Frugal Friday’s Workwear Report: Short-Sleeve Crewneck Cardigan
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Our daily workwear reports suggest one piece of work-appropriate attire in a range of prices.
There have been at least three separate occasions this summer when I have admired something another woman is wearing, and when I ask where she purchased it, she has lowered her voice and whispered, “Walmart.” One of the perks of middle age is that I feel no shame in buying my clothes at the same place I buy my groceries and garden supplies, so I hustled over to my local Wally World to grab this cardigan after seeing it on a friend.
The fabric is soft, the color is vibrant, and the fit is perfect. I’ve washed it in a lingerie bag just to avoid snagging the fabric, but so far it’s held up beautifully. I’m currently wearing it with black trousers and a white tee for an easy business casual look.
The sweater is $17.98 at Walmart and comes in sizes XS-4X.
Sales of note for 7/19:
- Nordstrom – The Anniversary Sale has started! Here's our big roundup of the best workwear, as well as everything we've selected thus far. Don't forget to check to see if their daily beauty deal is a good one for you – e.g., 7/23 Lancome; 7/24 YSL; 7/29 up to 40% off select lip products; 7/31 Bobbi Brown; 8/1 Jo Malone
- Ann Taylor – Semi-annual sale, 60% off sale and 40% off everything — readers love this blouse and I always love the variety of colors/textures for this jacket (it's a great separate)
- Banana Republic – Summer sale up to 60% off sale styles + extra 20% off
- The Fold – Up to 50% off, further markdowns
- J.Crew – 50% off select cashmere
- J.Crew Factory – 60% off clearance
- Lo & Sons – Summer sale, up to 50% off
- Lululemon – Summer sale!
- Me & Em – Sale! Up to 60% off (new lines just added)
- M.M.LaFleur – 25% off jardigans (Try code CORPORETTE15 for 15% off on other items)
- Nordstrom Rack – Clear the rack, extra 25% off clearance! Nice selection of Vince, Veronica Beard, Reiss and Rag & Bone, a ton of affordable work dresses from Calvin Klein, Maggy London, Eliza J, and Donna Morgan
- Talbots – Red Door Sale! Prices start at $15
- Theory – End of season sale is on!
It’s been (gulp) 31 years since I went to college, and my oldest is going this fall. Plot twist, across the country so DH and I will be taking a plane to move her in. Any tips on how to get all the stuff there? Should we rent a car for errands or rely on uber? Would love any suggestions!
In what city is she going to college? (middle of big city, edge of suburb, etc.) That might affect the rental v. uber question.
It’s a big UC in a city, we are staying very close to the school. I am hoping that she’ll have an address at school before we get there so we can just have things shipped directly to her.
I think renting a car vs relying on Uber will depend on the location. If it’s rural, I’d rent; if suburban or urban then Uber might make more sense.
The advice on car vs. rideshare will depend dramatically on where the school is.
As far as The Stuff, the school may have suggestions on how to ship to a local spot for pickup, rather than buying at home and then having to ship it all again.
If there’s a Target reasonably close to the school I would do a Target order and pick up in store.
I would rent a car. There are so many small errands you’ll likely be running and places to go (target, meals for all of you, grocery store, home decor store, etc.). There are lots of good tips online for moving in but if you anticipate building any furniture I might pack a small drill with a hex tool. My dad brought his when I moved in decades ago and literally the entire floor borrowed it at one point or another.
My youngest is going to school a 14 hour drive away from us this fall and we were originally planning to rent a car and drive, but we weren’t looking forward to it! However, at orientation last month, we learned that the school has a couple of approved vendors that you can ship to ahead of time and they will even put the stuff in the dorm room for you. The prices seem pretty reasonable. We’ve changed our plans and will be using one of the services and flying out to move her in. So you might check and see if the school has arrangements with any of those services. Storage Scholars and Storage Squad are two of them. As a bonus, the same vendors also offer summer storage services and they will pick up from the dorm and deliver to the new living location the next fall, so now I don’t have to figure that out either!
I was so lucky that I went to school in my time zone and could take Amtrak back and forth. And store stuff over the summer. Looking back, I doubt my two working parents with less flexible jobs could have handled more than a spartan move-in and school breaks.
IDK how people do it. And now I’m afraid that this is one aspect of parenting I will be very bad at or will artificially limit what my kids do based on how inconvenient it will be for me (with a horribly inflexible work schedule).
Money and to some extent wastefulness. They rent furnished apartments once out of the dorms, or you reimburse roommates’ parents for your kid’s share of stuff purchased for the place. When the kids part ways, the shared stuff usually ends up split and moved to some combination of the next apartment, and if no takers, lots of furniture or cheap TVs ends up on the curb.
There’s a reason it’s called Penn Christmas at May move-out – a trash picker’s DREAM.
Agree. Parents were not as involved with Gen X college and the dorms were drab with second hand fridges. Now the amount of dorm decor out there is astonishing. And, yes, we helped our son and bought the stuff. But it is not required.
No doubt. But moving a kid into a summer program on a college campus for a month this summer was eye opening. Sheets and sheets. Towels. Shower stuff. Laundry stuff. Hangers. Trash can. Snacks. Clothes. Desk set-up. The right power strip. Changing cables. Suite bath so all that stuff. So many forms. Meds. Period supplies. I am having pre-trauma just thinking through it all.
I’m an ‘elder millenial’ and dorm decor was just starting to be a thing in my day. Most of us had coordinated bedding sets, storage pieces (stacking slide out bins and things), and some of the ‘extras’ – pretty curtains/white boards/cork boards for photos, etc. The school ‘poster sale’ was also a beloved opening weekend tradition. My younger sibling practically cleared out the local Pier-1 for a college apartment – this was the height of the papasan chair craze. The southern SEC dorm design I see now is a whole other beast.
I could also take Amtrak back and forth but my parents usually came to move me in/out in August and May. They also had inflexible jobs. DH on the other hand moved himself after like freshman year
Rent a car. If you uber you can’t throw stuff in the trunk and run multiple errands consecutively.
I need a birthday gift for a dear aunt who is turning 75 this year. I got her a Chinoiserie necklace for a previous milestone birthday that she LOVED so maybe something along those lines again? Style is a combo of artistic and classic Yankee/nautical (nothing with anchors) and she prefers necklaces and earrings to bracelets. Any ideas for me? Budget $200 or so.
Something jade? Gumps has a lovely necklace with a barrel bead of carved jade that is on my Christmas hint list.
Loren Hope? They’re based in RI and have lots of lovely pieces that range from simple to more elaborate.
I’ve seen a lot of Nantucket basket charms around this year – maybe one of those as a pendant on a chain?
Thought this would be a fun question for a Friday – do you regularly buy yourself fine jewelry for birthdays/milestones? And if so, do you think there is a cultural element to it?
I recently bought myself a piece of fine jewelry and was chatting with the saleswoman who was excited for me and also interested to hear that it is something I’ve done since my first ‘big’ job in my 20s. I’m Jewish and have family in the diamond industry so we have always had a ‘guy’ we go to. It was also seen as an insurance policy – according to family lore, gold and diamonds bought our way out of Europe ahead of WW2.
interesting! I do not but i know this is something my mom/mil received for milestone birthdays whereas i have no interest in fancy jewelry bc i have no place to wear it. No family in the diamond business but also Jewish and we have a few family pieces that somehow made their way through WWII but my family unfortunately wasn’t able to get out in time and instead used what they had to survive the ghettos and camps. I do think instead the scarcity mindset my dad grew up around has trickled down
This weekend we are renting a house with 6 other couples. Each couple has 2 kids, but this is a kid free weekend. These are DH’s high school friends but at this point I’ve known them for 20+ years, though don’t live locally anymore so don’t see them often. Apparently they all like to drink A LOT these days whereas I’ve basically stopped. Tips for being the sober one around a bunch of ppl drinking heavily? I really don’t want to give in to peer pressure bc drinking makes me feel terrible.
I’d use the early morning time while they’re nursing hangovers to go on solo walks, have a quiet coffee somewhere, etc. I would love a bit of downtime like that on a group vacation.
In theory, no one should care whether you’re drinking or not. I’d enlist your husband if any comments are made, but mostly just let things hopefully go unremarked on both sides, I.e., they drink what they want, you drink the nonalcoholic things that you want.
You just don’t drink. There really isn’t anything more to it. They can tease, cajole, offer, and you just don’t drink.
not drinking or drinking less is really common in my world so don’t feel self conscious. Have something fun of your own to drink. The hardest part for me is that sloppy-drunk-silly behavior just isn’t funny when you’re sober and there’s no good solution to that; you either opt out and go to bed while they stay up, or you suffer through dumb drunk commentary and pretend to laugh. How’s your husband with all of this?
I’ve lost track of what fruits/veggies are safe to eat and what aren’t. Is it just lettuce to be careful with or other things to?