About sixteen years ago, I met him for the first time. My trainwreck sibling brought home this adorable puppy he had no business adopting because he had not one thing in his life that wasn’t a mess. I was furious at my sibling – he didn’t even take care of himself, how could he drag
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July 8, 2008
I was vaguely enjoying this article about people who look at buying designer jeans, on their quest to find the “perfect jeans,” as an investment, or as a perfectly justifiable expense. Some price tags almost make the already unfathomable $200-300 jeans seem less ridiculous:
Roberto Cavalli’s bejeweled jeans, a celeb favorite: They’ll dent your wallet by $1,445.
And that’s nothing compared with a pair from Dolce & Gabbana. Those could run you $3,950. And if you really want to shoot the moon, a pair of Escada Couture jeans encrusted with Swarovski crystals cost $10,000. By the way, Swarovski more or less equates to Baccarat; both are Madison Avenue names.
The most expensive jeans on record are a pair of vintage Levi’s that sold for $60,000 on eBay on June 15, 2005, according to Guinness World Records.
Honestly, it wasn’t anything I hadn’t already heard and dismissed as run-of-the-mill spending insanity before. After all, I’m the girl who snagged one of her three working pairs of jeans (by “working” I mean there are no holes and none are threatening) for $12. (They fit wonderfully, even though they are a little long.) I think $60 is too much to pay, so really, any more than that is just someone’s eccentricity; I’m not your average jeans consumer. I know girls who own more jeans than I do t-shirts, and that scares me. Seriously, can you imagine the laundry? Actually, having more than three pairs of jeans would probably make separating out a jeans load a heck of a lot easier….
Anyway, when I got to the end of the article, my jaw dropped:
Here’s the ultimate: Pregnant women are a key market for denim designers. Of 20 mothers and mothers-to-be I surveyed, 65% said they had bought designer maternity jeans — to be worn for just a few months.
Only seven women didn’t.
“They were too expensive for too short of a usage period. My maternal practicality set in,” said Katharine Eaton, a human resources specialist from Glen Mills, Pa. “In retrospect, I wish I had and would do so if I was going through it again.”
I have never heard of such a thing!! Not that I think a 20 person survey is worth diddly in terms of a representative sample, but the fact that they could find enough people who like the idea of maternity designer jeans? For a few months of pregnancy? *faint*
My preference for Rite-Aid rebates, despite rarely going there since I don’t live near one, was always because I could easily submit the rebates online. Now we can submit our Walgreens rebates online as well!
Thanks to Kacie:
I just tried it out, and it was pretty easy. Go to Walgreens.com, click the EasySaver catalog button and click “claim rebates.” You’ll have to register for an account, but it doesn’t take much time.
You’ll enter a unique code from your receipt to show that you’ve purchased an item that generates a rebate.
I was tricked. No, it was really my fault. I intended to pick up a slab of Pork Country Ribs that were on sale for 99 cents/lb on Sunday. I was in a hurry, so I picked up one of the slabs in the rack right next to the big red sign proclaiming: Pork Shoulder Ribs: 99 cents/lb!
Unfortunately ….. it wasn’t really the right package. Even though there were no other packages of ribs right next to the sign, I failed to do more than wonder why the package was $10.31, assumed that it was ten pounds (it was only 4.4 pounds), and paid more than twice the price I intended to pay. Had I not been in a rush and preoccupied trying to figure out if I was going to meet with BF for dinner, I’m certain I would have double-checked that price and realized something was wrong before I got to the checkout stand.
My distraction pretty much derailed my budgeted grocery list, and I didn’t get nearly enough for my money. As I look at the ad again, it’s not specific about what brand of pork was on sale, either, so I’ll call later and find out if it’s possible that it wasn’t just a mistake on my part.
Either way, I’m a bit irked at myself. I’m usually so careful, and I just messed up. Phooey.
July 7, 2008
The sales waiting game, that is. Meritline has the iPhone earphone/headphone set with microphone for $10.99.
Combined with a 60% off coupon code [SHEAI60POFF] and free shipping, my replacement headset will cost $4.76. And I’ll get 1% Fatcash, and another 2% back from my CC rewards.
Perfect! It’s a shade below my previous price point, so I’m happy.
July 6, 2008
Whew, I made it. The past two days have been positively crammed full of activities and obligations, so much so that I wasn’t getting to bed until after 1 am. Am I getting too old to hang? 🙂 It’s actually been so busy that it wasn’t until after I checked the fluids in my car and cleaned house for a while that I realized I haven’t posted anything for two days!
Friday was fantastic fun. Hung out with best friend’s entire extended family for most of the day, networked with one of the relatives and may have a project lined up for several months from now. The cool thing is that I’m slowly putting some feelers out, very carefully, to certain acquaintances and friends to explore freelancing opportunities. I don’t plan to go freelance full-time, I definitely plan to keep my day job because I need my health insurance but this is another way of maintaining my sanity for right now.
Also, we went to Sonic Burger. Have you seen their silly shake commercials? I’ve seen a few, but the only thing that actually sticks with me is that they have tator tots. I love tator tots. Handily, I actually had cash on me to reimburse the person who put the meal on his credit card because I keep forgetting to make a bank run ($7).
Saturday was crammed with visiting: with friends for French Toast brunch in the morning ($1.50 for a dozen eggs), had a baby shower in the afternoon ($20 for baby-related gifts), and dinner with the cousins in the evening. I was literally running from one event to the next, and trying not to sweat too much. Ew. Spent the late night hours watching SNL, and gossiping with the kids. I guess I can’t call them “kids” really, anymore, as I was giving college and driving advice …. me? I’m experienced enough to give advice about college? Yeah, I guess so. Welcome to the almost real-world!
Finally hit the sack after 1 this morning, and luxuriated in my well-earned rest.
Today? I meant to work on my car’s lock but my car friend never showed up. Just checked my fluids and loaded the cargo net and emergency kit back in the trunk. All’s well there.
It was good to spend time with people I hadn’t seen in forever. Notably, family friends, friends from out of town, friends who are so busy working that I never see them, friends from former places of employ. There might have been a touch of stress from all the travel and shuttling about, but ’twas nothing a little cleaning workout today couldn’t work off.
I hope everyone had a great weekend!
July 3, 2008
So much for self control. I spent $15 this week on lunch fixings and had been making awesome roast beef sandwiches with fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, cheddar cheese with salad and baby carrots on the side. With only a four day week, I should have been set!
Despite the well-rounded meals, I couldn’t kick this craving for something fatty, or (almost) greasy. Despite having a nutritiously-sound lunch, I was still finding myself needing sweets or snacks and still feeling hungry all day. What’s up with that?
Yesterday, my answer was: pizza. We all chipped in to buy a medium pizza and a few orders of Boneless Chicken Wings. I managed to find a 20% online coupon for a first time online orderer, so that was helpful. We split the bill among the pizza&wing eaters, and just wing eaters, to be scrupulously fair, and I assigned the bill collection to another coworker so I could get the order in. My share turned out to be $9 for three slices of pizza and several helpings of wings.
And actually, guilty though I feel for spending out of turn, I did feel better for having a tummy full of pizza and honey barbeque wings.
July 2, 2008
| Retirement Savings |
Rollover IRA: $1,452
Roth IRA: $3,688
401(a): $4,085
403(b): $16,095
Total: $25,320
<-3%>
|
| Emergency Savings |
Catastrophe: 17,037
Problem Cushion: $1,382
|
| Short Term Goals |
Car Maintenance: $1,298
Car Insurance: $1,375
Travel/Con: $700
Taxes: $3,465
Moving: $5
Total: $6,868
|
| Long Term Goals |
House Downpayment: $43
|
| Investment Loans |
Prosper-ish: $12,630
Personal Loan: $5,000
Savings Bond: $357 (current accrued value)
Total: $17,997
|
| Total Assets |
Non-Liquid: $25,320
Semi-Liquid: $17,997
Liquid: $18,419
Expense Acct: $373
Goals Savings: $6,868
Total: $64,164
|
| Debt and Liabilities |
Truck: $4,683
Citi: $1,547
Chase: $838
Rent: $1,360
Total: $8,428
|
| Net Worth |
$60,544
|
— Up 7% —
Once again, it seems like the numbers are inflated; the “increased” net worth is due to the recent influx of cash. It’ll settle out soon enough, once the bills are paid off and the “extra” cash goes where it needs to go.
June ended far too soon, with too much left to do. I am happy that I have a bit more in my cushion, though. With the gas prices getting higher every day, I’ve had to readjust my expectations for monthly expenses, and adjust the emergency fund target upward accordingly. Of course, I will continue on my crusade to reduce expenses, but I prefer to plan for the worse (6 months of unemployment at current spending levels) and hope for the best (landing a better, higher-paying job, reducing expenses).
I’ve taken another feature off our landline, bringing that bill down to $30/month, but I want to speak with Tmobile tonight about their new version of a landline service. If that pans out and doesn’t affect my internet service ($14.99/month), I’ll switch from Verizon ($30/month) to T-mobile ($10/month, $50 start-up fee). At that rate, it’ll take 3 months before I start saving $20/month on phone services.
Oh! I added another $10 to my Down Payment account. Current total: $43.00. 😀
And I gave my Moving account a free $5 from my checking account cushion to start. It’s a drop in the bucket, but at least there’s a drop now. That should encourage more drops.
