Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge

I’m starting to think I’m turning into a bit of a skinflint. I don’t mind spending money on food. (Our spendy dinner last Friday night at the Evening Star Cafe in Del Ray in Alexandria is a good example.)

Two perfect examples from this weekend were the purchase of a bathmat and some ironing supplies.

I was cruising Target for a bathmat and found a super soft Fieldcrest mat for $18. I looked around at other mats, but they were neither deep dark blue enough or soft like the luxury Fieldcrest mat. For a $6-8 premium, I really thought I’d be happy with the expensive mat. However, when I checked my receipt and saw it was actually a $26 mat, I began having second thoughts.

I took the mat home, but now I’m deciding if I want to return it. The mat was now about $14-$16 more than the other mats in the store. *grumble* I’m not sure I want this mat anymore now that it’s so expensive.

The second frustrating thing is the cost of an ironing board. It sounds dumb, but I feel like I should be able to find a full-size board for $20. I don’t mind buying used, but I haven’t seen a used one yet. Since I live in a studio, I looked at some over the door models, but I didn’t think they were worth the premium or large enough for large bolts of fabric.

Also, Target had a $7 iron, but it was too cheap. I know there is a discount store in DC called AJ Wright where I’ve seen nicer irons for the same price. They might not have them in stock when I go look, but I think it’s worth waiting to see if they have them.

So how cheap am I that I’m bristling at the price of things? Or is it that I don’t actually need these things and so I really want them to be as cheap as possible?

ps- I am irate with Target for NOT having unit pricing on its tags like a regular supermarket does.

It’s an apples to apples thing. My friend is a long-time quilter and I’ve been looking at quilt fabrics a lot recently. Together we went to the Quilt Patch in Fairfax, VA over the weekend.

I had recently been shopping withMrs. Micah at G Street Fabrics. We also walked over to a nearby JoAnn’s Fabrics. I invited Mrs. Micah out to G Street because they were having a 30% off sale on fabrics and notions. There was a lot of fabulous stuff there. It was hard to resist, but I walked out only with some quilt batts for a quilt for my nephew and some spares.

There’s a couple of things that I’ve noticed.

1. Fire retardant batts are really expensive. Like twice as expensive. This is important for children’s stuff, but not so much for adults. Next time I make a quilt that’s not for a kid, I’m going to stay away from the batts that cost twice as much. (One $100 of materials, that can be as much as a 15% savings.)

2. Just because JoAnn’s has it cheaper, doesn’t mean it’s the same thing. I didn’t even know there was a JoAnn’s Fabrics behind the G Street store. The quilt fabrics are about $7 a yard. G Street is usually $10. The Quilt Patch, about $8-9. Now here’s the catch, the fabrics may not be the same. They LOOKED the same, or so I thought. My quilter friend advised me to be careful because the fabric might be from the same manufacturer, but ‘diluted’. The print may have one less color, or less saturated dyes, or be of slightly different weight fabric, i.e. thinner. Have you ever bought something thinking it was exactly the same thing? I am slightly wary of generics at the supermarket for this reason. The quality might not be there on something when it really counts. (I find generic cereals just aren’t that good.)

3. I like independent stores better than chains, but let me tell you, I felt pretty bad when Mrs. Micah picked up a spool of serger thread at JoAnn’s and it was cheaper. But JoAnn’s didn’t have the colors she needed anyway, so whew! There are things for which you shouldn’t pay a premium for. Because the thread was packaged and from the same manufacturer, shopping for the best price made a lot of sense. The crazy thing is, the totally independent, single store quilt shop had the uber fancy quilting thread for just under $9, whereas G Street had it for $10. (FWIW, JoAnn’s didn’t have it at all. It’s the King Tut variagated thread.)

So I got sucked into a new hobby if you can’t tell. I’m trying to keep myself from building up lots of extra stash with this hobby. I might even have to buy an iron and ironing board for this one. Maybe sell off the motorcycle to buy a new sewing machine. Who knows where this path to crafting hell will lead me? But so far so good:

This quilt was for my friend who got married in Puerto Rico. I made it for her baby born this spring. She told me the nursery was going to be jungle themed.

Every once in a while I have some money to buy art. Not all art is expensive either.

I don’t care much for knickknacks around the house because my apartment is so small. I have a few stuffed animals that I care about for sentimental reasons and some special figurines, but that’s about it. Most are just toys that could be thrown away if needed.

One of my favorite artists regularly shows her work at Artomatic. Her name is Geneieve Lynn of Jade River Studios. I bought a Chinese brush painting of hers many years ago at Artscape in Baltimore. It was for my mom for Christmas. While I was looking at her latest exhibit, I saw some cute small paintings of Chinese Zodiac animals. There was one of a rabbit that I kind of liked. It was reasonably priced in the frame for $30. It would be a cute picture for Father’s Day since my dad was born in the Year of the Hare/Rabbit.

For my father, there’s very little he needs right now since my mom takes care of everything. But I wanted to get him a small treat. In the past, there have been cashmere sweaters, golf accessories, hats, fancy raingear, and ridiculousness. More than anything, a token gift is best now since his stroke. I think a cute bunny picture for an empty spot on the wall is perfect.

Art doesn’t have to be expensive and I’m glad I could pick up an original piece of work so inexpensively. (There are small fees the artist pays at Artomatic, but nothing like a gallery commission.) Sometimes, you’re better off going directly to the artist rather than through a gallery.

ps- If I hadn’t bought the painting, I would have had a No Spend Day yesterday. Hooray for Almost No Spend Days!

A few weeks ago I wanted to get all spiffy to go clubbing. I work near a mall with a lot of cute clothing options, so I figured this shouldn’t be too hard. I could pick from Bebe, Agnes B, Forever 21, etc. I budgeted about $100 for new cute clothes. Try as I might, I couldn’t find anything I wanted except a $500 dress from BCBG, but it was in the wrong color so no dice.

Instead I left with a pair of new spangly earrings from Claire’s for 10 bucks and a lot of disappointment.

Why is it that lately I’ve turned into a really bad shopper? I’ve been reading about Single Ma’s fab shopping trip, JD’s need to revamp his wardrobe and Debt Hater’s wardrobe update. It makes me want to shop, but then I get to the stores and everything is a big fat yuck.

The last thing I added to my wardrobe was a Threadless T-shirt courtesy of my boyfriend. It was on sale. Maybe it’s ok for certain kinds of clubs, but I want to be kind of swanky, cute, and all kinds of hot. Short of cutting up the shirt and DIY altering it, it’s actually super boring.

UGH. I guess this is a good thing for the budget though. I haven’t bought anything else but the clothes I needed for work. *sigh*

Frumperella loves spring. She’d like some new, fun clothes, but alas, there is very little she likes at the moment. (There’s a reason why goth/industrial black makes a nice fall back style. It’s extremely consistent.)

Crud. I could have used this site while I was shopping at Babies R Us the other day.

RetailMeNot is the sister site of BugMeNot. While I was writing another post, I visited BugMeNot and saw the link for coupons.

I’m not a coupon clipper, but being able to look up a coupon when I’m ready to buy is exactly what I need.

And now it’s my gift to you. (no coupon necessary)

I didn’t find it through HC at One Big Mortar Board, but she did blog about this a few days ago. I am only finding it now because I’m behind on reading other blogs.

I have a huge bummer. On Valentine’s Day, after work, I went back to Ann Taylor with my receipt for 2 suits. There is a sale on suits where the jacket is 50% off. Thinking I could get a price adjustment, I took a receipt into the store and found out that they will only do a price adjustment within 14 days of purchase.

Bummer. I thought it was a 30-day policy, not 14.

Just so you know. Flip that receipt over, read it as you walk out the door. Then you’ll know.

January sucks for retail. Why? Because you want to shop and spend some money, but there is nary a sales person to be found.

Clueless friend and I are shopping and he’s wondering why there isn’t anyone around to ask about opening a display case for us. I then laugh at him and explain that this is the reality of the post-holiday retail season. Everyone has slashed their payroll and cut everyone’s hours.

Why do I know this? Because I learned the hard way. I worked retail in college and January was always the hardest month. I could never get enough retail hours on the clock to make what I needed. I had to keep my library and office work-study jobs to buy my Spring semester books.

*sigh*

Just when I’m ready to spend some money, they won’t let me.

FWIW, I was looking at some allen wrench sets (or ‘hex keys’ but daddy always called them allen wrenches, is that a regional term?) and will now be buying them online through Harbor Freight, piggy backing it off of my friend’s order. Why? Because I had to borrow a set from my lovely neighbors, and I torqued the heck out of the cheap set they loaned me and couldn’t get it back into the case properly, which they couldn’t either when they handed them to me, so it’s ok. But I thought this would be a nice thank you for all the awesome things my friends do for me all year-round.

I was at an A.J. Wright this weekend. It’s over near the Brentwood mail facility in DC. (Yes, the anthrax one.) My friend was looking for a cheap hair dryer so he could do the plastic shrink wrap window insulation at his house. Because we happened to be in there, we decided to check out what else they had. I mean, I saw a really nice ceramic curling iron near the hair dryer and other brand-name stuff so we figured it was worth checking out the whole place.

I ended up with a set of Cuddle Duds thermal underwear, new kitchen tongs, and some baby shower presents. My friend left with a $10 hair dryer, 22oz bar glasses, nested bakeware, present for his friend’s kid, and all kinds of other stuff.

For me, the best find was the Cuddle Duds. I got a set for Christmas a few years ago and love them. I really wanted some more thermal underwear but hate paying full price. These were on a rack of slightly irregular stuff. Which leads me to Advice #1: Scrutinize your item for minor flaws. Look for pulls, holes, bad seams, ink spots, other poor construction. This is important, since that’s often why it’s in a discount store in the first place. Each item was $3.99, but $8 bucks if it was perfect. I went through the entire rack and found a matching top and bottom, even though the top is sleeveless (less preferred). It doesn’t matter to me because it’s a cream color, just like my existing set. I got an entire set for $8 instead of $16 or regular retail of about $40.

Advice #2: Noisy children toys must have removable batteries. My friend got this really cool fire truck for his friend’s kid. However, the siren on it will get annoying. I reminded my friend that to stay friends with this family, to tell the parents to remove the batteries when it gets to be too much. Otherwise he’ll be tagged as the annoying toy giver and they will look upon him less fondly.

Advice #3: Be open to what’s in the store. Sure, you could stick to your list, but often, to get a really good deal, you have to be open to what the store has on that particular day. For instance, I *ALMOST* bought an iron. I don’t own an iron at all and the price of the Black and Decker irons was very good. I decided to skip it, but had I been open to having an iron, that surely would have been my best price compared to a regular department store. (I had just seen the same types of stuff at Macy’s last week.)

I was pretty open to the barware that had gold dollar signs on it too, but figured I didn’t really need them. But they were pretty funny.

I suspect this year my Month-Over-Month net worth growth will wind up being negative in December. There’s just too much going on for me right now with my medical expenses and overspending. I have had one too many splurges over the holidays.

I had a nice comment the other day asking me to update the NetWorth IQ graph, which I have done. I haven’t been home a lot, and that means I have been spending money out the wazoo. Because I waited so long to do it, November represents a very accurate picture of my finances. Usually I do not wait for my HELOC statement to come in before doing the update. I often just estimate it because it arrives so late.

I ended 2006 with a net worth of $34K, even. This year, I will end up around $48-49K, $50K if the market does better. Like most people, I took a serious hit this November as the S&P stagnated. However, I did use this as an opportunity to buy up a little Citigroup stock as a long-term hold generating dividends. It does not appear that they will cut their dividends any time soon, so I am relying on the depressed price to bring me good yields over the next decade. Yes, I hope to have it that long.

Examples of my holiday splurges:
1. Theater tickets
2. Super nice Christmas presents for my co-workers. Over $20 each.
3. Shopping with my friends and realizing, “Hey, I need that too.”
4. Baby shower gifts

(more…)

Things to keep in mind while outlet shopping:
1) Stores will have a mix of sale items and outlet clearance items. Look carefully at the price tag for stuff that is actually clearance.
2) Be disciplined! If you don’t like the price, don’t buy it. There will be a better deal waiting for you in another store.
3) You can stock up on your basics, like socks, t-shirts and underpants so skip Wal-Mart and head to the outlets.
4) You can find high-end things at a really good price, but examine the item closely for seconds tags, flaws and poor construction. It might be in the outlet store for a reason!
5) Start early so you can hit all the stores you want.
6) Park close to the shops so you can go back to the car.
7) Wear clothes you can take on and off quickly. You will lose interest in shopping if you find going into the dressing room a hassle. I was a dork and wore lace-up boots instead of slip-ons.

Saturday was a brilliant day. I met Single Ma for a day outing to Leesburg Corner Premium Outlets. I hadn’t been out there yet, but my fabulous Joan and David shoes I’ve been trying to rescue for years were from the Petaluma Premium Outlets. I figured we were going to get a good deal.

Sure enough, we bought boots on sale at Nine West. There was a small flaw on the toe of mine, so we were going to ask for a 10% discount, but instead, when we pointed it out, the saleswoman whisked the boot away to clean it and when she couldn’t get it off, she gave us a 10% discount with Final Sale terms. This was going to be great because the boots were $80 on sale from about $120 original price. It gets better though. Turns out their Boot Sale was even deeper discount on the written sale price, so I was getting 10% off of about $55! Yippee!

I only purchased one other item which was a pair of green wide wale corduroys. They weren’t as cheap as I would have liked them. Original price was $50, sale was $40, but I would have liked to have paid $30. At any rate, Single Ma approved the cut and fit. Getting plump this past year has been a bummer for me, and my ego is only soothed my pants which are cut in a manner that makes for a more comfy fit for sitting 8-10 hours a day. Nothing like having a waistband cut into your gut all day.

We looked at some wonderful dress clothes for work at Kasper ASL. I wanted to go into Under Armour but we didn’t have time. Single Ma indulged me and we looked at luggage for my mom for Christmas. She has reiterated that she wants a really large bag, but I am uncertain she is going to be able to lift a full bag into the car. But either way, now I know where to find Samsonite luggage at a good price when I’m ready to buy.

All in all, it was a fantastic day outing.