« July 2007 | Main | September 2007 »
This fall, patent purses aren't just for leisure, this Tailored Organizer Tote for $49.00 is large enough and contains enough pockets to please the most fashion minded workaholic.
Patent purses are a shining example of a trend with multiple personalities. A patent purse in lipstick red is both playful and dramatic at the same time while a black patent purse conveys a slick sophistication. Read the rest of this article.
Patent purses are a shining example of a trend with multiple personalities. A patent purse in lipstick red is both playful and dramatic at the same time while a black patent purse conveys a slick sophistication.
Patent purses aren't just for leisure, this Tailored Organizer Tote for $49.00 is large enough and contains enough pockets to please the most fashion minded workaholic
.
.
.
.
.
When wearing a purse in a metallic patent like this Bisadora Silver Foil Hobo for $45.00, try coordinating the color and brightness of the purse to the the color and brightness of the jewelry you are wearing. It creates a more pulled together look than the more predictible approach of coordinating the bag with your shoes.
.
.
.
While other handbags on the market have so much hardware on them they should be sold at the local Home Depot, this sleek simple purse by Esha Grace Handbag for $47.50 proves that bold yet elegant style can be accomplished without tons of gimmicks.
Having indulged my shopaholic tendencies in eBay for everything from DVD’s to home décor it finally occurred to me that I could also seek out great deals on beauty creams as well. Fantasies of snapping up expensive beauty creams at bargain basement prices were quickly shattered when I went online and realized thousands of other shopping savvy women had the same brilliant idea I did and they were willing to pay close to the regular retail price of the items. Read the rest of this article.
Having indulged my shopaholic tendencies in eBay for everything from DVD’s to home décor it finally occurred to me that I could also seek out great deals on beauty creams as well. Fantasies of snapping up expensive beauty creams at bargain basement prices were quickly shattered when I went online and realized thousands of other shopping savvy women had the same brilliant idea I did and they were willing to pay close to the regular retail price of the items. Bidding on some of the beauty creams was so high I wondered if some of the buyers ended up paying close to retail or more. Cheapness ultimately triumphed over my desire for the latest hottest miracle cream. I decided to buy a beauty cream from a cheaper brand than on of the prestige brands. The cream didn’t work as well as I had hoped, but the price was as cheap as buying a sample so I took what turned out to be a glorified moisturizer and used it for a hand cream.
Buying samples of expensive creams is a great way to try a product before investing more money in a more expensive full size jar. Samples should be priced far less than a jar of the cream since the seller probably got them free from the cosmetic supplier. As with any other item it’s smart to always read the description of the item to find out what you are really buying. Some sellers will show a photograph of a full size jar when they are actually selling samples. Always buy creams that are sold in their original never opened jars. When cream that has been transferred from the original jar to another container it is exposed to bacteria that may be transferred to the end user and reduce the effectiveness of the cream.
Unless you really are interested in all 152 beauty product from your desired brand, you can narrow down your options by typing in the brand and type of product you are looking for in the search box. For example type “Prestige Brand eye” to bring up eye creams exclusively and not the entire range of products by that brand. Different sellers use different words to describe their products so typing in a more detailed description may eliminate some sellers who were selling the exact product you were looking for.
Shop regularly before the cream you regularly use runs out so you can snap up good deals when they show up. The best way to tell if you are getting a good deal is to go to a price comparison web site like Shopzilla and find out what the beauty item usually sells for at other retail locations. Vanity is no excuse for being a sloppy shopper. Getting a great deal is always a beautiful thing.
Is getting a part time job the best solution to get ahead financially? In my years of employment as an underpaid worker drone with bills to pay I have had on occasion to hold down a full time and part time job at the same time. Frankly the only thing worse than working one low paying dead end job is working two! Here are some pros and cons of part time employment. Read the rest of this article.
Is getting a part time job the best solution to get ahead financially? In my years of employment as an underpaid worker drone with bills to pay I have had on occasion to hold down a full time and part time job at the same time. Frankly the only thing worse than working one low paying dead end job is working two! Here are some pros and cons of part time employment.
One big con of working a part time job is that it gives the tax man the impression that you actually have some money. One year after working a part time job for the specific purpose of paying off my (used) car I was hit with a $600.00 bill at tax time! With both of my jobs paying a few dollars an hour over minimum wage per hour I was shocked at getting a tax bill higher that my weekly paycheck. Apparently the way the taxes for part time jobs were set up in my state they didn’t take much of a deduction of each paycheck, instead choosing to save it as a nasty surprise for unsuspecting wage slaves like me come tax time. Because my money was going to the car dealer instead of my savings account I had to borrow the money from a relative for the $600.00. I dumped the part time job as soon as the car was paid off and I have never had a second job or a shockingly inflated tax bill since then.
For me, another problem with part time employment is that as long as I was paying the bills I didn’t feel the need to pay attention to how I was spending my money. Since saving a few dollars here and there every month wasn’t going to cover the cost of the car payment I didn’t take the initiative to look for ways to cut my electric bills or grocery bills for example. What I didn’t take into account was that if I would have somehow cut my expenses by a as little as $20.00 a month while working that second job I could have quit the second job at least a week or two earlier, earning myself some paid time off so to speak.
While reducing expenses my preferred way of increasing my money, you don’t get taxed on spending less money, there are times when a second job makes financial sense. If one job and frugal living combined will not cover the bills and a second job will allow you pay those bills thereby avoiding a bad credit report, than a second job makes sense. At some point it’s a good idea to shift from survivor mode of just keeping up with the bills, to developing a long term saving strategy that insures you won’t be working two jobs when you’re 90.
Another benefit of a part time job is that the right job can save you money in the form of an employee discount. If you are buying something expensive, like furniture, an extra percentage off the sale price can add up to real savings. You will notice I said an extra percentage off the SALE price, meaning you need to wait for the item to go on sale. When the item goes on sale the sales discount is probably greater than the employee discount, so buying an item at regular retail price with just the employee discount deducted from the price is not the best deal. As an employee you know when the sales start, allowing you first crack at the stuff you want.
The ideal second job would be one that gave you the kind of on the job experience that would increase your chances of having the career your are genuinely interested in later on. If you are creative and interested in being and interior designer for example, get a second job at the type of home decor store that would attract interior designers. It will help you develop customer service skills and gives you a chance to talk to designers about what it’s really like to be an interior designer. After being exposed to the less glamorous side of interior design, including difficult customers and unstable income that fluctuates with the economy, you might either decide that interior design is not for you, or you will use this experience to be better prepared for the day when you do become an interior designer.
If you do decide to get a second job, don’t limit your part time job options to the ones listed in the classifieds. The book Weekend Entrepreneur: 101 Great Ways to Earn Extra Cash outlines part time jobs that you can create for yourself. Many of the jobs are cheap and easy, the book details skills and investment needed for each job. One job that I remember distinctly is dog poop picker upper - not a particularly appealing job or one with a lot of career advancement potential. Luckily there are plenty of other types of jobs outlined for the squimish.
With a part time job, the employer is making an investment in you, but you are making an even more valuable investment than money, you are investing your time. If you do get a part time job, pick it wisely.
At just $24.05 this Unique Handmade Art Deco Style Metal/Leather Magazine Holder is one of the most elegant I have come across. It elevates magazines that were previously just lying about from clutter to home decor. To see more magazine racks, click here.
Shelter magazines brimming with well decorated, and in some cases overdecorated rooms, provide inspiration and hope to those of us living in more humble dwellings than the ones featured in the magazine. There is the hope that someday we can imitate some aspect of the home or room featured in our own homes. How useful clipping pictures from shelter magazines to use as a visual reference later on depends partly on how those pictures are organized. Read the rest of this article.
At just $24.05 this Unique Handmade Art Deco Style Metal/Leather Magazine Holder is one of the most elegant I have come across. It elevates magazines that were previously just lying about from clutter to home decor.
.
.
.
.
.
What I love about this Acrylic Magazine Holder by U.S. Acrylic for $15.79 is that it can be laid on it's side on a table or desk and have other stuff like small home decor accents placed on top of it. When space is tight, think vertical for showcasing your stuff. Acrylic is easily scratched and can scratch surfaces, so be sure to put something non abrasive like an old mouse pad between the magazine holder and a table surface. Small protective pads to stick to the bottom of hard surfaces like vases can be found at hardware and home decor stores.
.
.
.
Magazine racks like this Adesso WK7814 Zurich Magazine Rack Walnut 15 for $45.00 are stylish and substantial enough to hold more than magazines. This would work beautifully in a bedroom holding extra small pillows or rolled up blankets.
Shelter magazines brimming with well decorated, and in some cases overdecorated rooms, provide inspiration and hope to those of us living in more humble dwellings than the ones featured in the magazine. There is the hope that someday we can imitate some aspect of the home or room featured in our own homes. How useful clipping pictures from shelter magazines to use as a visual reference later on depends partly on how those pictures are organized. If you have mastered the art of procrastination, the way I have, glossy pictures of perfect rooms tend to collect piles. This presents problems later when I finally get around to going through my carefully clipped pictures and have to stop and wonder what I was thinking when I clipped a picture of a horrendeoulsy decorated room that looks like a before shot in a makeover article in one of those decorating magazines. Was I interested in the way pictures were arranged on a wall, the furniture layout in the room, or did I just lose my mind? After one too many "Did I just lose my mind?" moments I decided to create my own home decor magazine of sorts. I bought a cheap binder, the kind you find at office supply stores, and lots of those clear plastic sleeves that hold 8 1/2 by 11 inch sheets of paper to put in the binder. As I clipped picures from magazines I put them in the clear plastic sleeves inside the binder.
A few pointers on creating your own look book:
A personalized decorating book like this is a wonderful reference for future home decorating projects and it's also a fun and easy way to develope your own sense of style.
In ancient times, say the 1950’s, people dressed up when posing for glossy magazines. Idealized images of well dressed well groomed people in mannequin stiff poses were featured in lifestyle magazines “relaxing” at home in rooms even more formal than the occupants. The whole effect may have been a bit contrived, but at least the occupants looked like they belonged in the rooms they were photographed in. Read the rest of this article.
In ancient times, say the 1950’s, people dressed up when posing for glossy magazines. Idealized images of well dressed well groomed people in mannequin stiff poses were featured in lifestyle magazines “relaxing” at home in rooms even more formal than the occupants. The whole effect may have been a bit contrived, but at least the occupants looked like they belonged in the rooms they were photographed in.
Today the rooms being photographed are often more attractively decorated than the occupants. Proud homeowners often appear in glossy magazines dressed like slovenly tourists crashing a designer show house. The message is supposed to be “Sure I live in a fabulous mansion, but please look past my incredible wealth and decorator’s good taste to see that I am a real person.“ It is at this point that the artifice of bygone years becomes even more appealing.
This dressing down for the magazine features may have started with celebrities. Fearful of alienating the public that was so generously financing their exorbitant lifestyles, celebrities started preaching about how “real” they were to any lifestyle magazine that would listen. Photographs of celebrities in ripped jeans, bare feet untucked and half unbuttoned shirts and a complete lack of grooming clogged otherwise attractive magazine layouts. In an effort to reinforce the image of a “real” person unaffected by their glamorous surroundings, the decidedly unglamorous residents sat on kitchen counters (barefoot of course), dumped themselves on furniture in sloppy poses like so much dirty laundry strewn about. The pictures of them flossing their teeth must be sitting on the magazines editors floor somewhere.
Cleanliness is another form of pretension to be avoided like a starched shirt. Celebrities with more than enough money for maid service rhapsodized about leaving their children’s food stains untouched by cleaning products to fester on furniture upholstery because it gives the place “character”. Flophouse chic is apparently preferable to a little pretension.
Enough! The “reality” movement is just as contrived as the over polished images of homeowners of bygone years. Lovers of elegance and beauty look to lifestyle magazines for inspiration not unintended irony. It is a compliment to have a magazine deem a residence worthy of featuring in their magazine. The people being featured should acknowledge this compliment by not appearing as if they are hungover and unaware of their appearance. And put some shoes on!
There are two styles of fashion jeans making a strong showing for fall. The aptly named skinny jean that fashion editors will push as a "must have" item for fall and retailers will attempt to sell, and the wide leg jeans, which anyone over a size 2 will actually buy to feel both fashionable and comfortable. Read the rest of the article
An all too common fashion malady is the blue jean blues, a frustrating condition brought on by failed attempts to find a pair of blue jeans that fit properly and don't make your butt look huge. The folks at Zafu.com provide the cure for the blue jean blues by offering a free personal shopping service that matches you up with the brands and styles of jeans that are most likely to fit and flatter your figure. Read the rest of this article.
Batting your eyelashes is either a flirtatious gesture or a sign that your mascara drenched lower lashes are sticking to your top lashes. To avoid the risk that every man within 20 feet will mistake a case of bad mascara for intense flirting, get the right mascara for the job. Read the rest of this article.
Like an annoying pop tune you cant get out of your head, financial analyst repeatedly sing the praises of being sensible. Impulse purchases are an evil to be controlled and eliminated if possible. What is rarely if ever discussed are those impulse purchases that seemed to be so sensible at the time. Read the rest of this article.
There are two styles of fashion jeans making a strong showing for fall. The aptly named skinny jean that fashion editors will push as a "must have" item for fall and retailers will attempt to sell, and the wide leg jeans, which anyone over a size 2 will actually buy to feel both fashionable and comfortable. These two extremes both serve the same fashion purpose, to make the classic jeans you already own out of style. How do you stay in fashion without looking like a fashion victim 6 months from now? Look for styles that are influenced by a skinny or wide leg style but avoid extremes. Mass market retailers like Target and Old Navy offer variations on the trends that avoid extremes, but reflect the trend closely enough for you to look current. These jeans are not the kind of quality investment jeans you will have and love forever, just a cheap entry into the fashion scene that you enjoy for as long as the trend lasts.
Skinny jeans are best paired with tops that are lightweight and flowing, a tunic top skimming the body and ending above the thighs would be a good choice. The idea is to balance out the snugness of the jeans with a something looser on top. Ballet flats or any kind of flat work with skinny jeans. A high heel with skinny jeans is like wearing heavy garish makeup to look sexy, it comes across as trying too hard.
Skinny jeans from gap.com $59.50.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Mossimo Supply Co. Denim Wide-leg Utility Jean
Wide leg jeans require a snug fitted top or jacket to balance out the volume of the pants and prevent the wearer from looking frumpy. Shoes or boots should have a tapered (not painfully pointy) toe and at least a two inch heel. Avoid wedge heels which will look chunky with wide pant legs and pencil thin high heels which are too delicate and will drown inside the pant legs. A tapered heel at least the width of a quarter usually works. One nice thing about wide leg jeans is that they are usually so long in length they cover the shoe, making the wearers legs look longer.
An all too common fashion malady is the blue jean blues, a frustrating condition brought on by failed attempts to find a pair of blue jeans that fit properly and don't make your butt look huge. The folks at Zafu.com provide the cure for the blue jean blues by offering a free personal shopping service that matches you up with the brands and styles of jeans that are most likely to fit and flatter your figure. After answering some questions about fit issue you have with jeans, if they usually gape or are usually tight in certain areas etc. a selection of jeans (the number of jeans suggested depends on your fit issues) pops up on the screen. The nicest surprise for this Cheap Diva was the prices of the jeans featured. Most of the jeans suggested for my figure were under $50.00. In fashion terms this means I could buy four pair of jeans recommended by Zafu.com for the price of one pair of designer jeans suggested by a glossy fashion magazine.
Batting your eyelashes is either a flirtatious gesture or a sign that your mascara drenched lower lashes are sticking to your top lashes. To avoid the risk that every man within 20 feet will mistake a case of bad mascara for intense flirting, get the right mascara for the job. Ask yourself is what it is you need your mascara to do. If you are going swimming or subjecting yourself to a tearjerker situation like a wedding (the fact that the real reason you are crying because you had to spend your own money on an ugly bridemaids dress will be our little secret) then a waterproof mascara is the obvious choice. The two most common colors of mascara are brown/black and black. Brown/black is a deep brown that is more subtle than black. This is a good choice for fair skinned divas on whom black mascara can look severe. Brown/black is also a good color choice for daytime mascara if you want to save the more dramatic eye makeup for evening.
A good quality $7.00 drugstore mascara is a better investment than a pricier prestige mascara since no matter what the price or the brand, mascara goes bad a few months after it is opened and needs to be replaced regularly. The Cheap Diva's personal pick is Cover Girl Lash Exact mascara. It makes my lashes looks like naturally thick lashes without the clumping of other mascaras. I avoid volumizing macaras for fear of looking like I have small furry animals attached to my eyelids. If I want more drama with my mascara I can add another coat, coating the top and bottom of my lashes for example instead of just the bottom.
Eyelash curlers open up the eye area and make the eye lashes more noticible by curling lashes upwards. Follow intructions that come with the eyelash curler and be sure to curl lashes before applying mascara. Curling lashes after applying mascara will leave macara gunk behind on the curler. This Go Curl Pocket Lash Curler by Japonesque for $12.00 is compact, easy to use and received rave reviews from others who bought it on Amazon.com. Amazon.com allows customers to rate just about everything, not just books.
Applying a thin line of dark liquid eyeliner at the base of the eyelid where the lashes meet the eyelid, makes the lashes look longer. The dark line makes the ends of the lashes visually receed. If you want to downplay the presence of eyeliner, apply a thin line of liquid eyeliner and after it dries, then apply foundation or eye base and eyeshadow to the eyelids like you normally would.
Like an annoying pop tune you cant get out of your head, financial analyst repeatedly sing the praises of being sensible. Impulse purchases are an evil to be controlled and eliminated if possible. What is rarely if ever discussed are those impulse purchases that seemed to be so sensible at the time.
One of common myth of sensible dressing is that neutrals are a great investment because they supposedly go with everything. It was this kind of thinking that once caused me to buy a pair of navy shoes. I soon discovered that clothing came in a lot of shades of navy and absolutely none of them went with my “sensible” shoes. What did go with the bright blues and aqua colors in my wardrobe were a pair of royal purple shoes that I seemed to wear with everything. What can I say, it was the 80’s. The shoes coordinated with these colors because they were all the same intensity, or brightness.
I have on more than one occasion fallen victim to that dangerous combination of cheap and sensible. Finding a solid color plain, I’m talking blank tee shirt plain, shirt on sale at rock bottom prices appealed to my sense of thrift more than my sense of style. Sure the shirt was plain, wasn’t that a good thing? It’s not trendy. It’s should go with a lot of things having no pattern, no interesting details, no visible signs of having any personality whatsoever. And yet it was often these sensible shirts that ended up in the donation bag to Goodwill while my leopard print crinkle skirt saw me through another carefree weekend outing. I eventually decided to pass on the bland clothes and invest in clothes with more personality once I realized I was not in the Witness Protection Program and there was no real reason to dress like I was trying to be invisible.
Another so called sensible habit is stocking up on an item when you find a good deal on it. This overlooks the fact that there may be a very good reason the item is piled high in a clearance bin. I still have a small stockpile left of some moisturizing lotion from a reputable brand that I bought on clearance. The lotion is only slightly thicker than water and I have been under whelmed by it’s moisturizing ability. Better products have come along but I have enough lotion to keep a small country moisturized for a month so I don’t buy those products. I just look at the latest moisturizer longingly and think to myself, a body lotion that you put on in the shower and rinse off, a tinted moisturizer that makes your skin glow, gee I hope those products are still around in a year and a half when I finally run out of cheap runny lotion.
The lesson here is whether it is clothing or beauty products, dress yourself only in things that make you feel good when you wear them. It’s the only sensible thing to do.
For many cheap divas including yours truly, the "home office" consists of a desk or table shoved up against a wall in a bedroom, guest room, or wherever there happened to be room for a desk. Because the "office" shares space with rooms that are used for other purposes, the furnishings and accessories used for the office space should complement the overall style scheme, not look like you dumped a cubicle in the middle of the bedroom. All of the pieces featured in this article use black and white or black and silver for their color scheme. With black as the unifying color theme, it's easier to get pieces from different brands to coordinate with each other.
The building block of any office is the desk. This Georgetown Writing Desk for $149.00 has a silver drawer pull and so much style with the shape of the legs and carved (looking) trim under the drawer, it's one of the few "some assembly required" mass produced pieces of furniture I've seen that could easily pass for much more expensive furniture. It could also easily function as an elegant table. I have moved so many times over the years that when I look at a piece of furniture my thoughts automatically turn to how I can re-purpose and reinvent the furniture for my next dwelling.
After looking at so many message boards that were cheap looking and lacking in style I was tempted to email my own message to the designers of these things - Invent something with style! My nasty email campaign was stopped in its tracks when I spotted this Walnut Photo Cabinet Message Center ($59.99). The cabinet doors frame two of your own 8"x10" photos. The cabinet doors are backed with cork board and the back of the cabinet has a magnetic message board. When the front doors are closed, it completely hides small office debris that accumulates on message boards and puts the focus on your pictures. It's the only message board that I saw that not only can pass for home decor but it also gives you the option of completely concealing your mess and dealing with it later. Personally, my favorite time for dealing with any mess is later.
ThisLuxe Damask Print Mirror Jewelry box for $29.95 is a much more glamourous option for keeping your post it notes and paperclips handy than whatever you have on your desk now. If you want to add some pizazz to you desk top, the office supply store is generally not the place to look. Small jewlery boxes or any small boxes categorized under home decor at your favorite store or web site will produce a lot better variety of styles and options that will work with your home decor and showcase your personality, not your paperclip collection.
I had a cheap looking college dorm room style desk with a particle board top and metal legs that I was looking to replace with the kind of furniture you buy after you graduate, when I spotted the Georgetown Black Console Table (pictured at left) from Target priced at $139.00 including shipping. When you call yourself a cheap diva, $129.00 is considered an expensive purchase so I tried to figure out how to get the best deal. I was debating the money saving angles, should I open a Target credit card and get a discount or would I be better off using an existing card, or should I wait for a sale etc. when I had the good fortune to read the junk mail included with my Discover credit card statement. Instead of the 1% cash back bonus credit I usually received for purchases, for a limited time they were offering 5% cash back on items purchased from Target.com! I put just about everything on my credit card and always pay it in full and on time so I just happened to already have $140.00 in cash back bonus credit on my card. I went to the credit card web site, jumped through all the hoops you have to jump through when taking advantage of any offer online, went to the Target.com web site, jumped through even more hoops, (this is clearly not the kind of transaction you want to do when you are pressed for time) and bought my console. When the following credit card statement for showed that my 5% back had processed and been included with my regular cash back bonus, I called the credit card company and had $140.00 deducted from my next credit card bill. The $140.00 credit covered the cost of the console and I got over $6.00 in cash back bonus credit. In other words, after applying $140.00 deduction to my credit card, completely reimbursing me for the cost of my console, my credit card company gave me and additional $6.00 that I can apply toward a future purchase or redeem for cash. I now make a point of reading all the junk mail that comes with my credit card bills. I am eager to see what else they are willing to pay me to buy.
Croque Dessert Cup by Bormioli Rocco.
Before everyone and their mother decided they had to diet and sweets were forbidden fruit, so to speak, it was safe to have an ice cream social. You could buy a giant tub of vanilla ice cream and a variety of toppings, invite people over and be reasonably certain people would actually indulge in the sweet pleasure of eating ice cream on a hot day. The last ice cream social I attended, only about half of the (female) guests actually ate dessert. The other half stood around politely declining any offer of ice cream with a fake smile on their face that belied the fact that they desperately wished the diet soda they were sipping tasted a lot more like a fudge sundae.
Instead of fighting the diet epidemic, why not go with the flow and host a figure friendly ice cream social so no one feels left out of the fun? Explain on the invitation that this is a figure friendly ice cream social. For a larger group, things that come in individual servings like Skinny Cow brand ice cream sandwiches or Weight Watchers cups are faster and easier to serve than scooping out individual servings from and ice cream carton. If it's just not an ice cream social to you without vanilla ice cream and toppings, try Edy's slow churned vanilla ice cream with less fat and calories than other ice creams. Top ice cream with fresh fruit such as strawberries. You can also make strawberry sauce by mashing up the berries and adding a dash of sugar for sweetness, or mash up some peach slices, get frozen if thats easier for you, and add a dash of ground ginger for flavor. It's indugence without regret that allows dieters to enjoy themselves as much as the nondieters. No more diet soda!
![Domino [2-year subscription]](http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51eLRBAy9eL._AA280_.jpg)
