May 12

Survivor’s Standouts 5/12/13

Categories:

Survivor's Standouts

by

greeting-card-remember-pride-mothers-day-ecards-someecardsThe past few weeks have been really busy here and I haven’t been able to put up a Standouts post. While this one is late, late is better than never, so here’s what’s going on in my world… I had my final exam in my psychopathology class and I’ve signed up for another one (possibly two) courses that I’ll be taking this summer (lord be with me). I’ve also been doing some freelance writing which has taken up a good bit of my free time, so I haven’t had as much time to comment and interact in the blogosphere as I’d like. I’m still reading, just haven’t had a lot of time to comment.

Last week, I published another post over at Dimespring. The title of the post is: 5 Smart Ways to Organize Your Bills. Here’s a little snippet: “Do you ever look at the people around you and think, “Wow these folks are so disorganized; it’s no wonder their finances are a mess?”  You know the people I’m talking about. You go to their house and they misplace their remote, their keys and their credit card in a five-minute time span”. Head on over and check it out if you’re interested.

The Standouts:

My Posts This Week:

My Mother is Wonder Woman & Happy Mother’s Day
How to Host a Fabulous Party For Free
If You Can’t Afford to Tip-Stay Home!

Thanks so much for mentioning me!:

Eyes on the Dollar, Young & Thrifty, Prairie Eco-Thrifter, Thirty-Six Months, This That and The MBA, My Money Design, Fat Guy Skinny Wallet,

Happy Mother’s Day & I Hope You Had a Wonderful Weekend!

See You Tomorrow With a Fresh TLC (yes, the 90′s hit music group!) Inspired Post

Tags: , , , ,

8 comments

May 10

My Mother is Wonder Woman & Happy Mother’s Day!

Categories:

Life, Relationships

by

wonder woman

As a woman, I’m intimately acquainted with the expectations put on women by our society, our peers and ourselves. Although I’m not a mother, I have a mother and I’ve seen the stress that she experienced trying to be “perfect” during my childhood. My parents divorced when I was 6 and she was my sole caregiver. To my credit, I was a pretty self-sufficient child and mature child (something about being an only child I think) but raising me was still a 24-7 job.

A single mother until I was in 6th grade, mom was like a crazed mad woman multitasking 50 things a day. She worked 40 hours a week with a hour commute on both ends of the day then picked me up from cross country practice, made dinner, helped me with homework, baked cookies for the PTA fundraiser, french braided my hair (wet so when it dried I’d have funky waves in the morning), and packed my lunch for the next day. This routine was only for weekdays during “down times” of the year.

Weekends were the times she should have been relaxing. Instead, she was chauffeuring me to gymnastics lessons, picking me up and dropping me off at friends’ houses, hosting sleepovers and trying to catch up on the tasks she’d “neglected” the rest of the week. She cleaned the house from top to bottom, did laundry and cooked meals to have on hand for the rest of the week etc. My mom never got a manicure or a massage, and never got a “day off”.

Holidays and special occasions would add about 15 new tasks to her “to-do” list. Making Halloween costumes, planning my birthday pizza parties and sleepovers, decorating the house with seasonal decorations and making special holiday foods.

What I’m trying to say is my mother was (and is) pretty much the best mother anyone could ever ask for. The consummate perfectionist, she sometimes says that she could have “done better” by me. Newsflash mom, I wasn’t a Juvenile delinquent and I haven’t turned out too bad as an adult either ;-) I love you!

student debt survivor tattoo mom

Was Your Mother Wonder Woman too? Are you an Aspiring Wonder Woman?

Happy Mother’s Day!

Image:Andertoons & Dani P.L.

Tags: , , , , ,

21 comments

May 08

How to Host a Fabulous Party For Free

Categories:

Frugality, Life

by

houseparty balloons

This weekend the bf and I hosted a Cinco De Mayo Qdoba House Party. Sadly a lot of our friends were out of town for the weekend, but we were able to round up 9 hungry guests who were thrilled to try out Qdoba catering, play a little pin the tail on the donkey and drink a few (OK many, Margaritas).

A Little FYI On House Party:

What is House Party? If you’re not familiar with the, “house party model”, the parties are sponsored by companies who give you products, a “Party Pack” of their products to eat/use/try/share. You invite friends and family to a party at your home and share the products with them. Advertisers know that word of mouth advertising is the best way to gain loyal customers, thus the House Party model has become pretty popular.

How Do You Sign-up? It’s easy, you sign-up at houseparty.com and start a profile (similar to facebook and other social media mediums). After you make your profile, you can apply to be a party host.

How Do You Get Chosen to Host? Participation on the site (sharing photos, tweeting, sharing on facebook etc.) are good ways to show the companies that you’ll be a good promoter of their brand. The more engaged you are they better your chances are of being selected as a host.

qdoba housepartyOur Qdoba House Party:

Our Qdoba party pack included the following:

  • (1) Qdoba certificate good for a 20-person Catering Bar ($170 value!!)
  • (1) Bamboo spoon and (1) Bamboo tong
  • (1) Tote bag and (1) Apron
  • (12) Plastic margarita glasses
  • (4) Molcajetes to make and serve guacamole
  • (12) Qdoba rewards cards loaded with one free entrée (awesome!-we used these as favors/prizes)

So Technically the party wasn’t “free”. The food was free, but we had a few additional costs…

pin the tailAdditional Costs:

  • Beer-What’s a Cinco De Mayo themed party with cervaza? We bought a few 12-packs of beer (Dos Equis of course-to fit the theme). I had a Beer Rebate for the beer, so the beer will actually end up being free after the rebate.
  • Balloons-$1.30 x 6=$7.80 + “Fiesta” balloon $3.99 (total balloon cost=$11.79)
  • Tequila-$25.00 for the Tequila plus $2.99 for mixers x 3=$8.97 (total Margarita cost=$33.97)
  • Donkey kit- $4.99, but well worth the cost for the amusement it provided. The tails came with markers and foam stickers so you could decorate your own tail.
  • Total Spent: $50.75

Fun Factor:

We had so much fun hosting the party. This was the first time a lot of our friends had been to our condo, so we were really excited to be able to host them in such “style”.

Everyone remarked on how delicious the food was and how fun it was to make their own burritos. We ordered the naked burrito bar that came with steak, chicken, and all the fixings (salsas, cheese, guacamole, chips etc.). The catering set-up came with everything we needed to keep the food hot (chafing dishes, Sterno etc.) and all the napkins, paper goods and serving spoons.

Bottom Line:

Qdoba catering is really tasty and makes hosting a party a breeze. If you like to entertain and try new products, House Party is a really good way to do so for FREE! Who doesn’t love free?

What are the most expensive part of party hosting for you? Have you ever hosted a “House Party” sponsored by a company?

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

32 comments

May 06

If You Can’t Afford to Tip, Stay at Home!

Categories:

Life, Money

by

student debt survivorBeing a service industry “veteran”, I get pretty agitated when I hear that people aren’t tipping because of the, “recession”, or because they’re on a budget and trying to save money. Newsflash broke-asses, if you can’t afford to tip your waiter, waitress, bartender, hairdresser (fill in the service industry professional here) stay at home!

Obviously I’m a huge proponent of saving money and being frugal when possible, that’s how I paid off $30,000 in student debt. But frugality is never an excuse for not appropriately tipping service industry professionals. I paid for a large chunk of my college and graduate school thanks, in part, to jobs in the service industry.

You name the job, I’ve probably done it. Housekeeper, waitress, bartender, dishwasher etc etc. From those experiences, I can tell you that it’s not easy work. In fact, it’s often back breaking, gross and physically exhausting work. There’s no such thing as an easy, or quiet, day when you’re working in the service industry (and you wouldn’t want there to be because if it’s slow you’re not making any money).

In most cases, your tips literally make up your salary. So if you get a few tables of non-tippers, or have a really slow day, you could end up making less than minimum wage. Because I know how hard the work is, and I know that service professionals aren’t making an actual salary I’m an excellent tipper (probably too generous in some cases). I look at my teenage waitress and think to myself, “That was me, trying to pay my way through school”.

So when I hear that people aren’t tipping because they’re trying to save money it really makes me angry. If you have the money to pay for your food, you better have the money to tip your waitress. Otherwise buy fast food, or stay at home.

Have You Ever Worked in the Service Industry? Have You Ever Seen Someone, “Save Money” By Not Tipping?

Image: BradleyGee

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

57 comments

Older posts «

» Newer posts