The One Where I Tried To Save Money

So... DD's school requires uniforms. The school has a uniform company that sells the outrageously priced uniform pieces. Some of them, like the vest they have to wear on Wednesdays, can only be purchased from the uniform company- there are no other options. The company came to the school, set up shop, and we got the pieces that we had to buy directly from them.

Other pieces, though, like a plain blue skort (looks like a skirt in front, shorts in back)... well, if you're like me, you'd probably think that you could get something like that elsewhere cheaper, right? Especially since every back to school ad includes "school uniforms". Well, let me tell you, it isn't gonna happen. In the last two weeks I've been to: WalMart, Target, Kmart, Macy's, JCPenney's, Sears, Old Navy, Elder Beerman's, every child-sized store at the mall, and one resale shop. Nobody, but NOBODY, carries the flat-front skort required by the school... but nearly every one of those stores had the skorts with the pleated front. And they were cheap, too- I saw them as low as $8 new, $4.50 used. ::sigh::

So, today, two days before school starts, I finally had to bite the bullet and drive over an hour away to the uniform place, where we purchased two flat-fronted skorts for $42. Ouch. Double ouch because if I'd have just bought them at the uniform sale to begin with, I would have saved the gas money and all the time spent looking in other stores. Sometimes it just doesn't pay to try and be frugal!