Am I the Person Who....?

Reading other frugal blogs and related materials, posts and so on, sometimes my neurons fire off with ideas...

There was a referral (I think) on (I think) WISE BREAD which talked about "I am not the person who..."  Meaning that you are not the person who, for example, buys their clothes in thrift shops, or shops at dollar stores or rummage sales, etc.  There is a big psychological barrier there for some people.  My hubby was freaked by the 99 Cent Store when we first went there - He felt demoted in social status and I, on the other hand, just felt SMART and thrifty!  Why spent $4-7 on something you can get for 99 cents?  Isn't that logical? (He has gotten used to it over time.)

I always think of Woody Allen's comment that in his family the greatest sin was to buy retail! I grew up in that sort of post-Depression environment myself - so looking for bargains has never been odd to me.  It always made sense to save on some things - and then have money to spend elsewhere.

This became especially true during my penniless artistic existence. Here I NEEDED a wardrobe - but how was I to PAY for it?  So I got into recycled clothing - here in L.A. there is LOTS of beautiful stuff to be had in that condition.  As I always say, my designer clothing all came from thrift shops!

But there is the problem of are "you the person who"....I mean, I live in Hollywood of all places.  I always dress up to the nines when going public, as my bank balance is no one's business - and the level of your success in the biz can sometimes be judged by how well you are turned out.  Ugh.

But I learned over the years just to be clever, to crow to myself when I got a great deal - like a Bill Blass cocktail dress with the Saks tag still on it bpught for a song - But I did all this consciously.  I think that's the key here.

You have to make DECISIONS about how to spend your resources - If you don't have any money - well, you have to go on a money diet..

Now more and more I find that what with being GREEN finally a positive value that among the young set, anyway - recycling, etc. is a VIRTUE.  And vintage has become fashionable.  Who knows where you scored it, anyway? So one can say, "Oh, it's vintage" and you are cool.  Funny how those things work.

There was also the woman onTV who was being interviewed after losing her apartment in one of the recent So Cal fires.  They were insured, but she said, almost with a sneer, that she hoped that they would be able to get good things replaced and "Not have to have 99 Cent Store plates."  I would think that after a fire, any plate in a storm would do.  I have perfectly nice 99 Cent Store dishes and my Spode plates came from a thrift shop in Pasadena. 

Guess what? You can't TELL.  If you have good enough taste, you can find great deals all over the place.  I have fashion friends who practically lived at dollar stores when setting up their photo shoots.

The real crux of the matter is somehow centering yourself on something other than where you have bought your possessions.  I know that that's what the retailers count on - that buying something at, say, Saks, will make you feel more valued even though you paid through the nose for it. 

I once knew a woman who bought such a dress at Saks, when she could have easily gone down to the L.A. garment district for virtually the SAME item - because she had to have that TAG.  And she couldn't afford it, either.  I have even  known high school girls who were  so status conscious that they put better labels onto their generic clothes!  That's crazy.

The funny thing is that my thrift shop clothes often DO have labels - my jeans are more Bill Blass ( I did like his style) and there is a perverse pleasure in that - because I didn't pay retail!

I can buy BETTER quality clothing in thrift shops that I could afford retail.  And I don't have a phobia about it - the new stuff has been pushed around from whereever it was made off-shore - so it's not that pristine, anyway. (Not to mention tried on by other consumers.)

So that's the sort of person I am - Clever and Thrifty - and if you turn down your nose at that, well we have gotten to know who you are quite quickly - I wouldn't have that woman with the plate issue over to my house. 

Interesting thing about this downturn is to watch those sort of folks deal with it on an emotional basis - What will happen to shopping junkies if all their cards and accounts are maxed out? 

But you and I are "the sort of people who" aren't into that.  Isn't that a blessing?

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Am I the Person who....?

Identity shouldn't come from shopping at the mall...

Your post reminded me of some advice my Mom used to always tell me when I was growing up...She would say to go to the most expensive store in town and find what you like, the style, color,pattern and so forth and then she said to go to the least expensive store in town and start there. If you don't find something similar then move up to the next least expensive store and look there. You can usually find something similar to what you like in your price range that will satisfy what you like. Sometimes you will have to keep looking and moving up the price scale and occasionally I would end up paying the larger price but most of the time it worked for me. I know when I was a teenager I kept asking my Mom to buy me a name brand pocketbook for my birthday. She told me it would be foolish to spend so much money on a pocketbook because of the label and then have no money to put in it. Instead she showed me a really pretty leather pocketbook of fine workmanship for less than half the price. She asked me if I still wanted the expensive purse and I said I did not. She bought me the purse and a nice leather wallet to put in it and still could give me some cash to put in it. It was a valuable lesson I never forgot.

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