This & that

As I mentioned before, Friday was a good money day. Here's what I received

• $10 BC from RA after that big cluster at my local store. Manager was wrong & I was right. Whaddya know. Had another cluster at RA this week. 
  
  
• Received $20 Chicos semi annual reward. What to buy?
  
  
• Received $10 PG rebate from a Wags or RA deal (can't remember which store)
  
  
• Redeemed for $20 Walmart gc from Ibotta and used it at Sams. I always get Walmart, because it works at both stores. I don't know if a Sams gc will work at Walmart.
  
  
• Redeemed for another $5 PG gc. I've been getting Target, since they still have a wide variety of retailers available (not just coffee places) and I can use it towards Christmas gifts. There's was something else I received, but I can't remember. 
  
  
• Found that it's cheaper to order Arby's for DS online, than go through drive-thru. Arby's sends mailer Qs from time to time, but those Qs are one time use. We used to get the bacon chicken swiss. Then I saw that they have 2/$7 original chicken sandwiches in the app. So I signed up and they also give you various offers like $$ off . 
  
  Well, as I checked all the ad-ons, I noticed that a cheese slice costs 79c each. WTH?! I buy cheese at Sams and it comes to around 15c/slice. So I add my own cheese, cucumber and sometimes red onion to the sandwich. I also keep a bottle of Arby's sauce. So the carry out costs less and DS is still happy. Score for the mama.
  
  
• Ordered a Christmas gift for DS, so I'll just take $26 out of my Christmas fund (or just keep track of my spending and deposit all the money once my shopping's done). He's already given me his Christmas shopping list, so I'm just waiting on good deals on those items. 
  
  BF should give me his Christmas list too, cause I hate last minute shopping. Otherwise, I'll just throw on a pair of 4" heels & put a bow on myself 😂 Easy peasy!
  
  
• I'm a bit stressed (maybe a lot) because we have 2 months to figure out our birthdays. Actually, we have less than a month, so that I have time to plan & execute. I'm stressed, cause I'm having a milestone birthday. The last time I had a party for a milestone birthday, was my 21st. I did have a big party for my 24th birthday. That was many moons ago. We always had family get togethers for our birthdays. We loved making a whole day of family time out of anyone's birthday. My mother's family has always been very generous. Her one sister would order & pay for custom cakes for our birthdays. The rest of us would all plan the menu and figure out who makes/brings what (our family's huge).  The men handled all the booze and we'd all hang out till late. It was always one big potluck party. 
  
  
• I decided to stock up on more underwear for DS. The ones I bought recently were from 2021, so not the best older quality, but still good enough. I didn't want to buy more, but my gut kept telling me that once that old inventory's gone, I'm gonna be stuck buying the cheap, poor quality ones. So new undies it is. 
  
  Please pay close attention when purchasing clothing or ordering online. I'm seeing a lot of retailers now have clothes, underwear & sleepwear made from recycled fabric. YET!!!!! The prices keep increasing. As my friend Lori mentioned in the comments, 'it's a good thing we have everything we need'. We have lots of good/great quality clothing that I bought at 80-95% off. I'm so very thankful. Please be mindful of your purchases. Buy quality items, even if it costs a little more. Buying quality means the items will last so much longer. 
  
  
  I also ordered this shirt for DS. If you're familiar with the brand, you'll know that it's a bit pricey. The thing I love about this brand, is the cuffs.  Many of their shirts usually have a different print when you flip over the cuff. So unique! 
  
  
  
  
  
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• Look at the price of this shirt. I paid $20 for it! That's 90% off! DS knows that it's best to leave the shopping & styling to mom, since I'm the resident shopping queen & fashionista 😂Plus it's in my favorite color and I love paisley. DS can wear it (untucked) with jeans and loafers or boots or with chinos and dress pants (tucked) and boots. I love these Chelsea boots. They easily double as dress shoes. These are genuine leather boots. I paid $80 for it & he's worn it for a few years already. I always save our boots or high end shoes boxes. People will pay a little more if you sell your shoes with the original box. 
  
  Notice how I placed the boots on top of the shoebox paper? I'm such a germaphobe 😂 (I'm just protecting the cover from the germs/dirt on the soles). I'm not one of those people who have you remove your shoes before entering my house though. I absolutely hate that! We don't do that in SA. South Africans would feel insulted if you asked them to do that. We know that people & relationships are far more important than your house or any other material thing. Besides, most people know to wipe their feet before entering your house and/or not make a mess. We had rugs both inside & outside the front door. Tons of people visited us, but our house was always spotlessly clean. I swear my mother would've made a good drill sergeant 😂 I'm a little worse than her though....shhhh don't tell anyone😂 I'm a bit of a perfectionist, but I'm no Suzy homemaker (no disrespect to those who are homemakers and like to clean). I had a maid (it's what we call them in SA)/housekeeper & gardener. I went out & brought home the bacon. I'll gladly put in 12-16 hours at the office, than clean house every single day (not that I'm afraid of cleaning or mind getting my hands dirty). Everyone in my family (male & female) had chores & we all knew to keep the house clean (I did most of the cleaning & cooking though). So that's what we did. 
  
  
• As I was browsing New Arrivals at WHBM, I noticed that waistcoats (vests as Americans call it. A vest is an undergarment/underwear to me. We wore it as kids. Looks like a tank top) is in style again. I'm not referring to the vests people wear as outerwear. I'm referring to the waistcoats that's part of men's 3 piece suits. I LOVE waistcoats. It's so sexy when a man removes his jacket/blazer and and you see the shirt & vest (got to have a tie with it). Throw in some cuff links too. Whoa baby!!😂 My father used to dress like that and so does my BF 😍 It's so classy!
  
  Well, guess who owns 2 vests/waistcoats? I've had them for about 25 years. Bought it in SA and never got rid of it, cause I love these items. I'm now soooooo glad that I held onto them, cause they're back in style and the quality of new items is so poor lately. 
  
  Way back, I used to wear blouses with ruffle cuffs to work. My colleague had the ruffle front shirt/blouse. We'd add a black blazer (we wore suits to work - corporate job) to that (buttoned) and you'd see her ruffle front sticking out and my ruffle sleeves sticking out from my sleeves. It was very trendy back then. You can do the same with a vest. Here's a look of what I'm referring to. This blouse contains both our styles. I have a few blouses with drama/unique sleeves that I can do the same with. 
  
  
• The zipper on my bra mesh bag broke. This is the 2nd bag it's happened to. So I grabbed all my bras, placed it into a pillowcase, tied the end and threw it into the wash. Easy peasy. I'm going to see if I can sew snap buttons onto those mesh bags, so I can still continue to use them. I really like those bags, because it's lined. The zippers are a problem though. 
  
  
• I noticed a hole in the side of my athletic shoes, so I pulled a new pair of shoes from the stockpile. Well, the new brand (different from my regular brand) isn't my favorite. It's not as comfy as my old shoes and it made my feet sweat within half an hour. I don't have sweaty feet. I'm so glad I still have 2 new pairs of my old brand in my stockpile, but I'm saving that for nicer weather. Now I need to search for an altogether different brand. Sigh. I'm so very happy that I bought DS several pairs in our favorite brand. He's good for several more years. 
  
  
• I know I'm in the minority, but I'm not an Amazon shopper. I know that Amazon is way overpriced on many things. Well, I bought some bathroom accessories from Macy's about 2 years ago (I didn't buy the whole collection) and the collection is now discontinued. I found the rest of the items at Target (3rd party seller) and decided to wait for a price drop. Well, the set went OOS too 😭 Then I saw that the same seller had the set on Amazon too, so I added it to my cart. Well, I just couldn't bring myself to order the set. 2 Days ago, I decided to just buy it before it sells out again & noticed that it is now $10 less than before. Sometimes procrastination works in my favor. I didn't think twice about ordering the items. But as I checked out, it displayed shipping options and I clicked on Free shipping. Except, it came up with Prime and I don't want Prime. I don't even shop on Amazon. Ugh!  So I had to go back to my cart, mess around with that and back to checkout. Got the right Free shipping option and checked out. Phew! I don't fall for that Free trial. Amazon has my CC info and will just start billing me once that trial ends. No thanks! One less thing for me to worry about. 
  
  

That's all I can think of for now. 

Have a wonderful weekend peeps!