Useless Poll

[lunabee34]

Okay, here's the thing.

I'm a thrifty gal. I grew up in the one of the cheapest families known to man and while I don't think I've carried that tendency as far as some of my relatives, I know how to pinch a penny. I cut my dryer sheets in half because those fragrance free ones that Josh and Emma have to use are expensive and half works just as well as a full sheet. I don't waste and I look for sales and I almost never shop for myself. I usually wait until it's a necessity, like I've grown so fat I have no pants that will fit me or all my underwear is full of holes. We will not speculate on the reasons for that. *g*

However, I'm not stingy. I like to spend money on experiences--travel, food, drink, comfort (I run the AC higher than I should in the summer because I'm not sweating in my own house). I know that sometimes you just can't be cheap because whatever you're buying is worth the money.

But this? This crosses the line. I love my fashion mags, but I am continually flabbergasted at what many of the items featured cost. I get expensives dresses and coats and jewelry, but the 200$ T-shirt is a thing I will never understand. So, poll!

[Poll #1314337]

Comments

[lwbush.livejournal.com]

In my defense, the single item of clothing I spent around $100 on? Was my wedding dress.

[trobadora]

Single article of clothing - does a winter coat count? These things aren't cheap.

[ana-grrl.livejournal.com]

I have to admit that I'm willing to pay for quality (especially if it's fair trade/sustainable livelihood quality), and I don't mind budgeting for that. But I refuse to pay for a name (especially because many of those names produce their stuff in terrible factory conditions).

Incidentally, let me recommend the dryer ball (http://shop.therainforestsite.com/store/item.do?itemId=34684&siteId=221&origin=ShopGreen_GOOGLE_ADGROUP_RS-DryerBalls&gclid=CLi23ci4vJcCFRKAxgodgWGjcA) to you. Last forever, work as dryer sheets, but without 1) all of the chemicals (even there in the fragrance-free ones) 2) all of the waste. I've linked you to the rainforest site, but I bought mine in Zellers (a Canadian store kind of like Target or K-Mart), so they're available in these kinds of shops (and probably hardware stores). Definitely worth the money (and will save you money).

[shannon730.livejournal.com]

I actually do have a pair of $200 jeans...I didn't buy them, my cousin did then lost weight before ever wearing them (we won't even discuss the idiocy of buying jeans that expensive when you're successfully losing weight and plan to continue). They are the most uncomfortable pair I've ever owned and half the time I'm afraid to wear them because I don't want to tear them or get them dirty or you know any of the other things you don't usually worry about when wearing jeans...

[thelastgoodname.livejournal.com]

The "most money on single piece of clothing" is, for me, a little bit of a misnomer; it's really "I've spent more than $500 on specialized sports equipment that I then wear," and when the sport is skiing, everything is mind-blowingly expensive and parts of it (boots, skis, gloves) are really not worth skimping on. Spending $50 for a pair of socks isn't out of the question. (But while you can spend $193 for a nice long underwear top, that's one thing that isn't worth it.) And then I started grad school and haven't skied since. But if I lived nearer a good mountain, I'd spend money so fast my head would spin.

[mofic.livejournal.com]

I have a beaded evening jacket that is the single most expensive article of clothing I've ever bought. It's also the dressiest garment I own. It think it was about $250 and I bought it 10-12 years ago for a wedding. I wore it at all my kids bnai mitzvah, too.

[kaleecat]

can you give thrifty lessons? ;-)

I do well with some thriftiness, not so well with other aspects. Which would be why I no longer have a credit card, even though I need one. (I have one in my name that my parents pay for & is for extreme emergencies--such as paying the stupid school their stupid fees when they used to give you all year to pay them off).

Someone in the comments mentioned the dryer balls. They're blue spiny balls. they are also very loud rattling around the dryer. So you have to balance the banging noise. If you have a Beall's Outlet Store near you (there was one up in Calhoun, GA so I know they're in GA; sometimes called Burke's Outlet) you can usually find them there for 5 bucks. My doctor told me to stop using even the fragrance free sheets. Sure I have static but I don't really miss them.

Congrats on finishing your first term there at MGC.

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

I'm with you, right down to the holey underwear. :) In fact, we just finally hauled ourselves over to Target today so I could get a new comfy shirt for around the house because my old one has huge holes in the elbows. I was down to one because the other was literally coming apart at the seams and I could no longer wear it and had to throw it away. So I got two new shirts today, $7.99 each. They will probably last me several years. Sounds good to me.

I clicked $100 on the poll. We don't have hugely cold winter weather here, but it does merit a warm coat once in a while, and so I have one of those big Adidas coats, windbreaker material on the outside, padded sweatshirt material on the inside. I bought it oh jeez, probably before Bruce moved out here, so maybe 12 years ago? 13? And it's still in excellent shape. It was probably right around $100, maybe slightly more.

(And my wedding dress was about $20 at Mervyn's. My grandmother paid for it.)

[tabaqui]

300 dollar jeans are not superior in any way, shape, or form unless they somehow keep you from messily and horribly killing yourself in front of small children because spending the money somehow makes you feel good.

I'm....boggled. Clothing is clothing and i'd only spend money on a coat or shoes. In fact, my last boots were about eighty bucks and i agonized for literally months. They will *never wear out*.

Before that, about fifteen years ago i bought this gorgeous, imported skirt that was originally almost 100 bucks but had been marked down to something like thirty. I wore it for years.

[havocthecat]

My wedding dress was expensive, but other than that, even my belly dance clothing - the stuff I buy - isn't more than $100 or so. I think I paid $110 for a coat. I make the bulk of it so as not to pay too much.

But street clothes? Ugh, I hate spending too much on clothes.

[phenway.livejournal.com]

Yeah. The expensive wedding gown is me. God, I am SO conflicted about it. I mean, it's an absolutely spectacular garment and I adore it and all, but DAMN it makes me ill to think of how much I paid for it. Yeah, I spent a ridiculous amount of money on my wedding gown. In my defense, though; I had a financing deal with the bridal shop where I paid no interest, so at least i didn't put that much on a credit card.

Still, I really don't want to think about how much I paid for a dress i wore once. Gaaaaahhhh. And naturally I have only boy children so I can't even justify that my daughter can wear it one day. :(

[ariadne83]

I spent $500 on my wedding dress. Aside from that, I've probably spent up to $200 but that was on a seriously awesome winter coat that lasted for years (until I lost it *sigh*)

[jeanieofoz.livejournal.com]

I bought a formal dress for my high school prom equivalent. I think that it cost a bit over a hundred dollars but since it was so long ago... THough some of my wet weather gear has also been over a hundred...

[spikedluv]

Maybe if I tried it on and it gave me Teyla's figure.

Hahaha! Yes, I'd buy it then! Sort of like a trick with mirrors and shit. *g*

I almost never shop for myself. I usually wait until it's a necessity, like I've grown so fat I have no pants that will fit me or all my underwear is full of holes.

That is so me! But I think it's more becuase I'm lazy (and fat, and really, shopping for us fat gals is not the same fun experience as shopping for skinny chicks) than thrifty. *g*

[yin-again.livejournal.com]

I once spent $75 on a pair of boots. That's it. I'd say wedding dress/really nice winter coat/something extravagant, but I've never purchased those things for myself. I have spender's guilt. Even when I was deep into retail therapy I never bought expensive things...just lots of inexpensive things - and really, really awesome deals. I had discount retail therapy.

Now that I'm a teacher, a major splurge is fresh produce and a six-pack of ramen.