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I had kindle unlimited for a while and I hated it, because it only had the books I didn't want to read. But tastes differ and if it works for you, it's cheap and you could totally roll with it.
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Jul 23, 2015 06:24
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slap me silly posted:I had kindle unlimited for a while and I hated it, because it only had the books I didn't want to read. But tastes differ and if it works for you, it's cheap and you could totally roll with it. I kinda like lovely romance novels  it's my destress thing ok.
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Jul 23, 2015 07:02
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Just noticed the new title. Much improved. 8) Every day where I don't finance a miata is now a successful one. Finally got husband's bike out of the shop. Thank goodness for flex hours; having one car for two weeks sucked rear end. He wanted to put the cost of repairs ($750) on the Amex which I pretty quickly convinced him not to do. Hooray! Still have $40 left from this week's spending money (we each had $60 left over from the money I pulled out for going to the city last weekend). Still need to: pay off the Chase card. I need him to log into the account before I can do it, which I keep forgetting to ask about  So, bank accounts: $7853 total --$3228 his --$4625 mine Credit cards: $6609 $5883 Amex $726 Chase The amex went up because my website's annual renewal was due, and I decided to keep it. I originally had it for portfolio/job hunting, but I want to keep it for side projects. I want to stay current and employable as a designer, and I need side projects for that. Unfortunately, I forgot to change it from linking to the Amex. :'( Things I want to buy: This sweet rear end book on rendering by Scott Roberston because his first book, how to draw, is one of my fave reference books for design sketching, and i suck at rendering and WANT TO BE BETTER. Thankfully I already have a war chest of expensive drawing tools & materials I had to buy while in school, so that poo poo is covered. If I still want it in a week, I'll see about buying it.
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Jul 25, 2015 01:00
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Got the chase card paid off finally. Yay! Bank accounts: $7127 --$3228 His --$3899 Mine Debt: $5883 Total --$5883 Amex --$0 Chase Husband & I are also trying out line-drying our clothes, which so far is cool. I just have to set clothes to wash before I leave to work, and he'll hang them to dry outside before he leaves for work. Less electricity usage is cool. Dryer usage has definitely been our heaviest electricity usage so far. And clothes last longer when they're not dryer-dried! Plusses all around! Realistically, it's probably not saving that much money, but electricity isn't cheap here, so any bit is nice.
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Jul 25, 2015 21:43
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Gnossiennes posted:I kinda like lovely romance novels Not that I'm trying to stop making a living, but if you need to make deep cuts to your budget there are always options!
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Jul 26, 2015 02:16
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moana posted:What subgenre? PM me, if it's what I write I'll send you a bunch of free novels. Also, you can get bunches of romance for free through ARCs, Read for Review on goodreads, or author street teams. Bookbub and other email lists will send you 99c sales and freebie sales every day. Also I have an author friend who's putting together a freebie romance email list: http://www.hotnewbooks.com/ Thank you for the link to that list! Signed up now 8) I don't have plat, but I'm mostly cool with anything, but shifter stuff isn't my jam and I'm getting tired of the proliferation of billionaire alphas. My fave stuff now is mostly gay stuff, because two dudes kissing is the best. Brad Vance is for real my jam, and I love everything he's written pretty much. I can usually read a book within a couple hours, so I'm pretty chill with writing reviews for free books. How do you get started doing that? I definitely don't want to dick over authors though; I enjoy reading, and I want authors like yourself to be properly compensated. I've heard KU isn't the best about compensating authors, though. Good news on the kindle front: we redeemed our points from the chase card into $50 worth of amazon credit. Hooray!
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Jul 26, 2015 03:13
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You should have just redeemed your points for cash back. Then the $50 you spend at amazon on the card later you get points on. You get no points on that gift card. Realistically it doesn't matter but it you want to maximize those points...
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Jul 27, 2015 17:01
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spwrozek posted:You should have just redeemed your points for cash back. Then the $50 you spend at amazon on the card later you get points on. You get no points on that gift card.
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Jul 28, 2015 03:44
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Dik Hz posted:I agree on this. I have a Chase Sapphire card. I funnel everything through to get points and pay it off every month. Always redeem for statement credits. Worst case scenario vs gift cards is that you gain 1% cash back on the Amazon purchase. The card itself closed out for disuse like, two days after my husband put $3k on it for the motorcycle. We'd been getting letters in the mail about it closing since we'd used it once when we first got it like.. three years ago. I still don't know why it closed out even after we used it, but hey. I didn't see statement credits/cash as an option (it was probably there, but we were too enthralled with amazon credits), but it wouldn't've done us any good -- I'd already paid off the rest of the card, and now that account is fully closed. If nothing else, I'll buy that sweet Scott Robertson book with the amazon card. But I'm gonna ask my boss about it first; it's reference material, so I may be able to charge it to my work account. And because life is just a bunch of events in which we have to spend more money than we assumed, my phone (most likely) needs replaced. I took it in the ocean by mistake a couple months ago (I had it in my pocket and got hit by a wave due to being dumb as a box of rocks), and it's had some issues since, but now those issues are keeping it from booting up and staying on longer than a minute or two. I'm afraid its time to put it to bed. Goodbye, hand-me-down HTC One M7. You were ok I guess. I'll be able to deal with my janky phone for a few days probably, but it'll need replaced. I'll probably get this for now, but I'm going to hold out first and see if my phone will start working correctly for a while again.
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Jul 28, 2015 05:44
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Gnossiennes posted:I can usually read a book within a couple hours, so I'm pretty chill with writing reviews for free books. How do you get started doing that? Funny you mention Brad Vance, I've done some covers for him (A Little Too Broken, Have Faith in Me). He's a great writer!
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Jul 28, 2015 17:52
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moana posted:Honestly, a 5-star review is worth twenty paid sales for books. I would message the authors you like and ask if they have any books that they'd be willing to give you for a read for review, or ask if you can join their ARC team (you get the book before anyone else and promise to review it quickly once it's released). Most authors will be thrilled to give you free books in exchange for a good review on Amazon. I'm super impressed and a little jealous  I hope he's as cool as I think he is, and I  anyone who tosses belle & sebastian songs into their writing. How do you get into doing book cover work? I'm not a graphic designer, but a large portion of my work is graphic design. As for getting ARCs, my whole two goodreads reviews are not positive. I am a part of the problem and terrible about only reviewing things I find unbearably terrible. Should I write reviews for books I like that are positive first, before looking into that? Phone is still dead. Sad phone. Sad sad sad.
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Jul 29, 2015 04:09
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Gnossiennes posted:I'm super impressed and a little jealous Speaking as another romance author, clearly we prefer 5-star reviews or at least positive reviews (no duh  ). If something is truly awful or you hated it, legit bad reviews are fine too. What we hate most of all are bullshit fly-by-night 1-stars that serve no purpose but to guarantee we never sell another copy of a book. (1 star yawn didn't like the typeset on the title page, etc etc.) Not only do customers treat star ratings as a sign of quality, but the algorithms on Amazon's site treat them as meaningful too. Low ratings ("legit" or not) can seriously sink a book because Amazon will just stop showing it to people in results, not include it in mailers, etc. If you like a book, please review those too.  Authors everywhere will love you.Thanks for signing up for HNB, by the way (that's my site). We're going to be building the list over the next month or so, and the books should start coming out in September to October timeframe once we have a large enough mailing list to justify.
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Jul 29, 2015 14:20
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Yeah, my bad reviews are generally me bitching about non-consensual sex being normalized/sexy. WHY I'll start rating/reviewing books, then, but I need to make sure my kindle links to MY goodreads account -- atm it's linked to my husband's (because it uses his amazon account), and I don't think he wants a bunch of romance novels rated by him. Thank you for making HNB , Sundae!!! I'm excited for it
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Jul 30, 2015 03:53
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Gnossiennes posted:How do you get into doing book cover work? I'm not a graphic designer, but a large portion of my work is graphic design.
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Jul 31, 2015 04:33
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Oh, and Brad wanted you to email him at BradVanceErotica@gmail.com, he was very excited to hear that I found a fan of his in the wild
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Jul 31, 2015 21:39
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Gnossiennes posted:
Yeah sadly once a phone is water damaged it isn't coming back to life. That phone you posted looks ok, if you just do call, text and basic internet it should do fine. If you ever need something better Motorola tends to be the best budget phones; but for $110 what you posted should at least do the job.
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Aug 1, 2015 12:07
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If you're willing to skimp some play money elsewhere, this guy will last you longer (waterproof but maybe not against salt) and brand spankin' new to market. It's a bit larger, so that could be a downside if you were hunting for small. http://www.motorola.com/us/products/moto-g
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Aug 1, 2015 13:00
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Yeah, it's definitely dust. It held out for two months post-swim before completely crapping out, at least. As for phones, I had a note ii for a couple years and absolutely loved it; I like big screens personally. tbqh though, not having a phone the past few days has been kinda nice. I might just get a cheap phone for now and hold out for a OnePlus Two once I can get an invite. Currently at 365,118 in the queue; whoooooa moana posted:Oh, and Brad wanted you to email him at BradVanceErotica@gmail.com, he was very excited to hear that I found a fan of his in the wild So cool!! Also, I've totally read and enjoyed Me, Cinderella & Broken Prince. this is pretty exciting, ok, and you're cool. Alright, financial stuff: Last month, we had $957 left over according to mint (in terms of income vs outflow). It's not the best, but it's a vast improvement to the past couple years. Current bank accounts total: $4235 My accounts: $1853 His accounts: $2382 That's after rent ($2019), groceries (290ish including some more household supplies), our awesome trip to the DMV for licenses and car registration ($294), and smog testing ($70) were taken out since last time, along with gas and stuff. August goals, again: Another $1.5-2k on the Amex. Cash only for restaurant/fast food/fun stuff. Start seriously looking for some freelance stuff. It'll help with keeping my ~design skills~ current and with bringing in more money. It would be just about impossible to do freelance work any where near similar to my day job's work, so I shouldn't have any legal issues with that.
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Aug 2, 2015 06:33
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Gnossiennes posted:Groceries: $500  Local meat CSA is also good, but a bit rich for my blood personally. Freshly butchered meat that hasn't been transported cross country and refrigerated for however long tastes better, shocking.
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Aug 4, 2015 02:11
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Thank you for reminding me about CSAs!! I think getting a CSA would be a fantastic idea. We actually do cook a lot. I cook breakfast daily, no exceptions, since it's usually the only meal my husband & I are able to have together due to schedules, and it's generally some sort of eggy thing (egg sandwiches, eggs in flour or corn tortillas, eggs and potatoes). However, my husband is pretty minimal on vegetables, which also makes me pretty lackluster on vegetable consumption, but perhaps if I actually cooked/served vegetables more (hint: i don't) we would both up that intake. A CSA would be a pretty fab way to do it. Backyard CSA has home delivery on a buy-as-you-go basis (you place an order a few days before for what kind of box, what other items i.e. meat you want), and starts at $17 for a small box, which would probably be a good place to start. Shone Farm doesn't start the next run until Mid-September, but it's 422.50 for 13 weeks, including a dozen eggs each week AND there's a pickup at my work, plus you can add meat to the order. And it helps support SRJC  I think what i'll do is start with the Backyard CSA stuff and a small box, then maybe try a big box, and then once we get through that, see about signing up for Shone Farm's 13-week CSA, which sounds baller. Right now, the largest sink in terms of fast food/restaurant purchases is from my work cafeteria, because I've been cooking mostly things that don't have leftovers for me to take for lunch. Part of this is because I eat with the interns/some other new-hires every day, but the interns will be gone soon, so I may or may not keep eating in the cafeteria. I'll become like all the other people in my department and start eating at my desk (oh god plz no). Also, gently caress, produce here is spectacular. The first time I had a strawberry here, I was like "this is what they're supposed to taste like???" It was magical. Also Santa Rosa Plums are THE poo poo. Every so often, someone will put a box of them in the kitchen, I guess from picking them in the garden at work, and it's the best. They're just perfect. Gnossiennes fucked around with this message at 05:08 on Aug 4, 2015 |
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Aug 4, 2015 05:01
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Check out your local farmers market and see what the vendors say about their CSA program if they have one. Test the foods and maybe there's a chance of some kind of discount/promotion/etc for farmers market customers. Some vendors will sell 1/8th of an animal (~20lbs total, 10/each) to you If you dont have the freezer space you could split it with someone you know. The BackyardCSA 1/4 pig comes to like $11/lb after butchering which seems expensive for pork, but I haven't looked at meat prices in a long time. Check for CSA in the central valley. Most likely cheaper and they probably have a delivery stop in the bay area. Maybe not north, but probably east bay. The Shone Farm CSA you linked has the cutest subscription offer I've ever seen quote:3. We're introducing the Scholar Bag Option this year. What is a scholar bag? It’s basically a smaller version of the CSA box. It costs less and includes about 3 – 4 items tailored to make a meal, with a recipe included. The scholar bag membership is a 4 week subscription. If you were thinking about not joining the CSA because the regular box is too much produce, this might be a good option to try.  Gnossiennes posted:Right now, the largest sink in terms of fast food/restaurant purchases is from my work cafeteria, because I've been cooking mostly things that don't have leftovers for me to take for lunch. Part of this is because I eat with the interns/some other new-hires every day, but the interns will be gone soon, so I may or may not keep eating in the cafeteria. I'll become like all the other people in my department and start eating at my desk (oh god plz no). I use crockpot meals for my lunches. Let some pork/chicken, beans, tomato, onion, etc cook overnight, spoon it into a wide mouth mason jar (with reusable, non-metal lid; i got a pack of 5 at target I think) & off I go. Glass mason jars are significantly cheaper than tupperware. ladyweapon fucked around with this message at 03:05 on Aug 5, 2015 |
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Aug 5, 2015 03:03
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Making friends at work has also been fruitful (or rather vegetable-ful), as I got a big bunch of kale and some tomatoes from a coworker who has one of the community plots. actually gave half the kale away to another friend, since it was a LOT of kale. I made delicious pasta with kale-sorta-pesto Having the kale/tomatoes on my desk prompted another coworker to ask me if I knew what CSAs were and about the Shone Farm's CSA (he & his wife have done it for a while). So, highly recommended (and delivered to my work!). He did say the standard box is almost more veggies than they know what to do with, though. I would do the scholar bag option, but the next one starts at the same time as the next box run starts. So, I'll hold out for it for the regular boxes. I looked up SCAs in the central valley (more towards Davis, I guess?), but I didn't find any that delivered into Santa Rosa. A lot of them delivered to SF and east bay, but that's well over an hour's drive away
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Aug 5, 2015 04:50
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Shone Farm is fantastic, I went through the Enology/Viticulture program and they are rad. Having lived in SR for a long time (although I was on the West side and it sounds like you're on the East?) imwalle gardens is INSANELY cheap for veggies, legumes, etc. there are rad Mexican and SE Asian and Paki/Indian markets all over the place. Shone farm CSA is fantastic but Imwalle is a rad spot to be able to pick and choose your local produce for super cheap without agreeing to a potentially-too-large CSA box. Keep your eye on free cycle/CL etc because people give things away all the time!
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Aug 5, 2015 06:23
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Thank you so much for the Imwalle Gardens suggestion!! We went today, and that place is great. We got a nice bag of vegetables and a couple snacks for like, $15. Bank accounts: mine: $2798 his: $3460 total: $6258.71 Debt: Amex: $4976 Paid another $1000 on the Amex. Yayyyy.
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Aug 9, 2015 01:34
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You're making good progress. Keep it up!
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Aug 9, 2015 12:50
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lol oh god. August was terrible for stop-buying-food-at-work goals. August: Income: $7105 total Spent: $4661 total $1457 on groceries/household goods/furniture/clothing/gas/new phone $412 on bills/utilities (electric, water/gas, phone, internet, insurance, smog testing from car registering) $2019 on rent $337 on restaurants/fast food ugh self $151 on entertainment -- looking at this, it's $115 on video games, $27 on subscription stuff, couple of movie rentals on amazon $235 on husband's vaping stuff ughhh But we did pay $2k on the Amex, hooray! So, accounts: $5129 total $2050 in my accounts $3079 in his accounts Credit card bullshit: $4199 on Amex ($63 finance charge + some stuff is still coming out of this card, and we need to change it. Plus I think he used it to buy gas for some reason STOP USING IT plz). Bad things: I got in a car wreck last week! Yay!! I am still in pain! hooray!!!!! Good things: I wasn't driving, it was a company car, used on company business! Yay!!! Goals for September: Another 2k on the Amex. Limit buying lunch at work to 1-2/wk (obvi the "stop buying lunch at work" goal was too difficult for me to follow) Continue being an adult or whatever
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Sep 2, 2015 06:56
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Gnossiennes posted:lol oh god. August was terrible for stop-buying-food-at-work goals. questions: -Can you add "change auto withdrawal from AmEx to Bank account (or wherever) to next weeks goals. And maybe just take his AmEx card away and relegate everyone to one card? -house expenses should go down quickly since you are getting moved in? -you did get workers comp right? -limiting lunches vs cold turkey is def a good idea, I have the same issue. Maybe that can apply to vaping as well? -and finally and most importantly: very, very glad you are ok. On your budget it looks like overspending, but the silver lining is always that you ended up green.
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Sep 2, 2015 13:40
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I highly recommend a cash budget for your work lunch purchases. Say, $75 for September? That would be a stepping stone, and help teach you to pack your lunches if you want the option to go out at the end of the month. Also, why is vaping for your husband so expensive? I vape  and it costs me less than $50/month.edit: sorry to hear about your accident. Make sure you are made whole, and if you are still hurt then get yourself to the doctor. Nocheez fucked around with this message at 14:24 on Sep 2, 2015 |
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Sep 2, 2015 14:22
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Duckman2008 posted:questions: 1 -- Yeah, that is definitely a goal for this week, including taking away his Amex card. I think he has a fear that he'll need it for something, but he does not. 2 -- Yes, house expenses have gone down a ton since moving in, but we are still short on furniture, which we are slowly trying to get. This is made more difficult by being a designer and really, really loving furniture. For example, I really like this: http://joybird.com/sofas/eliot-sofa/ which is at the low end of prices for furniture like that. 3 -- Yes, I get worker's comp. Still waiting a little to see what things persist in terms of pain, but my company has been stellar so far with the process. 4 -- Yeah, I'll have to talk to my husband about that. He'd probably be up for trying to limit it more. I'm also glad to be ok. It was my first time experiencing airbags. I'm glad it didn't hit my face! Nocheez posted:I highly recommend a cash budget for your work lunch purchases. Say, $75 for September? That would be a stepping stone, and help teach you to pack your lunches if you want the option to go out at the end of the month. Yesss. We were originally shooting for a weekly cash allowance for poo poo, but that didn't work too well and my husband was kinda bad about like, not using it and having money left over so he didn't want me to pull out some for him, and so it kinda fell to the wayside. Last month it was more expensive because he bought a new tank, but yeah, even without that I don't know why it's so expensive. I'm glad he's not smoking anymore, but goddamn, he spent less on smoking. I actually had to go to the hospital immediately after (ambulance fun zone; we delayed a Muni train!), and also saw a local doctor because of worker's comp. I'm mostly ok; no more neck pain, abdomen bruises are fading, but the chest stuff is the worst now. The doctor I saw said that would persist for a few weeks (costcochrondritis yo), and to be patient, call if it gets too bad.
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Sep 2, 2015 15:53
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So, we had like 8500 in our accounts and decided to go ahead and just pay off the Amex. So now we have: $4332 total $2367 in my accounts $1965 in his accounts And nothing on the Amex. MOVING ON TO OTHER DEBT Student Loans: $49,750 total listed newest to oldest: $5,500 @ 4.66% $7,000 @ 4.66% ( +282.84 interest) $5,500 @ 3.86% $7,000 @ 3.86% (+505.22 interest) $4,500 @ 3.4% $6,000 @ 6.8% (+1,172.91 interest) $3,500 @ 3.4% $6,000 @ 6.8% (+1,573.32 interest) $1,750 @ 4.5% $3,000 @ 6.8% (+923.86 interest) I did apply for SoFi consolidating/refinancing and got approved, but I don't know a whole lot about refinancing/consolidating and I decided to hold off exploring it further until the Amex was paid off/the grace period was closer to over. The Grace period is over in November, so I should probably start thinking about it! Issues with SoFi: lowest fixed rate I see is @ 5.12% for 5-year, followed by 5.99% for 10-year. This is not better than my current interest rates! For variable, I see 3.825% now, but I don't want to get saddled with it going way way up. Right now, it looks like I'm better off just sticking with the way they're currently set up, and maybe hitting the oldest, unsub'd loans @ 6.8% first. Is that right? What's nice is, I can start paying some of that off before November and get a headstart on it. Hooray! Updates on self: Still in pain! Revisited doctor. Not a whole lot of help.
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Sep 5, 2015 20:57
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YAY regarding AmEx! I'd not refinance. And I'd attack in order of highest interest rate. But I'm a numbers guy, I don't need to see the loan count decrease (by knocking small loans out first) - I'd want to see the balance and interest paid decrease first. I suggest this spreadsheet to goons to track their payoffs and see how each method works: http://www.vertex42.com/Links/go2.php?urlid=file-DebtReduction Also, that sucks about the accident pain - keep going to the doc and get better! BTDT! E: I agree w Duckman - An efund is a great idea. I don't think 3-6mo is right for you, you guys have a month of operating cash as it is, and 1-2mo in efund would be sufficient until you knock out the 50k in debt. IMO. Your feelings may dictate doing this differently. SiGmA_X fucked around with this message at 22:19 on Sep 5, 2015 |
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Sep 5, 2015 21:01
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Gnossiennes posted:So, we had like 8500 in our accounts and decided to go ahead and just pay off the Amex. My advice: take a month, def pay minimums on student loans, but throw all extra into emergency fund. Build that up enough for a month or so, then start hitting other debt. This is def subjective advice. Nice job on the Amex. Having only student loan debt seems to be the modern equivalent of not having any debt.
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Sep 5, 2015 21:47
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Duckman2008 posted:Having only student loan debt seems to be the modern equivalent of not having any debt. So true and so sad.
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Sep 5, 2015 22:23
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No more pain from the accident! Husband got his ~bonus check~ which is cool! I have a massive cintiq at work and it is my bff! Current accounts: Mine: $1539 His: $5149 Total: $6688 I get paid on monday, which will be ~cool~ and will bring us up to $8848. Now that the Amex is paid off and I feel more comfortable in our spending (current restaurant + fast food spending for the month is at $84, out of the budgeted $250/mo, AND I've stuck to the twice-a-week lunch/breakfast at work thing), I am preparing to spend some dough. Reason and reasoning: Buying clothing. I don't have a whole lot in the way of "adult" clothes. I pretty much wear jeans + tshirts, and by that I mean a pair of jeans which were cheap and don't fit great, and one pair of jeans my husband bought and didn't like because they were too skinny for him and were appropriated by me. Tshirts are generally black or striped shirts from target. I have like one button down and and a couple dresses I wear, too, but other than that it's the above. I mean, my work doesn't have a dress code or anything (some people are jeans + tshirts exclusively, most are jeans + button downs, some are khakis + polos; I don't work with very many women, but all the ones I know generally dress way nicer than I do). But, still, I'd like to dress like an adult and also like the ~creative professional~ i am. So, I'd like to build a capsule wardrobe, including: One good, well-fitting pair of jeans ($100ish) One-two pairs of good slacks ($80/ea) Three skirts ($50-60ea) Four-five blouses ($40-50ea) Two (light) sweaters ($60ea) Two jersey shirts (can be a couple of the tshirts I already own, probs) ($15ea) A tailored oxford shirt maybe ($50?) Two dresses ($80-120ea) Two-three cardigans (I already own a couple) ($30ea) Two pairs of leggings ($20ea) Three pairs of flats (I have one pair atm) ($80ea) So using the higher numbers, that's about $1420 sans tax. Not cheap by any stretch, but not unaffordable. The idea, too, is to get pieces that will all match with each other. So, I've been working on gathering examples of the pieces I want and what color palette, etc. Making sure they fit right, rather than just being convenient or cheap. Well-fitting, good looking stuff hopefully = less impulse clothing purchases made on the reasoning of being cheap or because I feel like I don't have something. I have a couple things that I own that would probably be able to stay, but it's mostly of 2-3 year old tshirts and dresses I bought on impulse over the past few years. Not well-fitting, don't really match well, and not very professional I know we still have debt and need to be accumulating a better emergency fund, but I would also like to wear more appropriate clothing and be more comfortable in what I wear/have it you know, reflect better what I am and what I do. I don't think I'm being impulsive/over-spendy about this, and I want to make sure I go about this the best way. I'm taking time to really understand how to want to present myself clothing wise, and develop the kind of style and color palette would suit me most. Also, finding clothing via websites and comparing prices so I have a better idea of how much to expect to spend, as well as what brands to go for, where to go, etc Anyone else have experience with trying to build a professional wardrobe without much in the way of professional pieces to start, or experience developing a capsule wardrobe? Tips or advice?
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Sep 19, 2015 08:02
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So you wanna spend ~15-20% of all of the cash you have on clothes?
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Sep 19, 2015 08:16
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Gnossiennes posted:
Just because something costs a lot, doesn't mean its very well made or will last a long time. Dropping $1500 is a lot of money to spend all at once. Thrifting / outlet shops will help bring those prices down.
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Sep 19, 2015 08:21
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n8r posted:So you wanna spend ~15-20% of all of the cash you have on clothes? ladyweapon posted:Find out what days thrift shops in SF bring in new stuff and haul rear end there that day. You can get some extremely nice stuff for not too much. One of my favorite pair of jeans are Levi's mid-rise skinnies that I get when they inevitably go on sale every other month for $30. I would put a little more cash towards the leggings if you're going to wear them to work. Cheaper leggings are usually badly made, fit poorly, fabric ends up going sheer easily. I have a pair of poprageous matte black fleece leggings that are super soft, but they run $42-50 depending on what discount they've got up at the time. I don't really buy from other brands, but I've seen Badinka, Burning Artists Collective, & Impossible Demand mentioned alongside Poprageous as higher quality leggings. I have no experience with their stuff at all, though. All else fails, Nordstroms (or Nordstrom Rack) will probably have something. I like the leggings you linked but I planned on cheaper ones mostly because I don't care for leggings and really only wear them when I have to (when it's too cold). I would love to try thrifting in the city, but getting to SF is a little difficult. It's excuses, I know, but I spent some time when I was younger severely agoraphobic, and while I'm not now, going anywhere with a large amount of people alone (or even with someone) can be a pretty bad time. But, if I can get myself to do it, I think it'll be fruitful and a good way of pushing that boundary for myself. Also, do you recommend any specific stores? As for spending it all at once, my plan it to spread it out over a month or two -- start with a couple blouses, pants, a skirt, and a pair of flats. Branch outwards.
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Sep 19, 2015 08:41
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Gnossiennes posted:But, still, I'd like to dress like an adult and also like the ~creative professional~ i am. edit: and yes, it will be harder to find good things and well-fitting things. That's the time and effort part of this. You can definitely do it if you go in with a color palette in mind and a list of items you are looking for. I'm all about coral and navy blue, and I stop by Ross every month or so. Half the time I don't buy anything, and half the time I find something on my list. Always have a list. Don't buy off of the list. moana fucked around with this message at 16:55 on Sep 19, 2015 |
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Sep 19, 2015 16:41
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Gnossiennes posted:I like the leggings you linked I don't think it's that big of an issue to spend a significant amount of money on clothes because your description does make it sound like you are pretty much starting from scratch but I think the time frame is too short. That's a lot of money to be spending on clothes in two months and finding clothes you love and are good quality can take some time. If you try to build an entire wardrobe in that short time you might compromise for things that are only okay. Maybe focus on 2-3 pieces a month? Personally I get kind of burnt out on long shopping trips and I'm less likely to make smart buying decisions. Make a list and try different types of stores including some thrift stores and Marshalls type stores. Knowing the color palette you are looking for is a good idea.
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Sep 19, 2015 18:09
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SF is actually way worse for thrifting than Santa Rosa is, it's more picked over and expensive. Anything designer or vintage is snatched up for eBay before it hits the floor. I actually go thrifting when I visit my mom up there rather than here at home. The goodwill on HWY 12 right as you enter Sebastopol, Mission Thrift and the Pick of the Litter on Piner Rd, the goodwill downtown on 4th st headed East from the square and the TJ Maxx next to codding town are all really great spots for nice, professional clothing. The antiques mall in railroad square is also a gem for statement pieces of jewelry and good for home decorating on the cheap!
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Sep 19, 2015 19:07
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