As you may know if you read Est Parfait, my birthday came up! Hip hip!

We celebrated my older brother’s (who’s actually in the background vacuuming. Shh, he doesn’t know he’s in the pic) and my birthday together last Saturday. Which, of course, means I have all this cash I need to burn as quickly as possible. X-)

It was fate that we should happen upon the same area as my favorite thrift store in town. And boy did I score.

I’ve finally been dressed and at home in the daytime in order to use the natural light for this picture.  I really need to get a mirror in my room.

I found Aeropostel (is that how you spell it? I always get it wrong. Haha) jeans for $2.99 and a cute floral  tanktop from Forever 21 for $1.99. I was in thrifty heaven.

Okay. Problems: I could barely fit into the jeans in the dressing room. And frankly, it’s the most ridiculously hilarious thing to see, someone trying to squeeze themselves into a pair of tight jeans. But, being the girl that I am. . . I was not going to let that half an inch of space between button and hole stop me. I wriggling, suck in, jumped, and stretched to make them fit. Good thing no one was waiting for me.

Another problem I encountered was that they were a smidgen too short. Which is very, very knew for me since I’m tiny. Which is also what the girl at Victoria Secret said, but for a whole other reason. Let’s not go there.

I figured, of course. Hey, it’s almost summer! I rolled up the cuffs, going sixties. And viola!

The tanktop is nice quality, not thin and see through. But I can tell the last owner got her arm stuck in it, by the way the left armpit is a little stretched. Because of the material, I’m able to simply twist the tanktop to the left a little bit, without it looking awkward, to keep it from puffing out at the side. A black tube top underneath too, or even a cami, will fix any peek-a-boo-there’s-a-bra-under-here issues that might come up.

I love that the tanktop is a little floppy and not form fitting. These are my favorite kind, they’re so comfy. And also, because the tight pants give me a muffin top. I’ve found that one way to get around this being too visible is by wearing a loose shirt, tucked into the pants. You can see I’m doing that a little in the picture.

And there ya have it. My five dollar outfit. Sure, I can’t do squats, as my kindly vacuuming saint of a brother pointed out to me, as he squatted up and down in his basketball shorts with a smirk on his face as if to boast what I’m missing. But I can walk, run, and sit, just not cross-legged. No one has to know. And hey, the pants look good on me too. Just look at that nice curve I’ve got going on. =-P

I guess the lesson we learn from this is thrift shopping involves some compromises, just like any relationship.