FRUGAL FRIDAY

I just returned from a quick trip to the Mall where I had volunteered to pick up a gift for someone else. I was dashing through Dillards and a pretty blouse caught my eye. I stopped to admire it and my jaw dropped when I saw the price tag: $148.00!! For a blouse! Give me a break! And I thought we were in an economic downturn!

The Mall incident made me think back to a meeting I attended recently where some builders were talking about bids for buildings and how they were coming in higher than expected. They knew that suppliers had lower material costs and the cost of labor is lower right now, but it seems that subcontractors are padding their bids anyway. Guess Dillards caught on and figured if the blouse did not sell at $148.00 this week, then they could mark it 50% off next week and still make a bundle selling it at $74.00 or mark it down to 70% off in a few weeks and still rake in more than $40 for a blouse that probably cost less than $20 to have it made in China.

I think I am going back to sewing! I used to make all my clothes and then I got busy doing other things. Now, with prices as outrageous as the blouse I saw in Dillards I can easily save a bundle of money! Or--do my shopping at resale shops where the $148.00 blouse will probably end up for about $20 if I wait long enough and stay vigilant!

FRUGAL FRIDAY

Coupons! That is my Frugal Friday hint. I have been clipping coupons for about six months now and it really pays off. Today I went to Walmart to buy some groceries and looked through my coupons before I left home. I came out of there with ONLY the things on my list and saved $6.50 with the coupons I used. Several of the things I bought were marked down, so that made the coupons even more valuable. Yesterday I went to Walgreen's and had clipped coupons out of their Sunday advertisement. I bought three bags of things and, once again, saved $6.00. In both shopping trips I was very rigid about only buying things on my list because I know how easy it is to get carried away with the other things that I see as I shop for things on my list.

It has been years since I clipped coupons. It was something I did when my boys were growing up and we needed to make every penny count. Since the boys left home I had gotten lax and did not pay that much attention to how much money I was spending. Now it shocks me at how much I could have been saving if I had been more conscious about spending. This economic downturn has really made me think about the money that I do spend nowadays.