Monday, April 12, 2010

The Savvy Supermom - $20 Karen Kane Wrap Dress


Hello My Friends! Been a while and yet I have been furiously thrifting for my house and home as of late and saving all kinds of money!

For our family it's a way of life; if I need shorts the first place I go is the thrift store. If my oldest has outgrown clothes, I thrift. If I don't find it there I rarely run to a retail store to find it because the truth is we rarely NEED it right this second.

It's a hard less to learn but a good one for my kids, and well, for me. As a stay at home mom I don't need new clothes that often. I mean, outside of slight weight fluctuations of a couple pounds here and there, I'm not growing out of my clothes.

The economy has been tough on a lot of people and I think it may only get tougher for some. I propose with thrifting you can make ends meet and not lose out on style one bit.

Today's outfit was a lovely Karen Kane wrap dress I found at Goodwill. Wrap dresses are flattering to almost every figure and are SO easy. As I am a little top-heavy I have always had a hard time fitting dresses and so to a certain extent I only wore them for special occasions because if I needed one I would probably have to spend a lot of money to find one.

Today I own about 10 wrap dresses - all from the thrift store. From BCBG to CAbi (Carol Anderson by invitation) and I wear them quite often. If you want easy, this is as good as it gets. All but one of the dresses are wash and wear so there's not special treatment or extra dry-cleaning bill.

The Breakdown.
Karen Kane wrap dress ($8 thrift store/ARP $99), black tank top ($3 For Love 21/ARP $3), Black Nine West boots ($9 thrift store/ARP $125)

Grand Total: $20
Approximate Retail Price: $227
Savvy Savings: $207

Just yesterday I watched a couple shopping together in the thrift store and overheard (I was not eavesdropping, I swear) the husband make a very important point that I always use to justify my thrift store shopping choices. "Honey, it's $4 for all the shirts, why not get something that's nice and not just something that 'will do'."

Amen. I'm telling you, as much as I am not opposed to buying a George (Walmart brand) shirt at the thrift store if it fits well, I am much more likely buy a Free People shirt if both are just $4.

Dear Friends I will try to blog more in the future - I guess given all that's going on around me between the economy, politics, THE WORLD, I sometimes feel that my thrifting for fashion finds for my family or the house, just seems frivolous given what some are going through - and yet I do know there is a place for it.

I recently spend $45 for a friend-of-a-friend to help her with her work wardrobe. She and her husband are going through a difficult time, not the least of which is IRS difficulties. She had also lost a lot of weight (45 pounds!) and was having a hard time making things work in her closet. I was able to buy 4 pairs of pants and 4 shirts and make about 10 outfits for the money - focusing on brand names like The Limited, Ann Taylor and other work appropriate brands. I took some pictures of what we found and I hope to show those off at some point!

Till then, Stay Savvy!

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