How to get a $2000 or more new wardrobe for $300 or less

Go to Goodwill and other thrift shops.

Gap jacket retails for about $98-120 paid $5

Ann Taylor dress $120 paid $5

Gap pants retails for about $40-60 paid $3.5

Ann Taylor shirt retails for about $25 paid $3

Wool jacket










Apostrophe pants retails for about $40 paid $3.5

Banana Republic top retail for about $60 paid $3

Apostrophe Skirt retails for about $40 paid $3

Banana Republic top retails for about $40 paid $3

Wool pants

Gap top retails for about $40-60 paid $3

Express pants retails for about $ 60 paid $3.5

Boston Proper top (real rabbit fur on a %100 silk)
retail for about $200 paid $3

Alfani top retails for about $50 paid $3

cute old navy dress

J Jill linen dress retails for about $120 paid $5

David's bridal dress retails for about $98-150 paid $8

New yorker's apparel dress

Apt 9 dress retails for about $50 paid $5

Ann Taylor loft dress retails for about $89 paid $5

Anne Klein dress retails for about $140-180 paid $20

Donna Ricco new with tags retails for about $140 paid $8

Eddie Bauer top retails for about $50 paid $3

Ann Taylor dress retails for about $98-120 paid $5

Ann Taylor dress retails for about $98-120 paid $5

Why second-hand-

I know to most people the idea of going to a second hand shop is something you would do only if you had to because you can't afford anything else. Not me. Ever since I had a say in where I shopped I went to Goodwills. I love having a disposable wardrobe and spending 1-10 dollars instead of 20-40 dollar on a piece means I can. I also like having lots of clothes to choose from.

About second-hand shopping-

I believe that if someone else bought it once than why wouldn't I like it too. There are things I don't buy second hand: underwear, sportswear, running shoes, swimsuits, PJs, lingerie and socks. And Shopping second hand is not for those who hate shopping. This collection took maybe fifteen trips to stores over four months. You always have to be on the look-out for something good within long racks of okay stuff and junk. I enjoyed shopping with my sister while in Ca. She made it easier to go through the piled on shopping carts of clothes. That's another thing, you have to like to try things on. It's one thing if you have a favorite store and you know your size in it. But second-hand every brand's sizes are different. I can be in a size six in one thing and a size twelve in another. I actually fit into a pair of size four shorts once (I've never been a size 4). Don't be afraid of going out of your style. You never know what you will like and what will look good on until you try it.

About my new clothes-

I have a lot of clothes. Most of them are in England waiting for us. My goal was to get rid of most of them because of space and cleaning them will be a challenge once we get there.

So why did I buy more?

Talking to my sister, who's friends have lived in Europe for the last few years, only Americans wear jeans and t-shirts as casual wear. I needed to update my clothes from not fitting me college/ after and during babies clothes to smart sophisticated, I look good, feel good clothes. I think I did a pretty good job.

You may ask why so many dresses?

I do admit I have too many black and white dresses in similar styles. It is hard to pass up a nice dress that looks great and is only $5. I do like wearing dresses and it's easy to put on in the morning and not decide what shirt looks good with what pants. I did get more shirts then pictured. Tim was nice enough to take the pictures and I didn't want to push my luck with more.

Pearls?

All my clothes were not meant to be worn with pearls. It just so happened to be what I was wearing at the time. Anything could be dressed down with different accessories.

Pictures-

Anyone that knows me well knows I'm not vain. I did enjoy having my pictures taken for this but I'm not a big fan of posting them all. I'm very critical of myself and would rather have had them laid on the bed but it wouldn't have done the clothes justice. In fact the bright blue tight dress in the picture, Tim saw it before I tried it on and thought it was a joke but loved it after I had it on.

Easter

Oh Easter, what fun. We got to do a Easter hunt on Kirkland AF Base on Saturday. And compared to Pope's hunt last year this one was Grand! Audric saw his friend from school there too.

On Easter we got to sleep in until 7am which was great. Then they had to look for their Easter baskets. It was so hard for Audric not to grab eggs as they looked for them. So many eggs, so much candy. The Easter bunny decided to fill the 51 emptied eggs that they got from base plus the 24 he came with. 75 eggs isn't too much is it? All the egg hunting was followed by ham, deviled eggs, quiche, real mashed potatoes and rainbow jello, yum yum.

Hike

It's hard to see but this is a huge cannon.

La Luz trail. I can't believe there is a running race that happens up this trail once a year.

Snack break

Tim had a day off and we decided to go on a hike with Julianna. We thought it would be easier with just one kid but Julie likes to difficult. She would cry if she had to be carried in the backpack, walk a bit and then would cry wanting to be carried but not in the backpack. Tim and I had such a drive to hike about ten miles to the tram and ride it down. We made it 2.7 miles and decided to turn back because of our hungry tummies and that we forgot about the five mile hike we would have to make to the car once we got off the tram. Don't think of us as quitters, it was all up hill and I swear the mileage was added up by air distance and not ground distance. We had fun and the whole way back we thought about eating at Weck's. Yum yum

Science fair projects

Audric was busy for a couple weeks after getting back from California. At school he had a project to teach his class something, anything. Audric decided on teaching his class how to make a paper airplane. Of course he didn't know how to make one himself. So every night he made a plane with Tim or myself and acted like he was teaching us. The science fair was coming up too and Audric wanted to do " how to make paper". If you have ever made paper it's a mess and you need to make screens and other stuff that we don't have here. Being the good mom that I am I went to the library to look for books on how to make paper. While there I found a book on different paper airplanes and thought Audric would like it. Then I found a section on science fair projects. Looking through them I found one on testing the difference between two different flying toys, freebie and something else. Then I got a great idea. Audric is already making paper airplanes why not use them for his science project. So we came up with "Paper Flight". Audric did a great job with all the test flights and learning about how airplanes fly and what can effect them. Plus if he really is going to fly and make planes when he is older, like he says he is, then this is a great start. In class he did a wonderful job teaching his classmates how to make a paper airplane. He says he had to help most of the kids fold the paper. For his class science project they did volcanoes. Not my idea of a very creative project (I know, I'm a science fair snob, what can I say, I always won 1st place) but it looked like they had a lot of fun doing it. All the kids had to go in front of the judges and talk about their projects and answer questions. Everyone that did a project got participation ribbons. Audric's was huge because he did one by himself. When I came to pick him up at school all the kids were telling me he got 1st place. I was so happy that he felt so proud of his ribbon that I was holding back tears. He worked so hard and deserved to feel good about it.