How I made money while shopping today

I went shopping Saturday night to look for something to wear for a wedding we are going to this weekend. I tried on a dress at A.nn T.aylor that I really liked; the only problem was that the store didn't have my size. Here's the dress:

So they called around for me and found one that was the correct size at another mall -I couldn't get over there that night, so I ended up buying one in a different size so that I got the sale price (the 25% off dress sale ended that night and I wanted the discount!), and planned to head out to the other mall today to exchange the dresses.

J. and I left for the mall right around the time he was due for a nap (bad planning on my part) and went straight to the store. When I tried on the dress, I realized it was much shorter than I was used to wearing. Everything this season is really short! The 16-year-old teeney-bopper working the dressing room tried to convince me that it looked great and was "totally in style", but it wasn't working for me. It just made me look like a 30-year-old who wanted to look like a teeney-bopper.

During all this, J. starts screaming in his stroller, so I let him out to crawl around the dressing room. He LOVED the three-way mirror. I wish I'd had my camera - he was standing up, trying to talk to himself in all the mirrors, and doing a little happy dance the whole time.

Since I wasn't leaving without something to wear, J. and I went to find something else. I found this skirt:

Please note the slightly longer length on the skirt. Much more flattering to my thighs, which still have not lost the baby weight (can I call it baby weight if it's on my thighs?)

After trying on about 35 shirts (each in two sizes, since my post-bf boobs have still not decided what size they want to be), I settled on this top:

The best news? When I went to pay, BOTH the skirt and the top were marked down! So I had paid about $125 for the dress, and ended up paying only $65 for both the skirt and top! So I came out ahead by $60 - I love it when I go shopping, still end up with what I want, and go home with more money than I started.

Oh, and to wrap up J.'s activities during shopping, he ended up falling asleep on the floor of the dressing room, with the entire pile of shirts I tried on as a pillow. I really have to start carrying my camera around.