bshag, I did the same thing with those clothes...it really steamed me too!
However, I am not doing 3rd party CC in my game right now, so I am buying some items from the store...it's hard to go cold turkey with CC. Mostly bought hair even if the styles aren't as pretty as some of the CC stuff.
I'm hoping they give us some free Christmas stuff...but I think I read somewhere they are making a Christmas Sims3 pack (did anyone hear about that??), bummer for those of us who have the game already. I hope they offer the Christmas stuff in the store if they end up packaging it with the TS3 game!!!
Happy Simming!