Grey Jeans for Less

I usually don't aimlessly go to the local mall, but on a night when the Eagles are playing an evening game and traffic is impossible, it's a great way to kill time before heading home from work.

Now, I love to shop, but ironically, I do not like to shop without a purpose, mainly because it has the potential to really throw off my budget. To help keep myself on track, I only let myself go to H&M and Forever 21 (I can kill a lot of time in both). H&M has some killer fall options - I am a big fan of mixing tough basics with softer pieces, and they have a nice mix of both available, but I needed none of it. On to Forever!

My weakness at Forever 21 is their denim. For those of you who don't know me, I used to be a designer denim snob. Major. $300 for Diesel jeans? No problem. My pug is named Diesel. When my entire life changed four years ago, I bought one last pair of jeans as a farewell to designer denim and vowed to not buy them again for a very long time. I was thrilled to find that Forever 21 makes jeans with an amazing fit. They literally work on every body type and last forever. They truly are the sisterhood of the traveling pants. Slowly, I have turned even my most cynical friends from various financial backgrounds into Forever 21 denim devotees. Given my praise for Forever denim, you can imagine how excited I was to see their jeans were on sale for $7.80. I do not need jeans. But the sale included grey jeans - a color I do not have, but have been lusting for. 

Hm. What's a girl to do? If you're me and have about 25 jeans in a variety of colors, you sleep on it. Then you wake up at 4 a.m. and look at images of grey jeans on Pinterest. Then you decide you must go to the mall over lunch and that you can't live without grey jeans, and for $7.80, you should have just bought them on day one. Lesson learned and grey jeans purchased! 

Dress Like FLOTUS for Less

Most people agree that Michelle Obama has impeccable style. Not only is she flawlessly put together and appropriately dressed for every event, but she often sports emerging designers who then become household names (Jason Wu, for example). Prior to Michelle (excluding Jackie AND no offense to other First Ladies), First Lady Fashion, or FLF, was yawn-worthy. Pant suits (who cares if it is Armani if it looks like Alfred Dunner), boring and ill-fitting shift dresses and helmet head were synonymous with FLF prior to MO. Yikes! Thankfully, our eyes have been saved. Well, in 2009, Michelle Obama wore a gorgeous striped shirtdress by Sophie Theallet to an event. That particular dress retailed for close to $2,000 (she found it online, because she is just like us y'all). A fan of shirtdresses, I've been lusting for it since. The Limited (following the lead of Target, who have had two hugely successful collaborations with Wu), wisely launched their own collab with Theallet. At the heart of the spring 2013 collection? Four striped shirt dresses inspired by the very dress FLOTUS rocked in 2009. Although a fraction of the original $1,925 price, the dress still fell outside of my clothing budget at $118. Since March, I've been waiting for price reductions. In May, I scored the lavender version online for $18 ($100 off) and was pretty proud of myself, even though I really wanted the navy version of the dress.

I had a Sophie Theallet shirtdress. Life was good. Then yesterday, while running errands, I found myself at the mall. While repeating "I will not shop...I will not shop..." over and over in my head, I found myself wandering into The Limited when I saw the 40% off sale signs. By some small miracle, there was one navy blue striped shirtdress, and it was in my size! Even better? It was reduced to $19.99 and was an additional 40% off the lowest price. The girl at the register reminded me that it was a final sale item and couldn't be returned. Who would return this?! I couldn't be happier with my purchase!