The Expensive Stage in Life

That stage of life where you start to begin to go from being a college kid to being a professional in the work place is very expensive!
The wardrobe has to be flipped from my usual as-many-layers-and-colors-and-patterns-in-a-single-outfit-as-possible-without-clashing to ooo-chic-and-professional. And I can get a good dozen or so outfits out of simply rearranging the articles of clothing I have into less dynamic arrangements. And that's all I needed for the occasional speaking at a church or the meeting with a preacher or the coffee date with a could-be supporter. But now! Now that the rest of my semester will be serving in church offices! Now I need a bit more than a dozen arguably professional outfits!
And I need shoes! The only pair of flats that I have are my black tennis shoes that I wore to work at the convention center! (And you don't want to wear heels all day, all week if you've not very sure that you'll be sitting at a desk all day, all week) And besides being tennis shoes, they're so worn I'll probably replace them before I wear them to work again! So I had to find shoes. Two walmarts and a target left me unsatisfied (oh the gas it takes to drive around to get what i need!!!!) I finally went to a payless and found a pair that I'm ok with and were at a price that I was ok paying even though I was only ok with the shoes. But then I had to buy socks! Because these shoes were the shoes that just cover the toes and even threaten to show off a bit of the cursed "toe-cleavage" and you can't just wear any kind of sock with those!
...I don't even want to think about jewelry....