Cost-Conscious Goldilocks

This past weekend, I bought a shirt from Kohl’s. I try to buy something from the department store every few months, whenever they send a ten-dollar Kohl’s Cash Card in the mail. If you limit yourself to the out of season, significantly reduced apparel, you can usually get something pretty nice for less than ten dollars. And this week was a tax-holiday! This bargain shopping mentality has left me with a plethora of decent work shirts, but a severe shortage of pants options.

All this Kohl’s talk though is just a strange lead-in to the true crux of my lack of quality pants: I’m getting bigger. It’s happened so slowly that it is almost difficult to notice. Ten years ago, I graduated college wearing baggy, saggy pants measuring 32 inches at the waist. In the next few years, the 32’s became a little snug, and for a long time I was hovering around 33 and 34.

A year or two ago, I came upon a pair of 36 inch pants (on Old Navy’s Clearance Rack) and recently I realized that they are, by far, the most worn pants I own. I still wear some 34’s fairly regularly as they aren’t uncomfortably snug, yet; plus most of my pants are 34’s. I should say that my beloved 36 inch pants are a little big, and I do need a belt so that they appear neither baggy nor saggy. It’s almost as if my waist measures somewhere between 34 inches and 36 inches, but where?

Lo and behold, there is a number between 34 and 36! So, maybe, just maybe, my goldilocks waistline is 35 inches, which leaves me to wonder why I can’t buy something off the shelf that fits just right. My choices are either too big or too small.

Even before college, I’ve followed the progression. I remember buying pants in high school that were 29’s. 30 inches I remember well. 31 inches I still see quite a lot of. 32 and 34 are both very popular, and now you don’t even have to really search for the 33 inch measurements.

34 is the cut-off though. After that it is just evens. Maybe the thought is after 34 inches, it doesn’t really matter if your pants fit just right. Or probably more accurately, if you limit your shopping to bargains at department stores, you don’t care if your pants fit just right.