A Reformed Shopper

Since my temporary insanity of buying a designer purse every time I fancied one and learned the hard lessons of credit card bills, I took a serious look at my spending habit and decided to tone it waaaay down. How did I do it?

Step 1 - Live faaaar away from Tysons Corner mall. There's nothing like a migraine-inducing traffic jam to deter you from going to the mall to buy more stuff.

Step 2 - If you do find yourself driving to the mall..let's say after 7pm when traffic has died down and on your drive back home you realize that there are shopping bags in your trunk and you don't know how it got there.... remember that it's ok to change your mind...and that's why there's a 30, 60, and sometimes even a 90 day return policy at most clothing stores. Repeat after me.... Return, Return, Return!

Step 3 - Make lots of girlfriends that wear the same size as you...because what may be something they don't want to be pictured in again is something that you really really wish you could be pictured in ASAP...and then post the pictures on facebook...and wait for your friends to comment how awesome you look in it. LOL

Step 4 - Make the most out of the few things that you actually buy. For instance, an elastic belt with a gold jeweled butterfly clasp that I purchased at BCBG on sale for $13 and have found every excuse to wear since

The lovely belt ...
























Worn at work on a casual Friday
Dress: $15 at Target
Cardigan: Present from a friend
Shoes: $60 Guess from DSW









Worn with a printed dress (that doesn't fit me anymore)
Which reminds me...

Step 5 - Don't gain weight so you can keep wearing your clothes!

Dress: $180 Nannete Lapore from Cusp (probably the most expensive thing in my closet)

Shoes: $180 (I think?) Christina Louboutin from some crazy Saks sale two years ago










Worn at a black tie optional wedding...
Top: $13 at Forever 21
Skirt: $19 at Forever 21
Both purchased an hour before the wedding because the dress above did not fit! =(










Will be worn on New Year's Eve...
Dress: $20 at Forever 21

Oh and Step 6 - Try not to pay more than $20 for a party dress that you're probably going to wear only once.


(on a side note, am I too old to be wearing this??)

We were the first...

...to move into the newly built Alexandria Crossing development. Having bugged the heck out of everyone and anyone in this whole home buying process, there was no way that our move-in date was going to be delayed any further. We closed at 12pm on June 25th. The movers were done unloading everything by 10pm that evening.

We knew from the start that we were moving in a mixed income neighborhood. A workforce housing condo building was built to our right which would house middle-class professionals who otherwise would have been priced out of expensive dc-metro area real estate. To our left is a subsidised apartment building which would house the lower income tier. The surrounding neighborhood comprised of the same mixed-income households. One block over to the south are established large townhomes - One block to the north are more subsidised apartment buildings - One block to the west are affordable single family homes - and a mere three blocks north is Arlington Ridge where million dollar homes inhabited by politicians (like Al Gore) are perched nicely on top of a hill. Like any other neighborhood in the area, one step in the wrong direction and you may very realize that you're no longer in Kansas.

Skeptical about moving into our neighborhood is an understatement. We were downright scared
But, as more residents slowly trickled in we quickly realized that the neighborhood wasn't going to be so bad after all. The existing mix of cultures in the neighborhood reflected the diversity of the rest of the dc area. The usually vehicle-filled streets were empty by the time I left for work as the rest of my neighbors had already started their day much earlier than I did. Kids played soccer in a small path of grass after school and parents called them in when it was time for dinner. Still, the newly built subsidised housing - only a few feet away from my front door - had yet to be inhabited.

Only three months have passed since we first moved in. And now, most of all of the residents in our little mixed community have moved in as well....and already we are starting to see indications of a downhill slope. Just recently, the neighborhood kids accidentally kicked a ball into our lot. To their shock, one of my neighbors took the ball, slashed it with a knife, and threw it back. Other residents have been seen throwing garbage over the dumpster fence - not even bothering to place the trash in its proper place. Already - an unruly teenager have been seen throwing planters at my neighbor's window.

If you didn't know me personally, you might infer from this post that 1) I'm making prejudice assumptions about low-income residents and 2) I'm going to be one of those uptight rule enforcing neighbor. And hearing my neighbors complain about some of the issues - I admit that I thought the same about them. But seeing some of these things happen myself, it's nearly impossible to point out your frustrations without sounding like yuppy prick.

In a million years, I never really thought that I would be one of those people active in the community. But having invested so much in our home, there's no way I can just sit back and see the neighborhood deteriorate. At the end of the day, it really shoudn't matter what income level you fall under. At the end of the day, we should all be thankful for the roof over our head and take care of it as if it were our own (even though the morgage company or the city really owns it) , and at the end of the day, we hope that we have neighbors looking out for one another.

That's the vision. Now how do you get everyone on board with that?