New Westminster Swimsuit Store Saves Me Time

Day 1 and I haven't made a break for the Burnaby border yet. Just today, I saved myself about two or three hours in shopping time by sticking to New Westminster.

A few weeks ago, I signed up for a swimming class at the Canada Games Pool. I knew this would require an athletic bathing suit and I figured the chances of finding a good one in New Westminster were zero. Even when I have all options open to me, finding a suit is a challenge. In addition to needing a, let's just say, large size, I also have a long torso.

Summer was over, so Wal-Mart wouldn't be carrying any suits and I couldn't think of anywhere else in town where I could get one. Just for the heck of it, I decided to Google "New Westminster bathing suits." To my surprise, New Westminster not only has a bathing suit store, it has one that carries specialty (meaning big and long torso) sizes: Just Swimwear on Sixth Street.

Here's what I would have done if I wasn't limited to shopping to New Westminster: I would have gone online and tried to find a suit. Would have looked at Land's End, Eddie Bauer, Sears. Would have got distracted by shiny merchandise and spent an hour or so surfing store sites.

Would have been nervous about buying swimwear online, so I would have gone to Swimco in Metrotown to see if they had anything. Would have been depressed about how many suits in that store are meant for skinny people. Would have been depressed about how many skinny people there are at Metrotown in general.

Would have started looking around Metrotown. Would have shifted my hunt from bathing suit to jeans. Would have had a delusional moment and tried on "super skinny" jeans in Old Navy.* Would have been surprised by how comfy they were. Would have considered how much it looked like I was wearing jodhpurs. Would have realized that pants that aren't jodhpurs shouldn't look like jodhpurs. Would have experienced moment of clarity as I realized there is no pair of jeans in the universe that is going to give me back the butt I had when I was 19. Would have got hungry from all the shopping and gone and bought a burrito, something else that is not going to give me back the butt I had when I was 19.

After two or three hours at the mall, I may or may not have gone home with a bathing suit.

Instead, I stopped by Just Swimwear today, picked out two or three likely options, tried them on and bought a suit, all in about 20 minutes. I had lots of time when I got home before I needed to go pick up my son from school.

I used this time to watch a documentary: Super High Me, the story of what happened when comedian Doug Benson decided to smoke pot every day for a month. It's such a powerful documentary I had to make some nachos while I watched it. Perhaps not the best use of my time, but better than being stuck in a mall for two hours.

The documentary got me thinking, that instead of shopping, maybe there's something else local I could do for a year. Kidding!  It really did get me thinking how many people are doing these lifestyle experiments. I'll list some of them in an upcoming post, tentatively titled My 100-Mile Super High Size Not Made in China Year of Living Biblically.

* I actually was this delusional recently, though not while being distracted from bathing suit shopping.

Spend Reports #3 and #4

I got behind with my spend reports, so I decided to do them all just before I start shopping only in New Westminster. Maybe I got behind because I was traumatized by having to admit how much I spent in a week in Spend Report #2. (I can't even bring myself to type the amount, you'll have to read that post if you want to know.)

Someone, anyone, please tell me you’ve done the same. I did feel a little better when I went to Wal-Mart during its once-a-year anniversary sale. The bargain shoppers were out in full force and some of them were making big impulse purchases. I saw a woman leave the store with a loaded cart and a 40” TV. She said she went in the store to buy a single toy, but couldn’t resist the $398 TV. Then I pondered that while she has a big-screen TV to show for her spending spree, all I have is a duvet and public humiliation.

Spend Report #3

From Sept. 16 to 22, I spent approximately $480.

I spent about $380 in New Westminster on:
A coat, groceries and miscellaneous items* at Wal-Mart
More items at Wal-Mart including Oreos, soap, Froot Loops and a Christmas present for my nephew 
Groceries at Safeway
Lunch at Opa
Food and rides at the Queensborough Fall Fair

I spent about $100 on:

Groceries (Richmond)

Lunch (Vancouver)

Deodorant (Kiehl’s, Vancouver)

Eye cream (The Bay, Vancouver)
Metered parking – $11!!! (Vancouver)

* Includes Hot Tub Time Machine DVD. It’s a hot tub and a time machine.

Spend Report #4

From Sept. 23 to 30, I spent approximately $460. This is the week I abandon all pretense of trying to shop normally and do a farewell tour of stores around the Lower Mainland that I won’t be spending money in for the next year.

I spent about $120 in New West on:

Spent. Sex, Evolution and Consumer Behavior (Just $9.99 at Black Bond Books; would have been $22 at Chapters or $21 at amazon.ca)

Produce, almost all from B.C. (at Kin’s Farm Market)

Coffee and more coffee (at Starbucks)

A DQ Blizzard (Since when do Blizzards cost almost $5!?!)

Shoes for my son (Shoe Warehouse)

I spent about $340 on:

Groceries (Price-Smart in Hamilton, the Richmond neighbourhood that borders Queensborough)
More groceries (delivered by SPUD, which is based in Vancouver)
Gas (Shell in Hamilton)

Shampoo and conditioner (Metrotown, Burnaby)

Parking and ice cream at the Coliseum (Arcade Fire concert, Vancouver)

T-shirt and groceries (Superstore, Coquitlam) **
Various items at IKEA

Sweater, shirt and belt (Marks, Burnaby)

T-shirt (Warehouse One, Burnaby)

** It won’t be hard to stop shopping at Superstore. I only go a few times a year. My husband objects to its mix of merchandise.
“Is the raw meat supposed to go on top of my clothes or do I put the meat in the cart first?” is the kind of thing he says when I tell him I've been there.

Updated Oct. 8, 2010

My Last IKEA Haul for a year

I made my last trip to IKEA today. I felt a little panicked at first and briefly considered buying the 36-pack of tea lights and/or an entire kitchen. Because over the next year I might become the kind of person who burns candles on a regular basis and my kitchen could collapse. Thankfully, logic prevailed, and I admitted to myself that while those two situations are possible, they aren't very probable. I made it out of the Swedish store in Coquitlam with just 11 items:
3 Graddsas cream sauce mixes, made in Hungary.
Legitim cutting boards (pack of 2), made in India.
3 Slom glass jars, made in China
Sparsam light bulbs (pack of 2), made in China. (At IKEA, even the light bulbs have a name.)
2 Gorm wire baskets, made in China.
Barometer work lamp, made in China.

Despite second thoughts, I will shop locally

Well, there's no getting out of this. There I am, all over the front page of today's New Westminster Record, talking about how I will be shopping locally for one year. I've been having second, third and even fourth thoughts about this whole enterprise, but I guess it's too late to change my mind now.
Thanks to Andrew Fleming of the Record for taking interest in my experiment and to Larry Wright for the wonderful photo.
I'll be interested to see what kind of feedback the story gets. I won't be surprised to get some flack for the comparison made of my experiment to The 100-Mile Diet.
As flattering as it is to be compared to Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon, authors of The 100-Mile Diet, I don't think my experiment is anywhere near as ground-breaking or as complicated as theirs. They really suffered for their book. They had to give up sugar, rice, and even bread, at least until they found a local wheat grower.
I must say though, when I tell people what I'm doing, some do react as though I'm likely to endure extreme hardship. I too have moments when I feel a sense of impending doom and deprivation. No Reitmans! No IKEA! No Canadian Tire! No L'Occitane for the best hand cream in the world! Oh, the humanity! How will I ever survive?
When I think about it rationally, I realize how silly my fears are. New Westminster lacks certain stores, but there are plenty of places to shop and all its grocery stores are amply stocked. What is it about our consumer culture that makes people think going without Costco and IKEA for a year will be so difficult? That's the kind of question I will explore starting Oct. 1.

Last Chance for Great Savings

“Last Chance for Great Savings.” So said the e-mail I received from Garnet Hill late on Sunday.

It’s the kind of e-mail I get from retailers every day, but this one made me anxious. It is almost my last chance, I thought. My last chance to buy anything not in New West! I panicked. I felt I must go online right away and buy something, anything. I wasted two hours online “window” shopping, seeking out bargains—a $29 sundress, $9 sandals, $18 pillowcases—I wanted it all. In the end, I bought none of it. I didn’t need any of it, and thankfully, my rational side prevailed.

I’m trying to shop as normally as possible before Oct. 1. I don’t want to buy a bunch of stuff I usually wouldn’t. But on Wednesday, I could not pass up Living Social’s deal of the day —a microdermabrasion treatment at 61 per cent off. I’ve never tried it before, but as I understand it, microdermabrasion is basically like sandpapering your skin, scraping off the old, sagging, wrinkly layer and revealing the fresh, glowing, youthful layer below. That’s what I’m hoping happens anyway. Besides, it turned into a nice parallel in husband/wife spending—the same day I spend $59 on microdermabrasion, my husband (unbeknownst to me at the time) spends about $59 on Halo Reach.

Here’s my spend report for the past week, without any foolish online purchases, facial sandpapering excepted. I can spend my money foolishly enough without the help of the Internet. That is something I am learning from doing this blog: I spend too much money.

(I can just hear what my husband will say when he reads this. “I could have told you that, you didn’t need to do a blog!” Yeah, yeah, yeah.) This blog just might turn out to be a great budgeting tool. But, as you will see, not yet.

Spend Report #2

From Sept. 8 to 15, I spent approximately $1,100. (Holy crap! I know once my husband reads this post, he’s going to ask me, “Are you independently wealthy and hiding it from me? Or do you have a second and third job I don’t know about?”)

I spent about $350 in New Westminster on:

curling lessons for my son, sushi, coffee, groceries, a birthday present and toiletries at Wal-mart, loading up my New West Fitness card, and more coffee.

The rest, about $750, was spent on: (and in)

carpet cleaning (done in my home, but the cleaner was from Burnaby)

SPUD groceries (delivered to my home, but SPUD is based in Vancouver)

Photos, a duvet and groceries (Costco, Burnaby)

An Editors' Association of Canada seminar (bought online, seminar is in Vancouver)

Halo: Reach (Vancouver)

A gift certificate for microdermabrasion (bought online, will be used in Vancouver)

Raffle tickets supporting KidSport (at an event in Burnaby)

Money: the most taboo topic of all

“Well, I have to go do my spend report for my blog,” I announce after dinner.

“What?” says my husband and then he gives me a look. Or rather, A Look.

“For the first week of September. What I bought, how much it cost, where I bought it.”

I can tell he is uneasy. He explains he is concerned that people will be able to figure out how much we make if I give such detailed information. This makes me uneasy too. Just writing about this, even just thinking about this—the whole topic of money—is making me twitchy.

I do not consider myself a particularly private person. People who know me well would probably say I err on the side of sharing way too much information. However, I’ve always been extremely reticent about telling anyone how much I make. Revealing how I spend my money and how much money I have to spend is just that: revealing. I don’t want to be judged by how much I make or by what I spend my money on. Most people don’t.

But people make judgments based on money all the time. I have scoffed at friends who spend hundreds on designer handbags. I’ve never been into labels. If a brand wants me to wear its logo, I’m advertising, so, the brand should pay me. That’s always been my philosophy. But I know I have made many scoff-worthy purchases myself (hello, $85 jar of face masque in my medicine cabinet).

My husband favours doing a loose summary of expenditures. His argument is that the point of the blog is not exactly how much I’ve spent, it’s whether or not I was able to buy everything in New West. I’m not so sure. After all, one of the things I’m interested in finding out is if shopping locally is cheaper or more expensive and by how much. Of course, at the end of the year, I could just say, “Trust me, it’s cheaper/more expensive!” and never reveal how much I actually spent. But writing is always better when it’s specific.

I don’t think listing every grocery item and its price is necessary, but at some point, some specific numbers are going to need to be involved.

Spend Report #1

While I figure out exactly how much I want to reveal, here’s a somewhat loose/somewhat specific report on how and where I spent my money for the first week of September.

From Sept. 1 to 7, I spent about $620. A little over half (about $327) was spent in New Westminster. I spent money in New West on piano lessons, haircuts for my son and husband, propane, brunch, gas, and groceries.

The rest was spent in Surrey, Burnaby, Coquitlam, Vancouver and Richmond. I left New West to buy piano books and to go to Costco, the PNE and to two movies. (There is no Costco or movie theatre in New Westminster.) Almost all my spending from Sept. 1 to 6 was done outside New West. All my Sept. 7 (first day of school) spending was done in New West.

Will less cost more? At least my shoes will match

My replacement glass storage containers arrived unbroken on Friday, having made only four stops from Secaucus, New Jersey, to my door. (The original shipment started out in Las Vegas and made five stops along its way.) As I unpack them, I say to my husband sadly, "Pretty soon, no more online shopping for me."

My husband does not, I realize, look sad. He looks, in fact, positively gleeful.

"You're hoping this leads to me spending and shopping less, aren't you?" I ask.

He nods eagerly.

"There's no Sephora  in town!" he says later, while discussing the same topic.

(I have what you, and definitely my husband, might call an obsession with beauty and skin care products. Shh, nobody tell him that Shoppers Drug Mart carries some products from Benefit, one of my favourite brands. And, there's a Shoppers in New West!)

"We'll probably end up buying less stuff, but it will be more expensive," my husband says.

The less stuff part, I think I'm okay with. The more expensive part will be trickier.

It seems the equation of "local" with "expensive" is a common one. A good friend (@mforbes 37) tweeted about my blog and got this response: "If I could get that 200% raise I've been asking for, I'd only buy local stuff too," said @felixpotvin, (not, according to his Twitter profile, the real Felix Potvin).

I think @felixpotvin may have missed the part where I mention I will still be shopping at big chain stores, as long as they are in the geographic boundaries of New Westminster. But my husband knows that and he still thinks we'll end up spending more money. How much more remains to be seen.

I know I have chased down bargains online that, in the finish, turn out to be no bargain at all. Not long ago, I ordered shoes online from a store that doesn't ship to Canada. But they were so cheap! So sending them to a mail depot in Point Roberts (just over the border in Washington, about 30 minutes from my house) seemed to make sense. It would be easy for me, I thought, to zip over the border and pick them up. Even with the exchange rate and the cost of driving, I figured I would still come out $30 to $40 ahead. And my chances of finding that particular brand and style of shoes at a store closer by were slim to none.

The shoes were delivered to the depot fairly quickly, but with one thing and another, I didn’t pick them up right away. When I finally picked them up, the shoes fit, but while they were both brown, they were two distinctly different shades. Because it had taken me so long to pick them up, it was past the regular return period. I probably still could have returned them because they were defective, but I only looked at and tried on one shoe in Point Roberts. The other stayed nestled in its tissue paper nest because, silly me, I assumed both shoes would be the same colour. I had a post-paid return label, but it was only valid for shipping from the U.S., not Canada. I never did make it back down to Point Roberts to return them. So much for saving money.

Maybe shopping locally for a year will cost more, maybe it won't. I know one thing: even if I don't save money, I won't end up with a pair of different coloured shoes.