Daily Archives: April 12, 2012

Bring Your Lunch, Buy More Shoes

12 Thursday Apr 2012

Posted by in Life On A Budget, Recipes, Thrifty Living

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Overworked, broke and unskilled in the kitchen? Yeah, me too. I mean, investing a couple hundred bucks into a Kate Spade purse that will promise you a lifetime of happiness is one thing, but forking over $15 hard-earned dollars for lunch is another. Unfortunately, the last thing I want to do after working a 10-hour day is prepare a gourmet meal.

Enter the salad. It’s the lovechild of easy and cheap. It makes all your frugal dreams come true. Oh, and something about being healthy, that’s probably important too.

Raw, sexy data:

Buy a salad Make a salad
Lettuce: 3.49/container 1.00/bundle
Chicken: 1.50/scoop 1.99/lb
Cucumber: .75/scoop .50/each
Tomatoes: .75/scoop .30/each
Feta cheese: .75/scoop 2.99/container
Corn: .75/scoop 1.59/can
Total: $7.99/day* $8.37/week**

To summarize, buy lunch every day at work and that’s over $45 that could’ve gone toward shoes. Shoes, people, SHOES! Buy ingredients to make a salad, however, and pay approximately 1/5 of that. Plus, it literally takes 10 minutes to prepare a salad, 5 minutes if you don’t believe in sanitation.

–Uyen

*Based on NYC prices for deli chain that will not be named. **Based on Uyen’s receipt from her hoodrat grocery store. Prices may vary by location. Salad dressing not included since Uyen prefers to steal it, because paying for dressing is the bigger crime.

The Bird & The Bee Album Review

12 Thursday Apr 2012

Posted by in Clarissa Nash, Music

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Confession: I love Hall and Oates. I’m not kidding. When I’m stressed, I turn them on and dance in my room. The harmonizing vocals and upbeat pop melodies eases my stress and makes me happy.
When I discovered that duo ‘The Bird and The Bee’ did a Hall and Oates album solely covering their music, Interpreting the Masters Volume 1: A Tribute to Daryl Hall and John Oates, I was psyched and apprehensive because I never heard of them. What if they sucked? They would have ruined Hall and Oates forever! OK, that’s a bit of an exaggeration.
Songs to start with:

  • I Can’t Go for That
  • Sarah Smile
  • Kiss on My List

Never fear, I’d never suggest awful music to anyone and you won’t regret listening to them.
–Clarissa

Thrifty Projects: Reupholstering a Chair

12 Thursday Apr 2012

Posted by in Katie Garton, Life On A Budget, Thrifty Living, Uncategorized

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Mike and I are moving to our real first place in four days. In Chicago. No roommate. Just us in a small studio with Lex, our pitbull. The fun part: decorating! I’ve been waiting for this day for a long time. Anyway, this means lots and lots of decorating projects. These projects have to be thrifty, since I am a poor person who pays student loans.

We spent Easter day working. Here is part one.

 

Mike and I bought a pretty awesome chair from my work at an amazing price.

It’s white, but white doesn’t go well with people who get messy when they eat. Solution: cover it with fabric. This is where my mom comes in. You may think I’m crafty, she’s on a whole other level.

 

 
What you need:

- A chair
- About 5 yards of fabric. I used 2 yards for the horizontal part of the chair and 3 yards for the vertical.
- Pins, or a hardcore staple gun if you want it to be permanent.

Step 1: Take the cushion off the chair and cover the chair horizontally.

Step 2: Push the fabric into the crevices so the fabric won’t move. When the sides are even, put the cushion back on. Now you can see how the fabric is going to move when you sit.

Step 3: Start pinning the fabric on the arms the way you’d like them to look. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a lot of extra fabric in the front so, Step 4, we folded the extra and pinned it underneath the chair.

TA DA!!

Now to the vertical part.

Step 5: Put the remaining fabric down the middle. It should go from the bottom of the chair in the back to beneath the chair cushion.

Step 6: Pin the bottom of the back of the chair so the fabric stays in place.

Step 7: Tuck the fabric into the sides of the chair. You’ll probably have extra, so fold it and then tuck.

Step 8: Pin the fabric in at the arms to make more distinguished.

 

The finished product: It’s finished! I don’t remember the striped fabric’s price because I bought it a year ago at Ikea, but the print was $21 at Walmart. It’s definitely a thrifty way to make a statement piece. And, it will be easy to wash.

Stay tuned to see what else I did on Easter!

-Katie

In the Know: Thursday

12 Thursday Apr 2012

Posted by in Celebrations, Katie Garton

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Things to Celebrate

Today’s licorice day! Does anyone still use licorice/Twizzlers as straws? Time to revert back to childhood.

Beware of crazies today. It’s Walk on Your Wild Side Day. Smells like a challenge to do whatever you want today. Step up and get what you want!

Keep your eyes on the skies tonight. It’s Yuri’s Night. It’s a day to commemorate space exploration. Raise your hand if you wanted to be an astronaut when you were a kid.

News to Know

George Zimmerman is has been charged with second-degree murder for Trayvon Martin’s death. Prosecutor Angela Corey seems like she is a force to be reckoned with. (CNN)

 

A baby was found alive in an Argentinean morgue. Analia Bouter, the mother, was told her baby was stillborn. But the baby was pronounced alive after a day and a half in the morgue . What?! That’s going to be a big lawsuit. (ABC)

An 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit Mexico more than 200 miles from Mexico City. Do we need to start worrying about more earthquakes? Queue “It’s the End of the World…” (FOX)

 

–Katie