Good, cheap support is hard to find

I bent over to tie my tennis shoe and I heard a sharp "crick-snap" sound. Unfortunately this was the second time in the past three months that I've heard the sound, but this time I knew pretty quickly what had happened. A quick check under my shirt confirmed it. There went the underwire in my second-to-last bra (right side, same as the last time). Wouldn't you know this was my beige one. The pink one was first to go in November which just left me with a light purple one (which will look oh-so-lovely under a light colored shirt).

I bought my three bras almost three years ago off of e-bay (after my last beige one bit it in the exact same way). They've all been Victoria's Secret bras. I must have paid full price for the one from six years ago ($40), but couldn't afford to pay $120 to get three new bras. That's where e-bay comes in. I found them on there for a total of $35 for all three. Exact same ones as in the store, but missing the "Victoria's Secret" tag (so you can't do nefarious things like try to take it back to the store and exchange it for $40 or a gift card for store merchandise).

At any rate, all I can figure (after six years of study) is that they must make their underwire bras to last somewhere around 3 to 4 years then break making you have to go back and purchase more, the dirty buggers. It's a vicious little cycle (but hey, if I had the money, I'd be there buying bras in a heartbeat).

Unfortunately, I don't have the money so I did the only thing I could do--I went to Wal-Mart. I found two serviceable white ones that I could afford (total spent=$12.86). I thought that would be fine as it once again gave me a total of three bras. Until I wore one of the white ones twice and realized it was not comfortable at all. That's when I knew I needed to find at least one more.

I always look at the sales ads for the stores that interest me in the Sunday paper. I happened to see that Kohl's had their Bali bras on sale for $21.00. I had read a book recently where the lady in it had a Bali bra that broke and she mourned its loss. I thought if she loved it that much, maybe I should try one. Plus, I thought if I paid a bit more money for a bra it might be a little better quality (one can only hope).

I spent a good two hours in Kohl's searching for and trying on bras (one size and style definitely do not fit all). Not only did I try on the bras from the ad, but I happened to discover they had lots of discontinued bras on sale for $11.99 and $9.99 and other bras that weren't discontinued, but were on clearance for 80% off!! Those are my kind of bras. I bet I tried on at least fifty bras before I settled on three (peach-$3.00, pink-$11.99, taupe-$6.40, all originally $31.00!!!!!).

As I haven't had a chance to try them out yet, I can't say for sure how great they are, but I felt really good about the price I paid for them. A downside would be if they are discontinued, then I'm going to have to go through this exact same thing in three years (although these aren't Vicky's bras, so maybe I've got longer than three years??). Who knows really how long any bra will last? All I know is good, cheap support is hard to find.