confessions of a shopaholic: (no, not the movie. not the book either.) on valentine's day, after lounging around in bed we decided to go to the outlet stores to kill time before dinner. well, we were there for 3 hours and did quite a bit of damage. ok fine, almost all of the damage was mine... *hangs head* first we went to coach, where i bought a pink 'swingpack' for our traveling so i don't have to borrow my mother-in-law's anymore. i guess it sounds like i'm a big coach fan, w/ the new clutch and then this, but actually gopooh and i both think coach lost its worth when it started being made in china, and i stopped shopping there. but the clutch was a gift, so i'm keeping it, and the swingpack was more than 50% off, which to me makes up for it possibly being made w/ subpar cost-cutting materials. anyway, we have 2 weddings to attend this year and i didn't looove anything on bluefly, so i was on the lookout for cute dresses. i actually really liked this one diane von furstenburg dress at off saks; it was an almost unbelievable deal at $45 for what is normally a $500 dress. unfortunately it didn't fit quite right. i was also disappointed b/c i tried on 5 dresses and walked out of the fitting room empty-handed. :( i got over it quickly though, and bought a pair of cole haan shoes. in my defense, i wasn't even looking for them. gopooh was scouting for my favorite shoes while i was in the fitting room but found these instead, and then when they fit i couldn't resist! then he also found himself a pair of sandals, which was nice b/c they had a buy-1-get-1-half-off deal. we went to michael kors and i spent more money than last time! i got another pair of jeans and 2 dresses -- a cute patterned one and a more sophisticated backless one w/ flowing sashes down the back. after that i just couldn't go into ann taylor or bcbg, out of fear that i might spend even more money. that's it, i am a shopaholic. i really need to stop buying things, but i have no willpower. i just cannot stay away from good deals!
Saturday, February 14, 2009
yesterday i came home from work and saw a dozen red roses in a vase waiting for me in our kitchen. and then this morning gopooh handed me a gift-wrapped clutch bag from coach. awww, he remembered i had pointed it out a couple months ago and went back for it! for dinner tonight we're going to this place called johnny's in the warehouse district. it's only 2 blocks from our apartment, so we can just walk. but the main reason he chose it is b/c he was only looking at restaurants that have foie gras, and this one fits the bill. yea for more foie gras! i didn't get him a valentine's day gift, partly b/c i haven't been using my tuesday afternoons off from work wisely. but mostly it's b/c we are hit and miss w/ this holiday. we always go out for a nice dinner, but the last couple years we decided to forego gifts, and he would just get me flowers and candy or smthg like that. this year we didn't have the "let's skip gifts" conversation. oops. ok i suck, but i'll make it up to him somehow. ;) anyway, happy valentine's day to everyone, single or attached!
Sunday, February 01, 2009
ever since we finished residency and i started making more money, our purchases have increased. a lot. in december alone, there was our outlet mall shopping, my new vaio, PDA, and new boots. on top of that, we had the flight/hotel for LA. but the most out-of-character spending was the stuff gopooh bought in LA... first there was a burberry suit from saks fifth avenue... then the next day i got this call after we briefly split up to do some shopping: him: hey where are you? me: i'm about to go to lacoste. where are YOU? him: i'm at armani. can you come over here? me: alright... after i go to lacoste. him: no just come to armani first. then we'll go to lacoste. me: baby, lacoste is on the way! him: please, just come to armani. i think i'm about to spend a lot of money. well, after that, i went straight to armani... only to find him in the store holding a giorgio armani black sports jacket in his hand, w/ a hopeful salesman next to him. when i got there the salesman stepped away to give us some privacy, but i could totally tell he was straining to eavesdrop. we had a back-and-forth about why he should get a sports jacket when he'd just bought a suit. he liked the armani better -- better cut, better material, better everything apparently. i told him he should return the suit then. he wanted to keep both. the armani sports jacket was originally $800 more than the entire burberry suit... but it was "such a good deal," he said. finally i backed down. yes that's right, i let him buy the freaking jacket! and then, the salesman still tried to sell a suit by offering free alterations. what good would that do us when we live across the country! plus he already got commission on the sports jacket; what did he need the suit for? so yes, our spending has gone up a bit. we still save ~1/3 of our paychecks each month. we have our condo in michigan to pay for, but if we didn't we'd be saving more than half of our paychecks. so overall we're not doing that badly, but in today's economy we should strive to save more. so my goal (and consequently, our goal) is to save money... so we can retire early!