Where $170 goes at Value Village

$170???!?!?  My eyes just about popped out of my skull… I believe this is an all-time high, and believe me, it’s a painful one.  Now, my old reliable VV has raised its rates just a bit in the last few years, but they’re still WAY cheaper than what you pay in retail places. 

I took EC with me tonight, and she – happy, happy, joy, joy – happens to have a friend who LOVES Value Village, so, suddenly, what she’s sneered at her mother for a lifetime about is (sort of, but don’t tell the other girls) kind of cool.  Because they have been spending time in the retail stores and hanging out at the malls and they KNOW what you’d pay for the same sweatshirt at Yorkdale (high-end retail) vs Value Village. 

My one complaint is that, probably to save money, they have stopped colour-coordinating all the clothes.  You used to be able to go to, say, the ladies’ shirts section, find the Medium sizes, and they’d all be grouped according to approximate colour – reds, oranges, yellows, grays, etc. Skirts, too.  Men’s clothing, too. Tonight, the colours were all lumped in together, and I guess that’s policy now.  So there’s a bit more searching to be done, but honestly, I can barely complain.

And here’s where the $170 went:

For me:

• 2 t-shirts, for around the house and layering, $2-4 each
• 2 summer skirts, $5-6 each
• 2 long-sleeved summerweight shirts, $6-8 each
• 1 half-slip, because everything I own is apparently see-through in bright sunlight (((modest blush))), $3
• 1 huge comfy-soft hoodie, $10  – Elisheva’s friend was going to buy this and decided not to at the last minut

For Ted:

• 4 short-sleeved dress shirts, 1 white, 3 various colours, $4-12 each
• 1 pair men’s size 10 dress shoes, $7.99 (There was a Kenneth Cole pair in his size, all leather, very nice, for $19.99, but they were actually too crispy and nice for the outdoor use he wants them for – he’s outside a lot, mostly tromping around cemeteries where they get yucky.)

For EC (who – for the record – seems to think it’s mighty creepy that I’m posting this stuff here):

• 4 shirts – mostly short-sleeved, for layering, $6-10 each

For Gavriel Zev:

• 5 pairs of shorts, $1-4 each
• 1 bathing suit (Gap), $3

For Naomi Rivka:

• 1 miscellaneous $1.99 “toy bag” because it included this brand-new Play Doh “bend and build” set – includes little bits of Play-Doh plus some Wikki-Stix type bendies.  Mostly bought this because I hadn’t bought anything for Naomi and I didn’t want her to feel left out.  And it was $2!

For the family/household:

• 1 tablecloth, yellow, polyester, $6.99 (not as horrible as it sounds, and at least one old tablecloth has fallen apart while I’ve held out for a nice used one)
• 8 napkins, matched set, cotton, look brand-new, $4

Now… let me tell you what I would have come home with if I’d taken that same $170 to Yorkdale.  Well, I might have stopped for Yogen Fruz – between me and the girls, that’s $20 right there!  And with the $150 left over, we could have each bought a sweatshirt and turned around to come home.  Seriously, I don’t know what we could have gotten, because I haven’t shopped retail in so long.  I think my last shopping experience was January’s Buffalo trip, and that doesn’t count, because I pretend the money’s fake (which is how I could consider, even for a second, buying this beautiful Coach bag!!!).

In any event, I doubt I would have had so much fun, considering I am NOT a person who considers shopping a form of entertainment.  And tonight, even though it was expensive (relatively speaking), it was definitely fun.