Zannee’s Blog at BargainsLA.com

After dancing professionally on my poor feet for 25 years I’ve got some serious foot issues. My feet have been beat up, stressed out, abused and tortured. Though I love fashion shoes, what I wear the most is clogs…. Yep you read it right, old fashioned, Clarks clogs from 1999. I keep getting them re-soled and re-polished. And yet I still get sore feet after too much shopping.

I’ve tried a ton of those walking shoes and most are super UGLY old lady shoes! But today, on a shopping errand for my little Diva, I popped into a shoe store and discovered Dr Scholls “Dance” clog things. They’re plastic (I hate plastic shoes) and are soo ugly that they’re really cool. But once you put them on your feet, it’s over, I mean over! Your feet are in foot heaven. They’re light weight, so no stress on your knees or ankles, they’re cushioned to the max and roll beautifully making walking a breeze.

I tried them on with carpenter pants on, so I know they work with wider trousers. Don’t think they’d work with skinny jeans and wearing them with dresses might be pushing it, but after you try them you may not care about looks. The soles on these suckers says it all, “ Feel crazy good”

Priced from $39-$46, I found some for $27 at Dr Scholls website. Wish they came in leather or canvas.

http://www.drschollsshoes.com/

Oops, I did it again

It’s so hard to avoid purchasing when I am researching stores or visiting sample sales.
My constant lack of purchasing when I see so many great deals causes my pent up, emotional shopping needs to get bigger and bigger until I burst and finally have to buy something fabulous … at a great price of course.

This last week has seen me lose a few dollars, but I’ve bagged some neat shoes.

At Nordstrom’s Rack I picked up two pairs of shoes. One pair of Franco Sarto booties at $79 instead of $149. These round toe beauties have a lower heel, just 3”, instead those stylish, impossible to walk in 4”. Then a pair of Via Spiga wedge sandals for $49 instead of $139 caught my eye. It was the savings that got my attention. I didn’t really realize how gorgeous they were until I put them on. After viewing them in the mirror, I couldn’t refuse them.

I thought my shoe carvings were appropriately fed until I went to the new 60 Day Shoe Sale in Encino. I looked closely at dozens of shoes. Loved them all, great prices…but I didn’t need or want them. No problem, that is until I came across a pair of Boutique 58 1940’s inspired rounded toe pumps at $55…50% off of the original $110.

OMG… how I dug these shoes. I have always loved 1940’s pumps. But these had a slight twist to them making them hip, trendy and classic all at the same time.

So I bought them.

Guilt over whelmed me. I had all the shoes I needed and then some. Then I got home and put them on again. These perfect shoes at a great price looked great. The guilt wasn’t  warranted. (Note from webdude….”yes it was”)

When you’re holiday shopping sometimes planning your purchases is the best bet… especially if you tend to buy things for yourself.

I have a great Marshall’s and TJ Maxx near me and I pop in monthly to rove for bargain gifts. On one foray, three weeks ago I found these cool shirts by Max Studio for $29. They fit me beautifully and looked great, but I only I got one since it wasn’t a planned purchase. I didn’t find any gifts that thrilled.

This week I popped in again on the hunt for goodies for the family and I found more of those little Max Studio gems on sale for $22 instead of the $29 I originally paid. So, I got one more and I also found my favorite English tea at 50% less and another cool tee for just $5.  Again no gifts were purchased.

Two visits and I personally scored 4 great buys, but my gift list has remained the same.

I gave the Christmas shopping another try at the LF Warehouse Sale. This time I stuck to my guns and spent the first hour snatching up stellar buys for my persnickety tween. As I sorted through the $5 hats, $6 XS tees, $12 sweats and $8 fun skirts I found a bunch of items she should adore. I even tried talking another shopper out of the last remaining tote bag for my fashion forward daughter.

It was only after I had scored goodies for her that I looked around for myself. I ended up with a great pair of Jeffery Campbell booties for $10 and a nice cocktail dress for $15.

It’s hard not buying for yourself while Christmas shopping. Still, I’ll keep trying till I get it right.