Eight wardrobes, $175

Seven people and me having two distinct wardrobes means a lot of clothes.

I had a very good day shopping yesterday..

I was very balanced in my purchases. I thought of my male side, and my family's needs, and "just happened" to supplement my fem wardrobe along the way. I pre-ran the Goodwill Store yesterday and was nose to glass this morning 15 minutes before they opened. (yes I am obsessed)

The reason I was waiting so anxiously? I found a navy all wool genuine Brooks Brothers 3 button blazer, and the tag color meant that by today it would be $1!!!! A $480 jacket is now mine, all mine. I scored 1/2 dozen all silk ties, including a real Gucci, and and just as if "Bob's your uncle" a Nordstrom's tie by Robert Talbot. Gave me a grin. A couple of real nice men's wear trousers including the bottom 1/2 to a men's suit with buttons for braces. I got yet another London Fog wool lined trench, an actual Polo shirt in royal blue, my favorite. I'm thinking of going m-t-f-t-m.

My femme wardrobe increased by an a-line sleeveless dress, a red size 6 gown (Dee hates me for inhaling into it, a brown and white checked golf wrap-around skort, a double-breasted men's cut jacket dress, and a pair of black pointy-toed, low heeled, sling-backs.

Dee came to the first and third store with me and combed the kids jean sections and came up with a dozen pairs for the middle two kids. I combed the size zero-two section for the twelve year old.

I looked high and low for skirts (not the hemlines, the racks). I found Dee a really nice plaid knee length lined wool, a 75% silk and 25% linen melon colored one, a light weight wool one in that trendy cocoa color. On her own she found several additions to her current favorite genre, nice fitted layering shirts. I found a couple of really good quality additions for her.

The 12 year old (who just glued on fake nails tonight) is the easiest to buy for. She has a fun sense of style, and everything cute comes in her size. I found a princessly size 4-6 gown that fit my perfectly and lit up her face when she saw it.
We found her a couple of short jackets that the girls wear with long layering shirts showing below. She has plenty of layering t-shirts so we found fun tops for over.

We did well for the hard to buy for 10 year old girl. Her rules include, no pink, no sparkles, no shorts, lots of pockets, soccer and sarcasm are a big plus. Dee really combed the t-shirt racks and we "splurged" on some 1.99 shirts even though it was dollar day. I think we even went $2.99 for an especially sarcastic saying on a shirt. She was so happy with it that we slipped a purple (her favorite color) Sunday-go-to-meetin dress that is beautiful on.

Dee found a small cheerleader skirt and offered it up to the girls if either wanted to use it as a Halloween costume. (the 12 year old would have glammed it up, the 10 year old would have gone with 'dead cheerleader'). Neither were interested. Dee said she'd add it to the dress-up box.

Right on cue the 8 year-old announced that he looked forward to it. He also liked his dinosaur t-shirts, new jeans, his sarcastic shirt, and some striped polos.

The teenager, sho used to skateboard in my tailored to my size all wool suits, is now too much of a teenager to express outward enthusiasm for anything as pedestrian as clothes. He did seem to like the shirts and pants we got him. I am going on the positive inflection in the grunts issued. He seemed indifferent to the nice double breasted black blazer I got him. On the other hand it was probably close to 100 degrees yesterday. Not the best time to imagine oneself in a coat but ag great time to buy one.

We spent less than $175 and got probably over 150 individual articles of clothing.