Let's go to the mall!

Last night I was feeling restless and having a hard time resisting the urge to shop online so I decided to head to the mall and use a Christmas gift card. I usually tend to avoid the mall as it is a prime place to run into students. Last night I only saw five students. The first looked shocked to see me outside school. Sometimes students have a hard time believing that teachers do have a life. The next two ignored me. One run up to me and gave me a vigorous hand waving. And the last one I managed to avoid by quickly ducking into a store.

Our first stop was Second Cup when I used a 2 for 1 coupon to get a treat for me and DH. I had a Skinny Vanilla Bean Latte (yum!) and he tried some sort of butterscotch flavoured latte. We then headed to Walmart to spend my gift card. I usually never shop there so I wanted to make sure to spend every cent to avoid another trip.

We hit up the electromics department first where I found two great car cds: Billy Joel and Michael Jackson's Greatest Hits. We swung by the accessories department as I am on the hunt to find a cheaper equivalent of J Crew's Pearl Cluster Necklace ($125.00 item 14503). No luck at Walmart. To finish off my gift card, we picked up a huge package of hangers to help store my growing clothing collection.

Next stop was Cassis. I love this store because of its simple, elegant style and soft fabrics. I am always on the look out for pants that fit my chunky legs. Cassis was having a decent sale so I tried on four pairs. None were keepers. They were all skinny pants. That style does not look good on my thighs of thunder but is more suitable for my 14 and 15 year old students. I was disappointed in Cassis. I thought that because they are geared towards a more "mature" woman, they would not fall prey to fashion trend. I left empty handed.

I then hopped across the mall hallway to an accessories store while DH was preoccupied with Lacoste gold shirts. I was looking again for the elusive pearl cluster necklace but did not see anything close. However, I did find some great deals on scarfs. This is the best time of year to buy winter outerwear and I have been watching for a white scarf for next year. I found a great white Burberry rip-off and it was marked down to $3.99. I snatched that up.

We then headed to FeetFirst where I spied some moccasins. Ever since seeing J Crew's Lizzie patent-leather driving mocs (item 95894), I've been craving a pair. Unfortunately J Crew never has them in my size or in a colour I can pull off. FeetFirst has a similar pair called Frocary. I didn't buy them because I still unsure if I will actually like the moccasin look on me. DH tried on loafers, including the Dodinas, which he did like. Again, he didn't purchase the shoes because it is a style different from his usual and he wasn't sure if he would actually wear them.


In the end, it was a mall trip that was easy on my credit card. I only spent about 10 dollars on my scarf and our coffee. Unfortunately, I got in trouble when we got home.


I was still feeling a bit bored and restless and decide to check out RedFlagDeals. I saw that Spring had knocked down some prices and clicked on the link intending to just"window shop". I found very similar styles to what we were looking at FeetFirst but at MUCH lower prices. Spring and FeetFirst are actually the same company, like Old Navy is to Banana Republic, so it makes sense to see similar styles in the two stores. I found a great pair of mocassins for only $8.98. Score! At nine dollars, I don't mind trying a different style of shoe to find out if I can pull it off. I sent the link to DH, figuring if he could find something too, it would make me feel less guilty about about purchasing them in a time when I am suppose to be cutting back. He found a pair of loafers remarkably similar to the FeetFirst shoes but at half the price. We popped these in my shopping bag too. I found a few more pairs of shoes, all less than $20. In the end, I ordered six pairs of shoes and it only cost $100! I found a promotion code for an extra 10% off and got free shipping. The best part is that if we don't like the shoes, we can return them at the Spring store in our nearest mall.

Even though I did do a bit of shopping on my Saturday night, I found great deals. It's almost guilt free spending. Almost. My best deal of the day goes to my $4 scarf which DH thinks is softer than his real Burberry.


Edited to add: After a few days of wearing this scarf, I have discovered that there is a reason that it was only 4 dollars. It sheds lint like there is no tomorrow. Perhaps when DH is in San Fransisco next month, he might visit Burberry and find me the real deal. Hint, hint DH.