My Retoroactive Raise and Other Mumblings

I found out yesterday that my raise is retroactive to Dec. 2 not Dec. 12 as I originally thought. Great! Every little bit helps. I will see on the mid-February cheque what my normal take home pay will be with this raise in place.

I bought a pair of shoes from Winners a couple weeks ago that I was not so sure about. I kept them past the 10 day return period so could only get a GC and not my cash back but that is okay as I shop there quite a bit, though not usually for clothes. I exchanged them today for a pair of boots ($39.99), a blouse($19.99), a sweater ($29.99)and two pieces of wall art ($3.99 each on clearance). I still have a little over $100 left on the GC.

I went secondhand store shopping last weekend as I wrote about doing and it just reinforced for me that I do not enjoy it at all. I was looking for Barbie Doll clothes since they are so expensive brand new but neither Value Village nor Goodwill had any. Both stores had many naked Barbie Dolls, but no clothes. While there, I looked through the women's tops but found nothing but stained or very out dated clothing. I would much rather shop at new clothing stores that have sales.

Secondhand Shopping

I've been reading so much on various blogs and on a forum I frequent about the great deals people find at Goodwill and other thrift or consignment stores.

My idea of enjoyable shopping is not having to dig though racks upon racks of clothing to see what might be worthwhile. I don't even like doing that at Winners (Canadian arm of TJMaxx) with new merchandise (I will look at Winners for shoes and bags). The few times I have looked at Goodwill or Value Village I just have not found anything I would wear and found it to be a total waste of time. Given the number of hours I put in between my two jobs (I'm at my part-time job right now) my free time is very precious to me.

I have found the odd thing at consignment stores but, again, it is the having to dig through everything that I really dislike.

I'd love to be able to find a great dress or skirt for $3, $5 or $8 but that just never happens. Maybe if I looked at least once per week I would find something but I just don't have that kind of time.

I have this weekend off from my part-time job and live 5 minutes from both Value Village and Goodwill. Since last weekend I cleaned out my drawers and have some items to donate, I am resolved to go and give it another chance in both stores to see if I can find anything worthwhile. It would be great to be pleasantly surprised.