Just plain tired..

So yesterday morning on our way to work BF and i had a great chat about ways to strategize and save money. Work was going good... until a 12 o'clock meeting.. .where our company sat us down and told us that this year there would be no bonuses. And effective dec 1, we would all be reduced to a 4 day work week... with a 20% pay decrease. This is bad. Very bad. 20% of my pay... is more than half my monthly rent.

Needless to say... the past day hasn't been very good. I go between feelings of anger to sadness.. I know its not the end of the world and heck I should be lucky I still have a job... but I feel so crappy. I feel like I can't afford presents this year, and I've been contemplating getting a part time job. I will hate to leave my coworkers... but hey I have to feed and shelter myself, know what I mean?

Happy early Thanksgiving... more later.

Outlet madness

So I'm back from my long weekend away with my mom - I had a great time! We went wine tasting, ate some fab food, and most of all did some hardcore shopping! We actually hit up three outlet mall centers and I wanted to make out a little list to see what I spent compared to what I wouldn't have if I didn't get everything on sale. That's right. Every item I bought was on sale. Yay! So here we go

Stop 1: 

Nordstroms

Pair of shoes marked 47.99 originally 79.95

total at Nordstroms: 53.00

total saved at nordstroms - $32

Coach

2 keyfobs - skull and crossbones (sis for christmas, koala for me) - 16.00 ea marked down from 29.00 - saved 26.00

1 silk scarf - 14.99 marked down from 54.00 

total spent at Coach - 50.63

total savings at coach - $65!

Banana Republic

1 dress, marked 54.99 - 50% = 27.50

1 luxe hoodie marked 59.99 - 50% = 29.99

1 shawl neck shirt marked 29.99 -50% = 15.00

1 sweater vest marked 21.99 - 50% = 10.99, plus addtl 50% = 8.24

1 dressy top marked 37.99 - 50% = 19.00

1 embellished top marked 36.99 - 40% = 19.00

total  = 130.00

HOWEVER, BR was doing a special promotion - use your BR card for an extra 25% off!

New total =  100.72

total savings at BR - $148.46!

Stop 2

J. Crew

1 knit beret hat marked 29.50 - 30% = 10.65

1 fleece collar knit market 49.50 - 30% = 34.65

total at J.Crew = $59.59

total savings at J.Crew - $23.70

Cosmetics Company Outlet

1 MAC eyeshadow marked 10 (retail 14)

1 MAC palette marked 25.25 (retail 38)

1 MAC shadestick marked 11.75 (retail 16.50)

total at CCO - 50.64

total savings at CCO = $ 21.50

GAP Outlet

1 white blouse marked 29.99 - 40% = 18.99

1 headband marked .47 - 40% = .28

plus an additional 10% off my total

Total at GAP - $17.71

total savings at GAP - 14.02 (plus that headband at a quarter?!)

Stop 3

Burberry outlet

1 pair shoes marked 430 discounted t0 230, marked down to 99 plus an additional 50% = 49.00

total at burberry - 53

total savings at Burberry - $377!

total spent on shopping - $329.29

total saved - $633.97!!!

wowee folks - that's a huge savings - almost two times what I really spent! so although I did spent a lot of money... I also saved a ton too! Buying things on sale and clearance at an outlet center really helps a lot, not to mention I got my holiday party dress for about 25 and change an those burberry shoes! so excited!

anyway... off to get some rest here, not feeling so hot so I'm hoping I can beat a cold that might be coming on. Cheers!

I love Fridays.

I really, really do. Friday - the day that the hours can seemingly melt by - or even if they dragged you wouldn't mind since the weekend is coming up.

With Veterans Day coming up on Tuesday, I took Monday off to have a 4 day weekend. And since I've been saying that I need a vacation for quite some time, my mom and I are going up to the wine country to overnight, relax, eat, and just have some healthy downtime. I'm quite excited - as our rooms were 87 a night - so that seems like quite a deal (compared to the other places that were 250+ a night!).

This evening some of us are going to a comedy show where I was able to get discounted tickets. If you sign up for goldstar you get a weekly email with events in your area - most of the time with half price or even FREE tickets. I'll get us some pizzas with coupons from dominoes and voila! Dinner and a show.

With the holidays fast approaching it starts to be time for holiday shopping. BF and I have already given each other gifts for the holidays - so all I really need to worry about is mom, dad, sister, roommate, and perhaps a friend or two. With my new found photo obsession I was thinking of blowing up some of my prints and framing them for my parents. Or maybe I should just stick to the peets gift card I get dad every year, but we'll see.

Anyway - time to get back to "work". Updates later..

November november

Oh November - you've come up so quickly and October ended so fast!

For the month I spent a bit too much money.. although I did go through a purse this morning and find a check made out to me! So I'm going to deposit it into my fun fund.

Since payday was Friday, on Saturday morning I transferred a chunk into my savings account. I also withdrew almost half of November's rent and am keeping that into an envelope to later turn into a cashier's check for BF. Sounds confusing.. but I'm hoping that it will help me cut down on costs.

My mom purchased us a slow cooker... so I'm way excited. I'm really hoping that this will make lunches and dinners easier and more fun. I'm getting a bit tired of peanut buttery and raspberry jam... so we will see. Again - I do wish we had a microwave at work! Although the bagel bites have been doing well.

Today I do have to make the journey to safeway - they have some meats on sale (i'm thinking beef stew and chili), plus I need more jam, cottage cheese, and some spices. I'm trying my best to scope out some sales so that I can save more money that way. I do need to go to Walgreeens to get my medicine...so that will be another 25 there too. Ugh!

Anyway - I think I'm going to catch up on some other blogs and I promise (really hard this time!) not to neglect this so much.