adventures in shopping, for Hubby

Hubby has changed his position at his company. It's not a promotion, it's just switching from one area/job to another.  It is a good thing insofar as his boss felt Hubby was qualified and trustworthy enough for this new position. Hubby has only been at his company for a year and he was the first pick for this new position.

Anyway, this new position is all paperwork and a desk job. Which is the exact opposite of his old job. I was really worried since Hubby needs to be constantly working or doing something, he's not really a desk job paper pusher type. Hubby was smart though and while he knew that might be an issue for him he took the new position because it caries regular hours (his old job didn't). We're both enjoying his new regular set hours! Two weeks in and so far so good. 

Last weekend he decided he wanted some new clothes for his new position. (All his other work clothes are stained and not so clean looking even when clean simply because of the nature of his old job and Hubby's laziness to try to work out any grease/misc. stain he'd had before.) Being the frugal people we are, we looked up the sales! Hubby really got into it and proclaimed that whole weekend how we "beat the man" and how much we saved for what he got! 

First stop: DSW

Source: DSW, Born Men's Slater Oxford

He liked this pair. He's got a thing for dress shoes with laces and he thinks those are the coolest looking ones. Anyway, I agreed they were good because they can be dressed up or down and should be comfy. They're listed with an "original" designer price of $130, DSW price of $80 and had a 30% off sticker on them! They worked out to be $60 something. For a pair he'll wear everyday and are leather I say that's a good value!

Next stop: Old Navy
Hubby decided their pants were too expensive at $30 so we left about 90 seconds after walking in.

Up next: Target
This is such a wonderful store. Hubby announced they didn't have any clothing worth trying on. But because it's target we still left purchasing some odds and ends. 

Last stop: Good Will
Another thing Hubby is all over recently, button down oxford type shirts. He has a thing for dress shirts and ties in general (he loves them and always wants to buy more but he doesn't actually have a need to wear a real honest to goodness dress shirt, let alone a tie with it, more than once or twice a year). But for work we weren't going to Men's Wearhouse or Express, no we went to Goodwill*. Hubby went crazy and looked at all of their shirts and pants, he had good luck on shirts. He went all label snob and started looking at shirts soley on their brand name, which is not something he'd normally do. At $10 each they were still a great deal. He walked away with 2 Calvin Klein and 1Van Heusen. The best part, the guy at the register seemed to care so little about having to work that day he rang everything up under a discount, shirts were not on discount that day! But we walked out with those 4 shirts for under $15!

We then also went to Kirlands (didn't buy the $40 clock I want, it may be on 50% but I can't spend that much on decoration!) and Costco (our maybe 5th trip in 3 weeks, I am loving that place, my checking account/budget not so much). We shopped all day and of course I loved that but amazingly so did Hubby!

IMPORTANT (not really)
The follow up to this (the real reason I even made this post was to share this) is that Monday when Hubby put on one of his new shirts and shoes, proud as a kid picking out his clothes for the first day of school a peacock all of his co-workers ragged on him that he must have a job interview that day with that outfit on! I laughed so hard all day long, just thinking about them ragging on him. Seriously all day long every time I thought about it I laughed!


*Just because I can't help myself, if you haven't heard (or seen the video for) this song just go ahead and click it. 

The first time Hubby heard this song he thought it was a local Goodwill's attempt at a jingle/song commerical. And then the DJ announced it and he realized it was a a for real song!

seriously!?!

So I read around the interwebs and there are all these amazing women (okay most bloggers tend to be amazing in my eyes for lots of different reasons). I'm specifically talking about the frugal masters. The ladies that shop exclusively at thrift stores (Goodwill, etc.) and discount stores (Ross, Marshalls, etc.) and have AMAZING results. I read about their purchases steals and I'm practically drooling. I'm also a bit outraged because there's nothing like that at any of my local stores! An amazing pair of new designer named shoes that are so in and perfect for every fashionable outfit she wears, for under $20. Haha you're making that up. A perfect top/blouse/pants/any clothing item that's an amazing designer name, great quality, and for $20. Can't have really happened. A dresser you oh so amazingly made into an amazing TV stand and bought on craigslist for $30. She must have fudged that story from reality into an amazing fairytale. I guess you can get what my reactions tend to be on these fabulous ladies amazing finds.

I can't go so far as to say that I've landed anything along the lines of those major leave savers but I do think I stumbled upon a steal. You see many months ago I found these posted on a fashion blog or pinterest (I can't exactly remember) and drooled over them. 

Source: my pinterest via endless amazon's shoe store

They were $80 and while I was in lurve with them there was no way I was actually going to buy them. I may have thought about pressing that "buy" button on Amazon in a fit of online window shopping silliness but I didn't actually do it. They just sat on my "Want" pinterest board, looking pretty but not destined to be mine.

Flash forward to last thursday. After another rough day at work (long story) Hubby decided I needed to go out. That is after I'd come home before him and already changed into comfy PJs. So I changed back into real people clothes and we went out. I picked up my 365 Days of Puppies calendar and my 365 Cute Overload calendar (one for the office and one for home) that I'd reserved since they were finally 50%. (FYI we lost our seasonal mall calendar store and now only have one bookstore, Barnes and Noble, so that's where I had to shop. They let you reserve things online and they'll hold them for 3 days for you to pick it up and pay for it.) Hubby decided he wanted to go to Sports Authority. He decided he now needs a new jacket that zips all the way up in the front for him to wear while exercising while it's cold. Apparently Sports Authority didn't have anything good. 

So at the very end of that shopping center/mall is a Ross outparcel. (It was so cold I made Hubby drive us the few hundred feet to get to that store. I still froze a bit but it was much better!) While he went to look at men's stuff I went to housewear and shoes. 

Let me backtrack. There's no nice way of saying this. The shopping center/mall we were at is about *this close* to dying because stores keep leaving, there's no anchor store (besides the movie theater) and it tends to attract a more urban ghetto lower socioeconomic customers people than the other mall on the nicer end of town. So the few stores that are open aren't the nicest. And for instance this Ross is part of a chain but you better believe it's not as nice as a Ross somewhere else in a better neighborhood. I'm not talking about it being a bit rundown I'm talking about that actual merchandise they carry. So I don't shop there often because things are of lesser quality and therefore less of a "deal" to purchase (low quality and lower price). 

Anyway, they had all of 8 candles in the whole store. They were pitiful, I wouldn't spend a $1 on what they had, clearly no one else will because they looked like they'd been there for a while. (And they were not only $1) So on to shoes. Scanning the racks I saw hideous "who would ever wear those!?!" shoes. And in between them, as if a spotlight shone on them, I found these .. for $25.99. Seriously!?!

I sat there wearing them, walked hobbled around the aisle and started at them on my feet, debating if I should even spend that much on a pair of sandals in winter. And I'll be honest beyond knowing they looked like those shoes I loved they didn't seem to be made of the best quality and I wasn't really sure if it was worth it. But I wore them and knew I loved them. I can't tell if these were made specifically for "outlet" sales (like how brand's outlet clothes are a touch bit lesser than their store versions to match that outlet price they're being sold for). But in the end I went for it anyway. From $80 to $25.99, I'd say that quantifies as a "steal".

I kind of want to give myself a little pat on the back. Is that pathetic? Or good?

Note: I wanted to share this before but couldn't get my act together to publish it any time near when it happened, sorry!

Premium channels I love thee!

So Comcast is more fun than Dish because of OnDemand. But then agian they're less fun because it took them almost 2 1/2 months to get our TV right and I think it's "fixed" totally by accident now. But Comcast is also fun because we got HBO for free for 3 months for starting with them and then Showtime for free for 3 months because they messed up. So I've got movie channels, for the first time in FOUR years. I'm so freaking happy over this it's sad. (When facing financial difficulties it takes almost financial ruin for me to consider giving up cable, it's a necessity for me, I know that's bad but I know it is and work around it.) 

I've gone premium channel happy. I've literally watched two entire series. 

The Newsroom, which I really enjoyed. I don't agree with the bad reviews it got, but all the same it's enjoyable to watch!

Source: google images via The Hollywood Reporter

And Homeland, which is addicting! I can't wait for the season finale of Homeland, what is going to happen!?!!

Source: google images via ScreenInvasion


I caught up on the entire last season of True Blood, that was ... interesting. And I've also been watching movies in between all of this. (In addition to regular tv) I've been able to OnDemand or DVR several movies these last few weeks. The ones I wanted to see when they came out but I was too busy, cheap and/or lazy to go out and see? Yeah I've seen a bunch of those. Reel Steel (not so great even with hunky Hugh Jackman, but still okay) and In Time (so bad I couldn't believe but still we watched the whole thing) are the first two to come to mind. I've got DVR timers set for at least a few more coming up in the next few days. You better believe I'm going to use this free programing as much as I can! The worst part, I'm almost seriously considering keeping one channel when the free trial ends (but can't decide which one and how I'll reason spending for it).

always believe

Somewhere along the way I found a quote very similar to this (it's out there in many different versions and forms) and it stuck with me. I'm an eternal optimist, no matter how hard I try at times to be otherwise (like when I'm mad). This is kind of my mantra.

via Pinterest, original source unknown

I heart Costco (samples)

So I may have mentioned this in the last High Five For Friday but because I'm a nerd and clearly loved my Costco trip too much I wanted to share the whole story. 


Last Friday hubby and I took the day off from our respective offices and took an early weekend. We were kind of lazy but at the same time went around town running errands and things at our own pace. Hubby decided he wanted gas in his truck so we went to Costco. I said we had to go inside, I came up with some excuse. Half of our city seemed to be there, it was a FRIDAY, what was up with that?! And they had full all out weekend level samples going on. I wasn't complaining but it seemed odd. I mean I know it was the day before the start of a long weekend but most people don't take an extra day off. Most of the world is working while they had these samples going, or so I thought. Oh boy was I wrong, well clearly since so many people were there. 

Anyway, the most amazing part: the insanely amazing and plentiful samples! They had samples of their pumpkin pie, apple pie (best apple pie I've ever had), key lime pie, oreos, and chocolate pudding! Those are only the desserts I sampled, I had no mind for savory things (seeing as we'd just come from eating lunch before heading to Costco). So amazing! This will live in infamy as the best Costco trip ever, or at least the best sample selection. 

Yes I made this graphic myself, to accurately show my love.

Going around Costco and enjoying the experience, that includes samples, is just so much fun for me. Hubby feels otherwise and just wants to go in, laser on to what we need, and then go. So it was a nice break to be able to enjoy the amazingness that is Costco for once.


* Again, I got nothing to write this. In fact Costco probably has no clue I exist beyond my yearly membership and random purchases with them. So clearly I wrote this all on my own, because I love Costco, and for no other reason. Just to be clear. :)

"oh-my-gosh-I-have-to-have"

I'm always on the lookout for something amazing. Something new that I didn't know I needed until I found out about it and then I have to have. (How have I lived my life so long without this!?!) I know that falls under frivolous spending but sometimes, every once in a while, these items are things that really do make a difference in your life. (And even if they don't it was fun while the adventure lasted) Today's case in point:

My beautiful ring holder from esty seller dgordon.

I'm not sure how I found this item but the second I saw it I knew I had to have it. It took me a few months but I finally treated myself to one (when they ran a sale) and I love it. I can't imagine life without it, without it sitting so pretty on my bedside table.

Previous "oh-my-gosh-I-have-to-have" items:

I discovered BirchBox through TheSmallThingsBlog. It seemed amazing and with not so gentle suggesting hubby gifted me a year's subscription for the holidays last year. I've have mixed results with my boxes but it's been so much fun! 

Petunia Earrings in Silver by etsy seller ElisabethAshlie

From the etsy shop of the ladies behind TheSmallThingsBlog and MyGreyDesk. These are probably one of their most popular items and for good reason. I'm actually wearing my own pair of these beauties right now. I saw them advertised on Kate's blog and tried for weeks to buy a pair, but they kept selling out. It was total victory and joy when I was able to buy a pair of my own and I just love wearing them!

I did say I'm always on the lookout for more of these fun splurges. (I didn't say I necessarily have the funds to buy them.) Anyway, anyone have anything to suggestion?