The attack of good deals

In the past two weeks I have found a significant amount of discounts for things I would typically buy or had always wanted to. It all started with Broadway Week.

 My co-worker and I got tickets to Chicago for $60 each. It was a great show and Kara Dioguardi from American Idol was the lead role.

I found a Living Social deal for Hatsuhana Sushi, which was near the play so we went there for dinner beforehand. We got $80 worth of sushi for $40, split between 2 people is only $20. We had more than enough with $80 and it was absolutely delicious!

The next day I got an e-mail for 80% off at Restaurant.com. That meant that when I would normally pay $10 for a $25 gift certificate to a restaurant was 80% off so it was only $2. Great way to try new restaurants around town and save a few dollars since NYC can really get expensive. I decided on 1363 Stir and I'm looking forward to trying it out soon.

When I got the confirmation e-mail from Restaurant.com, it said my offer came with 20% off at ProFlowers. One of my bffs was having a terrible day and I thought it might be nice to use that promotion to send her some flowers. What I thought would be inexpensive with the promotion turned out to be much more than I expected with shipping and handling fees. The voice mail, text messages and a very happy friend were well worth the few extra dollars.

Don't you hate it when the picture online turns out to look nothing like the flowers delivered? The pic above is what I ordered and the picture to the right is what she got....hmmm.

Then last Friday, when I was reading my daily e-mail from The Frugal Girls when I saw "Get a free pair of glasses!" My insurance will pay for either contacts or glasses, not both. When I can get a good deal on glasses out of pocket and have insurance pay for contacts, why not? I desperately needed to update my prescription so I got an appointment and went to CoastalContacts.com to get my free pair! It turns out the most basic level of glasses are free but if you need to get a different lens for your prescription, it might cost more. Of course, mine did. I ended up getting a pair for $60 but that's still definitely a lot better than a full-priced pair.

These will be at my door in a week!

Now here's a confession: With all of these great deals combined with not paying close attention to my budgeted spreadsheet and having to drop $80 on a new computer charger, I've spent much more than I should have these past two weeks. Little things add up, even if they are great deals. I'm pretty disappointed to announce that it is September 30th and my Express card will not be 100% paid off this month. I will be able to make a decent payment towards the bill but not enough to completely pay it off. I will keep trying and I will knock it out soon but just not today.                                                   

Conquering the carbs

This post is in honor of Cam's total diet breakdown last night on Modern Family.



Carbs are cheap. A box of mac and cheese is $1.75 (anywhere other than New York can be as low as $.89!). A loaf of bread is roughly the same price.

When you're trying to save money on food, it's hard to avoid those carbs that pack on the pounds. I've been known to make a big heap of spaghetti to bring for my lunches, or eat a whole box of Kraft Mac & Cheese but I want to find other options that are still easy and much more nutritional. Carbs make me feel worn out just thinking about the gym, which is not helping my goal of using my gym membership.

Vegetables and salads are tasty but I need more to feel full and I'm hungry again an hour later. Hungry Katie doesn't lead to good things for my wallet. I get cranky and ultimately justify going down the street and spending $14.50 at Chipotle.

M suggested I try vegetable stir-fry. There are ways to do this for cheap and it's definitely delicious. Depending on your grocery store, you can typically find a frozen stir-fry kit where you just add chicken, beef, etc (which you should buy and stock up on it when it's on a sale). If kits aren't available, you can make it from scratch. A $3 bottle of stir-fry sauce last for 2 or 3 meals and a bag of mixed frozen veggies can be as cheap as $1 (if money isn't an issue, fresh veggies are obviously the best option). Add in some inexpensive poultry and voila. If you don't want to cut carbs all together, you can eat it with brown rice. The only negative is that the vegetables can get soggy after a while so I suggest cooking half on Sunday night and the second half on Wednesday.

Another option is salad in a bag (ceaser is good but the ones with mixed veggies are better) with deli meat. Salads are $4 but sometimes you can find them on sale for $2. Add some deli meat and dressing of choice (whatever is on sale that week) and it's pretty decent. I have tried making one bag last for 2 meals but it was not filling enough so I'll only purchase the bags when they are on sale.

I'm still trying to explore more options but for now it's a start. It's difficult finding healthy, inexpensive options but when it comes to nutrition and health, the research is worth it.

What I'm Reading Wednesday - Happy Accidents by Jane Lynch

Jane Lynch is hilarious. Simple as that.

I had tears in my eyes from laughing so hard at the 40-year-old Virgin when she sang the Guatemalan love song. It actually translates to "Whenever they clean my room, I can't find anything/Where are you going with such haste?/To a football game."

 Then I was thrilled to see her as Sue Sylvester on Glee. I was a little bit of a choir nerd in high school so I definitely dig that show.

Sue: All I want is just one day a year when I'm not visually assaulted by uglies and fatties.

Most recently, I have been streaming Party Down on Netflix. It was recommended to me by a few friends and for good reason: It is hysterical. Jane's character is one of the funniest and I'm a little bit sad that Glee stole her away from this show.

So you can imagine I was thrilled when M could snag a copy of Jane's memoir (my favorite genre of book). 

Here's the back cover:

"If I could go back in time and talk to my twenty-year-old self, the first thing I would say is: "Lose the perm." Secondly I would say: "Relax. Really. Just relax. Don't sweat it."
I can't remember a time when I wasn't anxious and fearful that the parade would pass me by. And I was sure there was someone or something outside of myself with all the answers. I had a driving, anxiety-filled ambition. I wanted to be a working actor so badly. I wanted to belong and feel like I was valued and seen. Well, now I am a working actor, and I guarantee you it's not because I suffered or worried over it.

As I look back, the road to where I am today has been a series of happy accidents I was either smart or stupid enough to take advantage of. I thought I had to have a plan, a strategy. Turns out I just had to be ready and willing to take chances, look at what's right in front of me, and put my heart into everything I do. All that anxiety and fear didn't help, nor did it fuel anything useful. My final piece of advice to twenty-year-old me: Be easy on your sweet self. And don't drink Miller Lite tall boys in the morning."

Since she has always stayed out of the lime light and typically remains drama free in the public eye, I was curious to hear her story. I love reading about peoples' lives, and when they're funny people it's even better. Not many stars become famous in their 40's and 50's these days but it worked for Jane. Her story is interesting and mostly comical, although I think she's a better comedian than writer and it showed in her book. The writing and format was a bit choppy but I might just be picky since I was a print journalism major with a focus on editing.

Overall, I would definitely pick up a copy and enjoy a pretty leisurely read. I would give it a 4/5.

Just my luck

I babysat like a crazy person this past week and it has really paid off. I had plenty of money to go out with friends this weekend, put some aside for savings, and ultimately pay off my Express card (the payment has yet to be made but it will by Monday). I was feeling really good financially. And then...

When I got home from babysitting last night, I discovered my computer charger was not working and/or my computer was not taking a charge. Crap. I tried everything to no avail. My co-worker also has a mac and she brought in her charger today to let me test it out. My computer will work with her charger! Whew! Fortunately it's not a serious problem with the computer that will cost me $300. Unfortunately, I have to pick up a new charger today for $80.

I will still pay off my credit card but I'm really disappointed that once again my savings will be depleted even after all my hard work this weekend. It's hard to maintain momentum when roadblocks happen but at least October will start a clean slate with one debt completely eliminated. I will babysit my heart out and just keep chuggin along.

Motivational Mondays - Get your butt to the gym!

Too many people sign up for a gym membership with great intentions and then throw their money out the window while they sit on the couch. I will not be one of them anymore. 

I pay $20 a month for a gym membership. I paid $50 to get started and they charge $50 once a year. For NYC, that's a pretty great price for a gym with classes, showers and open 24 hours. That's still $290 a year that could be going to pay off my debt but being healthy is important. I have spent most of my life out of shape and this needs to be the year I change that. I was doing well about going to the gym regularly (even a little too much some days) when I first got the membership but I have slacked off big time in recent months so I'm wasting my $20.

That's about to change with this week's goal. I have been in very popular demand for babysitting since I started on SitterCity so most evenings and weekends are booked right after work for most of the evening. Since my gym is much closer to my day job than my apartment, I never make the hike back to the gym once I've gone up to my neighborhood.

If my evenings are booked, it really only leaves the mornings to work on my fitness. I am not a morning person but I'm going to try. I have to make it a priority now or I never will. So here's the plan:

Monday and Wednesday I go to work early so I can leave early to babysit. I'm being realistic to know that I won't get up even earlier on those days to run, especially on a Monday. Tuesdays and Thursdays however, I can wake up by 6, out the door by 6:15 and get in a half hour with the treadmill before I shower and go to work. I don't babysit every Tuesday and Thursday night but this schedule leaves me free if I get asked. When it works to go to the gym after work, I am available to do that too.

On the weekends, I will run outside or make the hike to the gym.

Your goal may not be running but whatever it is you do, or want to do, to get or stay in shape, how do you motivate yourself to do it? How do you workout inexpensively?

A cheap fix

So my iPod shuffle wasn't working and I didn't know why.

Typically I would take that to mean it was time to get a new one but not this time. I noticed that the charger was slightly bent (not surprising after all the moving I've done!) I have the 1st Generation shuffle, which they no longer make. Chargers run roughly $30 at the Apple store, which is still more than I wanted to spend. Then I hopped on Amazon and found a similar 2nd Generation charger for $3.94 including shipping. That's what I'm talkin' about! Now it works and everyone is happy!

Just in case the different generation charger didn't work, I also found an arm band for my larger iPod so I could run with that if I needed to. It was only $4.95 with shipping. Not bad at all!

Now I can skip the gym on the weekends and run around the reservoir instead. Good timing, too, because I'm going to run my first 5K in October and I have some serious training to do!

What I'm Reading Wednesday- Little Bee by Chris Cleave

Week 2 of WIRW brings you Little Bee by Chris Cleave.

Here's what Good Reads had to say

"This is the story of two women. Their lives collide one fateful day, and one of them has to make a terrible choice, the kind of choice we hope you never have to face. Two years later, they meet again - the story starts there ..."

The Washington Post review said

"'Little Bee' deserves a warning label: "Do not judge this book by its cover. Contents under pressure." Despite the cutesy title (the book was more sensibly published in Britain as "The Other Hand") and the coy book-flap description ("It is a truly special story and we don't want to spoil it"), "Little Bee" will blow you away."

So you can imagine my expectations. My aunt also recommended this book to me and I've been looking forward to reading it for a while. I was in suspense the entire time because the book-flap made me think something absurd and intense would happen. I enjoyed the story but nothing shocked me. I got to the last 10 pages and my heart started to race. What could happen in the last 10 pages that would cause such a vague book-flap, vague plot summaries on Amazon and Good Reads and for such a glowing review in the Post?

Nothing. Nothing happened! The plot and storyline are intense and full of gut-wrenching social issues but then it just ended! I'm still not quite sure what happens to the characters. Maybe it's just that I've spent too much time watching Dora the Explorer when I babysit or that my high school English class analyzing skills have worn off but I am left without answers and I am left disappointed.

You should still give it a try because it brings up social issues that aren't typically discussed (at least not in a lot of the books I read) and maybe you will get more out of it that I did.

I give it a 4/5. It would have been a 5/5 if the ending was a little better or more conclusive.

Next up: Happy Accidents by Jane Lynch