Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge

So I did one last trip. I had given myself a budget of $1000, but I ended up breaking it. I spent another ~$251 on two more suits. That is $1000 on four suits, $15 on a pair of shoes, $20 on tights, ~$80 on two dresses and ~$40 on a new pair of earrings. Add on ~$40 in tailoring and that’s $1195 total, all paid in cash, cash equivalents, or credit with rewards and paid in full.

My only saving grace is that I did buy some stuff on sale and I do not need a great many shirts to wear under my suits to round out the stuff I have.

The last two suits are a Kasper ASL suit in dark navy with electric blue pinstripes. It’s a 3 pc with a hideous electric blue blouse, but it looks ok on me as long as I don’t look down. It’ll burn out my retinas. The other suit is a a very demur black/olive tweedy fabric skirt suit. It’s got 3/4 sleeves and is double breasted. The skirt goes below the knee. I LOVE IT. It’s effing TAHARI! Guess the price! Remember, I only spent a combined $251 for these suits. Guess! GUESS! I dare ya!

Oh ok. I’ll tell you. It was marked $99.99 on clearance at Macy’s, but I was able to get it for $79! Yes! It was so freakin’ cheap! I love a good sale and Tahari at $80 is an EXTREMELY good price. (I am lucky I could drag my boyfriend on a quick side trip into Macy’s. It must have helped that Saturday was Auntie Anne’s 20th birthday and she was giving away free pretzels! We each got one and he was happy.)

It sucks that I was impatient and bought two suits at Ann Taylor full price, but I’ve been carrying around the sales slip waiting for the chance to get a price adjustment on it if it goes on sale. As it was, the embarrassment of my poor attire was too much. I’ve started going out to client meetings and to be literally ill-suited would have been a very bad idea and perhaps fatal when it comes to office politics. (Possible and probable when working on a multi-contractor gig. Whose company pays better than the next, etc. You wouldn’t believe what people sit around a discuss sometimes.)

The shoes are brown suede pumps from Payless which are mighty cute and now the tailoring bill to hem the pants is $40. Since I still have not refurbished my sewing machine, I took them to a tailor since my the cost of the tailor is about my hourly rate (ok, more, but not much) and she’s going to do a better job than I can, but it’s a LOT less than driving to my mom’s or my aunt’s to have it done for free or cheap.

That’s it on the clothing front. I am now looking at some pretty water washable dresses for the spring and summer. My dry cleaning bill is going up dramatically and I dislike the notion of having to buy an iron and ironing board.