own wedding, my brother's wedding, and a friend's wedding when I was a bridesmaid. I live for comfort. I wear my clothes enough days in a row that they can walk themselves to the hamper.

So there's just no point in me spending more than a buck fifty on anything....