b is for bargain hunter...
for as long as i can remember growing up, my mum used to make my clothes. probably not necessarily as a money-saving plan, mostly because she is one crafty woman, and used to make pretty cool stuff. i particularly remember one homemade outfit that consisted of 3 different items all made out of the same fabric. as requested, by me. mother dear simply did as she was asked.
once i'd grown out of homemade clothes, mother started to buy my clothes from local discount department stores like big w and target. whenever i asked for a name brand version of something, i would always get the home brand version. i never really understood why i couldn't have the real thing. i do remember one birthday i specifically wanted an adidas tri-stripe jumper like all my friends. to make sure she bought the right one, i insisted on going with her to buy it. following my mum into the shop, she went straight for the sale rack. after questioning her why i couldn't have one from the regular rack, it was explained to me that things on sale are just as good as the ones on the regular rack, but you can get more value for your money.
how? by buying more for same amount!
this was a totally foreign idea to me until i started earning my own money. when i was making $20 a week in my afterschool job, and saving what i could, i soon realized what my friends didn't; they might be buying name brand jackets and shoes, but i was buying outfits. i was mixing and matching my clothes and accessories all picked up from cheap boutiques and department stores. my mum was onto something!
this way of thinking was only confirmed further when working in retail, and we were forever marking stuff down; 30, 40, 60% off at a time. our staff discount was always around 50% so, if i could get clothes that cheap with a staff discount, why would i ever buy anything full price again?! this was around the same time i discovered op-shopping and ebay as well. it seemed my shopping destiny had been written in the stars!
since then, i have had some very clear shopping mantras: 'if it's not on sale, it's not worth buying', and, 'it's only a bargain if you really need it'. i give myself a weekly shopping allowance, and my friends (both real and via instagram) are always at me about how cheap i get my stuff and always wearing something new. i'd like to be that girl that never wears something more than once, but at the moment, it's more like my outfits are in rotation - with other bits always being introduced.
so there you go. don'tcha feel like you know me sooooo much better now? no? oh. you may leave now. thank you for reading. *waves*
*a-z of me is a weekly series created because i thought it might be a good way for you to get to know me a little bit better.. outside of the general nonsense and backwards mirror pictures anyway.. to follow the rest of the series, click here.
