Yesterday I did something to save money that made me uncomfortable – which is saying a lot. I have dumpster dived, switched to cloth wipes, and refused to spend a penny for an entire month.

And now, this.

I met her online, through a Facebook group that many of my friends belong to. She needed cash quickly and was willing to meet the next day. I told her what to bring and we set a time.

The next day, we both pulled into the parking lot of a local pizza joint. We exchanged awkward greetings, then walked in together. She picked a table at the back of the restaurant and ordered a beer. I declined the waitress’ offer to look at a menu. I didn’t even want water.

Then the Facebook woman, I’ll call her Rachelle, pulled out two huge bags of clothes and showed them to me, one by one.

I picked what I liked, smooshed them into a heap, and carried them into the pizza restaurant bathroom.

Luckily, there was no line.

Luckily, there was a changing table that I could unload the heap onto.

Luckily, it was clean.

Then I stripped naked.

I tried on the clothes Rachelle was selling. Using a portrait-sized mirror above the bathroom sink, I tried to get a good look at my butt in Cabi jeans. About half of the clothes fit. I made a file of yeses, maybes, and nos. Pulled on my own clothes, grabbed the heap of clothes off the changing table, and walked back to Rachelle’s table.

Luckily, I was able to avoid eye contact with the waitress.

Luckily, I didn’t drop any of the clothes.

Luckily, she is an impulse shopper who buys nice clothes and is exactly my size.

I gave Rachelle back the clothes I didn’t want and asked her how much she wanted for the others.

She pulled out a yellow lined sheet of paper.

I added the numbers out loud, she used her phone.

$6 for the Loft wool cardi

$12 for the cashmere sweater

$8 for the J.Crew merino sweater

$18 for the Cabi jeans (they are new with tags!)

$6 for the Moda cotton cardi

$8 for the Banana Republic ruffle top

The total was $58 for 6 pieces of clothing, most of them in excellent condition or never worn. She asked for $55.

Luckily, she is moving to Florida and doesn’t need sweaters anymore.

Luckily, she priced them so low that I convinced myself to try them on in a pizza restaurant bathroom!

Luckily, I had exact change.

What extreme tactics are you doing to save money?

PS. I discovered a new coupon site called Frugaa.com recently. One nifty feature is a box on the sidebar that tells you exactly how many coupons are on the site, how many were added today, how many free shipping offers there are, and more.