Champagne tastes

I have champagne tastes on a beer budget. Wait, I take that back. Not even a beer budget. More like a lukewarm, tap water budget.

Take this bag for instance. It's beautiful. It's the Coach Bleecker Legacy Leather Weekend Tote. It retails at $598. It costs just a little less than a month's worth of daycare. Which is our second highest bill after our mortgage.

I can almost imagine the soft, buttery feel of the leather. It would be the perfect work bag, schleping my planner, receipts to submit for reimbursement, my Kindle Fire, a magazine and my makeup bag. Professional and polished. So if anyone comes into a sudden windfall, you know where to find me.

One of my favorite games to play is read a magazine article, pick my favorite item featured in the article, and then see if I've picked the most expensive option there. Usually I can hit it spot on. It's a gift I have.

Nicole and I had a good conversation the other day about consignment shopping. One of my favorite consignment stores in Des Moines is Worn. It only carries current, high end designers. I purchased some of my favorite things there. Nicole also mentioned two other stores: Restyle on 7662 Hickman Rd. in Windsor Heights and the Repeat Boutique on 3913 Ingersoll Ave in Des Moines.

How do you sate your champagne tastes on a tap water budget?

Overpriced Items.

I want this. It would be the perfect Valentine's Day gift for this foodie like me. Too bad I'm getting bacon for Valentine's Day instead. That and the $160 price tag. Somewhat of a spoiler too :) You might be tempted to get a fake one, but trust me, fakes aren't the same. I got a fake one two years ago and now it's bubbling and flaking. Not worth the money. So pull out the big guns, go for the gusto and shell out a crap load of money for something the French do really well.

Groupon Deal of the Day - Bath & Body Works

Here's another great Groupon deal - $30 worth of Bath & Body Works products for only $15!

I used by Body Shop Groupon certificate last week and got a huge tub of Cocoa Butter body cream, some Mango body wash and a nice quality hair brush - $40 worth of product for only $20! I read online that Cocoa Butter can diminish stretch marks. While I have not yet gotten stretch marks, I suppose preventative care has some merit to it! I didn't need the body wash but I needed another $5 to tack onto my total. My favorite purchase, hands down, was the hair brush. I've been using this skanky one I got for free 6 years ago. It's gross, but I never could bring myself to shell out money for a better one (note to self: Aveda really isn't the place to contemplate how much one should spend on a hair brush. One will never be able to bring one's self to part with money for a hair brush there). I love my new Body Shop hair brush, it's like a fun scalp massage every morning :)

Moral of the story. Groupon has some great deals. Check them out.

Personalized Momma's Necklace

Alas. If only I knew the name or gender of my baby. Or knew that there isn't the chance that I would change my mind by the birth of aformentioned baby. Because if the name was a "sure thing" I would purchase this sweet necklace today on GroopDealz.com for $32.50. I'm pretty sure that all momma's would like this for Mother's Day!

Downtown Des Moines Farmers Market

I love the downtown Des Moines Farmers Market. I love it in the spring, I love it in the summer, but I think I love it best in the fall. I'm not sure that it's any less busy, but I like the types of produce and the weather. I mean look at those pumpkins - they're great!


Yum ... the pork fiesta bowls from Dos Rios are so delish. I replicate at home, but they aren't nearly as good. They have rice, black beans, cilantro, tomatoes, sour cream, pork, chips. I'm making myself hungry.



But one of the things I always get are an Indian potato cutlet and a samosa from Saloos. They are good - I don't care if it's 9 AM!


I thought about getting raspberries and making homemade cheesecake with raspberry sauce ...


But I got hedgeballs instead :) They are featured on the cover this month of Better Homes & Gardens as a part of a decorative centerpiece. They supposedly ward of spiders. I'm not sure if I believe it, but I'm game!



Lance thought it was too early for an egg roll or other ethnic cuisine. So he got a blueberry tart.


Dig in!


I like fall mums. But inevitably, I would kill them. I also don't see the point of planting something that has a 4 week life span.


I love our Farmers Market!

Minne Shopping

This past weekend Lance and I went to the Twin Cities with my parents. My dad grew up in MN so he's a Twins fan and Lance breathes and dies by the Twins - super fan! They like to try and catch one game a year and my mom and I go shopping. :) The Twins are currently in a run for division title, so Saturday and Sunday's game were huge. That combined with actually being in the TWIN Cities, I was inundated with Twins baseball. It was on at every restaurant we ate at and everyone was clad in blue and red. In general I don't hate baseball, but I've hit my capacity as to the amount of I can endure. I will be happy when the season has ended.

Moving on, my my and spent 3 hours on the first floor of the Mall of America. The other two levels went much quicker :) Here are the cute shoes I bought at DSW and the fun headband I got. My mom asked me if I had any fancy events coming up soon ... no, but who needs a reason to wear a bejeweled headband?



Sunday morning we went to IKEA to peruse the aisles. Sadly, no major purchases this year. My decorating style is more comfy casual and IKEA is more urban-mod. We bought some wooden hangers and a cutting board. Exciting ...

But I did get to go to Trader Joes on Sunday morning. My mom had made fun of me because I had wanted to go and she ended up buying more stuff than I did! I haven't had a chance to use my almond butter or my bruschetta spread yet, but I did try the chocolate & pb pretzels and the Aussie licorice. OMG, they are so good. Where have these products been all my life?

Keens

I know. I don't really have a need for hiking shoes. Lance and I don't hike. There's not a lot of areas near us for hiking. If Lance and I go on vacation, it certainly is not an outdoor-sy type of vacation. I have a friend who went to Yellowstone with her husband this summer and all they did was camp and hike. Um ... not my idea of fun. My idea of fun is looking at her pictures and being thankful that we stay in hotels when we go anywhere.

Okay ... getting back to the point. When Lance and I went to Hawaii this spring, we went kayaking and hiking up to a waterfall. It was beautiful. Hiking shoes or sandals, such as Keens, would have been ideal as we were tromping through mud and wading through streams. But I didn't have blessed Keens at the time, I just had some very muddy Nikes. As a result of the experience, I decided that I needed Keens. Oh, but holy crap are those shoes expensive. But our local store, Active Endeavors, had an end of season sale ... And my lovely Keens were $95 marked down to $45. I couldn't say no. "These will last a lifetime! They're 50% off! They're comfortable and versatile." And this is how I ended up with my first (and last - at least for awhile) pair of Keens.






They're so great. I really don't feel too terrible about getting these.

I love this shirt

This shirt was $36.50 at Ann Taylor Loft. Ridiculous. But last weekend it went on sale for $14.99. Go Kara and go sales at ATL (which, I believe the store must be going through a rebranding and shortening it's name to just "Loft"). I thought about getting it in another color, but I didn't really like any of the other colors. This pink was too rosy and the lavender had too much chalky gray. Not good for my coloring. I really love the floral whimsy of the neckline. It's a great tee. (Note to self: in the future, I think that I would be better off taking pictures of clothes on the hanger or on me ...)

Honey Sunshine Super Spectacular Deal

Price of Cereal Savings:

$2.88 per box of cereal x 5 boxes = $14.40
- $1.50 x 5 coupons= $7.50
- $2.88 coupon =$4.62
-$5 Target gift card = +$.38

I made 38 cents on five boxes of Kashi Honey Sunshine cereal! Go Kara! You too can save money this week at Target for cereal :) I got two coupons from http://www.moneysavingmom.com/ and four in the mail. Good luck!