I don’t think it takes a genius to figure out that we are in the middle of a serious recession.  All you have to do is fill up your gas tank or walk out of a grocery store to notice that you are getting less and less for your dollar.  Unless everyone wants to get a second job (or three) to make ends meet, we are going to have to find ways to cut corners to continue to live comfortably. We might even find that there are a good many things that we can live without.  However, women, being the prissy creatures that we are, crave certain things from time to time that are not really necessities.  For instance, we would get tired of lugging that same old purse around from season to season.  It might be a perfectly good purse, but still we just want something new to celebrate the season.  At least I do, and I went shopping yesterday for such an item.

I was given a gift certificate by the company that I work for on Employee Appreciation Day. It was a $15.00 gift certificate to a rather high dollar store.  I left home to go shopping for a new purse. My first stop was at Walmart because I needed to pick up a few items for a vegetable garden that I have in the making. While I was in the store, I decided to check out the purses. Even though my gift certificate was completely worthless there, I still wanted to see what they offered.  I think the most expensive purse there was barely 20 dollars. I finished up my shopping at Walmart and then headed on over to the “High Dollar” store to see if any of their purses might be on sale that I could apply my gift certificate toward.

The first thing I noticed was that MANY of their purses looked just like Walmart purses, with the exception that there was a name brand label attached to them somewhere. The name brand label obviously increased their cost CONSIDERABLY.  The Walmart “look a like” purse ran about 15 dollars. The name brand purse was anywhere from 45 dollars to 80 dollars.  What a huge difference!  I was astounded.

Eventually, I stumbled across a purse that I really admired. It was marked down from its original cost of 45 dollars to 16 dollars.  I applied my 15 dollar gift certificate to the marked down price, and left the high dollar store with a purse that cost me only $1.43  I was elated, and left feeling almost as if I had robbed the place.

I think “High Dollar” stores are great to stroll through to get an idea of what’s fashionable this season, before running off to Walmart, or any other type of bargain store, and finding it’s look alike, and making your purchase.  It’s the little things that will help to heal the battle scars on our budgets.

Next, in an upcoming post, I will mention some fantastic (and healthy) recipes to stretch your food dollars.

Until then, I remain frugally yours….

Granny (aka Athena)