I've never been a great thrifter or deal-finder. I guess I lack the patience and commitment to going to the discount and second-hand shops regularly enough to find the hidden gems. Also, I live in Laramie and have fewer shopping options (shoptions?). Also-also, most of the good vintage stuff is a lot smaller than I am, and wearing a size 10 shoe also limits the selection a ton. Still, I aspire to be that great shopper, even though I never will.
So now I'm going to brag about a find, of course. Back over spring break when I was in Seattle, SJ and I set out for a day of discount shopping. We hit the Rack, TJ Maxx, Ross, and Marshalls. As usual, I didn't have too much luck finding what I was looking for (dresses) and thought the day would be a bust. At Marshalls, I happened to try on a pair of kind of weird sandals I'd seen at a department store for $125. I wasn't even sure if I liked them or not, but something about them made happy and I decided to buy them for the $30 asking price.
Of course, they sat around for a few months and I thought several times about wearing them with bright tights while the weather was cold, but just never did. Every time I spied them in my closet, I sighed and thought I'd wasted money. But now that it's warmed up and I'm all pedicured and wanting to wear sandals, I keep wearing them, and now I love them. Every time I wear them I get compliments, so at least some people in this town have the same bad taste as I do. I just looked online to see how much they're selling for, and the cheapest I can find them in this color in a store is $75. Win-win-win.