Until a week ago, if you asked me how much I'd spend on a bra, I'd say around $30. Period.

I've always chosen my everyday bras based on what's on sale, and they've all worked out well enough.

A bra is a bra is a bra. Right? Well now, I'm not so sure.

I was sent a bra to try out this past week (from a COMPANY- get your mind out of the gutter!). It was a bra I've heard raves about over the years and I'd always wanted to try it, but there was only one problem.

It cost $62.

When I put it on, all my theories about bras went right out the window.

Want to know more? Read on ....

The first time I bought a pair of Spanx, I was so shifty-eyed and secretive, I might as well have been buying drugs. I felt like the purchase was an admission that I'd never again have the perfectly svelte body of my college days. It was depressing. Embarrassing. Soul-crushing.

If only Kristen Stewart's scandalous Spanx secret had been exposed back then ... I would have felt so much better.

Fall catalogs are stacking up, making us all feel inadequate, so it's time to do something meaningful with the misery and make our fall wardrobes wonderful. So you didn't lose the ten extra pounds over the summer like you'd hoped. Me neither. But that's no excuse NOT to shop for great-looking clothes this season. In fact, the only answer to the extra-ten-pounds woe is buying clothes that fit your ten-pounds-heavier body, which actually makes you look and feel thinner. I swear it's true!

Plus, this fall there are many slimming trends and styles that can help camouflage problem areas, from tummies to thighs to waists that are shorter than the length of my index finger (shut up I was born this way, and no I don't have an extra long index finger). They won't all work for everyone -- because we're all perfectly imperfect in different ways -- but I promise you'll find a few that will make you feel fabulous!

Let's take a peek at 5 fall styles with a magical slimming effect!

As a woman, finding a button-down shirt that fits properly and keeps your ta-tas covered up is unfortunately more challenging than it should be. Washington lobbyist Rochelle Behrens reached the end of her rope with this phenomenon after numerous occasions when her dress shirts would gape between buttons, unintentionally giving male colleagues a peek at her bra. You know guys, and they didn't hesitate to mock Behrens for her bursting bust.

That's when Behrens had her "Spanx moment." She began devoting all of her free time to working on a design for The Shirt, a button-down shirt meant to fit correctly across a woman's bust, allowing her to remain modest in the workplace. She ended up working with a pattern maker in NYC who worked with Diane Von Furstenberg (lucky!).

Obviously, a shirt like this is something many of us have been missing from our wardrobes, because Behrens projects to sell 10,000 of the shirts by the end of the year. (She even quit her job as a lobbyist!)

Ladies, I present to you the bathing suit I bought for this summer.

It is the Isabella Miraclesuit and it's available at Eddie Bauer (among other places) right now for $142.

I got it for less during a Memorial Day sale, fortunately, but let me tell you -- IT IS WORTH EVERY PENNY.

I was actually so happy when I tried the suit on that I was sorely tempted to take a picture for this blog. Me. In a swimsuit for God and everybody to see. Hell has truly frozen over.

Anyway, I can't recommend this particular suit highly enough, but I've got more that would look GREAT on you (and are more budget-friendly, too!) after the jump!

Poor Khloé Kardashian. First we find out that mom Kris Jenner tortured her, saying that she's wrecking the "Kardashian brand" by eating cookies. Now, she's come out as a sufferer of cellulite. This girl just can't win the body image war! But she's out to self-improve, and in the process, help the rest of us. YAY.

Most recently, she's partnered with Nivea to be the new face of their "Goodbye Cellulite, Hello Bikini!" Challenge, which is eye-rollingly described as a "total body care system to help reduce the appearance of cellulite with a combination of fitness, nutrition, skin care, and style plans." The program also involves an "interactive bikini adviser" and "product suggestions" ... whatever the hell any of that means! If you ask me, it's just Nivea and Khloé's way of telling us that we're not allowed to sport swimwear until we spend $$$ on products that purport to make our thighs look airbrushed.

They are popping up everywhere, and no, I'm not talking cicadas here. I'm talking the maxi dress. So cute, so easy -- just pop it on and you're good to go. But have you noticed many of them are strapless? Have little spaghetti straps? Basically, wardrobe malfunctions waiting to happen, ladies ... especially risky for us moms.

Say you're wearing one of those tube-top maxi dresses, reach up to grab Junior from the monkey bars as your dress slides down, and -- boing! -- a NSFW, er, NSFP (not safe for park) moment that would make Janet Jackson's Super Bowl incident look PG-13. 

So what's a mom to do? Never fear. We have some fabu maxi dresses that protect your boobs so you don't end up looking like one.

Okay, seriously, I'm the last person to see a Victoria's Secret model and think, "Gee, I wish I could look like that chick who is 6 foot 2, 110 pounds with a DD cup." I'm 4 foot 11 and genetically predispositioned to be the human equivalent of a Russian nesting doll. In other words, I'll never be anything close to these Amazon queens who sport the best push-up bras around, and that's OKAY.

But you know the Angels are supposed to be "aspirational" to most American women. So you'd think those geniuses over in the digital retouching center at VS corporate would try a little harder to make them look, well, HUMAN. Ah, but no ... they've been caught red-handed this week making another boneheaded PhotoShop blunder. This time, it seems like they've tried to undo the damage scary-skinny model Candice Swanepoel did by recently appearing in public looking like a thigh-less wonder (right) ...