I’ve become a much savvier shopper with my new budget. My mom-in-law gave me a Macy’s gift card for my birthday, and I knew exactly what I wanted to use it for. As opposed to my usual M.O. when blowing birthday cash: run around like a headless chicken, scooping up every super-clearance item I can get my grubby paws on, regardless of quality or style or heck, even size. 

I held on to that gift card for weeks, waiting for the Christmas sales to start so I could pounce. I needed a grown-lady wallet, to hold my grown-lady checkbook that I’ve been using in lieu of my debit card for the last several weeks after misplacing yet another debit card and thereby grounding myself from ACH-swiping privileges. It’s turned out to be a great thing, though. I give myself a weekly allowance of cash, use my checkbook for the grocery store and bills, and keep a credit card for emergencies. It’s cut my weekly spending by a lot.

Anywho, back to the wallet. I decided I’d let myself splurge on a quality one for once; something leather and “sophisticated,” as opposed to my usual plastic PVC with studs and/or glitter purchased from an outlet store or The Walmarts (although, we know great things can be found there.) I had $50 to put toward it, and hoped to run into some holiday specials in the accessories department.

Macy’s didn’t disappoint. I found several racks of beautiful wallets on sale for 30-40% off, and settled on this burnt orange leather all-in-one by Gianni Bernini. It’s fancy, with bells and whistles like a notepad, pen, and built-in calculator. Originally $68, on sale for 40% off. That gave me about 10 bucks to spare, so I did a quick sweep through the clearance bins and found this green Nine West clutch for $15. But wait! The clearance bin had a sign, proclaiming an additional 20% off the clearance price! I was right where I wanted to be, and headed to the checkout.

When I got there, a friendly lady rang up my purchases, while another friendly lady in line behind me commented on how much she loved the color of my picks. I was feeling good. My total with tax ended up around $56. Cool, I could fork up the additional $6 and take it out of my $100 for the month, no bigs. But wait! Friendly lady #1 had a coupon, and when she scanned it, it took another 25% off my entire purchase! Bringing my total to $42, and leaving 7 dollars and change on my gift card.

I’m getting pretty durn good at this budget shopping thing.