Buying into Baby

There’s so much Stuff to buy for your kid!! Welcome to the pressure I’ve felt for the last 7 months. And I’m not talking on my bladder. No. Some people call it ‘nesting’. I call it a prime opportunity for our consumer culture to hoist a bunch of unnecessary crap your way. Short term crap, most of it. With an expiration date of a few years, if not months or even weeks in the the case of those newborn clothes. This is stuff you gotta have. At least some of it, but we ain’t talking life and death and heirlooms here. Oh, I’m sure I’ll tuck away a couple outfits and blankets for posterity. When it comes to breast pumps, nursing pillows, and pack-n-plays though, what do I much care?

The problem is people get a little nutty about baby stuff. Read more

Badassity: Re-Branding Frugality

I’m writing this post because I wanted to use that word. A word, I am not genius enough to take credit for. I should probably be paying the venerable Mr. Money Mustache five cents every time I use it. And I would gladly hand over a fist full of nickels for the pleasure. Badassity. Badassity. Badassity. Not just fun to say, but a call to arms.

Am I really going to dedicate a whole post to another blog? Potentially. But, no. Hang on. It could be worth it. Read more

The Pinterest Trap

Do you follow me on Pinterest? Don’t worry if you don’t. I realize not everyone gets Pinterest. Just the other the day the BFF says to me “Yes, but what do I do with it?” As if the act of collecting other people’s ideas, images, hacks, decorating schemes, clothes, recipes, sayings, memes, and pictures of cats some how wasn’t actually doing something. Pah-shaw.

A trio of items already owned that will make it into the baby room. Bookshelf, lamp, and fox. Although, the fox may have been a Christmas request with a specific purpose in mind.

Lucky me. I do get it. Online pin board. Pin your interests. I’ve always loved me a real life pin board. Pinterest is the online, instant gratification, manifestation of that love of collecting. And wanting. Pine-ing, even. Pine-terest? Read more

The Two Income Requirement

Have I ever told you I think the whole dual income household thing is bullshit? No? Then I’m telling you now. Requiring two incomes to live is bullshit. Kids. No kids. Bullshit. It’s some great conspiracy we all bought into. That this is ‘the norm’. That two people should of course be employed outside the home. Of course, we should squeeze all the tasks and errands and general living of our real lives into evenings and weekends. Duh. Doesn’t it make sense that I should spend my ‘free time’ picking up clothes from the seamstress (because I don’t have time to sew them) or running to the bank (gotta make it before it closes). Then I’ll spend more money to pick up dinner on the way home, because yep, no time for cooking either.

Bullshit. When did we sign up for this?

The constructs of the dual income lifestyle: A Corporate America lunch sack and one very dirty blue collar cooler.

I’ve never understood the work day/weekend split. 5 days on, 2 days off for most of us. Not a ratio in my favor. Read more

Splurge: A New Strategy

I’ve been known to spend money on Stuff (aka junk, crap, Vikings, Yetis, and Owls). I’ve even admitted to a couple of those occasions since the inception of this blog. There’s nothing wrong with a little ‘off the reservation’ from time to time. Really, there’s not. However, for me it’s usually reactive. Not proactive. I stumble across some unanticipated awesomeness, and BOOM! Wallet aflame. Mental angst and situational remediation ensues.

Case in point: Back in December, the Urban Craft Uprising took me and my budget by storm. I was overwhelmed. Caught off guard. I was unaware such a venue for fabulous expenditure existed. I walked in blindly, and left overwhelmed and filled with regret.

This would not happen a second time. This time if I wanted to buy a carnivorous plant terrarium, I would buy a carnivorous plant terrarium. Hold the side of guilt. Read more

Clothing: An Argument for New

This feels like it should be a confession. That there is somehow shame in buying new clothes. Because I pay (mostly) full price. Because they are items (mostly) made overseas. Shame on me as a Conscientious Consumer. Or something. Because the more I think about it, and believe me I think things to absolute death, the more buying new clothes is a proper use of my time and resources.

I do a fair amount of thrifting. As the holder of one full time job, the blogger of this here blog, the tender of one Ugly Garden, and the owner to too many dogs, fair is completely subjective. Read more

No Owls Required

My birthday is coming. I like my birthday. A lot. Even as I edge closer to being ‘of a certain age’, I refuse to surrender the sanctity of my own personal holiday to the adult relics of ‘just another day’. Nope, I have birthday parties. With cupcakes. And friends. I celebrate a ‘Birthday Week’ in fact. I’d take the month if I could get away with it. I usually manage to accomplish somewhere around 10 days of birthday bliss. The places I want go, the foods I want to eat, the movies I want to see, and yes, even the things I want to buy, all a little easier to negotiate with The Husband and myself during my birthday vacation. I didn’t mention that? I take the week of my birthday off. Every year.

Why? Because the most important gifts are the ones I give myself. Read more

Corporate Dining

Here’s a confession. For all my eating local, my gospel of whole foods from known entities, to contrast the stacks of expensive food from Farmer’s Market’s you see every week, I love me a hot cocoa from the evil empire of Corporate Coffee.

And when I say love, I mean love. It is a true love. Reaffirmed week in and week out, with my afternoon forays into sip-able chocolatey heaven. Sure, my cocoa could come from any number of places. Independent places. Sometimes it does. Mostly it doesn’t. Because for my palette, this cocoa is the most pleasing. Its probably the squirt of vanilla they add to the decidedly non-fair trade chocolate syrup. The vanilla that without a doubt contains high fructose corn syrup. I’ve never checked. I’m assuming. All this stirred into milk from unhappy cows. Add in that paper cup, its an easy trip down the shame spiral. Read more

Life is Expensive

Ugly Garden.

Looking better than usual, with it’s fresh coating of free bark. Free bark laid over free cardboard, because regular weed barrier costs money. How effective the cardboard will be at weed stifling, remains to be seen. I laid it on pretty thick, (as is my way – HA!) to increase its smothering potential.

Ugly Garden has been a labor of love for coming up on a year now. Read more

In Defense of Stuff

A predictable topic, from someone coming down off a spending bender. Admittedly, I just voluntarily spent a bunch of money on … crap. Good crap. Better yet, cheap good crap. Irrefutably, crap all the same.

I’m a firm believer in crap. A minimalist, I will never be. The cyclical procuring and purging of crap, it makes the world go round. It inspires us to build a new desk organizer, make a new set of coasters, learn about Holistic Veterinary Care or build a border for your raspberry bed. It connects us with our community, (especially when we barter) and the small businesses we (hopefully) choose to patronize. Whether it’s Fiestaware on a shelf (or better yet with my dinner on it), dogs snuggling in comfy beds, items received as wedding gifts or hauled on cable car odysseys through San Francisco, all this stuff, it is good. In my book.

One of two large, heavy Foo Dogs The Husband and I hauled up and down the canyons of San Francisco. The dogs are awesome. I love them, but you can’t buy that kind of memory.

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