Impressed Mom with my savings savvy

I did not do any Black Friday shopping, but I still saved myself $55 and my mom $77. The deets:
The $77 deal
My sister’s wedding dress from Ann Taylor. It’s a $600 dress that got marked down 40% for the weekend. Hm, I guess this counts as a Black Friday deal, but really it’s just when [...]

Seriously trashed Thanksgiving

…and I don’t mean that in an alcoholic way.
I have been violently ill since 7am. My sublettors, thank god, aren’t due until 8pm, but I doubt I’ll be any better by then. I can hardly stand up and keep it together long enough to wash a few dishes, no less prepare the rest of the [...]

Don’t be stingey with the coupons

Meant to rant about this one earlier this week…
I did my usual dumpster-diving and doormat-snatching rounds of my building for the Sunday newspaper coupon inserts and discovered (a) no RedPlum in the New York Times or the New York Post, and (b) SmartSource was not only ridiculously thin, but there were hardly any coupons – it [...]

Charitably burning off some stress

I’m trying to ward off stress over my powerlessness to do much about my low levels of business and high levels of rent in a way that doesn’t involve eating my weight in cheesecake. So that odd shelter for homeless teen runaways where I dropped off supplies last week (see details of that visit here)… [...]

Rent Renewal Rant

I think this is my 5th post in two weeks about my horrific rent, and I’m sure it won’t be the last. I got the following response from the lease agent I deal with (unedited):
Please send me documentation supporting the rents being down and vacancy rates up so that I can talk to one of [...]

Citibank’s ThankYou campaign is clearly history

So the day they get their monster bailout package ok’d, I get a notice from my Citibank MasterCard informing me that my APR on purchases, which is currently 12.99%, will now be Prime + 13.99% with a minimum of 19.99%. And if I screw up and pay the bill a day late, it goes up [...]

Rent Renewal update: Begging wittily for 0%

So I invested some time in researching what’s going with the Manhattan rental market. Unfortunately, I think the October data only covers up to Sept 1 or 15th at best, which is right before the world going financially wonky. I also searched a few sites to see what’s on offer in my area, and for [...]

It’s expensive being The KTM

Just a quick rundown of what it has cost me so far to have family in town…
$200 – Half of Starfish’s plane ticket (birthday/Christmas gift)
$15 – Starfish’s cab fare from the airport (she shared with a stranger)
$5 – Pizza and coke for Starfish’s dinner
$30 – Lunch at Eatery with Starfish
$50 – Dinner at Wandee Siam [...]

They call me “The KTM”

I’ve been a bit absent on her over the past couple of days because my family descended upon me – but I return to you with a new “financial” nickname: they call me The KTM. This grew out of a chat they were all having about how, instead of taking money from an ATM for their [...]

Dump Now or Until February 20 Hold Your Peace

For some insane reason (read: Whoopi), I’m a big fan of The View, and they just commented on an article about how you can’t break up with your Significant Other between Thanksgiving and Valentine’s Day because it’s exceptionally cruel. It made me giggle…I often find myself in an “agony aunt” position with my male clients, [...]