Happy Belated V-Day and Happy President’s Day and Happy Any Other Minor Holiday You Can Think Of Day. Personally, I’m celebrating Happy Haven’t Yet Changed Out Of My Jammies Day. It’s an age-old celebration complete with traditional foods (pudding, Totino Party Pizzas), drink (hot tea, coffee) and activities (blogging, reading blogs, Facebook, ignoring work and household chores).
In honor of yesterday’s countrywide lovefest, I decided to spread a little lovin’ of my own – a day late, and a dollar short. Hey, I warned you guys – I am the laziest person you know.
So with no further ado (or adieu, adieu, to you and you and yooooooou), here are some frugal things I love, or at least like a whole bunch. Presented in no particular order – aka, when they pop into my brain.
1. Making online friends. In the early 2000’s, my BFF Larue started blogging… and started talking about all these people she met whilst blogging. At the time, I thought she was a wee bit nuts – how can you make friends with someone without meeting them in real life? As it turns out, you can get to know folks pretty well, enjoy their company, be supported and inspired by them, and develop actual friendships, just by going on the Innerwebs. And sometimes, if you’re really lucky, you can meet them in the flesh*, too. My buddies Danger Kitty, MamaRox, Potter, Missa, and Missy all started out as cyber-friends.
*As for my purely online friends – Bionic Beauty, Stunt Girl, Tashi, and the rest of you awesome-sauce ladies – I’m fairly certain I’ll meet you some day in real life. Preferably at a bar with good snacks and strong drinks and hot men all around us.
2. Topic-specific blogs. If you haven’t noticed, I am deeply obsessed with fashion blogs. Those outfit-a-day bloggers just blow me away with their creativity, not to mention their dedication to posting in a timely fashion. They inspire me to be more creative with the clothes I have, dress better daily, post with greater frequency, and exercise. Why exercise, you ask? Because, I answer, the fitter I am, the more of my clothing I fit into. If you haven’t yet, stop by my three fave fashion blogs, Already Pretty, Fashion For Nerds and the crème-de-la-crème, What I Wore 2Day by Kasmira. She combines fashion, frugality and a winning personality into one awesome site. Love.
3. Songs from my past. I continue to find more 70’s and 80’s-rific ditties on ITunes, and for 99 cents to $1.29 a piece, they make for a cheap trip down memory lane. I recently downloaded Kiss’s I Was Made For Loving You and Heaven’s On Fire, to help relive my head-banging past. If only they had more Def Leppard…
4. Thrifty Décor Chick. Why do I love her? Because I get more blog referrals (i.e. people finding my blog from her blog) from her than any other site on the Web. For all of you who came over from that Chick to this Chick, welcome! Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you enjoy the Empire. Also (and more importantly for the rest of you guys), TDC has the best frugal decorating advice ever given in the history of ever. If you are stuck in an ugly-room rut, and need a cheap save, check out her site, stat.
5. Comments. You may not realize this, but I love, love, LOVE your comments. Although I like to talk (shocking, I know), I don’t like speaking into the void. I like feedback, I like to know someone is listening, and more importantly? I like to know what YOU’RE thinking. Your opinions, thoughts, random musings, household hints – all of it means more to me than you’ll ever know.
With that in mind, I’m launching a contest. Hear that? A CONTEST. IN WHICH YOU CAN WIN FREE STUFF. Between now and March 1st, leave a comment on one of my posts and you’ll be entered to win a $20 (of course) Target (of course) gift card. $20 to my favorite store, to spend on all the random thing you want, such as tights and toilet paper and Totino’s.
Rules and Like That:
1. Be sure to leave your name or online persona in the Comments. No anonymous, please.
2. Only one comment per person per post will be entered into the drawing. However, your name will be entered for every post you comment on. Meaning you could be entered up to 15 times between now and March 1st.
2. Comment about anything you want, as long as it’s not immoral, illegal, or going to get us all killed.
3. Constructive criticism is always welcome. For example, if you hate my over-use of the word Awesome, please let me know.
4. I’m fairly certain no trolls visit the Empire. However, if a troll does come a-trolling, I WILL publish his/her comment. Why? So the rest of us can engage in one of my favorite activities, troll-poking. I do love poking a troll…wow. That sounds dirty.
5. Every commenter’s name will be placed in a hat. The winner will be drawn from said hat by my mother, so you know it’s a fair and unbiased contest.
Already folks, get crackalackin’! Comment away, and tune in tomorrow for my first of many week-long shopping challenges. A contest and new challenges – we’re just busting out all over the place.
Today’s post is dedicated in loving memory to my friends’ most awesome grandmother, Sweetie Pie.
20 Comments
That is a fantastic pic for today’s blog. It’s as though you are sticking your tongue out at full prices! And the contest idea, very nice. If I win, I will spend it on Archer Farms hotdog buns, cheese and onions so I can host you for a Cincinnati Chili eating party. Deal? I’ll even make the homemade kind, not the out-of-a-can kind!
Dude. I am SO THERE.
I plan to remove myself from the contest because you still owe me money.
Hee.
Actually, I have enjoyed the whole blogging thing. Haven’t done a whole lot lately due to FB sucking great big portions of my life up, but I would like to get back to it. I also second Thrify Decor Chick. Her site is GREAT.
And I am glad this contest does not involve me making something for someone. The free rides are over, baby! Well, except for you. As my Official Cutter, you get free sewing. And my, but doesn’t that sound disturbing….
I just started following you last week after enjoying you on fox9. I was happy to see I Am Bossy in your link list – a real favorite of mine. I will be checking out your other links.
Wow, I actually just discovered Thrifty Decor Chick via a friend’s blog links only two days ago and already have added her to my “must reads” in Google Reader. I am amazed by the way she can take goodwill finds and turn them into such pretty things for her home!!
I’m one who found you through TDC! Hey my sister just started a fashion blog. I will pass on your fav blogs to her!
Sarah
PS I love Target!
I was too chicken to post on FB after your pres day ? Since the last person to post felt so strongly, so I’ll post here. I honestly couldn’t care ant less if they have sales today. Irreverent maybe, thrifty, YES.
Ok, so I was too chicken to comment on your FB quiz because the last woman was so stongly opposed – so here I am. I really don’t care if there are sales today or not, never thought about it. Irreverent and disrespectful? Maybe. Frugal? Oh, YES.
Thanks so much for the Sweetie Pie shout out. You too would have gotten along famously.
Awesome sauce today, Cheap Chick!
Great post. Other than Bionic Beauty’s site, which I discovered through *you* (thank you!!), I’ve not seen the sites you mentioned. I’ll have to take a look. Thanks for mentioning me. I look forward to the honor of meeting you someday. You sooo rock, sister. Thanks for all ya do. This Pepsi’s for you!
The contest sounds faboo. Thanks for the opp! And as a fellow Target devotee, I think it’s funnier than an “I Love Lucy” episode, reading about your addiction to Tarzhay.
Can I just win the hat (with your mom’s blessings, of course)…
j/k
I’m SO with you on the friends & fashion thing! If not for the people I know whom I now call friends, I would tend to get stuck in a fashion “rut”. I’m very grateful for people like you who make me want to try new things and even start getting back into wearing HATS again!
Ha!! “TDC has the best frugal decorating advice ever given in the history of ever.” That made me laugh out loud. THANKS lady!! Glad I can help.
1. Thank you for the shout out.
Tee hee! On that note, I’m going to bed. Now. Officially.
2. YOU ROCK!
3. I *know* we will meet in real life at some point. And hopefully soon. And there will definitely be LOADS of hot guys around. Definitely! We should start a list of invitees now.
4. YOU ROCK. Oops, I said that already. But that’s what happens when family is in town and the Bionic Beauty is trying to get her blogging/writing done at the wee hours of the morning. I really need some winks of sleep. My eyes are crossing… Before I go… check BB tomorrow. Hint, hint. There’s gonna be some *super cool* free samples exclusive to BB. 50 of them. And I happen to know it’s a brand you’ve wanted to try but don’t wanna splurge for.
I’ve been a bad commenter, sorry, plus I’ve abandoned (temporarily) my fashion blog.
Too much Facebook and other stuff! Just want to say I am thankful for your internet friendship.
Going to check out those links now. As I eat Totino’s Party Pizza for breakfast.
Thanks for the mention!
It’s interesting that you mention being inspired to exercise by fashion blogs. I feel the same way. I’m inspired by other ladies’ nice figures, I want to keep fitting in my own clothes, and my blog keeps me hyper-aware of any weight gain or flabbiness. I’m not sure if that’s all good, but it is what it is.
As I wrote on the FB page – I try and stay out of Tarjet because it is a VERY dangerous place. My “fashion advisor” is my almost 14-old-daughter who practically from the time she was born had an eye for fashion and color much more than her mother ever has.
Oh, and ever since watching the Madagascar movies I have to admit that I think to myself about getting ‘crackalackin”. I don’t think I would ever use those words aloud as to make myself sound pretty silly. But I love how you used it in this blog!
I love your staying away from Target challenge. If you can do that for one week you are my hero! I am also a Target junkie. It is so bad that all anyone ever buys for me on birthdays, christmas, etc is Target gift cards. Good luck!
Target is the bane of my existence. If you can stay away for a length of time, I commend you. With three kids there is always something I need from Target, then that blossoms…..you know the rest!
Hello! I have been following your blog for over a year now, but never commented because I tend to keep my mouth shut unless I have something that I feel is really important or interesting. After reading a few times now how much you enjoy fashion blogs, I remembered that I follow one from time to time that you might like. Not sure if you’ve seen it before, but here it is:
http://fell4fashion.blogspot.com/
I really like a lot of her outfits, and she is pretty into thrifting, which is always good! Thanks for writing such an entertaining and informative blog, I look forward to continuing to read it, and MAYBE commenting again in the future.