Frugal In Florida

I work in a law firm. Granted, it's small, we are very laid back and I can get away with casual attire. No, not shorts and tank tops, but I can wear jeans, nice tshirts and clean sneakers (notice the key words on those last two items? Very fine line here folks). However, there are also times where I need to be a wee bit more professional, which is generally when I grab one of my thrift store finds ... because heck, if it's not something I'm wearing weekly, I'm not about to pay full price (I'd prefer that be the way of everything, honestly!). With the thrift store stuff, and the nicer, more professional clothing, a lot of times, it's says "dry clean only". I'll be perfectly honest. I've WASHED these things in the washer and then line dried. Ummm....not always with great success, and sometimes, EPIC failure. But regardless, I at least tried. So when I saw  Fake It Frugal  do a post on the at home stuff you can buy, I figured, what the heck....

Jessica over at Life as Mom is hosting her usual Frugal Friday linkup ... and today's theme is really an important one that I need to bring back to the homefront. Settle for Less.... Much easier said then done, trust me. Here's an example for ME: My closet and dresser. Overflowing with clothes, shoes, STUFF (which we know the other word for stuff, right? Junk. Or S*it even). Anyways. I have lots and lots of clothes. Just a note: I only own 2 belts. Huh. In my dresser, my tshirt drawer, I could barely close it, let alone keep the tshirts neatly folded. I finally just broke down and went through each and every shirt. Haven't worn it in awhile (oh, I forgot I had that!), it went in the pile for yardsale/goodwill. Stained, waaaay too small (lots of them fell into that category, unfortunately) went in the pile too. Same with my closet. Sort of. My closet holds the majority of my work clothes. My law firm employers are pretty laid back and do not require that I DRESS ...

It's Friday ... which makes me a very happy camper. It's also the day I normally dress down a little for the office. Not that I dress UP all that much but today is the day I normally wear jeans. Jeans - $9 from Old Navy over a year ago Black blazer - $1 from Out of the Closet Thrift (paid more to have it drycleaned!) Teal blue heavy tshirt - Free from Chatty (thanks sweets!!) Shape Up Sketchers - ummm, ohhh... $100 (mother's day gift to myself in May) So I would have been doing GREAT had it not been for the shoes. But I love the shoes, for wearing to work, shopping and such. Not so much for walks over a mile long though. Make my legs very very tired and achy half way through.

So I've been reading this blog lately called Beauty and Bedlam and it's inspired me to give my local goodwill another shot. One more. Stopped by on my way home from work last night. Went straight to the 'boutique' area (which is just so much better organized) and ended up trying on about 20 skirts, which only one really fit and flattered me (whats up with that hippy stuff???) and the last thing that I had grabbed off the rack was this pink Loft dress. Ok. A) I am not a pink person and B) I am not a Loft kinda girl. But the dress was THE BEST thing! It was perfect for me. So very very perfect. Color. Fit. Style. Everything about it. Dress it up. Dress it down. Office. Out. Around the house. Anything I damn well please, this dress can accomodate. Woohoo. Then when I came out & hung up the 19 skirts that didn't fit, flatter or whatever, I spied the shoe racks. Normally, I totally skip right past them shoes, they are just dusty, smelly and so not appealing BUT ...

Hmm...seems to be every Thursday is frugal clothing day! Today: Crocs - g/f gave to me, they were too big for her. Actually, I should not be wearing them in the office, but nothing really going on today! Lime green pleated skirt. Gorgeous. I love this thing - $1.00 @ Out of the Closet Thrift. White cotton & lace insert sleeveless top - 25 cents from Broward County Woman's Aux. Thrift store (years ago, this may be the last time wearing as the lace is thinning and tearing a bit) Liz Claiborne cream knit cardigan with beautiful tiny flowers embroided throughout, $1.00 @ Broward County Hospital Woman Aux. Thrift (new location down the street, much smaller than used to be) Yup, I'm lovin it!

So today, I’m wearing my $2.00 white polo, my $1 tan & white striped linen skirt and my $9 tan and white wedge heel sandals. I love it when I can wear office clothes for so cheap. Top – kmart (hadn’t been there in a looong time so it was a surprise that they had upgraded their selections), Skirt – Out of the Closet Thrift and Shoes, Payless. Of course, as I’m standing there, admiring myself in the mirror, I notice that I really should not be doing my toe polish at 6am when it’s still kinda dark in the house!

I’ve been wanting to get to “Out of the Closet” for a few months now. Ok, maybe not that long as they’ve only been open for a few months. They were suppose to have opened last year but had issues with previous tenants (birds) and getting the place cleared out. Finally made it there on Saturday. Wow. I am so glad I went. We finally have a GREAT thrift store again! The lavender tickets were $1. I got me 3 skirts for work (see the photo) and 2 pairs of shorts. All name brands (Express, some Italian dude – made in Italy) and one pair of shorts are organic cotton and the other are from Old Navy. For $5, I got 3 work skirts & 2 shorts. Woohoo!! Had I had more time, I would have bought a lot more stuff. They do the ticket color markdown at the beginning of each month. I was impressed that it’s already the 12th day of the month & I was able to find that many lavender colors. This is done to keep the stock rotating so things don’t sit around for the next 5 years and get dated. You ha...

Was off today. Had to take dd's friend to school & then we had 8 & 8:30 dentist appts. Did that and then went to Denny's for breakfast. Been a long time since I've been to Denny's. Guess they had to raise prices too since everyone else has. $27 for me & dd at breakfast (included tip). Good grief. Then we came home, laid out by pool for awhile (got some color), and then went & had a manicure & pedicure done, using 2 gift certificates I had gotten for Christmas last year. We each tipped $8.00 so that was $16.00. Better than the $40 plus tip each to have it done :) Came home & dd had to get ready for work at 4pm. My g/f Cat came over around 7ish. She brought a HUGE bag of stuff. 10 waffle rubbery place mats (which will have a different life in MY house), 2 complete full size sheet sets (for sleeper sofa), 24 dress shirts (half still had tags on them!), 3 skirts, 2 slacks/capris/clamdiggers (need to look more at them). And there was some other st...