I have just found out that America’s Basics is running a 5 for $23 sale on all of their styles. In addition, if you order more than $50, you get free shipping.
My friend turned me on to America’s Basics a couple of months ago. They’ve got a ton of different styles of shirts (I love the Shrug Wrap Tee) and unlike a certain other American company, they’re wearable by real people and reasonably priced.
Sale ends TOMORROW 7/1, so get crackin’ if you want in on this deal.
Popularity: 21% [?]
I apologize for today’s post. I’ve got babies on the brain (if you are a regular reader, you know why) and my messed up hormones have been giving me all sorts of crazy brainstorms. Anyway, put on your tin foil hat, it’s time for Auntie Katie’s crazy theory show.
The decision to have a baby is, of course, not to be taken lightly. Ask anyone who has children and they will tell you that kids are expensive, even when you are doing everything in your power to do things frugally.
But when does biology trump your financial situation?
More and more evidence shows that women over the age of 35 having a higher risk of everything from miscarriage to Down Syndrome. Scientists are also starting to prove that the age of dad matters as well. We like to blame the rise of autism, allergies and other problems on all sorts of environmental factors, but sometimes I wonder if it has more to do with aging genetic material.
Please note that I’m not trying to attack older parents here. My own parents married late and then waited until they had purchased a house and got their finances in order. Mama Urbanite turned 37 two months after she had me. Having a kid later in life doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world.
It’s just that I’ve watched many of my cousins struggle with age and children. One spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on fertility treatments after she turned 40 in order to have her twins. I’m sure she’d happily give away all she had for those little girls, but it was a very long, very draining, and very expensive journey for her to give birth. On the other hand, she and her husband are more than financially settled (even with those huge medical bills) so there is no danger that those little ones will go hungry.
I don’t know. Sometimes I think that Mr. and I should wait until we’ve got a bigger emergency fund socked away or until we pay off his studen loans or until the car is paid off or until my business takes off. But then I wonder if we’re going to be that couple taking thousands of dollars of hormones so we can have a baby. I’ve already proven that miscarriages can happen to anyone, and I don’t want to find out that my ‘last chance’ pregnancy ended at week 10.
Ugh. Not an easy choice at all. No one wants to pop out a baby at 18 that they can’t support and no one wants to be filthy rich and find out it’s too late for them to have a healthy baby.
Popularity: 21% [?]
We decided to replace the rotting (no, really) counter in our kitchen. Since we are not rich and there are lots of other projects in the house that require urgent work, we decided to pop into our local Lowes and purchase a custom laminate counter.
After selecting the style and having our counters measured, we were told it would take three weeks for the counter to be manufactured and shipped. That was three months ago.
Screw Up One: We get the call from Lowes to come pick up the counter. Mr. gets there, rents the truck and discovers that the counter was made with straight edged instead of rounded like we asked. Upon reviewing the order sheet, the counter salesperson realizes he made a mistake and reorders the counter. Mr. returns rented truck.
Screw Up Two: We get the call from Lowes to come pick up the counter. We gets there, Mr. rents the truck and discovers that the counter was made with both edges rounded instead of just the front, making it unusable for us. Upon reviewing the order sheet, the counter salesperson claims that the factory manufactured it incorrectly. Mr. returns rented truck.
Screw Up Three: We get the call from Lowes to come pick up the counter. Mr. gets there and remembering the pattern, asks to see the counter before he rents the truck. There is no counter. Some idiot called us to pick up the one they had f-ed up 3 weeks earlier.
Screw Up Four: We get the call from Lowes to come pick up the counter. Mr. gets there, examines the counter, rents the truck and they manage to tear off a hunk of laminate while loading the counter into the truck for him. Loader tries to pretend nothing happened, but Mr. notices the piece of laminate fluttering to the ground and calls him out. It’s a minor piece, but it still needs to be glued on. Tired of waiting for a counter that looks like it may never show up, we decide to take it after they offer us a $200 discount.
All I can say is WE WILL NEVER SPECIAL ORDER ANYTHING FROM LOWES AGAIN.
We had also bought a lawnmower from Lowe’s about the same time we ordered the counter. The oil compartment was broken, something that we were unable to tell until Mr. started the engine and the damn thing spewed oil and gasoline all over the lawn. That wasn’t our main problem, because we had purchased a warranty for the machine, this was about 2 horus after the original purchase and, well, sometimes crap happens.
No, the problem was that we played phone tag for an hour with Lowes telling us to call one number. That number telling us to call a different department. That number telling us to call the manufacturer. The manufacturer telling us to call Lowes.
Then, Lowes wanted us to bring the now oil, gasoline and grass covered lawnmower that was still leaking back to Lowes. After patiently explaining to three representatives that we did not own a pick-up truck and there was no way we were putting that thing in our hatch back, Lowes decided we should rent a truck from them. Not ‘come borrow a rental and they’ll reimburse us’. So Mr. spent another thirty minutes convincing the repair department to schedule a pick up the stupid thing. We had to purchase a gasoline syphon in order to drain the tank so they would pick it up.
Ugh. And they say Home Depot has poor customer service.
Popularity: 21% [?]
Another not so great week, although we’re still on track to hit my $400 goal. This was both a meat week and we had to buy lunch food/drinks to feed the friends who are helping us put in the new counter and backsplash. I was actually surprised that we stayed on budget.
Total Spent – $108
Total Saved - $53.22
And speaking of the backsplash, Lowe’s managed to screw up yet again, being the total to 4 idiotic mistakes on their part. I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow.
Popularity: 17% [?]
Product Page – This is NOT a paid review.
There was a BOGO free coupon for these in my coupon train, so I figured I would try the Color Quick Pens out. I like Sally Hansen polish and the pen design looked like it would be easier to use, so I figured there wasn’t much that could go wrong. I was mistaken.
First off, these things were $6 a pop at Walmart, and that was at the special ‘Rollback’ price (It’s selling at Ulta for $7.79)*. Not being a nail salon, I’m not willing to fork out mucho dinero for the privilege of having pink toenails.
Secondly, I picked one of the pens up and it felt like a cheap toy from a quarter vending machine. You know how you pick up some cheap party favor and you can hear the parts rattling around and you just know it’s going to fall apart in approximately 30 seconds? It felt exactly like that. I was honestly surprised that it worked at all.
Third, when I read the word ‘pen’, I was expecting something with a fairly fine tip. Instead, the brush was way too wide (about 2 times as wide as the other wands), really short, and the bristles felt cheap. It reminded me of the cheapo craft brushes you get when you’re going to use glue or let your pre-schooler use. It was actually so big I couldn’t paint my (admittedly deformed) pinky toenail.
To give credit where it’s due, I rather like the actual nailpolish itself. I only needed one coat to get a nice bright color and, true to form, it set in less than 2 minutes and fully dried in less than 5 minutes. Kinda makes me wish that I could get the stupid pen open so I could pour it into a better bottle. The pen itself was also easier to hold and control than one of the little ‘bottle top’ wands.
In conclusion: This product is NOT worth the money. Where would you have time to give yourself a manicure that you couldn’t have an actual bottle of nailpolish. Save yourself $3 and get yourself a bottle of Cover Girl 3-in-1 Step Nail Color
* Speaking of Ulta, nailpolishes are Buy Two Get One Free at Ulta.com.
Popularity: 16% [?]
I really do. It’s gotten to the point where I have to scroll down several times to find the content or navigation on some of my favorite blogs.
Believe me, I understand the need to monetize a blog. Having a blog on saving money be a money sink is annoying, not to mention silly. But that doesn’t mean I have to like the hamfisted attempts of some blog owners to make money.
So give it to me straight. How annoying are the ads on my site? If you use a feed reader, how bad are the ads in the RSS feed?
I’ve tried to be reasonable and make sure that my navigation is visible at the top of screen and any ads in the actual post text are less than 100px high. The categories are right there under the banner (which is why I changed the image colors to make them stand out a bit more) and the tags should be visible in the right-hand column on a 800px height screen without scrolling down. I’ve also tried to strike a balance in the side bars so there’s a lot more useful widgets than ads.
Keeping in mind that I can’t just rip all the ads out and they need to be visible in order for me to make my costs back, what would you do with my ads?
Popularity: unranked [?]
Most of you have one of two questions on your mind here. First off is “What the hell is simple syrup?” and the other is “What the hell does this have to do with being frugal?”
First off, ‘simple syrup’ is a simple syrup (hurr) usually made from two to one or equal parts sugar and water and is an easy way to mix sugar into cold drinks without stirring futily for an hour. Many cocktails also take a simple syrup (2:1 sugar to water ratio) so the ‘recipe’ is quite useful for entertaining.
Take a guess as to which is cheaper: a mojito that you make at home or one that you purchase at a bar., If you like summertime cocktails or want to try making fancy pants coffee drinks at home, you’ll pretty much need simple or sugar syrup and with it selling for $$ at most kitchen stores, you’re much better off making your own.
Anyway the ‘recipe’
- 1 part water
- 1 part sugar (2 parts if you’re making cocktails)
Bring water and sugar to a boil. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Let cool and store in glass container for up to 2 months.
That’s it. So simple.
If you want to go for extra credit, try adding a little bit of flavor to your syrup. Just remember to strain the syrup before bottling.
- Mint Leaves – Great for iced tea or mojitos
- Herbs – For those ‘sophisticated’ cocktails
- Citrus Peel – Iced tea or simple cocktails
- Vanilla Bean – Coffee, after dinner drinks or brushed onto cakes
- Ground Coffee – Fantastic on chocolate cakes
Great, and now I want cake. Stupid cravings *mumble grumble*
Popularity: unranked [?]
Look, I wear shorts in order to keep my butt covered. If I wanted my heinie hanging out, then I would wear thong or possibly a skimpy bathing suit. But I don’t want to show my derriere to the world, and my husband frowns on it as well.
I should be able to bend over and not have my butt cheeks fall out the bottom. Shaving my hoohah should not be a prerequisite of wearing shorts. And sitting on vinyl seats should not put me at risk of a first degree burn on my now exposed naughty bits.
When I go out, I don’t want to look like a streetwalker who got lost, or one of those 40 year olds who dress like they’re 16. I’ve already resorted to buying XL little girls’ shirts to find something that isn’t cut to the navel, but there’s no way in hell I can squeeze my child bearin’ hips into those pants.
All I’m asking for is a happy medium between low cut, 1-inch inseams, slutty shorts and waistband in the armpits, pleated, mom shorts. And no, these don’t count.
Popularity: 13% [?]
Mr. is riding me again on the grocery bill and it kinda makes me want to beat him with a baguette. Not because he’s worried about the bills, but because it’s partly Mr. Dedicated Carnivore’s fault that the bill is so high.
Yours truly would happily go vegitarian three or four nights a week, which would put a nice big dent (~$40) in the budget right there. Mr. actually whines when I suggest we cut out the meat at every meal and his list of ‘foods I will never, ever eat’ includes everything from tofu to quinoa. One of these days I will snap and blugeon him to death with a pork loin.
Then he gets started on how his budget during college/bachelorhood was so low (he ate pretty much nothing except chicken parm and broccolli) and how we don’t need the sauces and spices. Apparently the concepts of ‘balanced and varied diet’ and ‘no ones wants to eat food that tastes like cardboard’ are totally lost on him. And don’t get me started on the complete lack of knowledge on the subject of ‘portion sizes’. There is no reason to eat almost 3 cups of rice at dinner if you’ve been eating 5 meals throughout the day.
I think I’ve been doing rather well with the grocery budget. I’ve brought it down to under $500 ($400 is my goal and I think I’ll be stocked up enough to hit it next month), which is about $40 a week per person. Our housemate also pays for his share of the food.
That’s not the tightest budget that was ever created, but it’s what keeps everyone happy. I get my seasonings, the carnivore gets his meat and our housemate doesn’t have to cook for himself.
Popularity: unranked [?]
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