Greatest Shopping Day Ever!

My day out with Dad was a fun day of bargains. I mean, the lunch (Chinese food was great), then I needed some shorts because my size 4s are too BIG! Believe me, this is really crazy because I haven't been that small in a long time. BTW, I'm only 4'9", so it's not like I'm a stick or anything to get to that size. But, I don't think it really sank in until I was in the dressing room. Anyway, I didn't know where you could buy a size 2 where it wouldn't cost too much, so I was pretty much resigned to it being at least $25, but was hoping I could get them for less. Dad and I decided to try Old Navy. I know they have small sizes there. So, we parked in front of the store and as we were walking in, we saw they were having a HUGE sale, with things marked down to 50% OFF! Wow. It's not like they were hugely expensive to begin with, so we were happy. I was hoping they'd have some shorts on sale.

Sure enough, there were lots. I had my choice. The hardest part was finding a 2, but it was possible, and I found 4 pairs to try on. There were other 2s, but they were either way too short or way too long on me. Won't work. So anyway, I get into the dressing room, and I'm not looking forward to it, because I know I'm flabby. I'm not a model or anything. I don't like trying on clothes. But I didn't realize how bulky wearing a size too large can make you look. As soon as I took them off I was shocked. I hadn't seen myself in a mirror in a long time, not size I was buying clothes that were really big. I mean, I have a mirror at home, but it's not a full-length mirror. I hadn't really seen my body, you know? I was so happy I was literally jumping up and down in the dressing room. Yes, there was flab, but it was such an improvement I was happy anyway. AND, every pair of shorts I tried on fit me. Not like, some of them were tight and some of them fit. No. All of them fit. I just picked the ones I liked the best and went with it. It was just a bonus that they were only $8.49. : )

So then, we did our usual Walmart thing, but didn't get very much because I knew I had coupons that I wanted to use at HEB. Then, we got coffee. It was already about 4:30 by then since the Old Navy trip took a while. It was so hot and stuffy from all the rain we've had (no end in sight either--more on the way) that both of us wanted Frappuccinos. I had to choose between light and decaf, though. They don't have a decaf light Frappuccino. : ( Obviously, in the interest of weight loss, I got the caffeine and chose the light.

Later, at HEB, I knew I had some good coupons, but I didn't know how many of them we'd use. We didn't get our usual amount at Walmart, so that gave us some money to work with on the usual Walmart stuff that we were now going to get at HEB. I had a $5 off coupon for toilet paper. It was only $6.80 or something anyway for a 12 pack. I had a buy one get one free on my shampoo and conditioner. I had $1 off Dad's toothpaste. There was a store coupon by the cereal for $1 off, so I got $1 off my cereal that I didn't have a coupon for. There was more, but I don't remember them all, but it's not like you need an inventory of them anyway. By the time we got to the checkout line, we had $65 worth of stuff. But with the coupons, we had a $25 discount off of that and got it all for not much more than my usual grocery budget, and it will last a while with all the buy one get one free coupons. Won't be needing those for a while. It pretty much paid for my tank of gas, too. I was just shocked that we saved $25 with coupons. I mean, they're just coupons. Don't normally have enough good ones to take that much off the bill, you know?

So, we had a great time and saved a lot of money and we were both really happy. I suppose I shouldn't say it was the best shopping day EVER, because we had a great time one Christmas and got some amazing deals, including a $200 leather jacket for $50 and a shirt and earrings for sis R for only $3 for both with a coupon. Still, it's good to save money when you're broke, so I hope clipping coupons at least helps a little bit next week. We'll see. : )