How to be a Budget Fashionista: Top 10 tips on looking fabulous for less!
Good news: You don't have to sacrifice style just to pay your electric bill. Kathryn Finney, a.k.a. the Budget Fashionista, is the expert on all things chic and cheap. Now she opens up her Prada bag of shopping and style tips to make you fashionably frugal, with change to spare!
By Kathryn Finney
Budget Fashionista Tip #1: Buy What You Love and Love What You Buy
Repeat this tip to yourself before you enter a store, while trying on clothes in the dressing room, and while waiting at the cash register at your favourite store. Feel empowered to say no to useless trends, stand-alone pieces, and overpriced designer items that make you look anything but your absolute best. Approach shopping like you would approach a marriage. Would you marry a person you just "liked"?
Budget Fashionista Tip #2: Keep the Receipts
Save all tags and receipts for at least two weeks after you purchase an item. Go to your local Office Max or Staples and purchase a coupon or bill folder. Number each tab in the folder according to the days of the month and place your receipts in the folder at least three days before the last day to exchange or return the item.
Budget Fashionista Tip #3: The Savers Rule
Here is a little-known fact: The more you save, the more and longer you will be able to spend. Budget fashionistas must save at least as much as they spend on clothes per month. For example, if you have $250 after paying all of your expenses, at least $125 of it should go into your savings account. Deposit the other $125 into a completely separate interest-bearing chequing our savings account with its own debit card and cheques, to be used specifically for shopping. That way you will be able to keep track of the money you spend on clothes.
Budget Fashionista Tip #4: Purchase a Gift Card
In order to track spending, purchase a Visa or American Express gift card (available online at www.visa.com, www.americanexpress.com, or at your local bank) to manage your shopping expenses. Just bring this gift card with you when you go shopping. Once the money is gone from the gift card, it is time to stop shopping. Many stores have implemented the gift card format for gift certificates, and I also find them particularly helpful for managing expenses. The cards are refillable, so you can add more funds when you are ready to go shopping again.
Budget Fashionista Tip #5: Call It an Estate Sale
If you are selling a large amount of high-quality jewellery and vintage furniture in good condition, calling your sale an estate sale will increase the number of customers and the amount you can charge for your items.
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Budget Fashionista Tip #6: Avoid the "Work and Spend" Trap
Be careful not to fall into the work and spend habit –- spending your entire paycheque on purchases at the store where you work. To avoid this trap, opt for direct deposit of your cheque into your chequing or savings account.
Budget Fashionista Tip #7: How to Find Your Natural Waist
With so many different types of pants and jeans, how does one find one's natural waist? Use this trick I learned from my seamstress grandmother. Stand up straight and bend your body to the side (either left or right) as if you are stretching for a workout. The crease, or the indentation between your hips and rib cage that is formed when you bend to the side, is your natural waist.
Budget Fashionista Tip #8: Learn How to Walk in Heels
Don't know how to walk in heels? Rent the first season of the UPN television show America's Top Model and watch runway maestro Miss J. teach uncoordinated model newbies how to walk.
Budget Fashionista Tip #9: A Little Spandex Can Go a Long Way
For those of us who need a little support, jeans and pants that have a spandex content of 2 to 5 percent are the best. (Any higher, and you will look like you belong in an aerobics class.)
Budget Fashionista Tip #10: Take Care of Your Clothes like a Stylist
Below are some tricks used by fashion and celebrity stylists to help preserve and care for the clothing entrusted to their care. Use these tricks to help maintain the clothes in your closet.
Iron with steam: Every budget fashionista must have an iron. No exceptions. The steam will help press out deep creases and prolong the life of your clothes by reducing the use of starch.
Double-stick tape: This take has adhesive on both sides. Stylists use it to stick clothing safely to the skin. This works great for plunging necklines; think J.Lo and the infamous Versace dress.
Masking tape: Stylists use electrical and masking tape to protect the soles of expensive shoes from horrible scuffs. Following the outline of the sole, apply pieces of the tape to the bottom of shoe. Make sure the tape is securely placed so that it isn't noticeable from a distance.
Quarters: If you live in a windy city, you might be reluctant to wear fuller, lighter-weight skirts for fear of showing your “goods” to the entire city. Stylists tape quarters or fishing weights to the inside seam of the skirt to help weigh it down and prevent it from flying up.
Polaroid or digital camera: Stylists use these cameras to help keep track of their outfits. For example, if a certain outfit looks fabulous on you, take a picture of yourself wearing it so that you will remember what you wore. If you have a lot of shoes, you can also paste a Polaroid on the outside of each shoebox to help identify your shoes.
Excerpted from How to be a Budget Fashionista: The Ultimate Guide to Looking Fabulous for Less by Kathryn Finney. Copyright 2006 by Kathryn Finney. Published by Ballantine Books, a division of Random House of Canada. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
http://www.ellecanada.com/Fashion/default/how-to-be-a-budget-fashionista-top-10-tips-on-looking-fabulous-for-less-n235407p2.html
Monday, 1 September 2008
Fashion Advice: Help for a Shopaholic
Fashion Advice: Help for a Shopaholic
April 17, 2007 10:42 AM
Dear Budget Fashionista,
I am a shopaholic. I love buying clothes, yet I never have anything to wear. I spent $1,500 on Bluefly purchasing shoes, a beautiful leather Lamarthe bag and other clothes. When I don’t shop I feel irritated like a junkie who needs their next fix. I shop vintage, online, in stores. And not only in clothes, the process of buying just gives me a rush and makes me feel happy. I read your book but it just made me want to purchase more items. People laugh when I tell them I have a problem with shopping but it really is serious. I am trying to find therapy for this problem. Help!
Answer:
According to MSN, 1 in 20 women AND men are shopaholics and although we joke about shopping until we drop, it’s really become a problem for many of us (yours truly included).
The first step in developing a solution to any problem is to admit you actually have a problem, which you’ve done by reaching out to me. There’s many organizations available to help you with the psychological aspects of your shopping addiction (Debtors Anonymous as well as local psychiatrists, psychologists, and therapists specializing in the treatment of addictions). Most likely, your shopping addiction arose from a void you feel in some other part of your life. Once you’re on the path to addressing the psychological aspects of overspending, you can then start to work on getting your financial house in order. Contact a local financial advisor and read last year’s series on getting your financial house in order.
Here’s some excellent strategies for dealing with complusive shopping from MSN:
1. Admit something’s wrong. If you can’t open any of your closets, your credit cards are maxed out, or you cover up crazy spending behavior, you probably have a problem with shopping. “The first thing you need to do is face up to the issue and admit that you need some kind of intervention,” says Benson.
2. Examine the problem. Every compulsive spender is different. Do you spend only occasionally but in big splurges? Or are you on a constant spend-a-thon, moving from one credit card to the next? Do you go nuts for a particular commodity—electronics, food, jewelry? In order to get a grip, says Benson, “You need to admit the particular nature of your problem.”
3. Name the feelings. Benson suggests asking: “What are you shopping for?” To boost your ego? Relieve depression? Get back at your spouse? Is it a creative outlet or a form of self-expression? Does being at the mall ease loneliness? “If so, see if you can find other ways to meet those needs.”
4. Look at your time. Compulsive spenders face more than financial losses, Benson points out. Ask yourself how much time you spend browsing on the Internet or stalking some great deal. How else could you spend your time in ways that would truly improve your quality of life?
5. Open your horizons. When hearing about shopper Andrea’s passion for fashion, Benson wondered if she could volunteer as a consultant with Dress for Success, a program that helps disadvantaged women find jobs. “You have to have a rich life.” Benson says. “True wealth isn’t 500 pairs of shoes, it’s things that feed your soul.”
http://www.thebudgetfashionista.com/archive/fashion_advice_help_for_a_shopaholic/
April 17, 2007 10:42 AM
Dear Budget Fashionista,
I am a shopaholic. I love buying clothes, yet I never have anything to wear. I spent $1,500 on Bluefly purchasing shoes, a beautiful leather Lamarthe bag and other clothes. When I don’t shop I feel irritated like a junkie who needs their next fix. I shop vintage, online, in stores. And not only in clothes, the process of buying just gives me a rush and makes me feel happy. I read your book but it just made me want to purchase more items. People laugh when I tell them I have a problem with shopping but it really is serious. I am trying to find therapy for this problem. Help!
Answer:
According to MSN, 1 in 20 women AND men are shopaholics and although we joke about shopping until we drop, it’s really become a problem for many of us (yours truly included).
The first step in developing a solution to any problem is to admit you actually have a problem, which you’ve done by reaching out to me. There’s many organizations available to help you with the psychological aspects of your shopping addiction (Debtors Anonymous as well as local psychiatrists, psychologists, and therapists specializing in the treatment of addictions). Most likely, your shopping addiction arose from a void you feel in some other part of your life. Once you’re on the path to addressing the psychological aspects of overspending, you can then start to work on getting your financial house in order. Contact a local financial advisor and read last year’s series on getting your financial house in order.
Here’s some excellent strategies for dealing with complusive shopping from MSN:
1. Admit something’s wrong. If you can’t open any of your closets, your credit cards are maxed out, or you cover up crazy spending behavior, you probably have a problem with shopping. “The first thing you need to do is face up to the issue and admit that you need some kind of intervention,” says Benson.
2. Examine the problem. Every compulsive spender is different. Do you spend only occasionally but in big splurges? Or are you on a constant spend-a-thon, moving from one credit card to the next? Do you go nuts for a particular commodity—electronics, food, jewelry? In order to get a grip, says Benson, “You need to admit the particular nature of your problem.”
3. Name the feelings. Benson suggests asking: “What are you shopping for?” To boost your ego? Relieve depression? Get back at your spouse? Is it a creative outlet or a form of self-expression? Does being at the mall ease loneliness? “If so, see if you can find other ways to meet those needs.”
4. Look at your time. Compulsive spenders face more than financial losses, Benson points out. Ask yourself how much time you spend browsing on the Internet or stalking some great deal. How else could you spend your time in ways that would truly improve your quality of life?
5. Open your horizons. When hearing about shopper Andrea’s passion for fashion, Benson wondered if she could volunteer as a consultant with Dress for Success, a program that helps disadvantaged women find jobs. “You have to have a rich life.” Benson says. “True wealth isn’t 500 pairs of shoes, it’s things that feed your soul.”
http://www.thebudgetfashionista.com/archive/fashion_advice_help_for_a_shopaholic/
Mortgage Shopaholic Part I: Shop It ‘Til You Drop It
Mortgage Shopaholic Part I: Shop It ‘Til You Drop It…The Rate that Is
Posted by Chris Williamson
July 11, 2008
ShopaholicAccording to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, the definition of a shopaholic is someone who is extremely or excessively fond of shopping. Another online dictionary defines a shopaholic as someone who can never resist a bargain. These two definitions may sum up the essence of a person who lives by the motto “the one that dies with the most toys wins,” but when it comes to mortgage shoppers, the definition is slightly different.
The definition of a mortgage shopaholic is someone who excessively shops for a bargain. The motto of the mortgage shopaholic is “the one that gives me the lowest rate wins.” It sounds like a nice motto, but that motto should also come with a disclaimer, “the rates in the rearview mirror may be larger than they appear.”
Before we go further, let’s clear something up, the point of the post is not to attack the mortgage shopper, rather to empower the mortgage shopper with the knowledge to shop the right way. I encourage you to shop, but I want you to shop for the true bargain and trust me, the true bargain isn’t the lowest rate. Over the next few posts I am going to give you the inside scoop on how to shop for your mortgage correctly. I want you to shop beyond the rates and instead shop for expertise. Instead of calling lenders and brokers at random simply asking “what is the best rate you can get me?” start by asking “how are you going to structure my loan program to best serve my financial needs?”
Stay tuned for my next few posts as we uncover the symptoms, cause, consequences and cure of a mortgage shopaholic.
If you have enjoyed San Mateo Mortgage Blog - Bay Area Mortgage Broker, please subscribe to our RSS feed.
http://sanmateomortgageblog.com/2008/07/shop-it-til-you-drop-itthe-rate-that-is/
Posted by Chris Williamson
July 11, 2008
ShopaholicAccording to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, the definition of a shopaholic is someone who is extremely or excessively fond of shopping. Another online dictionary defines a shopaholic as someone who can never resist a bargain. These two definitions may sum up the essence of a person who lives by the motto “the one that dies with the most toys wins,” but when it comes to mortgage shoppers, the definition is slightly different.
The definition of a mortgage shopaholic is someone who excessively shops for a bargain. The motto of the mortgage shopaholic is “the one that gives me the lowest rate wins.” It sounds like a nice motto, but that motto should also come with a disclaimer, “the rates in the rearview mirror may be larger than they appear.”
Before we go further, let’s clear something up, the point of the post is not to attack the mortgage shopper, rather to empower the mortgage shopper with the knowledge to shop the right way. I encourage you to shop, but I want you to shop for the true bargain and trust me, the true bargain isn’t the lowest rate. Over the next few posts I am going to give you the inside scoop on how to shop for your mortgage correctly. I want you to shop beyond the rates and instead shop for expertise. Instead of calling lenders and brokers at random simply asking “what is the best rate you can get me?” start by asking “how are you going to structure my loan program to best serve my financial needs?”
Stay tuned for my next few posts as we uncover the symptoms, cause, consequences and cure of a mortgage shopaholic.
If you have enjoyed San Mateo Mortgage Blog - Bay Area Mortgage Broker, please subscribe to our RSS feed.
http://sanmateomortgageblog.com/2008/07/shop-it-til-you-drop-itthe-rate-that-is/
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