Man house stuff is expensive

I am returning everything that still has tags on it to pay for more useful stuff that will actually impact my quality of life. Like ensuring I have enough in savings to not get panicky when something inevitably goes wrong in a 100 year old house. And buying paint so that the little bedroom doesn't look like a kids circus fantasy.

Shopping for clothes used to be really fun when every purchase wasn't laden with house guilt/hope. Plus I am going to the Bay area for a wedding in November and would much rather have ample funds to spend on vacation (since I planned it out to stay a week). A great date to a new restaurant while on vacation is infinitely more memorable than any of the DC dresses I bought just because they were marked down twice. If I feel like it and have internet, I will post a memorial to the closet that could have been.

It is strange how my attitude has shifted over the last month+ of living here in Georgetown. The novelty has worn off re: being walking distance to a consumer mecca. Occupying the fanciest house I've ever occupied, in the fanciest neighborhood I have ever inhabited has made me a little more class conscious than usual. I intend to stop looking for the quick thrill of consumption for consumption's sake. Besides, I have a lot of career related goals to accomplish in the fall that would be served best by a moratorium on the lure of window eshopping/consuming. Not having a steady shipping address helped break me of that habit. I should be able to keep it up once I move back to Pittsburgh.

I am off to return the wireless aircard, get a service credit from At&t, and then finish writing my museum lecture for tomorrow. Hopefully I won't need internet since I don't feel like hanging in a cafe.

Sierra Aircard= epic fail

My formerly perfect solution to the lack of unprotected wifi here is the worst. So unreliable! Constantly booting me if I try to do anything more complex than a simple google search. And because I use a Mac, At&t is unable to offer me adequate customer support. So I get shuffled between Apple and At&t, both of which perpetually have "longer hold times than usual." How long does it take until the average hold time estimation increases? If every time I call them it is "longer than usual," doesn't longer than usual just become usual? Regardless, I will be returning this piece of crap technological miracle before Wednesday which marks the end of my 30 day trial period. I will be reimbursed for my trouble and already got service credits when I called to complain about the inadequate customer support for a product that was promised by them to be my perfect solution.

Anyway, I am unable to blog with any reliability as a result. Without internet service it is hard to locate stock photos of recent purchases or upload my own photos of anything. It also means I can't read the blogs and browse the websites that drive me to post in the first place.

But just because I don't have internet service doesn't mean I haven't consumed. As I've mentioned in previous entries, I recently bought a house with my partner so curbing spending is priority number 1.

Some things that help me save money: I have no DC rent to pay and limited bills. I don't eat out much. It is easy to resist seeking out great restaurants because I am alone a lot of the time. Without company I don't feel much incentive to dine since a huge part of the dining experience is social. I've been cooking a lot and occupying myself planning inexpensive meals for the week. My lack of internet service and address transience mean I don't shop online and I don't browse as many websites that enable or encourage conspicuous consumption. The decrease in online consumption is somewhat neutralized by living in a neighborhood with such great brick and mortar shopping. But the lure of novelty has worn off and my drive to browse has diminished with it. I never thought the day would come when I could choose to walk to Anthropologie or Zara or Barney's Coop but opt instead to go home.

Tomorrow I will go with an e-pal to an outlet mall that has a Nordstrom Rack and Off Fifth. Hopefully there won't be too much that catches my eye. I am more excited to hang out with a friend and spend some time exploring new territory. I have to stay financially focused on the projects that Chris and I have planned to increase the value of our shared investment. And on making our house a home.

Back after an unintentioned hiatus!

I am living in Georgetown now which is dangerous for my bank account. There is a lot of shopping here in DC in general, but the convenience of being able to walk to Barneys Coop, a plethora of cool bookstores, Anthropologie, Urban Outfitters, and Sephora, to name just a few is really all-consuming. It is hard enough trying to resist spending Speck's college fund at Trader Joe's and CVS which are only blocks away. I don't need any temptations! I have a house to buy in a week!

But I have managed to manage my money well here, bolstered by the multiple unexplained deposits from my predoctoral fellowship (which, as it turns out are all legitimate), and the generosity of the couple with whom I am staying, rent free.

I did have to spend a decent chunk of change on acquiring reliable internet access. I was misinformed about the iPhone's tethering capabilities. And I found out about the misinformation AFTER I bought matching iphones for Chris and me. We didn't intend to match, but we both wanted the white ones.


Although I could do some internet-ing via the iphone, I had to pursue other options. So I found a way, via the sierra wireless aircard.


And if I cancel the At&t data plan and return the sierra wireless aircard within a month, I am off scott free. Even if I don't, I can pay the $175 early termination fee and sell the aircard for about that on ebay. I also get to give my dad my Razr which he technically bought for me a few years ago and is excited to use as his phone. :)

I am very close to being debt free for the first time in a while. Other than my small, interest and payment-deferred student loan, I have no debt. I need to be debt free if I am going to sign on for the risks associated with buying and owning a home.

That said, I haven't been entirely spendthrift. I have made a few careful purchases in addition to the iphones.

These dresses were all on major sale.

Theory Dilia dress from Bloomingdales
A.P.C. dress bought at Barney's Coop but blogged about earlier!

Marc by Marc Jacobs velvet Mochachino dress (part of the fall of 90s grunge):
I also have some photos of myself in a few other new dresses from Zara and Saks.