Confessions of a Cheapskate

Hi readers!  Sorry I haven’t checked in in a few days.  Savannah was great (I’d blog on the trip if husband would bring the camera home from work with my pictures on it…Ahem, TGrass), but I returned home late Monday night to a doozie of a week… And I would be happy that’s it Friday if I didn’t have a doozy of a weekend ahead of me.  I just haven’t had a chance to sit down all week. (And I don’t even have kids—what am I going to do when THAT happens??)

ANYWAY.  I thought I’d fill you in on a little obsession of mine.  Or two obsessions, really: jewelry and crazy deals.  I don’t like to call myself cheap… I like to say that I get super duper excited about finding inexpensive items that look like expensive items.

I first started going to New York in college with my mom, who introduced me to these fabulous wholesale jewelry stores.  Now that I live in DC, I make it up to NYC a few times a year and never pass up the opportunity to visit my favorite stores.

My latest trip was last month, so I thought I’d share some of the fun stuff I scored (as well as a few pieces I found elsewhere) and compare it to similar items currently on the market which cost muy muy more.

 

 

 

 

Bangles from Nordstrom: $58                   My find: $3

Kate Spade: $42 each   My find: $3 for 2

               

Ralph Lauren: $98     My find: $5.75

        

J.Crew: $60                              My find: $6

(This necklace looks great on—better than it looks here)

         

Can’t-remember-where-I-found-these-but-I bet-they-were-a-lot-more-expensive-than-what-my-mom-paid-when-she-bought-me-this-necklace-for-Christmas.  What’d you pay, Mom? $5?

         

           Tiffany’s key: $1500             My find: $18

(I’ve had someone ask me if it’s a Tiffany’s key every time I’ve worn it.)

       

Nordstrom: $48                    My find: $3

Nordstrom: $38                      My find: $3.50

(I get compliments on this cuff every single time I wear it. I love it.)

          

Couldn’t find comparables for these, but the cuffs were $3 each and the necklace was $4.25

Keep in mind, I’m not cheap about everything.  There are items worth investing in, but in my mind, trendy costume jewelry that will only be around a season or two?  Not so much.

Plus, is there anything more fun than saving money?  I think not, friends…

Soooo… What are your favorite finds and crazy deals?  Where do you shop for good accessories?

Hey, folks!

Greetings from the Charlotte airport! It's been quite a day, a full recap of which I will spare you... We'll just say that it's good that I know Jesus because I'm pretty sure traffic and beating the clock airport sagas are my seventh circle of hell. For real.

But now I sit in Charlotte, delayed an hour, waiting for the mechanics to fix our plane. "Take your time. Seriously."

I'm flying to Savannah for the weekend, did I tell you that? Tyler is in a wedding in Texas and none of the wives are going, so I decided to head down for the weekend instead of hanging out by myself. I haven't been home since Christmas, Lindsey is in town from California, and I'm in need of a beach weekend, so here I am. Almost.

T and I had a date night last night since we aren't spending the weekend together. We ate mexican and sipped sangria on the patio of a little place in Clarendon and then went to see "The Last Song." Were it not filmed in Savannah, I probably wouldn't have dragged him to it, but... Shockingly, we were the only ones seeing it at 9:40 on a Thursday night. It was great-- we propped up our feet and commented on everything through the whole thing. It was not the best movie I'd ever seen (by far) but still fun to see my hometown and ID all of the local spots and look to see if I knew any of the extras... And it definitely geared me up for my trip-- otherwise it would've just made me homesick!

Anywho. The powers that be say we're boarding soon so I'll scoot. Quick shout out to April, Aidan, and Adam from Charlotte! Keep it southern, Harveys.

Y'all have a great weekend!

The Old Switcheroo

If you know me, you know I love big purses.  And if you use big purses, you know one thing: they acquire lots of crap. 

So. I switched purses today, which is always a daunting task.  Depending on how much time I have dictates the extent of the purse swap: The committed purse swap vs. The this-doesn't-match-and-I’m-running-out-the-door-so-I’ll-just-grab-the-essentials switcharoo.  I inevitably hate myself for the running-out-the-door swap because of what awaits me six months later… But today, I had the time and made the committed purse swap for the Spring season.  And here’s what I found…

• Three different store saver cards (I always fill them out for the discount…and then can never find the card again. Shocking.)
• Three gift cards
• 5 pens and two bottles of hand sanitizer (welcome to pediatrics)
• Three packets of Splenda that were amazingly not degraded to the point of sugar spillage. (I always grab an extra packet when I buy coffee.)
• Three ticket stubs to events in three different cities
• 1 piece of gum
• FIVE different post-it pads
• One hotel room key
• Business cards from two of my brothers (Where you at, Charles?)
• A luggage claim tag
• One of those coffee stoppers from Starbucks (genius invention, by the way…)
• Two Blockbuster cards, one of which with my mother’s name on it
• Two sunglass holders, yet one pair of glasses…
• A packet of thank you cards
• A black bracelet I took off in the middle of the Easter service when I realized I had a brown cardigan on…
• McDonald’s Monopoly game pieces (Surprising)
• 1 blank check
• And 525,600 receipts from various food and clothing venues across the United States

Food & Friends

….my favorite things!

Last week was a fun week around here…just not an awesome week for the waistline.  “The Sound of Music” came on a few weeks ago and I recorded out of pure horror that my husband had never seen it.  So he agreed to watch it with me only if we could have a “German night,” allowing homeboy to cook bratwurst and homegirl to enjoy a favorite childhood movie… So, watch it we did. And eat bratwurst, we did. [Yes, I realize the movie takes place in Austria. Same diff.]

[Throughout the movie, I kept asking, “So, you’re sure you’ve never seen this?” And then every other song, he’d say, “Oh, is this where that song came from?”]

  

Hers & His

I Americanized mine as much as possible… “Can I eat it with bread?  What about mayo?  Please don’t make me eat sauerkraut…” I am, like, a lot German, but not so much a fan of the food… I drank wine, he drank beer.  He ate spicy mustard, I ate ketchup. He ate sauerkraut, I did not.

I presented my thesis last week at a research fair.  I don’t think I’ve ever introduced you to my thesis partners—this is them!  Kelly & Marie.

Wednesday night, I went to a happy hour to help raise money (I do what I can…) for Kim, a former co-worker, who’s running a half marathon this summer for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (Go Kim!).  This is Kim and Erica—we three shared a big office together at PMR and it was awesome.  We are forever united in undying affection for Amy Grant. For real.

And since it’s physically impossible for me to be on Pennsylvania Avenue and not eat at Good Stuff, we ate at Good Stuff.  [I got the turkery burger, thankyouverymuch… And then added bacon…] The owner is Chef Spike, who was a contestant on Top Chef, but that has nothing to do with why I love it…

This is. 

They offer lotsa sauces and they are dee.lish.us. [Cue me complaining to my sister on why my weight loss has mysteriously and recently stalled…] Thursday night we had an impromptu barbeque at Kelly’s.  These are some of my faves from school and none of us are yet capable of talking about the strange future that awaits us once our group is dismantled in a few weeks… And then a Friday night in with our best friend Joe, Trader Joe... A French baguette + smoked salmon + cream cheese + a Real Crowd Cheeser and white for her, red for him = perfection.

[Side note, unrelated to friends or food: we also watched “An Education” this weekend.  It was great.  I recommend it.]

So anyway…I guess I’m off to the gym now…

Just A Typical Day in Washington…

So we got a phone call last night from a friend of ours inviting us to join him touring the White House grounds and gardens this afternoon.  This sounded like a total snore, but we didn’t want to be rude, so we obliged.  And of course, the weather is terrible and DC is such an ugly place to be this time of year, we really had to be reeled into going… [Read: Sign me up!] 

We’ve toured the interior before, but never walked the grounds, so we were excited. [Tourist tip: if you toured the interior in 8th grade, it’s still the same thing—I’d spend my time and energy elsewhere. Unless you pull strings for a West Wing tour or get in at Christmas—that’s worth it. They open up the grounds in the spring and fall, and I think they’re worth a visit.]

So we met for brunch (Tunnicliff’s, where else?) and then headed over to the presidential palace.  A military band was set up on the grounds and the tour was self-guided, so you just moseyed around at your own pace.  It was absolutely beautiful today—a perfect, breezy 65 degrees, so it was great to just walk around and be outside.

Enjoy some of the pictures!

The fountain on the South Lawn (the one you see in front of the house when you stand behind the gates on Pennsylvania Ave). The new vegetable garden.The view from the South Lawn—what the Obamas see from the Truman balcony.The Truman balcony.The rose garden is behind us (where they conduct a lot of the press conferences) as well as the West Wing, and the Oval Office is to the left. Rotate this 180 degrees and it turns the tennis courts into basketball courts.The playground set that sits right outside of the Oval Office.  Pretty cute.The Oval Office—this is the window directly behind the President’s desk.The Old Executive Office Building—this sits next to the WH and houses the VP’s ceremonial office.Do NOT step on the grass.   Our friend Adrian, who was kind of enough to invite us and let us tag along.

Happy Saturday! Have a great weekend!

Just Some Stuff From Tuesday…

1. All hail the return of Glee!! (“Did you know dolphins are just gay sharks?”) However, Parenthood is without a doubt my current favorite dramedy… I don’t know if it’s the big family or what, but I love it.  Love. It.

2. It is a crying shame that Taylor Swift’s “Fifteen” did not exist when I was 15.  My fifteen year old emotions are soooooo validated when I listen to that song. Additionally, I could have really used the song “Gives You Hell” from say… 1998 to 2005.

3. Speaking of 1998, I have been running with a neoprene knee brace since my freshman year of high school.  Once I started PT school, I quickly learned what my issue was (and how to fix it), but never stopped using my knee brace.  Well, guess who ran three miles tonight without it?? For the first time in 12 years, I ran three miles without my knee brace!  Granted, I ran slow to not overwhelm little lefty, but I did it.  It’s the little things, right?

4. Speaking of high school… I had to explain to my sister today what zit cream is.  Like, she literally asked me, “What is zit cream?”  My explanation started with, “I know you haven’t had a zit since you were 15 but, honestly?” [I will spare you the story that led up to mentioning zit cream.]

5. We pay $10 apiece for the light bulbs that fit our recessed lighting. Ten dollars. Each.  And they all seem to burn out in groups of five.  This week, I decided to live dangerously and buy the $3 light bulb that looked about the same size. And….drum roll… It worked!  And after three years of living here, I find this out one month before our lease expires.  Cool.

Happy Wednesday!

Wordless Weekend