If you remember my last year's NAS report you know that I take it very seriously. This is my 3rd year and I am trying to learn from all my previous NAS experiences - good and bad.
Because I live in Canada I don't have an easy access to the sale. Sure I can order online with international shipping and custom duties but the cost mounts up. However I am lucky enough to live 2h away from the closest Nordstrom over the border and I take full advantage of it!

These are my lessons learned from the previous years:
1. My shoe size is very hard to get and selection in the store might be pretty slim in my size. My strategy is to order everything I want to try on online to be delivered to the store, drive there, try everything on and return what I don't want. Because this happens in matter of days my credit charges don't go through before I return what I don't want.
2. Take into account exchange rate. Last year I I lost some money there because US dollar went down between my purchase and my return and I got back less than I originally spent.
To solve this problem I am charging everything on my Nordstrom card this year (I have to for pre-sale anyway). However it is a real pain to pay it off as they don't accept Canadian checks and I cannot make a direct payment from my account to the US business. I had to buy a money order and send it and it is additional cost and bother. Well, I have a solution this year - order everything on Nordstrom card online, then in the store return everything to this card and then buy what I want to keep with my Canadian VISA. Hopefully it will work.
3. I have to be more selective with my purchases. After my 1st NAS I returned almost all footwear (thanks God for Nordie's return policy!) and also gave away to my mom come clothes I did not wear that much. My second one was much better, with no returns. However I am not very happy about quality of some footwear I got. My BP Ruston boots seem pretty low quality: the leather upper got some deep wrinkles and I had to replace the heels after 5 wears as they were worn completely. I am going to be more selective this time and make sure I buy quality stuff of the utmost comfort level.
4. Some more specific points:
- don't buy any cardigans as you don't wear them much;
- don't get any more indoor blazers in thick fabric. I like my Hinge and Trouve cropped blazers from previous sales but they are very often too warm to wear indoors and their design makes them not suitable for outdoor wear: fabric is thick and warm enough to wear in pretty cool weather but they don't fasten or have very open front so it is not warm enough. As a result I don't wear them as often as I would like.
- very careful with the fit of the pants and jeans: I don't like them too tight on my hips and thighs; otherwise I can wear them with tunics only and this is very limiting.

I am trying to limit my NAS purchases to a few high quality things which are the right comfort level for me and fir well into my life style. Let's see how successful I am this year!
Do you have any NAS strategy this year or any lessons you want to share?