So much for my frugal month - sometimes you have to set aside those intentions if a great opportunity presents itself.

I have a Macy's gift card that needs to be used, so I headed to the mall and parked at the Sears end, intending to walk the length of the mall for exercise. But I was only a few steps in the door when I encountered Joe Boxer fleece pajama pants on a really good sale. So while I checked out I chatted with the clerk. Was Sears going to close this store? No, but they were discontinuing the Land's End part of the business and everything down there is 90% off, including mannequins. Mannequins? They are so expensive as dress forms (what these are - jersey-covered fiberglass torsos on sturdy brushed aluminum stands) and these were $40 each. I caught my daughter before she left town and she came down and we put a large male torso on a sturdy short aluminum stand from one of the child-sized torsos (all had the same interchangeable bases, just different length rods). This way she can use it on a table in a closed space. I picked up the smallest adult male torso (probably "medium" size) on the tall stand. I can use this for eBay sales and my own sewing.

I never made it to Macy's.