Outlet Malls

Yesterday I dragged my husband to a nearby outlet mall to do his every other year shopping. He hates shopping for clothes, so he rarely does it. Often times he really does look like a hobo. He will not be offended by that remark because I often tell him that. Don't get me wrong, he dresses nicely for work, but I am the one who shops for him during the year for work clothes. But his casual, weekend wear leaves much to be desired, so we needed to buy clothes yesterday.

I am often skeptical about outlet malls. I find that often times you really do get what you pay for, crap! My daughter has come home with many shirts that are sewn wrong or have a serious defect that she did not notice, leaving the cheap clothing unwearable. But, we decided to give it a try yesterday, and found we were very happy. All the stores we shopped had an additional 50-70% off for New Years. My husband and daughter both needed jeans and shirts, we got them oodles of clothes for a fraction of what we have paid at the mall. We also decided to go to the Columbia Outlet and buy new winter coats for next year for the kids. $120.00 coats were purchased for $40.00 each. I bought the hats and gloves to go with them and hung them in the closets, not to be touched until next winter. I feel so organized right now, knowing that an expensive but necessary purchase for next year has already been taken care of.

We also went to the Corning Ware/Revere Ware store for some kitchen necessities. We like to cook, but we find we are missing some required kitchen tools. My husband enjoys baking bread, he needs big bowls for the dough. The sale was buy 2 get 1 free on many of the items. My husband also found a needed drill that was normally $235, he found it for $80.

In the end, we did spend more money than we are used to spending at one time. But, we paid cash for all of it and saved so much on things we needed. I felt very frugal yesterday.

I guess the moral to the story, I will not be an Outlet mall snob anymore. Next on my list, I am going to start checking out some of the local thrift stores. My sisters in law all swear by them, guess it is time for me to try them out.