Amazing bargains

After lab on Friday, Ben and I drove to Portsmouth, VA, to spend the night and all of Saturday with his grandmother. Ben's mom was also up there for a visit. Ben's grandmother, whom we call Nana, is 86 years old and healthy as can be. She is very active in her community, belongs to all kinds of organizations, exercises 3 times a week at the YMCA (the budding exercise physiologist in me couldn't be happier about this), and eats lots of chocolate. One of Nana's favorite things to do is to shop at thrift stores, and that's exactly what we did on Saturday. I bought 2 pairs of jeans for $4 and Ben got a batting helmet for $4 to use at the batting cages at the park near our house. In addition, Nana had a pile of clothes at home that belonged to Ben's cousin Nancy, who is a manager at Express and is always having to buy the new merchandise to wear at work. Very luckily, she and I wear the same size, so in addition to my thrift store jeans, I came home with about 10 new shirts, totally free! This is the 3rd time that I've collected free hand-me-downs from Nancy, and she has saved me so much money on clothes this past year. We're hoping to visit Nana again in the spring so that we can go to Williamsburg for some of the 400th anniversary festivities.