Laid the Flat Out!!

I couldn't believe that my flat iron died on me!

Background:
I took pride in gloating that it lasted 5+ years and hadn't given me a single problem. It stopped working on or around the time we bought the house, and it took a few months longer for me to really notice. I plugged it in a few times but never noticed that it didn't warm up (this was because I got distracted and left it in the bathroom...unattended).

So now since I'm going back to work in a week or so, I can't sport the 'mom-do' anymore.

Let me define the 'mom-do' for those who have not heard of it. It's closely related to the hornet's nest as it is a mixture of sweat (sometimes blood) and knotted hair. It is rarely washed and usually quickly tied up after it has been. It's adorned with a black rubber tie so that it cannot find its way into the hands of a young infant (who will NOT let go even if you are screaming in pain). Basically, imagine Amy Winehouse.

Let's not even discuss the fact that my roots are growing out and it looks awful! (I'm getting that fixed this coming Saturday...)

So, what to do?

Outcome:
I turned to my trusty Amazon!!!

It took me a few hours (because there are a million versions, all claiming to be marvelous!)

I ended up Google'ing 'Best Flat Irons' in order to drill down the brand that I should buy. I went back and forth with a few brands in my shopping cart:

1. Sedu
2. Solia
3. HAI
4. BaByliss

Most of these were all retailed at $150+ (definitely out of my price range) so my goal was to find one of these brands at less than $50.

According to the stock on Amazon, I wasn't having much luck finding a decent brand flat iron for a reasonable price. After changing the key words and searching a bizillion times, I finally found one that was worth considering.

The BaByliss Pro Ceramic Flat Iron with removable comb was the one! The previous flat iron I used was only a 1", so I had to keep going over and over in order to get a decent area flattened. This model was a 1.5", which would make my mornings even easier. Feeding, changing and getting a baby ready for day care was going to be DIFFICULT so anything to help speed the hair process along would be warmly welcomed into my home.

After checking out and paying the $27 bucks (WHAT A DEAL!) I would soon receive my delightful purchase in a few short days. Sadly because of President Day, delivery would take longer than it usually would have.

As usual, until next time...

Splurge!

I couldn't resist. It's called 'fire engine red' for Christ's sake!

Background:
I LOVE wallets. I have a delightful collection which I rotate every few years. Adding a few items a year. I take care of them as best as I can, but sometimes they have a few nicks.

Now I'm returning to work soon and my birthday is coming up, so I thought I would pick out something nice. Of course, this is how every splurge starts...

Outcome:
I headed to my favorite place - NORDSTROM (Glendale Galleria). It didn't take very long. I walked around the wallet and handbag glass case with one thing in mind: It had to make a statement. Now I'm not a leopard or zebra girl, but I need a little flash in my life. Not only that, I love red. (thinking about it now, I should have bought those red shoes at the Rack as they would MATCH my wallet to a 'T'!)

Then I see it. It's the only one in that color. A beautiful Kate Spade wallet with small side pocket for coins, miscellaneous.

I wanted it. I NEEDED it!

The price wasn't too bad, but then again, this was a splurge! No deals when splurging!!! I loved the gold leather interior (super unique) and the way it looked so girly. I handed the kind woman my Nordstrom card and said 'yay'! She even picked out a cute little box to store it in when I'm not using it (aka when I splurge again in 6-8 months).

I did of course walk out of Nordstroms and back to my car with a slight case of Buyer's Remorse, but that soon dissipated when I loaded it up with my credit cards. I keep it in my Marc Jacob's wristlet for the time being (which is being used as a purse now since I sport a diaper bag!)

Until next time...Cha-ching!!!

Bounced Check

So. Now since the computer has been upgraded and the hard drive expanded, I was ready to get my hands dirty.


I love shiny new things, and any brand new applications for my sexy Snow Leopard OS was definitely a plus to maintaining my 'cool' status.


I spent endless hours (well really like a good 20-25) looking through every nook and cranny in the new operating system trying to see what it was that I was missing. I was destined to purchase a new application to make my life better. The hard part was decided what it was that I needed to make better.


Money.


Background:
Now since we had a house, a baby and a car lease, I definitely needed a way to organize our spending habits. I guess I should be fair and say MY spending habits. That is of course why this blog exists!!


I wanted something that I could manipulate as much as possible. I wanted it to tally up all the transactions I had for the month and give me a summary. I LOVE reports that can be easily customized with graphs and numbers. I needed to see in black and white (or color) that we were spending XYZ on eating out or clothing. Now, I didn't purchase an application that let me print off replica bills (though that would have been awesome) but I did shop around.


Here are the products I sampled in order to make my decision:
1. Paperless by Mariner (Regular price $50, got it for $25 from NEW Apple App Store)
Now initially I wanted something that I could combine both my receipts, documents and transactions into one giant lump. I found that this wasn't going to be possible. Keeping the receipts separate from the documents was critical. I will have at least 20 to 1 over documents any day. Even more so, I would have more transactions as I do not save a physical receipt for every purchase (i.e. Amazon).
Paperless is an amazing product to manage my receipt and document collection. It keeps them both independent of each other. I can customize the categories and even save, email or print with a click of a button. Sounds great, but this didn't satisfy the need to get my money in order.

2. SEE Finance
Off the bat I loved the way this software looked. It had an inviting feel, and welcomed minimal customization. I tried this product for free when I downloaded it from CNET (I downloaded the trial before I did the OS upgrade, so I got the old version). I was able to add and remove categories without much trouble, and I was able to control the imports and where they posted. 


The Reports looked great and it was easy to import transactions from the web (i.e. Bank of America, American Express). I could add multiple accounts with ease AND see the balances of each without having to click on each one. I loved this because I usually bounce back and forth.


Also, there is really no need to purchase the full version because the only trial fault is that you have to look at the welcome screen/verbiage for a few seconds. I could live with that for FREE usage! 

And then finally...


3. Money3
Since this product was strongly sponsored by Apple, I trusted their judgement. Also, for the price and the high reviews, I expected a decent product. I was SO disappointment when I really got involved with it. To start, there are a few features that I just couldn't stand: 

• I added and removed categories (I don't have an IRA nor would I need to track it's interest) but was unable to change the 'image' associated to it. The standard categories came with out-of-the-box images, but since I exported/imported from the SEE Finance product, it copied over the categories that I used there. I was NOT able to put back the images after I deleted the default categories!! No Fun! This quickly turned me off...
• The reports made NO sense. I was looking at deposits, but it was adding up total transactions. It was even adding up all my transfers and deposits AND withdraws (simultaneously!)

Outcome:

Basically, I stuck with the Paperless and SEE Finance applications. They both were SUPER user friendly. I really love the fact that SEE Finance is free and that Paperless was half-price. I kick myself for buying the Money3 software, but it's times like this that I wish I could have saved money by just sticking with something that was working well! This is exactly the thing I need to improve on and stop - wasteful spending! Although using these two products have slightly helped me track my spending, I hope that it will eventually help improve my frivolousness over the next few months. 

Until next time...

Coupon Coupon!

Well, this is an interesting discussion.

Had a knock on the door. Two kids who had traveled from West Covina were standing on the porch.

"Would you like to purchase a Coupon book to help support our school fundraiser?"

Background:
Now, I'm a sucker for fundraisers. It may be because I used to have to sell a bunch of worthless chocolate boxes for the swim team. Usually I would just give in and pay the cash and keep the boxes in the closet. No one wanted to buy candy.

So here I stand looking at the high-school aged kids who just told me we had a nice pond. "Well sure, I'll buy it". SUCKER!!

Outcome:
I cough up the $10 bucks and take my delicious looking Carl's Jr Coupon book. When I return to the couch, I got the evil eye from my better half.

"You seriously bought a coupon book?"

*silence* YES.

The coupon book, (which I purchased for him) was in no means well received. It had coupons for coffee, ice cream, sandwiches, burgers and even enchiladas (for those with a Green Burrito). Since he eats out with his friends, I thought it would be a benefit to have coupons so that we could save a few bucks here and there.

It took a few days, but the coupon book finally found it's way back out the front door and to his work. You could say I achieved the goal I had set out to accomplish, but in the end I really feel that it was a worthless buy and we probably could have lived without it (and obviously without the extra calories!)

Until next time *sighing*...

Cha-Ching

Footloose with Fossil Fuel

We all know the story, but we didn't follow it very well. "first comes the house, then marriage, then a baby in a baby carriage". Well, our daughter didn't quite follow our marriage, nor did she arrive in a carriage. Like all parents, you want the best for your children. You want to provide them with a strong foundation. That foundation for us was an SUV. This Sport Utility Vehicle would allow us to safely transport our child from point A to point B along with all the crap we bought from Costco.

What we did not know at the time we made the decision to got bigger, was with whom would we make a 39 month commitment to. Mercedes seemed the most logical choice, since my other half was employed by them. Which one would have been right for me? But truthfully, after looking at them all day long, would he really be willing to make that weekend getaway?? Fat chance.

So we move along in our search. Now, I had a secret crush on the Ford Edge. It was sexy, sleek and didn't quite look like a mom mobile. The price tag scared me though. Maybe lease used? That was a possibility. I searched endlessly on the Internet (in the middle of night of course) for the car that would be our next. Mazda, Volvo, Cadillac, Subaru - all of them. Basically I swirled around in a maze of features and colors and interior options. In the end, one thing was obvious: I wanted to connect my iPod.

I'm not a demanding person. Shiny, new and technologically hip was all I wanted.

I spoke to a few sales people, but I felt like a man cruising for a happy-ending. They all wanted my money. One recommended I check out the Ford website for specials (obviously too busy to tell me himself!!) But of course I did. That is when I found it.

The 2011 Explorer sang to me. It seduced me with it's features and it's willingness to get dirty. I wanted to drive her off road, to a place no one knew about. I had never had a woman-on-woman moment, but honestly this car had a hold on me. I loved white, red and even the silver. Now, if only I could justify THIS car!!!

After a few days of memorizing EVERYTHING about the new Explorer, I just had to go drive it. This I would not do alone. Keith, at Sunrise Ford in North Hollywood happened to be working last Sunday...perfect! Habibi and I planned to visit in the afternoon to take a "look". By no means did either of us expect the outcome.

Arriving at the dealer, I truly expected to test drive the top of the line model, listen to the sales guy convince me I need one of the 100 options, as well as feel the soft, luxurious leather that would NOT be in the car I hoped to someday have. Our budget and our wish list was pretty straightforward: cheap!!

One delightful test drive later, our wish list went right out the window like a man sleeping with the bosses' wife. I wanted it all, even the advertisement poster in the lobby. Having a handsome and amazing hubby (hope he's reading this), he too gave in. As he said, "f**k it, you only live once." I would rather hear that kind of statement when we would be in the prospect of leasing a Bentley, but hey, yay anyways!!!

Our sales guy was wonderful, because he basically thought he had wasted a lovely Sunday afternoon driving around with two kids and a sleeping baby. Oh! Failed to mention, the sweet and innocent baby was sound asleep during the whole 4 hour excursion. She had been utterly exhausted from her early morning bath. Well, to much to any one's surprise, we decided to get it.

The car has more features than I will ever need. We have yet to learn how to program a simple radio station. A few hours later, after signing some papers and giving the nice people our credit card, we were left to figure out how to get home. 

Now the vehicle sits in our driveway. I look out through the kitchen window, and wonder to myself "what the hell?". In a few months (even years maybe) we'll look back and hopefully not regret this purchase.On the flip side, I connect my iPod the first chance I got. Unfortunately, the sound quality is not as great as the Sirius satellite reception, but I can definitely enjoy listening to the random folk artists that I have an obsession with.

Ugly Curtains

At first, you could only be there is understand how funny the comment was. When we purchased our house last August, we needed a way to shut out the 110 degree weather that seeped in through the dozen or so windows that engulfed our house.

The solution (or so I thought) was easy: hang curtains!

Background:
I saw it done a million times on those home makeover shows. The smart girl puts together a few funky prints and voila! As fancy up-do for the living room. I wanted the same thing for our house. So I headed to Bed, Bath and Beyond and purchased enough curtains to build a flag for Texas. (Now the color we picked was Camel, and we didn't purchase the valance).

After realizing that we just couldn't cover up EVERY window, we returned a few. This was when my dear brother-in-law made the mistake of admitting that the curtains were ugly. He did not realize that we were only returning a FEW of the curtains that we didn't use, but in fact had left a bunch still hanging on the walls.

Now almost six months later, we are updating the house for the spring. We want lively, fresh and modern. We want to be seen as a young hip couple, not the clearance aisle freaks that we were back in August. (Honestly, ALL the curtains were on close-out at BB&B).

I decided that in addition to the curtains in the living room, I would need to replace the curtains in other rooms in order to make the makeover successful! This included the kitchen, our bedroom and the office. Truth was, the office was neglected since we moved in. (It had been cleaned over and over, but it just wouldn't stay clean).

So...I headed to my favorite furniture place....IKEA!!!

Outcome:
Here I went looking for something that met the hip, new requirements we had in mind. For $19.99, I purchased two sets of curtains (each contained 2) for the sliding patio doors in our living room. These were fantastic because they held onto the curtain rod by metal loops at the top. This is ingenious as it makes it super easy to open/close.

Opening and closing the curtains was a headache for my beloved. He absolutely HATED it, and basically left them closed until I woke up and did the job. Now since the loops are on, there is nothing for me to do.

By adding the new curtains, I not only freshened up the living room, but I even managed to get a few more hours of sleep!

Now after picking out and replacing the curtains, I needed to make the same change for the other windows. I found the blinds at IKEA as well (also in white). The first pair that I picked up were for the windows by our front door. They have a decorative design on them that looks modern and fresh (ding ding ding!!!).

They have yet to be hung, but I'm sure they will look fabulous! I also purchased on a second trip to IKEA additional blinds for our bedroom and office as well as the kitchen.

It finally feels like we are making progress in our little home!!!

Until next time...