Adventures of the Miserly

About a month before school started I began shopping for school stuff for Grace. She met, and fell in love with a very glittery, sequiny, horrifyingly girly pair of shoes at the Rack. I couldn't see it matching her uniform. Well, that, and they were a little more than I wanted to spend. ($30.00) I promised her we would keep looking, and we moved along.

A few weeks later, I came across the same pair at Nordstrom, priced at a very reasonable $85.00.

Anyway, we checked everywhere. I've learned that where kids are concerned, retailers are very opportunistic. "School's starting, let's have sales on the supplies since kids don't want any of that stuff, but let's keep the glittery, sequiny, hot pink and blue shoes at their regular price, and even better, we'll only stock 3 pair in each size. That way parents will HAVE to buy what's left, and they HAVE to pay full price." Capitalism. Psshhh.

We finally came to a compromise. I found some shoes on the clearance rack at Target for $3.74. They were white, so I told her I would bedazzle them myself. Take that you fashion dictating retailers. I super glued little crystals all over her shoes. They were sparkly. They matched her uniform. I only spend about $5 bucks.

Two weeks later, most of the rhinestones were gone. Left in their place was little holes in the cheap fake leather. It looked like the shoes had had the measles.

The lesson here is two-fold.

1. Sometimes it pays to do your research. If I would have spent a little time Googling rhinestone crafting instead of cursing Sketchers, I might have saved myself a waste of time and money. It kind of reminds me of the 35 yards of muslin we have in our storage room. I needed a black photography backdrop, but couldn't bring myself to fork over the money for it. If I had looked it up, I would have known that you really can't dye anything black. It turned purple, and I ended up buying the black backdrop anyway, wasting about $50. Not to mention about 5 hours of my life.

2. Maybe I should just have gotten the glittery shoes. I mean really, would carting my 3 children in and out of the car to 3 other stores in the 110 degree heat to save $10.00 really have been that rewarding?

Lesson learned.

Saturday I took her to the mall. The picture up top is what she found. She was so proud of them, she showed them to her aunts, her grandma and grandpa and her dad.
They sparkle, just like she does. Maybe next time, I'll just save myself the headache and just buy 'em.