The Blonde Diaries

One of my favorite groups on Facebook is the group, Not all Accountants are boring and ugly. I joined it when I was in grad school working towards my masters. I still think there is a small stigma towards accountants as being boring and nerdy and I don’t doubt that you can find me a few examples, but not all of us are totally boring and wear things like pocket protectors or carry around a ten key. LOL.

I’ve been following a new blog -> Anthroholic and she does a fun feature with posting reader’s favorite outfits on her blog once a week. I think I’ll submit something next week and see if it gets posted. I thought it might be fun to do around here too since I do like fashion and I need to work towards being more of a budgeting fashionista than a full price fashionista. Maybe I can help some people along the way.

So to kick things off I’ll start with a fun outfit I wore on Thursday this week. I had to use the blackberry camera so things turned out a tad darker than I would like.

Hat: Anthropologie Sale Section ~ $19

Cardigan: Forever 21 ~ $15

Dress: Anthropologie Sale Section ~$99

Tights: Anthropologie (Pindot Tights) $18

Belt: Anthropologie Snakebite Belt in Gray ~ $34

Shoes: Aerosoles $59

Necklace & Earrings: Forever 21 ~$4

Hello, my name is Cate and I am an Anthroholic. It has been exactly 6 hours since my last Anthropologie order and exactly 49 hours since I last stepped foot inside an Anthropologie store.  I have no real reason in posting this except that the first step towards recovery is admitting your addiction and it seems like pretty clothing has recently turned into an addiction with my bank account telling me to slow the heck down. LOL.

In all seriousness, I have needed a clothing overhaul for a long time and it seems like Anthropologie is doing the job really well.  I just have to remember to wait until things go on sale and buy more on sale and less at full price.  Anyone else out there an Anthroholic??

I have been scouring the internet and the local malls looking for specific items missing from my wardrobe – nice capris, sundresses, and sandals.  You would think based on the sheer volume of packages I have coming into the apartment from various online shopping and physical store shopping excursions that I must be finding everything on my missing items list but unfortunately, the opposite is true.  I have had absolutely no luck finding the items I am looking for.  In fact, most of the items I have bought in the past month have just been returned to the store within a week of purchasing them.  For the most part I’m just incurring costs from driving back and forth to the store or post office but every now and then I’m hit with a return shipping fee.  It is quite frustrating but I think I’ll be paying more attention to return policies when shopping online.  I’m hoping I have better luck this upcoming weekend when I venture to the outlet malls.

I’ve been trying to shop lately to find some new clothing to update/replace the items in my closet currently. I have had pretty good luck so far.  One of the items on my list currently is finding a new little black dress that can be used for many different occasions.  I was checking my normal websites to see if there was anything on sale or that would fit the bill and was not having much luck.  I decided that maybe I should step outside of the box and I decided to pay a visit to Sears.com.  I found the most adorable little black dress over there (see photo on the right) and the best part is that it is on clearance for $18!  The dress is so adorable and is updated with the current fashion trends that you would never guess that it was just $18.  Talk about a major score!

Right now there are a ton of deals and steals on the Sears website.  In fact, all Fall/Winter clothing is 75-80 percent off until April 18th.  That includes clothing for everyone in your family – husbands, children, babies, parents.   You can also sign up for Sears emails through a link on their homepage and earn an additional $10 to spend at Sears.  That would make that dress only $8.  Now that is a real steal.  I think I’ll be spending a little more time at Sears seeing if there is anything I can find on sale for the cruise as well as to fill those holes in my wardrobe.

I love reading magazines but I don’t always love the price at the newstand. Most magazines have a cover price of $3 or more! For most of my favorite magazines, I go ahead and subscribe to try and cut the cost a little bit but even subscribing to magazines can add up. Plus you can’t subscribe to everything! So right now I have 4 subscriptions: Shape, Self, Weight Watchers, and Vogue. I like them all but Vogue because Vogue focuses on fashion I will never be able to afford. Luckily that subscription is about to run out and I will not be renewing. Instead, I think I might give Glamour a try since it is a more broad fashion magazine plus they are offering $1.50 subscriptions for this year if you subscribe by March 15th!! That’s kind of awesome if you ask me. Just click here and you can sign up for your $1.50 subscription too.   You really can’t beat this budget friendly price.