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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June 24, 2007
I’ve got a challenge for you, my sartorially gifted readers. I’d love some advice on how to build work appropriate outfits with this blazer. I know the pictures aren’t the best, but a basic description of the blazer is: Full notched collar. Single button front. Havana plaid. Half sleeves with three button cuffs. Front flap pockets. Contoured fit.
Bearing in mind that I’ve only got black pinstriped, regular black or gray trousers, knee-length black or white skirts, and I’d really rather not buy more clothes just because of this blazer, what sort of outfits would you suggest? Other than with a tank top and blue jeans, I’ve got that one down. š
I must be on an out-for-the -summer circadian rhythm. I’m irresistably sleepy at 5pm, wake up in time for dinner and then stay up the rest of the night reading into the wee hours. I’ve really got to stop this! If for no other reason, so that I don’t sleep between 4am and 11am, losing the entire morning.
Despite the late start, I did manage to get myself to the mall to replace my parents’ cell phones with T-Mobile (remind me to tell you about that encounter and also hit about 7 different stores to try to find replacement shorts for my two pairs of khaki shorts, circa 2000. This is part of my ongoing quest to deFrumpify my wardrobe, an item or two at a time.
All in all, I did ok, though I spent a bit too much. Didn’t finish half of my errands, but I DID accomplish a few important things:
T-mobile, 2 Samsung T-219 phones for: $0. No tax, no shipping (savings of $20, had I ordered them over the phone) and no hassle.
Express, New York and Co., Forever 21, Ann Taylor Loft, Aeropostale and American Eagle were all having some sort of sale, alas, nothing fit.
Macy’s: $61.61 for (all on sale) two pairs of shorts, and a 3/4 sleeve Guess blazer whose niche in my closet I’ve not quite determined yet. The blazer was $35 on sale, making the shorts a great deal ($11 and $13, respectively) but the blazer? Not so much.
Trader Joe’s: $10, their milk and eggs are consistently priced lower than any other store, and that’s their regular price. Their bread, however, leaves much to be desired. At nearly $3 for a 2-pound loaf, I expect the bread not to fall apart when I make a sandwich!
I didn’t get to:
Recycling.
Walgreens to check out their FAR items.
Target: I need some heel inserts for my new work shoes.
Perhaps next weekend!
June 23, 2007
My friends and I spent a rather pleasant afternoon by the pool today. We tried to avoid prime sunburn hours, especially for the ultra-whities among us, by having lunch first and then sitting mostly clothed with our legs in the unheated spa. Despite the liberal use of sunblock at least 30 minutes before I went outside, I still managed to get a little burned.
I used this ridiculously expensive bottle of Aloe Up bought from the hotel gift shop during our business retreat back in … er, February? I had neglected to bring any sunscreen outside of my usual facial moisturizer sunscreen, and we were scheduled for a hike in the Tucson desert, so I let the office buy me a nice 7 ounce bottle of this “Enriched Aloe Spa Formula” which is touted as an “Aloe based Ultra High Sunscreen, SPF 30.” It’s what they call a dry lotion formula that’s sweat resistant, hypoallergenic, non-comodogenic, and biodegradable. I’m not sure why exactly it had to be biodegradable, but there you go. Anyhow, the back of the bottle says it’s sweat resistant, very water resistant (MUCH better than the merely water resistant) and “Formulated for athletes who spend hoursi n the sun, water, wind or snow. With antioxidants.” I looked hard for the “Cures cancer, gout and other miscellaneous ills” but didn’t find it. Yep, it sounded like a bunch of hooey when all I was looking for was effective sun protection.
So, despite the non-greasiness, the moderate lack of that weird sunscreen smell, and the SPF 30, I still got Roasty-Toasty! *sigh* Actually, it’s weird because I’ve only gotten sunburned a couple times before this. Either my skin’s gotten more sensitive as I get older, or it’s time for new sunscreen! Still, the expiration date is 02-22-09, it seems a little soon to require replacing, doesn’t it?
June 21, 2007
Perhaps it’s the parents-are-away syndrome. And it’s the first day of summer!!
I paid my parents’ tax bill eons ago, ages ago, and now the IRS is demanding their money. Again. Uh, NO. I really don’t think so. But that means I have to search through my checking accounts for an copy of the check and, most times, I can’t usually recall which checking account was most convenient account to use at the time.
Thank goodness for online check images!! At least I don’t have to fuss until I get home and then risk major papercuts wading through my returned checks. Still, times like these make me wonder if I shouldn’t just use ONE checking account to make my bill paying/referencing life simpler.
June 18, 2007
My friend, she of the recent elopement, has also bitten a bullet recently. Since her wedding, she’s begun to seriously listen to finance advice and become involved in the mystical world of personal finance.
Until now, she’s had the good fortune to be parentally-funded for some portions of school, and living expenses, and self-funded for the rest of her wants and needs (ie: travel, internships, living on her own, etc.) She’s not, now, financially up a creek, but she and her hubby are integrating finances and live on a real live budget which is completely foreign to her. If anything, she used The Force. She could afford to as a young single professional woman. There wasn’t any real need to deny herself, and the alternative was always the terrible example I’d set of working too much, and denying yourself. Yes, you turn into ME. š
Thankfully, her hubby has been budgeting for himself as a member of the military for a good number of years, and has a good savings plan set up so now it’s really a matter of “training” one another. Ok, it’s a matter of training her, but she’s up for the challenge and I introduced her to my pets this weekend: Yodlee and PearBudget. Thanks to GoogleDocs, she’ll be able to share the budgeting tools with her hubby (still currently long distance). My friends are growing up and I’m so proud of them!
Two weeks ago I bit the bullet and sent in my change of contribution forms drastically trimming down my 403(b) contributions to little more than the required amount to get the full company match. Today, I added up the amounts of my Rollover IRA that I never look at, the Roth and 403(b), to find it’s a shade over 10k!
It doesn’t seem like much, but that’s a 150% increase in my 403(b), and the Roth is brand new as well (for 2006.) This helps the bitter go down a little more easily, as does the knowledge that I’ll pick up contributions again as soon as I’m able.
June 13, 2007
Huh, I just found myself on the list of The 100 Most Inspirational Personal Finance Turnaround Stories Online over at Credit Card Lowdown. Admittedly filed under the Money Mistakes section, but hey, who am I to gripe? After all, I’m in pretty good company with Mapgirl, Clever Dude, Rich Minx, and LAMoneyGuy.
I do think it’s sort of odd that SingleMa was categorized under “Debt” because I felt like she fell under Saving, Building Wealth (oh yeah, she’s definitely doing that!) and Real Estate. But given just one choice, I guess her strategizing to pay off Debts has been one of the more powerful themes. Especially since she just paid off her car loan š
