My Love and Hate Relationship With Clothes

I love to shop. LOVE. Hear me? Love! All shopping - clothes, shoes, make up, skin products, online, in-store, groceries... it just doesn't matter. I really love shopping! There are two things that have come between my love of shopping and me - a toddler and lack of funds. I want to say I don't know which is worse, but I do... the toddler. At least with lack of funds, if I have the appropriate time, I can search for great deals.

But that's not what I'm going to talk about today. I just wanted to tell you that I love shopping. I love it so much that I studied business to become a Buyer! So that I could shop for a living! Sick, isn't it? I wanted to be some awesome fashion buyer, but Nordstrom wouldn't return my calls, so I bought for Boeing. (yes, past tense, now I stay at home with the toddler).

My family knows that I love shopping and they also know that my full time jobs of mommy/blogger/zumba junkie/coupon diva don't pay anything. So, my husband lovingly got me a gift card to Macy's from him, my daugher and my fur babies for Mother's Day. That is very sweet of him... except that lately, I am not a fan of shopping.

It's very sad for me because I once loved it so much. I loved buying work clothes and Ann Taylor was my favorite! Wool pants, tweed jackets.... the list goes on. But now, I choose between stain resistant, comfortable and cheap. I can't seem to concur the whole "mommy on the go" look very well. I feel like it ends up looking like "homeless on the run."

And then there is the whole fit issue I have. I must ask which is worse - saggy butt or muffin top? Because those seem to be my only options these days! Since starting Zumba in October everything is tightening and that is awesome, except my stomach. It is still the land of stretch marks and flab at the intersection of hanging over my pants. And even when it doesn't hang over my pants, I can still see it! Or if I finally have some breathing room, the butt is hanging and then I don't know which is worse - the sight from the front or from the back. 

I would really love to get back to my passion about shopping. It's part of who I am! But without funds and some more weight-loss, it just feels like that's not going to happen. I feel like big girls are at a disadvantage because our clothes don't go on sale for very inexpensive and we are limited to the number of places we can shop. It seems that the fashion industry has us where they want us - paying more to shop less.

How do you do it?

How to achieve the mommy on the go or causal look with a small budget? For a list of my favorite plus sized places to shop see biggirlsdontwearbelts.com.