Frugal Friday’s Workwear Report: Diamond Pointelle Cardigan
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Our daily workwear reports suggest one piece of work-appropriate attire in a range of prices.
My first BigLaw job was across the street from a brick-and-mortar Loft location, so I spent many lunch breaks wandering around the racks. This pointelle cardigan looks so much like something I would have purchased in 2010 that I’m very tempted to grab it up again. I would wear this with a midi skirt for a summer-y casual Friday look.
The sweater is on sale for $47.97 (marked down from $79.95) and comes in sizes XXS-XXL and XXSP-XXLP. It's also available in “smokey opal” and “whisper white.”
Sales of note for 5/8:
- Nordstrom – Savings event – up to 25% off! Good deals on Veronica Beard, Vince, Reiss (esp. coats), and Boss, as well as Wit & Wisdom and NYDJ
- Ann Taylor – Mother's Day Event: 40% off your purchase. Readers love this popover blouse, and their suiting is also in the sale.
- Boden – 15% off new styles with code
- Express – $39+ summer styles + 25% off everything else
- J.Crew – Up to 50% off swim, dresses, and more
- J.Crew Factory – Up to 60% off everything, and extra 50% off clearance
- Lands' End – 50% off sitewide — lots of ponte dresses come down under $25, and this packable raincoat in gingham is too cute
- Lo & Sons – Mother's Day Sale: Up to 40% off — reader favorites include this laptop tote, this backpack, and this crossbody
- Loft – 50% off your purchase + free shipping, plus 2 for $28 tanks and tees
- MAC – Enjoy 30% off lip products and receive a 4-piece Mother's Day gift with $90
- M.M.LaFleur – Try code CORPORETTE15 for 15% off.
- Ruti – Take $55 off your purchase with code 55ONUS
- Sephora – Free same-day delivery for Mother's Day with code
- Talbots – 50% off wear-now styles (5/8 only)
- The Outnet – Extra 30% off select styles, including Veronica Beard, Victoria Beckham, and Marni.
- TOCCIN – Use code CORPORETTE15 for 15% off!
- Vivrelle – Looking to own less stuff but still try trends? Use code CORPORETTE for a free month, and borrow high-end designer clothes and bags!
Idle observation-I was at a 7th grade band concert last night, and I was surprised at how many of the girls were wearing real high heels with their “concert black” outfits. I’m not saying anything negative, just surprising since it seems like folks here are always saying that the young and hip set are wearing comfortable shoes and heels are out – many of the boys were in sneaks, but I only saw one or two girls rocking the sneakers with a dress look. I don’t think anyone was wearing true high heels when I was in middle school (don’t think it was on my radar, and I’m sure I would have wanted them if it were), but I guess that’s the look of the really young set.
1. I don’t think a middle school band concert is likely full of the young and hip set. And I say that kindly. I was one of them.
2. They’re at an age where heels are exciting and ‘grown up’ rather than something that used to feel glamorous and now feels pretty but limiting.
I still love a pretty shoe . . . for sitting.
I have an orchestra kid. My observations:
1 they have young feet
2 they are sitting down
3 it is the one area in performances where they can be creative
4 especially if these kids also do marching band, those shoes are so fugly they may want something cute now
I think they don’t want percussion clacking around, so my guess it’s the in-chair people only.
Wearing sneakers with your concert blacks would NOT be okay, fashionable or not.
I think they usually have to be black if sneakers (which I see often) and black if not sneakers. Public school though, so they are not going to DQ a kid who tries over this.
Yeah, I’m just saying that even in my kid’s public school, the director (who is a caring human) made a point of letting parents know that black shoes with white soles are not appropriate for music contests or concerts. And if someone needed help procuring appropriate attire, to please let him know.
But, to the OP — I wouldn’t assume that kids’ concert attire represents what they dress like on a daily basis or even for other special occasions.
Well, it’s okay at our middle school. The “let the director know if they need help getting appropriate attire” is a nice gesture but doesn’t actually do much to think about what could be an equity issue.
There are directives on what to wear at the concert; you do your best.
It wasn’t very formal -the school’s directive was basically just “all black, please no ripped clothes or sweatpants” (and I saw one boy in gray sweatpants, so …). Most of the kids wore black dresses (of all sorts of styles) or slacks, but it seemed pretty clear that sneakers (or other casual shoes) were fine.
I think what are now old-man all black sneakers are widely used still for this. Now that the kids are back to white sneakers.
I would not assume their concert attire choices are representative of their normal daily wear.
At that age, I didn’t have much in the way of dressy options in my own closet, and what I did have was mostly hand-me-downs from my mom. In today’s environment, I could very well see her handing me all of the heels she had stopped wearing during Covid since we wore the same shoe size. I would have felt so sophisticated rocking a pair of her old office pumps with my black floor-length dress.
Same. My violin kid takes my black cardigans and lady jackets for concerts, along with shoes.
We taking fashion advice from 12 YOs now???
No. It’s a report from the field.
Next y’all going to tell me sparkles are in because you attended a five year old’s dance recital.
Middle school is not “the field”
I just thought it was interesting, calm down.
My hot take is that what the internet says about fashion does not always match with what I observe in my real life. (Particularly with office clothing!) Also, I do not care about middle school fashion; that’s my daughter’s realm, not mine.
Totally agree with both points, but especially the first one. (The second one is just a given IMO!)
What are your favorite headphones? Have old AirPods I’m considering upgrading, maybe with something else. Don’t love Shokz. I think I want in ear but open to over the head (but then can you take calls on them or is it just for listening?)
I really love my JLab Sports. Comfortable and not too expensive when I inevitably lose one.
I really like both sets of Raycons I have. I have their wireless earbuds and the over the ear headphones.
I have a ton of old cloth woven placemats. Nothing is wrong with them. I just have a big southern family that thought I’d be entertaining (yes) and like autumn palette colors (no) and need that and cloth napkins in sets of 8 or 12. I’m assuming that if I donate them, no one will want that stuff now. Crafty people: what else can I do with these?
Donate them or recycle them
Put them on Freecycle, I bet someone will take them off your hands. We use exclusively cloth napkins and aren’t easy on them, so a free upgrade would be really welcome.
Put the placemats under houseplants to protect the furniture? Make totes with them, sew a few together for decorative rugs or table runners?
For the napkins, use them to wrap gifts (look up furoshiki for ideas). Sew them into pouches, stuffies, scrunchies, key fobs, anything small enough.
What would you even do with a craft project if you don’t like the colors to begin with? Donate or recycle – search for ‘textile recycling’ to find dropoffs near you.
You are an adult and are entitled to make your own decisions about your table top. Use them at events with your judgy family and say Bless your heart to any additional feedback. It will be great practice for growing a spine.
Please donate them! I am always on the hunt for nice table linens at estate sales, etc and bet they will be more appreciated than you think.
Donate or toss. Your house is not a garbage can.
We’re closing on our new house today! We’re moving over gradually in the next few weeks as some final work is being done. Two questions:
What should I bring over for our use while we’re making trips there – toilet paper, paper towels, and hand soap are on the list already.
The drawers and cabinets are older and need contact paper or similar. I found the job of cutting paper to fit HIGHLY annoying last time I did it. Are there any better options on the market now? All I ask is PVC-free but otherwise flexible.
Trash bags, disposable cups, basic tools (couple of screwdrivers, 5-in-1 scraper tool, pair of pliers, a hammer, tape measure, masking tape), a stepstool, and something to sit on. A notepad and writing instruments. Shower curtain, and something to cover the bathroom window if there are no blinds yet. Phone charger. Basic cleaning products, dish soap, some older towels.
Paper plates/plastic utensils/glasses were some of the first things I brought over. I didn’t end up using all of them, but it was super helpful when I was there over dinner time to have something.
If you have a spare shower curtain, I’d bring it over, just in case. Rags and a basic cleaning product as well would be super handy to have in case anything spills while you’re working and would require more than paper towels to clean up.
Oh, and one more thing – my husband was thinking maybe we shouldn’t use our household Dyson stick vacuum there while there are still workers going in and out possibly tracking more “industrial” dust around (we’re getting new insulation in the attic, for one). I think the Dyson could probably handle it but also would prefer not to damage it. Thoughts?
If I had the option I would use a shop vac rather than a stick vac for insulation mess. I’d rather my “indoor” vacuum not be covered in renovation dust. The shop vac can go live in the garage once it does its job; it won’t end up in a closet with my clothing later on.
Can you just get a cheap used vaccuum for this purpose?
An old placement would be a good washable drawer liner.
Connect with the above poster who has unused napkins and placemats!
Still annoying to cut, but we got some really nice cork drawer/shelf liner from Williams Sonoma that I enthusiastically recommend for both looks and being non-plastic
We’ve used the same house cleaning business for at least five years. It’s an owner and usually 1-2 other people, not a mega company. They used to do a fantastic job, but their work has been very mid for about a year now. Fine, but not doing some of the things they used to. DH has noticed that there used to be 2 cleaners working for about 2 hours, and now it’s 1 cleaner working for an hour, max. A decent number of cleanings have had to be rescheduled because of conflicts on their end. And yesterday the cleaner came, and I honestly can’t even tell if she vacuumed. My husband is over it and wants to find someone new. I agree, but I feel super guilty. The owner seems stretched really thin and recently had a baby. So even though the job is pretty subpar, it feels bad to fire someone who is having a rough time.
The other part of me is like … should we just do this ourselves? We are more than capable of cleaning our own house. The cleaners come every 2 weeks. We have 2 adults, 2 tweens/teens, 2 pets. House is about 2,500 square feet. With that many people and critters, daily upkeep is already necessary so what’s a few more chores? Except that I am the person most bothered by mess and grime, so there’s that. We’ve been paying for help to save us time and effort.
I know I’m overthinking this. Thoughts?
Good grief, get a new cleaning service.
+1
Have you tried to talk to them about it? If you feel so badly, I might try reaching out and giving them a chance to fix it first. (Although I also will tell you that if they aren’t doing a good job and you just want a change, you should feel completely justified in giving them notice and moving on. It’s ok!) I would not recommend going sans cleaning service. Picking up is one thing. Cleaning floors and bathrooms after years of not doing it is no fun. I don’t want to waste my precious free-time doing it as long as I can afford to pay for it.
I would maybe consider going without a cleaning service once the kids are all away at college, but there is no way I would do it with kids still in the house assuming you can afford it. Spend this time enjoying your kids (or at least being available to them as the ignore you).
But I’m also someone who will cut out a lot of stuff before I go without a cleaning service. Of If I never have to clean another bathroom in my life, great.
I’d fire them and start doing it yourself. Look at it this way – your kids will be going to college soon and you want to teach them how to clean/manage a house and this is a good start. My mom also fired our cleaners at about this age and we spent a good part of Saturday AM cleaning as a family.
One piece of advice – assign chores/rooms, agree on what ‘cleaning’ means, and what good looks like. Your kids won’t instinctively know to dust first, wipe down surfaces, then vacuum, then mop last for example.
Yes, there’s no better time to learn this. Don’t set your kids up to need a cleaning service themselves (the chores they do aren’t the same).
OP here. I don’t see it as a failure that we use a cleaning service. In fact, it took a LOT for me to admit that we needed some extra help because I grew up doing all of that. We didn’t have a service until after our second kid was born and we were drowning as two working parents. It was a way to “buy” our time. Obviously life circumstances have changed a lot since then!
Yes, for the love of everything please teach your kids how to properly clean if they haven’t learned by now.
Let the house cleaners know you’re going to try cleaning for yourself (your kids are old enough, and you want them to learn how to fully maintain a house). Actually do that!
If after giving in a fair shot you find that you want cleaners again, by then either your old cleaners will not have a slot (reason to find new people), or if you want to give them another chance, you’ll find that they’re over their slump, or the rehiring process will involve clarifying expectations in a helpful way.
Can you up your self-cleaning, and leave the heavy duty stuff to the bi-weekly cleaners? Get them to do a comprehensive dusting, vacuum, and deep clean the bathrooms. Maybe wash kitchen floor. You and family do the routine daily stuff.
Get your kids involved. To be honest, I grew up with a stay at home mom who also had a cleaning service and I never had to clean anything. So it’s hard to convince myself as an adult that cleaning has anything to do with me! We are a smaller household with no kids/pets, so don’t accumulate dirt as quickly, but I find it really hard to buckle down and do a weekly cleaning. Maybe if I had to do more of it as a kid it would not seem like such a pain.
Your first paragraph describes what we’re doing now. For having a cleaning service, we are still doing … a lot of cleaning.
Switch your cleaner to do a monthly deep clean (so you spare yourself the hardest scrubbing) and give your kids some practice maintaining a home with weekly chores like toilet cleaning. Thanks, love their future roommates.
Hire your kids to do this work.
But also, if you can afford it, give the owner a large “baby present” of cash as a goodbye gift.
I’ve complained here before about my not so bright junior (who was a transfer from another team) and how it was making my work life very difficult. Well today he was transferred, he’s someone else’s problem. I feel really bad because I’m friends with his new manager and he is so excited to get the ‘help’ I didn’t have the heart to warn him, hopefully our executives had an honest chat before making this move. Regardless, I am FREE!!!!
I wouldn’t warn him; don’t feel bad about it. Congratulations!! I always try to share stories like this with managers who are feeling guilty when dealing with problem employees (they should worry more about all their other employees!).
Do you have any brands, habits, or “milestones” that are aspirational or leveling up to you?
I’m usually super frugal but sometimes I’m bit by the “aspirational” bug. So far, I’ve been very happy when I’ve upgraded or leveled up.
I really felt like I “made it” when I bought a dipytique candle, for example. My upgrades to linen sheets, a Shark hairdryer and Madewell jeans have also been totally worth it.
I have my eye on a Cuyana tote, but havent convinced my government salary self its worth it yet.
Let’s talk skirts. What type of midi skirts are still current looking? Satin, bias cut, pleated, printed?