Thrifty Wife Happy Life

Helping women love what they wear on a budget

Fall Outfits in the Heat

by Katie Haller

I absolutely love fall and everything that comes with it, especially the fashion.  Fall fashion is my favorite.  I love to layer and I love scarves, boots, and jeans.  Summer is difficult for me because the heat makes it hard for me to dress the way I want to, but with fall, I get to pull out some of my favorite pieces in my closet.  However, in Las Vegas, our fall feels more like summer to most people.  It creates a bit of a challenge because the mornings are cool, but the highs in the afternoon are in the 80’s and 90’s.  It’s okay though because I always love a challenge when it comes to styling my daily wardrobe. 
Here are some outfits I’ve come up with for my transitional fall wardrobe. 
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Dresses are always great for transitioning into the fall weather.  I love being able to wear a dress in the warmer weather and accessorize it with some of my favorite fall accessories, like boots and denim.  I am loving my new ankle boots (exact) I bought last month.  They give the perfect fall touch with a few of my favorite dresses.  I also always love to layer with my denim jacket (similar).  Here are a few looks I’ve come up with. 
Dress- H&M (exact)

Dress- Nordstrom Rack (similar)
Dress- Pink Blush (exact)
You can never go wrong with a great pair of jeans.  I miss my jeans in the summer, so I always get excited when the temperatures cool off enough for some jeans.  Right now, I am loving the distressed denim look.  I have a few pairs of distress jeans that I rotate through.  I really love wearing flats with my jeans while the weather is still warm.  Flats and jeans are pretty much my workweek uniform.  Here are a couple looks wearing my jeans with some of my favorite new pairs of flats and accessorizing with my new Linea Pelle cognac tote handbag (exact) from Neiman Marcus Last Call.  I’m kind of obsessed with this purse right now. It’s the perfect fall accessory. 
 Top- Target (exact)/ Jeans- Target (similar) Shoes- Ross (similar)
 Top- Target (similar) Jeans- Kohl’s (similar) Shoes- Burlington Coat Factory (similar)
Who doesn’t love leggings?  They are so comfortable, I could literally wear them every day.  I love wearing leggings in the early fall because sometimes they are lighter than wearing jeans.  I love to style them with a long t-shirt or tunic top.  Here are a couple ways that I styled my leggings with my ankle boots to give them that fall touch.  
Top- Nordstrom Rack (similar)
Top- Old Navy (exact)
Those are some of my transitional falls looks for this year.  You can check out some of my older falls looks from last year’s post here to get some more ideas on how to style your fall wardrobe in the heat.  Enjoy the rest of the fall and remember that just because it’s hot out, doesn’t mean that you can’t embrace the new season and also stay on budget with your wardrobe! 

Making the Most of Your Wardrobe- Striped Dress

by Katie Haller

I always love doing my “Making the Most of Your Wardrobe” post, because I love sharing how I accessorize my clothes.  My closet is full of simple clothing pieces that can be re-worn over and over again, I just accessorize it a little differently each time.  I feel like this is the practical way to make the most of your clothing.

 I bought this simple stripe racerback dress at Walmart back in August (similar here here and here).  Every August, I go get my school supplies at Walmart and I can never help myself but to take a quick peek at the clothes.  I found that a lot of their junior summer clothes were on clearance for really low prices between $1-$5.  I stumbled upon this little dress and couldn’t reset it.  It was only $5.  As I’m sure you can tell, I have a bit of an obsession with stripe patterns, especially black and white stripes.  I just find stripes to be so classic and simple to accessorize.

Here are some ways that I’ve worn this little dress.

This first look is my favorite!  I wore my black blazer from Forever 21 (similar), my new turquoise pendant necklace from Nordstrom Rack (similar), my nude flats from Target (exact) and my cross over blush purse from Ross (similar). 

This is a perfect weekend look.  I wore the denim jacket that I bought a couple summers ago while grocery shopping at Meijer (similar), my white sandals from Target (exact), a coral statement necklace from Charming Charlie (similar) and my coral Coach purse.

This is a great transitional fall look, perfect for the Las Vegas fall temperatures.  I wore my long cardigan from H&M (similar), my gold pendant necklace from Burlington Coat Factory (similar) and my new ankle boots also from Burlington Coat Factory (similar).

For this last look, I really love wearing sneakers with a dress.  It just helps to dress it down and give it a casual look.  I wore my same denim jacket as above, with a simple long silver necklace (I’ve had this one so long I can’t remember where I bought it.) and my pink sneakers from Target (similar).

  This dress has quickly become one of my favorite dresses.  I love how a little $5 purchase can add so much to your wardrobe.  Look for more posts like this, because I have a lot more closet favorites that I would love to share!

Instagram Outfit Review

by Katie Haller



I love Instagram right now.  It’s probably my favorite form of social media at the moment.  I decided to start an Instagram account for my blog about 6 months ago.  I’m so glad that I did because I feel like I have a second blog.  I love sharing my outfits of the day, my shopping finds and of course a few cute baby pictures here and there.  Sometimes I get really busy and it’s hard to find the time to put together a blog post, that’s why I love being able to take a quick outfit selfie and post it on Instagram.  It’s much faster than putting together a whole post. 



Today I wanted to just share some of the outfits I wore in the last 2 months that never made it to the blog.  Here is a quick recap.

Top- Target
Sweater- Old Navy
Jeans- Target
Shoes- Target 
Necklace- Charming Charlie
Dress- Walmart
Sweater- Target
Shoes- DSW
Necklace- Target
Top- Kohl’s
Sweater- Old Navy
Jeans- Target
Shoes- Target
Necklace- Target
Top- Forever 21
Sweater- Target
Pants- Target
Shoes- Target
Necklace- Target
Dress- H&M
Shoes- Target
Necklace- Target
Top- Nordstrom Rack
Blazer- Target
Jeans- Target
Shoes- Burlington Coat Factory
Necklace- Nordstrom Rack
Top- Target
Sweater- Old Navy
Jeans- Meijer
Shoes- Ross
Necklace- Nordstrom Rack
Top- Old Navy
Cardigan- Nordstom Rack
Jeans- Target
Shoes- Burlington Coat Factory
Necklace- Nordstrom Rack

Top- Nordstrom Rack
Jeans- Target
Shoes- Ross
Necklace- Charming Charlie

Those are my looks.  Don’t forget to follow me on Instagram @thriftywifehappylife for more quick outfit selfies and my latest blog post! 

Shopping Finds- Target

by Katie Haller

There is nothing that makes me more excited than saving money on new clothes.  I love to stretch my dollar as far as I possibly can.  That’s what I did this weekend at Target. 
Sometimes shopping the clearance section can be so hit or miss.  Target usually has a great clearance section, but you have to go at the right time to get really good deals.  I find that the end of the summer and early fall are perfect for finding clearance deals.  It’s easy to take summer clothes and style them into the fall and winter. 

 I had some Target coupons sent to me in the mail last week, so I was excited to use them.  I had a coupon for $5 off $25, so I knew I was going to try to get as much as I could for $25.  I was still on the hunt for a few more pieces from my fall wish list.  I ended up buying 5 new pieces of clothes and only spending $18.86 after tax!  I actually surprised myself, because I didn’t realize that I could use my Cartwheel app, with a coupon, on top of the clearance price. 

I ended up buying 3 new tops; one striped tank top (here) and 2 t-shirts; one striped and one green (here).  I also bought a simple grey dress (here) and a scarf (similar here and here).  Here are my dressing room pictures of the tops I bought.  (Don’t mind my little shopping buddy in the background.  He was busy trying to get the hangers.)

I can’t wait to style my new clearance pieces for the fall months! 
 Happy shopping everyone! 

What I Wore- Casual Work Week

by Katie Haller

I hope everyone had a great workweek.  I’m so happy that the weekend is here.  The last couple of weeks have been so busy, I’m looking forward to spending a quiet weekend at home with my boys.

As promised, I’ve been trying to step up my work week wardrobe a bit.  The weather is finally cooling down, so I can actually wear more of the clothes in my closet.  This week I kept it simple for work, as always.  I feel like these days a lot of people have a casual work dress code like mine.  My outfits are good ideas if you have a relaxed work dress code.  Because I work with kids and I’m also a mom, my work looks are also great if you’re a stay at home mom or work as a nanny.  Just because you’re around kids all day doesn’t mean that you can’t dress cute. Right?

Here are my work outfits from this week.

Monday
Top- Kohl’s
Leggings- Forever 21
Necklace- Nordstrom Rack
Shoes- Target
Tuesday
Top- Nordstrom Rack
Jeggings- Old Navy
Necklace- Nordstrom Rack
Shoes- Old Navy
Wednesday

Top- Target

Cardigan- H&M
Jeggings- Old Navy
Shoes- Target
Thursday

Tank Top- Old Navy

Cardigan- H&M
Jeans- Meijer
Shoes- Target
Friday

Top- Nordstrom Rack
Sweater- Old Navy
Jeans- Target
Shoes- Target
Necklace- Nordstrom Rack

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Shopping Find From my Fall Wish List

by Katie Haller

This past week, I posted my fall wish list.  This weekend I was able to knock a few items off my list.  I love Labor Day weekend because there are great sales everywhere, plus I start to get really excited about all the fall clothes.  I was able to put together a cute fall look for under $70.

On my fall wish list, I had said I wanted a t-shirt dress and an olive green t-shirt.  I ended up combining the two and buying this olive green t-shirt dress (similar) at H&M for $12.99.  H&M has such great everyday prices on their basic clothing items and accessories.  It’s currently one of my favorite stores to shop at.  I also found a new cardigan while I was there (exact) for $12.99.  The cardigan wasn’t on my list, but I can’t resist a new cardigan for fall.  This one is great because it’s nice and lightweight.  I bought a similar one like it last fall, so I knew I would be happy with my purchase.  
After I left the mall, I was on a hunt for ankle boots.  I’ve been wanting a pair for a long time.  I had a $30 budget for my boots.  I looked at DSW and Nordstrom Rack and even though they had some awesome sales, I just couldn’t find boots under $50.  Then I remembered that I had never been to Burlington Coat Factory.  I had always heard that they have great prices, so I decided to check it out.  I was in luck because they had a great selection of ankle boots all under $30.  I found these suede ankle boots (similar) for $27.99.  They are exactly what I was looking for, plus they are super comfortable!
I also found a new pendant necklace that I had on my fall list.  This one below was on clearance for $3.99 and it caught my eye.  I don’t have any like it in my jewelry collection and I thought that it would complete my new fall outfit.

Here is my new outfit for fall altogether.
 Now I can’t wait for the cooler temperatures.  I know it’s right around the corner.  Look for more fall looks coming soon! 

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