"Shopping is a sport"

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And I quote Ate Grace for that.

If the guys were all about watching Manny Pacquiao's boxing match, we girls travelled for about two hours south to Gilroy CA to go shopping at the Gilroy Premium Outlets.

I was in the presence of some of the best bargain shoppers I know: my Mom, Tita Babie, and Ate Grace.

It's been almost a decade since I last bought really good clothes. At that time, my Mom had said that it's better to pick quality pieces that just need to be mixed and matched. Since then, work and grad school got in the way of shopping and I never had to worry about my clothes because they're mainly durable. Recently, though, I had to let go of many good pieces because the colours have already faded or the fabrics have already become tattered (particularly the pants).

This shopping day was very productive because I bought many pieces and didn't go over half my budget. Every store we got into had clearance racks (I couldn't deal with so many clothes crowding these racks so Mommy and Ate Grace searched them) and clothes that weren't on these racks were tagged 30-40% off. Plus another 15% discount on some brands thanks to Ate Grace's coupons. The price reductions are really good because the brands where I got good fits in are those I deem to be too expensive back home... if they're available back home (definitely more expensive than my staples Bayo and HerBench). However, I couldn't get good fits in pants and so I decided that I'll be buying them when I get back home.

At the end of the day, I was exhausted from all the shopping, the fitting, the walking. I couldn't believe that my shopping buddies were still very energetic after all that. If shopping were really a sport, they're world-class athletes.

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