Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge

Train ticket: $134
Shopping: $337.01
Metrocards: $25 (with ~$8 leftover)
Museum admission: $20
Yoga class: $20
Food: $192.78
Total Damage: $728.79

I took Amtrak and stayed with two friends in Brooklyn and Little Italy. I rode the subway a lot, but I also walked a lot. I think I wasted about $10 worth of trips due to sleep deprivation when I arrived, and then getting off in Chelsea near my friend’s office waiting to see if she could step out for a coffee break before I left town.

I bought lunch for the first hostess because I hadn’t had time to think carefully about a good hostess gift and because I had no idea what her co-op apartment looked like (same for the second hosts). She’s very aesthetically oriented, so I didn’t want to get something that didn’t fit her house. The second hosts were a couple I know. The guy paid for dinner on Saturday night at an inexpensive Vietnamese restaurant. Realizing what a twit I was and being kind of clueless about my surroundings as the check arrived I let him pay my share by accident. I then paid my share for all the other meals we ate together, because they got progressively more expensive from there. (Sunday brunch and fancy sushi dinner)

On Monday I went to the MOMA and it was an expensive admission fee, but worth it. I’ll gush another day about the artwork. Suffice it to say I dined at the 5th floor cafe because I didn’t want to go out and back in. I did make an error in reading the menu and I thought that dessert was included in the $25 fixed price menu. It was not, so I paid ~$47 for lunch. However, the service at the beginning was dreadful and someone had a bussing accident behind me so the nice waitress gave me a free soda with lunch.

Normally I wouldn’t go to a yoga class, but I was curious to see what it was about and it made for a nice outing with one of my friends. Educational. But it’s 3 days later and my body still hurts. I do, however, think that it would be a good kind of exercise for me. Essentially it’s a lot of push ups and I have no upper body strength. I had to sit out for part of the class when my arms felt like jelly.

The obligatory shopping. Well, a good portion of my trip was presents for other people. Approximately $200 actually. This was for omiyage and future Christmas shopping. (Omiyage is the special Japanese word for the obligatory gifts you get while on vacation. Koreans just say ‘present’.) All the rest was clothing, purses, Chinese house slippers because my old one shredded, and a parasol. I was very good at Pearl River Mart and spent only $43.50 there. But I was eyeing the rayon brocades because they were extremely good prices. (<$12 per yard, but the same stuff in DC is priced at $25+ per yard at G Street) Realizing that making throw pillows out of such pretty stuff is a waste since I will nap and drool on them, I skipped the luxury purchase and sheltered my eyes.

I did a tad of bargaining, but not much. Chinatown is definitely the place for haggling, but I didn’t want to cheap out too much since I was mostly shocked to find out how cheap everything was. I got a really cute purse for which I was willing to pay $20 for $15. My friend bought a Chanel knockoff tote and purse for $40. I was pretty impressed with some of the fakes I saw. The Coach wallets at once shop were *very* close to the canvas signature C stuff, but once I picked up the wallet, I could tell it was fake because it lacked the stiffness of the true canvas that Coach uses. It helps that I have a bag and hat out of the actual material to know how poor the imitations were. If you are going to get a fake, get a GOOD fake. As I left Penn Station, the annoying chatterbox in front of me had a fake Coach/Etienne Aigner patchwork bag that made me want to gag. Lady, don’t you know that the Coach signature C stuff does not intersperse with the horseshoe A of the Aigner?

I, myself, did buy a knock off. It’s of an elegant shape in navy blue. I know it’s quite fake, but I don’t really care. The logo on it is very subtle and for a $25 purse, it suits me just fine. The origin of wanting a new purse goes back 6 years to a red canvas Tommy Hilfiger bag I got at Off 5th with my mother for $20. She hated it, but I like red, white and blue color schemes. Fast forward to today, and it looks old and faded. Even if I washed it, I suspect it wouldn’t take it very well. Do I really want to spend $5 to dry clean it when it might ruin the rubber trim and not even work? I have a dilemma about it, which is resolved with buying a few new trendy but cheap purses. (A shoulder bag, a small purse and a wristlet.) Oh, the small purse is tan and light green which replaces a green straw purse which is shredding beyond repair.

A lot went on a credit card (~$400), but I will be paying that off in full soon. I am getting much, much better and holding onto cash for transactions instead of whipping out the cards. There was a time in my life where all of it would have gone on plastic.