Eek.

I went shopping today. I spent more money than I have ever spent in one day. I am still in shock.

Let me explain. This week was "bonus week" at work, and I found myself with a (really) nice chunk of change. I'm going to be able to pay my parents back the rest of the money I owe them (woo!!!), put a nice bit in my savings account (which has been totally neglected while I pay my parents back), and hopefully save for my college roommate's wedding (to another college friend of mine) - which involves a long weekend in Phoenix.

And I decided to spend the "remainder" on new clothes (and maybe a trip to NY to see Passing Strange, but we'll see about that). However, I decided to buy (some of) the new clothes this weekend. Yes, spending before saving. Not my style. And to be honest, I'm a little scared.

The sticker shock was something I could have never imagined from the many hours of TiVo'd What Not To Wear I've been watching lately. Now, I didn't spend $5,000, but it was also my own money, and not money from the good people at TLC. And I did spend more than I've ever spent in my life on clothing.

BUT

It is quality stuff. And I got some good staples that will *hopefully* last me longer than the $20 pants I usually buy at Target (not that I'm knocking Target. I love that place).

Also, I am going to keep the tags on everything for at least a week to make sure I really love it. If I'm going to spend more than $25 on a pair of dress pants, I want to make sure I won't regret it in a week. Same goes for, erm, a $70 sweater. Or a $80 pair of jeans (WHAT!?!?!?).

So yes. I have been having trouble getting used to the fact that I am inching (or diving, as the case was today) my way into the world of "grown up clothes." I even got a pair of dress pants altered -- speaking of which, what happens if you buy a pair of pants and the store has them altered for you, and you go to pick them up and decide you don't like them anymore? Can you return it? Or is it a "you bought it and had it altered, so sorry" situation? Has anyone out there experienced this? Not that I'm anticipating this happening...it's just, you know, scary to spend somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 on a (really nice) pair of pants without KNOWING you could return them (and no, I didn't think to ask the store until after I had paid and was on the way home).

Anyway. I haven't been blogging in a while, because the last week was rather hectic at work, but hopefully this rather long post makes up for it (I'm lookin' at you, Shonelle! Just kidding). There are a lot of parenthesis in this blog entry. But that's ok. I say so.


PS - Don't worry, I still have enough money leftover to pay back my parents and put a good amount in savings. Especially if I do end up returning a few things. But even if I don't...I'm still in decent shape with the allocation of bonus money. That is, I will still feel good about the amount of money I've spent in relation to the amount I've saved. Without too much attempted justification. :-) More updates when I've crunched the final numbers.