Bad economy over?

I ran home today after a long day and was excited to see my Marie Claire magazine in the mail. I grabbed it and jumped in the bathtub. I wasn't a quarter way through when I noticed that the very expensive clothing, shoes and accessories are starting to sneak their way back into magazines. Within a few pages, I saw $800 shoes, $300 sunglasses and a $1200 bag. This is great if you are a Real Housewife of New York! What about the real people?

Last year Marie Claire had an issue that focused on completely affordable fashion in the tough economy. I thoroughly enjoyed that issue. I read it cover to cover and dog eared almost every page. Now they still have a Splurge vs. Steal page but even some of the steals are over $200 items. They also have a Look Great for Under $100 page. This page is great. I wish there were 20 more pages like them. Does advertising extremely expensive fashion contribute to our country's debt? Do women read these magazines and think to themselves that they must be the only ones not dropping this kind of cash on a pair of shoes? Don't get caught in that trap.

Some of my new favorite, totally affordable fashion lines are She Said, I "heart" Ronson and Bisou Bisou at JCPenney. Norma Kamali has great stuff on the walmart.com site. Target gets a new high fashion guest designer almost weekly and Kohls has Vera Wang. There is cute stuff everywhere. Look at this adorable top from She Said at Penneys. Wear it with a cute black pencil skirt and ankle booties, with leggings or jeans. It is on the site for $29.99. Use code APR10SUR for 15% off.

So to all of you women, the rest of us aren't out here spending that kind of money. You can look just as cute on a budget!