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Thrifty Wife Happy Life

Helping women love what they wear on a budget

Gifts That Give Back

November 21, 2016 by Katie Haller

One// Two// Three// Four// Five// Six// Seven// Eight// Nine

With the holiday season quickly approaching, I’ve been thinking a lot about getting ready to do some Christmas shopping. To me, Christmas is so much more than just gifts.  It’s a time to count my blessings and try to give back in some way or another.  That’s why this year, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about purchasing gifts that give back. 


  I love how there is such a big movement right now with more and more companies being charitable and trying to use their business to better the world.  I’ve been doing a lot of research to find some gifts to purchase this season and I’ve found that you can find a gift that gives back for pretty much everyone on your shopping list. 
Here is a list of some of my favorite companies and gifts that give back. 


One | The Little Market
The Little Market is a fair trade online shop that was co-founded by one of my favorite entrepreneurs, Lauren Conrad.  The company helps support artisans and empower women from all over the world.  While browsing their website, I found a number of beautiful and creative gift ideas that were also quite affordable.  I really love these soy blend holiday candles.  They would be perfect for a teacher gift or co-worker, even a friend or family member.  I also love these cute little aprons.  Aprons always make great gifts, because they are not something most people buy for themselves.   

 Two | Hand in Hand Soap
Hand in Hand Soap is a company that I came across in my search for charitable companies and I was drawn to them because of their products and their affordability.  For every bar of soap that you buy from Hand in Hand, they donate a bar of soap and a month of clean water to a child in need.  They sell bar soap, bath salts, candles, lotion and all kinds of fun bath products.  It’s a great place to find gifts and I love that they sell their products at Target!  It’s perfect because you don’t have to go anywhere fancy to find their soaps.  I am eager to try out their Coral Sugar Scrub and the Juniper Berry Bar Soap.   These also make great teacher gifts! 

Three | Cuddle + Kind
This is my first Christmas as a mom, so I decided to look into baby and kid companies.  I ended up finding Cuddle and Kind, which is a really great company that gives back to children.  For every dollar you spend, they provide 10 nutritious meals for children around the world.  I love their adorable hand-knit dolls.  I thought that this doll, Aspen the Penguin would be such a cute gift for a little one in your life.  I also love the wall art.  It is the perfect gift for an expecting parent this holiday season.  I know that I would have loved one of these adorable gifts for Jack while I was pregnant last year. 

Four | Better Life Bags
I was so excited when I came across this company, Better Life Bags, because not only do they sell handbags, which what girl doesn’t love handbags?  But their business is set up to help support local women from low-income households in Detroit, MI.  With me being from the Detroit area, this company’s mission is really close to my heart.  They sell custom made handbags, made by women living in Hamtramck, Michigan, which is a very culturally mixed area of Detroit.  I love that you can pick out your own material for your bag and design it however you want or you can pick from their collections.  I really love this black and white striped crossover purse, also these cute little nesting pouches are perfect for organizing your purse or closet.  I definitely encourage you to check them out and learn more about their mission.

Five | AUrate New York  
If you are in the market to splurge on something special for someone, or maybe you are making a wishlist for your significant other, AUrate New York is a company that sells beautiful gold jewelry.  From white gold, to yellow gold and rose gold, they have it all in beautiful modern styles.  I‘m really in love with their collection of necklaces, especially this absolutely gorgeous gold bar necklace.  What I love most about this company is that with every purchase that you make, the company donates a book to an underprivileged child.  Being a preschool teacher of low-income children, I realize how important this mission is.  So many of the children that I work with do not have books in their homes, so it’s my job to encourage them on how to find books and teach them the importance of early literacy.  That is why I love that this company is giving back through reading!  I would definitely recommend checking out their site and browsing their beautiful jewelry collection.

That’s my list, I hope these companies will inspire you the same way they did for me.  What are some charitable companies that you will be shopping with this year?  I’d love to hear them! 

 

Filed in: holidays, Shopping • by Katie Haller • Leave a Comment

Making the Most of Your Wardrobe- Stripe Tunic

November 12, 2016 by Katie Haller

I just couldn’t help myself and I bought another piece of clothing in black and white stripes.  Back in September, while doing some fall shopping, I found this long sleeve tunic at Old Navy (exact).  It was on sale for 50% off, which came to $8.49.   I thought about buying it in another color, but they didn’t have my size, so I ended up with the stripes.

I’m really loving this top right now.  I wish I had it in every color because it’s perfect for fall and winter in the desert.  It’s lightweight, so it’s perfect for layering and I love the length on it.  It’s perfect to wear with leggings or jeans.

Here are 4 ways that I accessorized the top.

I love this first look.  I’m wearing my favorite pair of distress denim jeans from Target (similar) with my ankle boots (exact).  I accessorized with my black satchel purse (exact) and my turquoise pendant necklace.
For this next look, I wore black legging and a jean jacket with some leopard flats and my black satchel purse.  
I’m always a fan of mixing stripes with leopard, so I love this look here.  I wore my distressed jeans and ankle boots again and  accessorized with my leopard scarf (similar) and cognac tote purse (exact)

This last look is great for a cool fall day.  I wore black leggings with my brown boots.  I accessorized with my fuchsia knit infinity scarf (similar) and my black satchel purse.

Hopefully, these looks can help you finger out how to accessorize your stripes.

Filed in: Affordable Fashion, Fall Fashion, Making the Most of your Wardrobe, My Closet, outfits • by Katie Haller • Leave a Comment

Baby Update- 9 Months!

November 10, 2016 by Katie Haller

In my belly for 38 weeks, now in my arms for 38 weeks.  He is just as active on the outside as he was on the inside
It’s hard to believe that I already have a 9-month-old.  For the longest time, I was just thinking about him turning 6 months and how big of a milestone that would be, and now he’s already 9 months. 12 months is right around the corner.  Where did the time go?

The words to describe Jack these days are cute, loving, smart, crazy, busy, funny, cuddly, exhausting, wild, playful, determined…. those are just to name a few.  At about 6 months Jack started crawling, 7 months he started to pull himself up and by 8 months he was everywhere.  Our house is a complete mess on most days.  I find baby toys everywhere, but I love it.  We have baby proofed the living room as best we can, yet he still finds ways to get into the places he shouldn’t. 
I just recently started feeding Jack finger food and he seems to do really well with it.  Since he’s still so young, I still feed him his baby food, but I give him bits and pieces of our dinner.  He just got his first tooth the week of Halloween and a week later he had another one pop through.  I feel like he’s been teething forever, so it’s exciting to see his little teeth finally coming through.
Some of the cutest things about this age are how playful Jack is these days.  He loves it when we chase him.  He says “Uh Oh” now and “dadada”.  He also likes to wave and shake his head.  I’m trying to work on some sign language with him, but I think that will come with time.  His favorite song is the opening song to the show Dexter.  It’s funny because Kevin and I have been watching the show on Netflix now for a few months and every time we start a new episode, Jack hears the song and starts dancing and laughing.  It’s too cute, I just hope he doesn’t realize what the show is all about.
I’m still struggling to get him to sleep through the night.  That has been the most exhausting part of parenting for me.  I really don’t know what to do at this point.  I just hope and pray that one day he will stay asleep every night and I will finally get some sleep.

With each month it brings new joys and new challenges, but one thing is for sure, this little guy is very loved!  

Filed in: Baby, Living Life, Mom Life, Motherhood, Post Baby • by Katie Haller • Leave a Comment

Instagram Outfit Review

November 7, 2016 by Katie Haller

It’s time for another Instagram outfit review.  I’ve been posting so many of my daily outfits on Instagram, it’s kind of replaced my weekly “What I Wore” outfit posts.  It’s just easier lately to take a quick outfit selfie, rather than put together a full blog post.  When I find the time, I like to do an overview of my favorite looks from the past month or so.

I am loving the weather right now.  It’s absolutely perfect.  Mornings are cool and the afternoons have highs in the 70’s and low 80’s.  It’s the perfect kind of weather for layering, which is my favorite way to dress. 
Here are some of my looks from the past month.  As always, I try to link my clothes, but because many of my clothes are older and I buy so many of them on clearance or at thrift stores, I’m not always able to link it to the exact item.  However, I always try to find similar affordable items to link up.  Unfortunately, I’ve had a hard time finding similar items for a few of my accessories, so I will just list the stores. 
Shirt- Target (similar)
Jeans- Target (similar)
Cardigan- Target (similar)
Shoes- Burlington Coat Factory
Purse- Last Call Neiman Marcus (exact)
Top- Old Navy
Waterfall Cardigan- Target (similar)
Jeans– (Old)- Express (similar)
Shoes- Target (exact)
Top- Target (exact)
Cardigan- Macy’s (similar)
Jeans- Old Navy (similar)
Necklace- Nordstrom Rack
Top- Nordstrom Rack (similar)
Leggings- Last Call Neiman Marcus (similar)
Scarf- Charming Charlie (similar)
Sandals- Target (no longer in stock online) 
Top- Old Navy (exact)
Cardigan- Forever 21 (similar)
Scarf- Charming Charlie (similar)
Boots- Burlington Coat Factory (exact)
Top- Old Navy (exact)
Jeans- Kohl’s (exact)
Shoes- Ross (similar)
Necklace- Burlington Coat Factory 
Top- Target (similar)
Cardigan- H&M (similar)
Boots- Target (similar)
Denim Jacket- Meijer (similar)
Jeggings- TJ Maxx (similar)
Scarf- Nordstrom (similar)
Purse- Last Call  (exact)
Top- Target (exact)
Cardigan- Target (similar)
 Jeggings- Old Navy/ thrifted (similar)
Shoes- Old Navy (similar)
Leggings- Forever 21 (exact)
Denim Jacket- Meijer (see above)
Scarf- Five Below (similar)
Shoes- DSW (exact)

I hope you like the looks.  Don’t forget to follow me on Instagram @thriftywifehappylife to see more of my everyday looks.  Have a great week!!

Filed in: Affordable Fashion, Daily Outfits, outfits • by Katie Haller • Leave a Comment

Shopping Finds- Thrift Shopping for Baby

November 4, 2016 by Katie Haller

If you follow my blog, you know how much I love to a thrift shop, so I’m sure it’s no surprise that I love to thrift shop for my baby too.  Baby clothes can be so expensive at times.  I hate to spend a lot of money on baby clothes because they grow out of them so quickly, plus they get their clothes so messy, that’s why a thrift store is a perfect place to buy clothes for my little guy. 
I am grateful that our family members and friends have kept Jack clothed for so long.  I have so many cute outfits for him that we got as gifts, but he’s quickly growing out of many of his clothes, plus the weather is slowly getting cooler, so it’s time to start shopping for the winter.  One nice thing about having a boy is that they are so low maintenance, even as babies.  All they need are some onesies, some pants and a jacket of some sort.

Last Friday, I went to my favorite thrift store, Savers.  They tend to have a very small boy selection, so when I find cute things, I buy a lot.  It was Nevada Day on the day I was there, so all the clothes were 30% off, plus I bought 2 yellow tag items that were 50% off.  I ended up buying him 3 pairs of pants, a button down shirt and a fleece jacket all for under $10.  That’s not bad considering I already know that my little guy will only wear them for 3 months, then it will be back to summer clothes again.  That’s okay, because I will just have another excuse to do some more thrift store shopping.

Filed in: Baby, Baby on a Budget, Shopping, Thrifty Tips • by Katie Haller • Leave a Comment

Making the Most of your Wardrobe- White after Labor Day

October 24, 2016 by Katie Haller

  I’m not really sure who the person was that made up the saying that you can’t wear white after Labor Day, but I completely disagree with that statement.  What a silly idea that you can only wear white for 3 months out of the year.  I like to get the maximum use out of my clothes and I don’t believe that certain colors and styles can only be worn during a specific time of the year.  I love incorporating white into my fall and winter wardrobe by wearing my white jeans.  I bought my white pants at Target on clearance for under $10 about 3 years ago (similar).  I love having a white pair of pants in my closet because it gives me the opportunity to switch up my outfits from normal jeans to white every now and again. 

Here are 4 different ways that I’ve styled my white jeans for fall and winter. 
For my first look, I wore my favorite cardigan from H&M (similar) with a black tank top from Old Navy, and my ankle boots from Burlington Coat Factory (exact).  I accessorized the look with my turquoise pedant and my new black satchel purse from Neiman Marcus Last Call (exact).  
I’ve been seeing gingham shirts everywhere lately, so for this look, I styled my gingham button down (similar) with my waterfall cardigan (similar) both from Target.  I accessorized my ankle boots with my brown leather Coach purse. 
I love Navy and I love stripes, so for this look, I wore my navy striped tank top (exact), with my navy blazer (similar) and my boots (similar), all three from Target.  I accessorized with my gold pendant necklace and my brown Coach purse again. 
For this last look, I kept it casual with my green t-shirt from Target (similar), layered with my denim jacket (similar) and my Madden Girl lace-up flats (similar).  I accessorized again with my gold pendant necklace and my brown tote purse from Neiman Marcus Last Call (exact). 
Those are just 4 ways to wear white pants this fall and winter.  How will you be styling your white pants for the cooler months this year? 

Filed in: Affordable Fashion, Making the Most of your Wardrobe, outfits • by Katie Haller • 1 Comment

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Hi I'm Katie! Welcome to my blog! I am on a mission to help women build a wardrobe that they love without spending a lot of money doing it. I believe that everyone has the right to feel good in their outfit, no matter what your budget is! I am excited to have you here!
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Affordable everyday petite (5’1) mom style
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What I wore then vs. what I wore now! Today I’m What I wore then vs. what I wore now!

Today I’m updating a longtime favorite look with a maxi dress that has a little more shape and structure—but still has all the things I loved about the original. Same formula (maxi + denim jacket), just a bit more refined.

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What I wore this week as a 40-year old mom of 2! What I wore this week as a 40-year old mom of 2! 

The weather had been terrible this week 😩 So I basically wore my go-to comfort outfit combo all week long— thrifted jeans + cardigan/sweater + ballet flats. 

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If you are over spending money this school year, b If you are over spending money this school year, but still want to send in a little end of the year appreciation gift to your kid’s teacher then this $5 gift idea is a perfect! 

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