Fancy Pants

I love getting dressed up. Costume parties, formal events, or just getting ready for a date night all make me excited and cause me to dedicate a few minutes to composing an ensemble. So why in the world did I end up spending a whole bunch of money I didn't need to for a formal event a few weekends ago??? In a rush to find the "perfect" outfit, I purchased a number of items I really didn't need. Sound familiar?? Yeah, I thought so. Who hasn't dashed out for the final finishing touches to an outfit the day of an event, only to bring their new items home and realize they already had something pretty similar in their closet?

So here is what I am going to do next time:

First, I am going to mine the closets of my friends and family (you know who you are, so watch out!!!). Right after I had purchased my new dress, I went over to my sister's house. My sister has about 10 dresses that I could have worn (for FREE) and had just as much fun in.

Second, I am going to mine closets for shoes and handbags. The day of the fun event, I felt I NEEDED to purchase a clutch bag to go with my new dress. Yes, I was at the necessity stage in my frenzied retail hunt. I finally found somehting that I thought I had to have, only to bring it home and realize that the clutch bags I already had actually would have worked better. UGH. Out of pride, I still used the new bag, so if anyone needs to borrow a white clutch, you know who to call. Shoes and bags are a LOT easier to borrow than dresses. And, it seems pretty rare that you need a fancy handbag. You want one to look nice, and compliment your entire outfit, but the number of times it is actually used seems like a pretty low number.

Third, I am going to try and give myself a deadline for these events! No more second guessing!!!! Sure, I'm in posession of another dress and new handbag due to my second guessing, but looking back, I would have looked just fine in one of my original options. My last minute panic that I was going to look like a bag lady next to everyone else was just fueled by insecurity -not reality. And a new dress, while a temporary fix to some levels of insecurity, is going to be an expensive way to keep my confidence up!!