Are You a Thrifty Chick?

Layered, beaded necklace - super cool. Less than $7.

Every Saturday we went shopping. Macy’s - then Bamberger’s. Lunch at the counter with it’s diner-style stools that spun. Milkshakes made in metal tumblers that attached to a larger contraption and tasted so fabulously of vanilla I can still feel the joy. Gram got onion soup - blech (at the time). Love it now. It reminds me of the Bamberger’s lunch counter nestled in the housewares section on the third floor of a defunct consumer mecca - the department store. And new clothes. I always had new clothes. I never left without something. Earrings. Shoes. Perfume. Outfits galore. We were lucky. Sort of.

These days taught me nothing of thrift or financial responsibility. I learned that on my own through the years.

It took a while to wrap my head around the fact that this was excessive and a recipe for financial strife. It was a comfort. It was every Saturday with Grammy. It wasn’t just shopping.

It still gives me joy. But so does a healthier relationship with savings and investments over a bountiful new-only wardrobe.

She was a dressmaker years ago. Grammy. Made fantastic frocks for ladies who lunched and brides-to-be. Quality was what she taught me. The feel of a fabric and the construction of a garment. I still consider these things before I buy.

I shop at thrift stores now. With an eye for quality and quirk (I like odd items) and a nod to my financial growth in the form of a budget that limits these excursions to mostly need. But sometimes, I just go for fun. And to think about Saturdays at the Bamberger’s lunch counter. And a time when she called me Jenny. And that was who I was.