If at first you don’t succeed, Frye, Frye again!

Almost everyone has heard of re-gifting, and probably many of us have received a, “re-gifted” gift (I know I have). But have you ever, “me gifted?” You know, the act of buying yourself a gift during the holiday season.

Here’s how I “justify”, me gifting

I’m pretty conservative with my clothing budget for most of the year. By the time Christmas rolls around, I usually have a good idea of the, “basics” that I need and want. So when good quality, classic pieces go on sale I buy myself a few.

I’m certainly no fashion maven, but I do have an appreciation (and love) for long lasting, high quality fashion pieces. The, “classics” so to speak, are less trendy, better made and more stylish over time. When I buy a good quality piece of clothing, or shoe, I can wear it for many seasons (and hopefully many years).

A few weeks ago Eric and I went out to dinner and I wore a pair of boat shoes. Don’t ask me what I was thinking (I clearly wasn’t), because my feet were freezing. When I complained about how cold my feet were, Eric basically told me I was nuts to wear boot shoes with no socks in December and asked why I didn’t just wear riding boots like, “all the other girls?”

“Why? because I don’t have any!” Fortunately, I’ve since solved that, “problem!”
That night found a pair of cute Lucky boots at Macy’s (above). After sales and additional discounts I paid $125. Yes, that’s a lot of money for a pair of boots, but they looked well constructed and had good reviews so I bought them. When they arrived they were cute, but weren’t nearly the quality I was hoping for. They probably would have last a winter or two, but I wasn’t super excited about them (and for $125 I wanted to be at least a little excited).

So I did a little more research about good quality boots and came across the Frye website. That’s where I fell in love (dramatic, right?) with a pair of Frye “Melissa button boots”. They were not only adorable, but well-made and seemingly comfortable (that’s what the reviews said).

The only problem? They were $348! Gulp! $348 for a pair of boots? I think not.

I love a high quality pair of shoes as much as the next gal, but I can’t justify spending $350 on a pair of shoes right now (even if they are adorable). So I checked eBay and the department stores and decided to wait it out to see if I could get a better deal.

Long story short, I bought two pair from Macy’s when they went on sale for $250 (one size 8 and one size 7.5, because I wasn’t sure which would fit better). Then I saw them go on sale at Nordstrom for $200. So I bought two  additional pairs and returned the first set to Macy’s. Then… I found them on sale on Amazon with an additional promo code for $158!! So I bought two more pair and called it quits.

My FedEx guy must have thought I was running an impromptu shoe store out of my apartment. By the time it was all over I’d purchased 9 pair of boots (I ended up purchasing an additional two pair on Amazon to sell on eBay).

I kept 3 pair and paid $246 out of pocket (total cost of the boots, minus the money I made selling the other 2 pair on eBay). Not too shabby for 3 pair of Frye boots (one black, one brown and one black bootie-the exact boots I wrote about wanting in this post over a year ago!) that retail for over $300 a pair and will last me (hopefully) a lifetime.

Did you do any, “me gifting” this year?

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Boxing Day and a Joyous Festivus from my family to yours!

XOXO

KK