I am a 33 year old accountant, I am not a CPA or an account at some big successful company. I am just a staff accountant at a mid size company enjoying average success (the company not me). That is the last time you will ever hear mention of my job. You see, I do not love accounting and I am certainly not passionate about it. I am passionate about style and fashion which both require a passion for shopping.
For many of us who love fashion, shopping has changed. We have always looked for the best deals but now we search desperately and agonize over every purchase about where that money could have gone. Still we shop, even if we try not to there comes a point where you have just been seen in that outfit too many times and you long to show up in something that they haven't seen you in before. Maybe, this is not you, maybe you can refrain from shopping for months or even years. I can not and I know that there are others (many others) out there who, like me, who love to shop. Contrary to popular belief it is not all about the act of shopping, I love to stand before the mirror in a new outfit that I have carefully put together.
Of course, along with the shift in the economy most of us have had to adjust our spending habits. Instead of just going to the department store that we know will have the item we are looking for we hit the discount stores first to see if they have it. Very often they do, it use to be that discount stores were at least a season behind usually six months to a year. now you can often find the same things at the discount stores as you do at department stores. That is not to say that department stores should be overlooked, I find great deals at department stores all the time. I spent an afternoon at Macy's this weekend and took home several outfits four new outfits for under $100 TOTAL! Knowing where to look at the department stores helps. They don't put out arrows leading the way to the 70% off rack, you have to know where to look for them and then have the patience to sort through them, but it pays off. Department vs. Discount, that could be a great future blog. I would love to hear what you think and of course about the great deals that you find.