Bath & Body Works is having their semi-annual sale. I checked out my local store last night and was really glad that I did. Since they came out with their new, snooty-looking packaging, they have to get rid of all of the older packages, so I got lotion and body splashes for $4 each (compare to $10.50 or $11.00 regularly). The Aromatherapy and Signature collections (i.e., pretty much all of the products that you would use) are buy 2/get 2 free. Hand soaps are 3 for $10; body wash foams are $4. Almost all of their other merchandise, like robes and rubber duckies and flip flops and massager thingies and water bottles and such, are 50-75% off.
I signed up for their email a while ago, so I also had a coupon for $10 off a purchase of $40 or more. So I stocked up on a couple of my favorite fragrances and came out with a haul that would regularly have totaled $104.00-- for $38.16. Not too bad, and I'm set with pretty smelly stuff for a while.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Thursday, March 26, 2009
One good thing about the financial meltdown...
Good news for consumers has been scarce of late. My own bank actually went under; well, actually, it was bought out by a slightly larger and more stable regional bank. From this stems some of the little GOOD financial market news that I've gotten lately-- I no longer have to pay ATM fees to use the new parent institution's ATMs. :) The transition has so far been seamless for me, and this little discovery made me happy, since Parent Bank has a lot more machines than My Bank does!
Monday, January 12, 2009
Why Everyone Else is Wrong!
Dear Kelly,
As most of the world now knows my Husbandy thing and I are hunting a house. As a direct result of this we have spent FAR too much time watching HGTV. After watching these shows and occasionally yelling at the people about to buy homes for being fools we sometimes turn to each other and ask "Is there something wrong with us?"
We are fully aware that we may be asking for too much in our first home and we've already made some compromises in that area but are going to hold firm until there is reasonable belief that the house we want is not going to come along in our price range. This is not the cause of our most recent insecurity...or not the one worth blogging about here anyway. :)
Last night I watched a couple put down a down payment only a few thousand larger than ours on a house over 3 times as expensive. Now true the couple was in medicine (with the attendant student loans) and it is a well known fact, that after each shift medical professionals roll around in large piles of cash to clean off the grime of their day.
This would account for the occasionally terrifying statistics on the types of scary impurities on your average dollar bill.
But since no one has managed to burn sarcasm as lantern oil let's just say that my husband and I were at once horrified and horrified. Someone here must be wrong!
Must be wrong...
Now the old MSN calculators are a fine place to turn in times of boredom and I have of course run their "How much home can you afford" calculation more than once. The number they come up with is 2 times the one that I've been using to hunt homes.
I know I know. The conventional wisdom would have it that if 95% of people hold an opinion then there's probably a good reason and they're probably right. However this opinion is on how much house I can afford so I have 2 good reasons to say they're wrong.
1 Have you seen the housing market lately? Apparently not run by Rhodes Scholars.
2 I happen to be me. I have a front row view of my life (whether I want it or not) and therefore happen to know more about myself than most other people. I'd like to think all but there are a few Doctors that might disagree.
The MSN Calculator performs some strange voodoo with numbers that I occasionally had to guess on (for example I don't actually know my credit score). There's multiplying, dividing and probably a fraction or square root thrown in somewhere.
Our calculations are much simpler and threfore easier to trust. Take monthly income minus bills. Some number less than this is how much we can afford a month. Take virtually all money available and call it a down payment. Now no matter how uncool it is that is 20% of what you can afford! PMI Insurance is an expense that you don't have to put up with.
Do not assume you will grow into your house payment you may also loose your job or your leg. Think of it this way, your down payment is how much you've managed to save without selling a kidney up until now. As such it is an ok estimate of what you can save in the future. Do you really want to be any more miserable in the future than you are now?
Sure, I'm oversimplifying but personally I'd rather get less house and know I can pay for it than more and loose it! I realize that the houses in my price range are more or less a mixed bag of feces. All I want is the one piece of...feces that will take a polish!
Now, I can only hope that realtors see it that way and don't try to sell us more house than we can afford. Oh, and for those of you who live in the Harrisburg area, where are the structurally sound crappy looking houses in neighborhoods that don't scare me? Realize that I'm only a little better than a hermit....
Forclosedly yours,
Althea
As most of the world now knows my Husbandy thing and I are hunting a house. As a direct result of this we have spent FAR too much time watching HGTV. After watching these shows and occasionally yelling at the people about to buy homes for being fools we sometimes turn to each other and ask "Is there something wrong with us?"
We are fully aware that we may be asking for too much in our first home and we've already made some compromises in that area but are going to hold firm until there is reasonable belief that the house we want is not going to come along in our price range. This is not the cause of our most recent insecurity...or not the one worth blogging about here anyway. :)
Last night I watched a couple put down a down payment only a few thousand larger than ours on a house over 3 times as expensive. Now true the couple was in medicine (with the attendant student loans) and it is a well known fact, that after each shift medical professionals roll around in large piles of cash to clean off the grime of their day.
This would account for the occasionally terrifying statistics on the types of scary impurities on your average dollar bill.
But since no one has managed to burn sarcasm as lantern oil let's just say that my husband and I were at once horrified and horrified. Someone here must be wrong!
Must be wrong...
Now the old MSN calculators are a fine place to turn in times of boredom and I have of course run their "How much home can you afford" calculation more than once. The number they come up with is 2 times the one that I've been using to hunt homes.
I know I know. The conventional wisdom would have it that if 95% of people hold an opinion then there's probably a good reason and they're probably right. However this opinion is on how much house I can afford so I have 2 good reasons to say they're wrong.
1 Have you seen the housing market lately? Apparently not run by Rhodes Scholars.
2 I happen to be me. I have a front row view of my life (whether I want it or not) and therefore happen to know more about myself than most other people. I'd like to think all but there are a few Doctors that might disagree.
The MSN Calculator performs some strange voodoo with numbers that I occasionally had to guess on (for example I don't actually know my credit score). There's multiplying, dividing and probably a fraction or square root thrown in somewhere.
Our calculations are much simpler and threfore easier to trust. Take monthly income minus bills. Some number less than this is how much we can afford a month. Take virtually all money available and call it a down payment. Now no matter how uncool it is that is 20% of what you can afford! PMI Insurance is an expense that you don't have to put up with.
Do not assume you will grow into your house payment you may also loose your job or your leg. Think of it this way, your down payment is how much you've managed to save without selling a kidney up until now. As such it is an ok estimate of what you can save in the future. Do you really want to be any more miserable in the future than you are now?
Sure, I'm oversimplifying but personally I'd rather get less house and know I can pay for it than more and loose it! I realize that the houses in my price range are more or less a mixed bag of feces. All I want is the one piece of...feces that will take a polish!
Now, I can only hope that realtors see it that way and don't try to sell us more house than we can afford. Oh, and for those of you who live in the Harrisburg area, where are the structurally sound crappy looking houses in neighborhoods that don't scare me? Realize that I'm only a little better than a hermit....
Forclosedly yours,
Althea
Friday, December 19, 2008
I"M ALIVE!
Dear Kelly,
Yes, I am in fact still alive. My finances are also doing rather well in a general sense but I'll admit that they're also a blur. My new job came with a new paycheck that has made me rather happy as has the fall in gas prices both nationwide and as a result of my move to a cheaper fuel area. These facts are almost enough to justify my multiple monthly 8 hours on the turnpike to see my new husband.
I'm crashing in my Aunts (canary yellow) spare room until I find a place to call my own so I have few expenses. This almost justifies the massive cash hemorrhage that actually going out with my Aunt in the evening seems to cause.
Of course just when I have a handle on my average paycheck December rolls around and I need to elect how much to put into the company 401K, and how much supplemental insurance to get. Accident insurance sounds like a rather good idea in my line of work and recreation. Sickness seems like a reasonable idea since accident doesn't cover tetanus... I see a lot of rust in my line of work.
The cost of living out here is much higher (rent in a decent neighborhood can easily run $900 a month) and I'm driving a lot more. I've done some house hunting but the economy falling to pieces is deterring me from making any hasty moves.
I admit it, I'm in a holding pattern financially and my only certainty is that it is a terribly inconvenient time to be in your 20's, but I don't intend to stay here so tune in next week (or whenever) for my exciting adventures.
Overwhelmedly!,
Althea
Yes, I am in fact still alive. My finances are also doing rather well in a general sense but I'll admit that they're also a blur. My new job came with a new paycheck that has made me rather happy as has the fall in gas prices both nationwide and as a result of my move to a cheaper fuel area. These facts are almost enough to justify my multiple monthly 8 hours on the turnpike to see my new husband.
I'm crashing in my Aunts (canary yellow) spare room until I find a place to call my own so I have few expenses. This almost justifies the massive cash hemorrhage that actually going out with my Aunt in the evening seems to cause.
Of course just when I have a handle on my average paycheck December rolls around and I need to elect how much to put into the company 401K, and how much supplemental insurance to get. Accident insurance sounds like a rather good idea in my line of work and recreation. Sickness seems like a reasonable idea since accident doesn't cover tetanus... I see a lot of rust in my line of work.
The cost of living out here is much higher (rent in a decent neighborhood can easily run $900 a month) and I'm driving a lot more. I've done some house hunting but the economy falling to pieces is deterring me from making any hasty moves.
I admit it, I'm in a holding pattern financially and my only certainty is that it is a terribly inconvenient time to be in your 20's, but I don't intend to stay here so tune in next week (or whenever) for my exciting adventures.
Overwhelmedly!,
Althea
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Clothes (mostly)
Um, wow, so it's been... over... 3 months since our last post. We haven't forgotten you, Blog, we promise. We've just been busy. I've been trying to live through a couple of graduate-level business classes (long story) and Althea has been trying to live through getting and starting to be married.
But I actually have some bloggy, thrifty news and tips to share. First, in tragic news, my favorite clothing store is going out of business. Actually, this might be good news, because this is the store that could wheedle $100 out of my wallet faster than you could sell a beer to an alcoholic, but it still makes me sad. Where am I supposed to go to buy work clothes that fit my little self now? I can't afford The Limited, American Eagle doesn't carry office-wear, and nothing at J.C. Penny's, Sears, or Macy's comes in my size. Oh, well. The silver lining to this dreary cloud is that they have slashed 60-70% off of everything in order to liquidate their inventory. My mom and I went for one last hurrah yesterday. I sat down with my receipt when I got home and totaled up the regular retail price for all of my purchases and realized that I would, under normal circumstances, have had to pay about $260 for those items. Fortunately, I did not pay that much. :)
Second, you should really go buy this month's Glamour (yes, the one with Britney Spears on the cover). Normally their fashion tips are either a bit of a yawn or a bit outrageous, but this month they have a feature entitled "100 Perfect Outfits (That Are Already in Your Closet)." It's full of fantastic ways to mix and match clothes in ways that I, for one, would not have dreamed up on my own but am actually anxious to try now that I have seen them. It would never have occurred to me, for instance, to pull a sweater on over top of my basic sheath dress and use the dress as a skirt... or to layer a white shirt underneath the same sheath dress to give it more of a work-vibe than a cocktails-vibe. They look at pieces that most people have lying around in some form or other and show you ways to make those pieces work in lots of situations. My fantasy alter ego, the one with a capsule wardrobe a la a sophisticated (but bathed) French girl, just quadrupled her wardrobe options.
Third, and most fantastically, I have learned a way to remove the gross and nasty yellow sweat stains from the armpits of clothes! IT IS SO EASY. Here is what you do: take one part white vinegar and one part water and put them together. Take a sponge or a corner of a towel or something like that and dab this vinegar solution on the stain. It will disappear. That's it. I was skeptical, but I tried this on a white eyelet sundress last night. I haven't worn it in ages because of the nasty stains, but I loved the dress too much to throw it out. Now I am really, really glad that I didn't, because it has a brand-new lease on life... and I am all set in case the boyfriend and I ever need to elope. ;)
Tune in next time for ideas on how to decorate your walls with cool art/photography for next to nothing!
But I actually have some bloggy, thrifty news and tips to share. First, in tragic news, my favorite clothing store is going out of business. Actually, this might be good news, because this is the store that could wheedle $100 out of my wallet faster than you could sell a beer to an alcoholic, but it still makes me sad. Where am I supposed to go to buy work clothes that fit my little self now? I can't afford The Limited, American Eagle doesn't carry office-wear, and nothing at J.C. Penny's, Sears, or Macy's comes in my size. Oh, well. The silver lining to this dreary cloud is that they have slashed 60-70% off of everything in order to liquidate their inventory. My mom and I went for one last hurrah yesterday. I sat down with my receipt when I got home and totaled up the regular retail price for all of my purchases and realized that I would, under normal circumstances, have had to pay about $260 for those items. Fortunately, I did not pay that much. :)
Second, you should really go buy this month's Glamour (yes, the one with Britney Spears on the cover). Normally their fashion tips are either a bit of a yawn or a bit outrageous, but this month they have a feature entitled "100 Perfect Outfits (That Are Already in Your Closet)." It's full of fantastic ways to mix and match clothes in ways that I, for one, would not have dreamed up on my own but am actually anxious to try now that I have seen them. It would never have occurred to me, for instance, to pull a sweater on over top of my basic sheath dress and use the dress as a skirt... or to layer a white shirt underneath the same sheath dress to give it more of a work-vibe than a cocktails-vibe. They look at pieces that most people have lying around in some form or other and show you ways to make those pieces work in lots of situations. My fantasy alter ego, the one with a capsule wardrobe a la a sophisticated (but bathed) French girl, just quadrupled her wardrobe options.
Third, and most fantastically, I have learned a way to remove the gross and nasty yellow sweat stains from the armpits of clothes! IT IS SO EASY. Here is what you do: take one part white vinegar and one part water and put them together. Take a sponge or a corner of a towel or something like that and dab this vinegar solution on the stain. It will disappear. That's it. I was skeptical, but I tried this on a white eyelet sundress last night. I haven't worn it in ages because of the nasty stains, but I loved the dress too much to throw it out. Now I am really, really glad that I didn't, because it has a brand-new lease on life... and I am all set in case the boyfriend and I ever need to elope. ;)
Tune in next time for ideas on how to decorate your walls with cool art/photography for next to nothing!
Thursday, September 4, 2008
A busy girl (or guy's) life
So... it has been a busy summer. It has been an expensive summer. I have been to more weddings than I ever anticipated in the course of the last few months (two to go this fall!), and I am almost halfway through my first class in an MBA program. Yes, I am in Financial Accounting. No, I'm not sure that I'm going to pass. But you know what? Balancing my checkbook doesn't terrify me nearly as much these days.
My fella has started volunteering as an assistant high school football coach, so we are busy folks and don't get to spend as much time together as we would like. The last thing that we need to add is unnecessary financial stress or unhealthy foods that are going to compromise our health or energy. So over Labor Day weekend, we loaded up both of our crockpots to take with us to his house-sitting gig. After church, we sat down with a cookbook, made a shopping list, hit the grocery store, and made two crockpot dinners and a casserole and divided it all up into single-serving portions to put in our freezers. The time that we actually spent on the prep and dividing up probably totalled less than an hour, and we were together, so it was fun.
We each spent about $18 and got 4 or 5 healthy dinners out of it. Hey, it's cheaper and much healthier than McDonald's! We could have trimmed costs farther, but this particular grocery store didn't have any almost-expired meat. It is easy for me to throw a frozen meal in my work bag when I have a night shift, and it's easy for him to throw one in the microwave when he gets home from work and practice and is totally beat. We're planning to make the joint batch-cooking a weekend habit. Since we're both pretty stressed most of the week, it helps a lot to know that we don't have to worry about scrounging around for dinner.
We love our crockpots. So does this lady. Check out her blog... it is awesome. She is my personal inspiration.
My fella has started volunteering as an assistant high school football coach, so we are busy folks and don't get to spend as much time together as we would like. The last thing that we need to add is unnecessary financial stress or unhealthy foods that are going to compromise our health or energy. So over Labor Day weekend, we loaded up both of our crockpots to take with us to his house-sitting gig. After church, we sat down with a cookbook, made a shopping list, hit the grocery store, and made two crockpot dinners and a casserole and divided it all up into single-serving portions to put in our freezers. The time that we actually spent on the prep and dividing up probably totalled less than an hour, and we were together, so it was fun.
We each spent about $18 and got 4 or 5 healthy dinners out of it. Hey, it's cheaper and much healthier than McDonald's! We could have trimmed costs farther, but this particular grocery store didn't have any almost-expired meat. It is easy for me to throw a frozen meal in my work bag when I have a night shift, and it's easy for him to throw one in the microwave when he gets home from work and practice and is totally beat. We're planning to make the joint batch-cooking a weekend habit. Since we're both pretty stressed most of the week, it helps a lot to know that we don't have to worry about scrounging around for dinner.
We love our crockpots. So does this lady. Check out her blog... it is awesome. She is my personal inspiration.
Monday, June 2, 2008
Spending to save
Some thoughts on how an initial outlay of cash can save you money in the long run (sometimes)...
Sometimes it just makes sense to spend money.
Yesterday I had to take my car to the shop AGAIN. I just poured $632.66 into her a month and a half before (brakes and exhaust systems are important and, apparently, pricey) and was still reeling from that financial blow. I was worried about a metallic scraping sound that I heard every time I made a left turn. I was worried about the cost, but I am also a big believer in fixing little problems before they grow into big problems or before, say, your front left wheel falls off as you are zipping down the highway at 60 miles an hour. My boyfriend and I discussed our preventative maintenance philosophy on the way back from dropping my car off. Do I believe that my car needs the $400 tune-up the Honda dealer tried to sell me? No. Do I change my oil religiously every 3,000 miles? Yes. As he put it, a friend of his who knew something about cars had told him once "If it comes down to you can afford to eat OR you can afford to change the oil... you change the oil." Of course, we both try very hard to make sure that we're never in THAT position, but it illustrates my point.
Fortunately, the sound appeared to be a bent dust shield scraping a rotor-- nothing to worry about, just annoying, and they bent it back into shape for free! :)
Other times that an initial outlay can save you money:
* Personal grooming implements. I like to have neat eyebrows. I have very dark hair and fairly pale skin, so it shows if I don't keep after them. I love my relatively expensive tweezers and recently purchased a little brush and scissors set that I am still figuring out exactly how to use. Each was probably $10-15. That seems steep... until you think about dropping $10 every time you get your brows waxed at a salon. I am still working on achieving the perfect upper arch... but things are getting better and I recoup my outlay in about three months. My tweezers and $4 eyelash curler have worked great for me for four years-- though I should probably get some replacement cushions for the curler and see if there's an easy way to sharpen the tweezers a bit. :) But $30 every 4-5 years vs. $10 every month or six weeks is a pretty easy one to call.
* Oil changes. Nasty things happen to your engine if you don't keep after these. Same goes for tires-- oil changes and tires are worth staying on top of. You don't want your engine to self-destruct, and you certainly don't want to go skidding off of the road into a tree.
* A good thermos, water bottle, and filter pitcher. I take my own thermos of coffee to work every day (the machine in the lounge charges 50 cents for a mugful!) and also bring a 32-ounce bottle of water from my filter pitcher (the vending machine at work charges $1.25 for a 20-oz bottle, and I can't stand the tap water). I recouped my costs on those long ago.
* A DVD player! Have you gone to a movie theater lately?! It's MUCH cheaper to stay home and rent! At about $10 a ticket and considering the falling cost of DVD players, yours will pay for itself in about three dates. Three. Less, if you are into buying popcorn from the concession stand!
* In my case, a digital converter box. The remainder of the purchase price after the government coupon is less than I would pay for a month of cable service. If times get hard in the next year or so, I may be glad that I made the $40 investment so I can at least watch The King of Queens in the evenings.
* Quite possibly a new pair of work shoes. I don't want to retire my old black ones, but my feet have been giving me problems lately and I fear that the totally shot soles of the shoes I wear 300 days a year may be a contributing factor. Better to spend $50 now than have podiatrist bills later. :)
* This is somewhat debatable, but think about reusable feminine hygiene products. A Diva Cup or similar will cost a little less than $30, but it will last for years, as opposed to a $6 box of tampons that will last you a couple of months. I intend to discuss the option with my doctor at my next appointment; I like mine a lot, but there are some (unproven) concerns floating around the Web that they may have a connection to endometriosis. One option is to use a cup during the day but other forms of "protection" at night; this combination of methods could minimize any theoretical risk but also provide a lot of the convenience and savings benefits.
These are just a few examples. There are many, many more, and they will vary from person to person. For instance, I have a suspicion that a washer and dryer would fit this category for many people. If you have easy access to laundry facilities, you don't need to buy as many clothes to stretch your laundry days out, and I'm sure the utilities to operate them would add up to less than what you feed into the machines at a laundromat. In my current situation, it's not feasible, but I look forward to having my own laundry room someday. :)
Sometimes it just makes sense to spend money.
Yesterday I had to take my car to the shop AGAIN. I just poured $632.66 into her a month and a half before (brakes and exhaust systems are important and, apparently, pricey) and was still reeling from that financial blow. I was worried about a metallic scraping sound that I heard every time I made a left turn. I was worried about the cost, but I am also a big believer in fixing little problems before they grow into big problems or before, say, your front left wheel falls off as you are zipping down the highway at 60 miles an hour. My boyfriend and I discussed our preventative maintenance philosophy on the way back from dropping my car off. Do I believe that my car needs the $400 tune-up the Honda dealer tried to sell me? No. Do I change my oil religiously every 3,000 miles? Yes. As he put it, a friend of his who knew something about cars had told him once "If it comes down to you can afford to eat OR you can afford to change the oil... you change the oil." Of course, we both try very hard to make sure that we're never in THAT position, but it illustrates my point.
Fortunately, the sound appeared to be a bent dust shield scraping a rotor-- nothing to worry about, just annoying, and they bent it back into shape for free! :)
Other times that an initial outlay can save you money:
* Personal grooming implements. I like to have neat eyebrows. I have very dark hair and fairly pale skin, so it shows if I don't keep after them. I love my relatively expensive tweezers and recently purchased a little brush and scissors set that I am still figuring out exactly how to use. Each was probably $10-15. That seems steep... until you think about dropping $10 every time you get your brows waxed at a salon. I am still working on achieving the perfect upper arch... but things are getting better and I recoup my outlay in about three months. My tweezers and $4 eyelash curler have worked great for me for four years-- though I should probably get some replacement cushions for the curler and see if there's an easy way to sharpen the tweezers a bit. :) But $30 every 4-5 years vs. $10 every month or six weeks is a pretty easy one to call.
* Oil changes. Nasty things happen to your engine if you don't keep after these. Same goes for tires-- oil changes and tires are worth staying on top of. You don't want your engine to self-destruct, and you certainly don't want to go skidding off of the road into a tree.
* A good thermos, water bottle, and filter pitcher. I take my own thermos of coffee to work every day (the machine in the lounge charges 50 cents for a mugful!) and also bring a 32-ounce bottle of water from my filter pitcher (the vending machine at work charges $1.25 for a 20-oz bottle, and I can't stand the tap water). I recouped my costs on those long ago.
* A DVD player! Have you gone to a movie theater lately?! It's MUCH cheaper to stay home and rent! At about $10 a ticket and considering the falling cost of DVD players, yours will pay for itself in about three dates. Three. Less, if you are into buying popcorn from the concession stand!
* In my case, a digital converter box. The remainder of the purchase price after the government coupon is less than I would pay for a month of cable service. If times get hard in the next year or so, I may be glad that I made the $40 investment so I can at least watch The King of Queens in the evenings.
* Quite possibly a new pair of work shoes. I don't want to retire my old black ones, but my feet have been giving me problems lately and I fear that the totally shot soles of the shoes I wear 300 days a year may be a contributing factor. Better to spend $50 now than have podiatrist bills later. :)
* This is somewhat debatable, but think about reusable feminine hygiene products. A Diva Cup or similar will cost a little less than $30, but it will last for years, as opposed to a $6 box of tampons that will last you a couple of months. I intend to discuss the option with my doctor at my next appointment; I like mine a lot, but there are some (unproven) concerns floating around the Web that they may have a connection to endometriosis. One option is to use a cup during the day but other forms of "protection" at night; this combination of methods could minimize any theoretical risk but also provide a lot of the convenience and savings benefits.
These are just a few examples. There are many, many more, and they will vary from person to person. For instance, I have a suspicion that a washer and dryer would fit this category for many people. If you have easy access to laundry facilities, you don't need to buy as many clothes to stretch your laundry days out, and I'm sure the utilities to operate them would add up to less than what you feed into the machines at a laundromat. In my current situation, it's not feasible, but I look forward to having my own laundry room someday. :)
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