Friday, July 11, 2014

Shopping Haul: Plato's Closet

During my year-of-no-shopping, I was still shopping.  Let me explain.  My rule for the year was that I didn't spend money on shoes, clothes, or accessories.  However, gift cards and gift money were okay to spend. Hand-me-down items and gifted items were happily accepted, too.  You better bet I asked for gift cards and gift money for Christmas, my birthday, Mother's Day, and my anniversary.

It was also during that year that I discovered Plato's Closet.  Sometime in January, my sister-in-law wanted to use her Christmas money to buy some designer jeans at a reasonable price.  One of her friends had told her about Plato's. I went with her one Saturday just as another set of eyes to help her pick out a pair, and we happened to be there on the last day of their $1 clearance sale!  Because it was the last day of a week-long sale, the pickings were kinda slim.  I had already spent the majority of my Christmas money at after-Christmas sales, but was able to pick up 7 pieces for $7!  One of the pieces I bought on that day was the white denim capris I chose for my summer remix challenge.  


I was so happy!  I mean, other than getting clothes for free, $1 a piece was not too shabby.  I marveled at the faithfulness of God.  I really felt like God was provided a way for me to use gift money to still buy clothes that I wanted at a very reasonable price.  He spoils me, I tell ya!

Honestly, since then I almost (I say almost!) cannot bring myself to spend money at retail stores knowing I can shop  at Plato's Closet $1 clearance sale every season!  The same owners just opened a Clothes Mentor in the same shopping center and I'm praying they have similar sales, too!  I follow their store on Instagram and you better believe when they say their $1 clearance is about to start, I am there when the store opens!  In fact, they just started their sale last week on July 3rd.  Here are some of the things I picked up!


As you can see, I went for a lot of patterns!  After my year-of-no-shopping and through wardrobe remix challenges like the one I'm doing right now, I've been able to purge my closet and rebuild it.  I pretty much have all my basic pieces and now I can add a few (or a dozen) trendier pieces.  I don't mind spending $1 on a trendy piece because even if I only wear it once or twice, it was only a dollar!  

Making a list of things you want to add to your wardrobe really helps when shopping. I've gone to huge malls and walked away with nothing because they didn't have any of the items on my list.  At this particular sale, they had mostly shorts, skirts, dresses, and a ton of tops.  I didn't need shorts - I picked up several (brand new) pairs at Old Navy for $1 on Black Friday.  Although I already did some skirt shopping at a couple of thrift stores earlier this year, I couldn't pass up the polka dot pencil skirt.  Dresses are hard for me to find because of my petite frame, but I did find three that fit well.  Even at $1 a piece I still tried everything on and only bought what I knew I would wear.  The "pre-clothing-fast-me" wouldn't have done that.  Since they had so many tops and I knew I didn't need any more knit t-shirt type tops, I decided to focus on nice patterned tops for work and church, but could also be worn on the weekend or for a night out.  I ended up picking up several designs: floral, Aztec, color block, striped, animal print.  All of these tops could go with any of my basic bottoms and a completer piece.

I am pretty much set for going back to school this August, which is technically back to work for me being a teacher!  I can't wait to wear all my "new" clothes!

Do you shop at consignment stores or thrift stores?  What about garage sales?  I will be writing more posts on more of my past and future frugal shopping experiences soon!

2 comments:

  1. Can't wait to see these pieces in outfits!

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  2. You did so well! I usually don't stop into Plato's Closet because so much of their stuff doesn't work size-wise for me, but you inspired me to stop in to ours and see what was left for $1. I was pretty late to the sale, so there was exactly one thing on the rack in my size, but it was a pretty cute pair of cropped olive Gap pants, so thanks for the idea! Love all that you found! I am big into Goodwill and have done so well at garage sales this summer!

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