Coffee Break: Samuele 85 Boot
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I've long admired Jennifer Chamandi's shoes at NET-A-PORTER — they're some of the most sophisticated strappy flats and heels that I know of, to be honest.
So it isn't entirely surprising that I like these boots…. the same elegant heel, the same strap-running-from-the-heel detail that is common with her other shoes. Sure, the strap is totally unnecessary in a boot — but that just feels even more stylish.
The boots are $375-$1345 at NET-A-PORTER in four colors with the discounted versions in black and brown down to lucky sizes.
Sales of note for 1/13:
- Nordstrom – 11,000+ new women's markdowns!
- Ann Taylor – Up to 40% off your purchase, including new arrivals + extra 50% off sale
- Banana Republic Factory– Up to 50% off + extra 20% off
- Brooks Brothers – End-of-Season Sale: clearance up to 60% off
- Express – Buy 1 get 1 50% off all women's tailoring and jeans
- J.Crew – 25% off full-price styles, and up to 70% off sale styles
- J.Crew Factory– Up to 70% off everything + extra 60% off clearance
- Lo & Sons– Winter sale, up to 50% off — reader favorites include this laptop tote, this backpack, and this crossbody
- M.M.LaFleur – Try code CORPORETTE15 for 15% off
- Neiman Marcus – Up to 75% off when you take an extra 40% off sale
- Talbots – Semi-Annual Red Door Sale! $24.99+ markdown tops + extra 50% all other markdowns
that is some heel. hardcore. would never.
I know that the queen of Jordan wears them a lot (and like no one else I’ve ever seen). They do make flats (and all are in the $$$ level).
I’ve bought a couple pairs from them. Sizing is inconsistent and at the price point, there are much more reliable options. There is a reason why you see all the royals wearing the many colors of Gianvito Rossi pumps for events.
I have several pairs of GR heels, though not pumps, and they are so beautiful but also painful. I wonder if the pumps would be different . . . hmmm.
I know most of us give up heels at some point (I am getting there at 52), but these strike me as pretty sturdy and not that tall as far as high-heeled shoes go.
I’m feeling down about the state of the world (and immigration issues specifically) and I know that a little self-care is called for this week, paired with less doomscrolling. One type of documentary I love is the “behind the scenes” look at how athletes train and get ready for their events on the global stage. With the Winter Olympics coming up, I thought I’d ask in case anyone has any recommendations. It sounds like just the thing to relax with tonight (also fine with YouTube series etc).
I really liked Citizen Athlete, about the US women’s bobsled team leading up to 2022.
Simone Biles Rising is excellent.
I also liked the Simone Biles one and Tour de France Unchained on Netflix. They’re also releasing an ice dance one before the Olympics, but it’s not out yet.
There’s a short doc on Olympics dot com about US-born Canadian pairs skater Deanna Stellato, who has a really inspiring story (I mentioned it last week). And an ice dance doc is coming soon, as another poster said.
I don’t enjoy football much but Hard Knocks is easily one of my favorite shows to watch. Not exactly on point for you, more that I might also like to watch something similar around other sports.
Unlike this morning’s thread on college $, what is it like for kids where the parents are divorced and no one has any money (mom teaches school again after the divorce, dad is a deadbeat who makes good enough $ to prevent any need-based aid at CSS schools but has filed for bankruptcy and wrecked his credit, leaving mom to co-sign any school loans)? My nephew confided that he just refinanced his college loans. He did finish in 4 years and has a good job, but has about 100K in debt (that his mom co-signed for; I guess she will be “off” of his loans after he makes payments for a while).
I talked to his mom once about the school- debt thing and her thought was that in fields like accounting and engineering, it might be more overall to start/finish at a 4-year school, but transferring could be hard from a CC and might result in a 5th year anyway. It might work for teaching or for a field not leading to a job, like history or poly sci. She thought it was just a given. I am so shell-shocked by prices now even for state U (where my understanding is that even if tuition is low, you are often looking at at least 10-15K for dorms and meal plans, more in the northeast).
For poorer kids, what is a typical debt load like (and I’m guessing it’s all co-signed by parents except for the 5K federal loans you get in undergrad)?
My kid’s private college meets full financial need. The only loans that are part of the package are federal loans, which are limited to a few thousand dollars per year. The rest of the aid is in the form of grants and/or scholarships that don’t have to be repaid.
What the formula says middle-class parents can afford is more than what I would call affordable, but genuinely poor kids do get sufficient aid.
1. How hard is this place to get into? I think if you are a top performer or tick desired institutional priorities, this is a great path to have. But for McEverykid, I’m not so sure. Doubly-so for divorced kids or where one parent won’t cooperate with the CSS form or has assets / retirement funds / etc.
2. I think for a single custodial mom who doesn’t make a lot of $, any non-CSS school just relying on FAFSA probably offers a good deal, especially if you can get into an in-state state flagship (which is kind of the ticket to everything) or a state school with some endowment funds (say UNC Charlotte). If dad is a spiteful jerk, CSS schools likely aren’t going to pay just because dad won’t.
This is not an elite school. Pretty much any decent student can get in (50% acceptance rate). For the average smart suburban girl like my kid (IB diploma, 4.6 GPA, top of the class, 1500+ SAT) there is tons of merit aid.
OMG 1500 SAT is not average
“Good” is probably north of 1250. Below that, I think no one submits anymore.
So I got zero parental help. I got about as high paying a job as possible for my lack of education at the time and I was bringing in 3-4k/month. It sucked a lot I lived in a bug infested apartment and could only pay my tuition cash a few times, I graduated with 30k in student loans which I was able to pay off with my adult job within 2 years. My financial situation would have been much much worse if I wasn’t a hot woman, but I would have also ended up with less trauma if I had just taken on more loans.
Was that recent?
I took classes this summer at a community college and it was <1000 for a 4-credit lab science class (maybe less than $700), but that assumed that you either had time for the bus or access to a car and were already living locally (either with parents or otherwise). Even FT at community college for 2 years + 2 years at local state U would probably be 50K of out-of-pocket costs (assuming you didn't need to do additional time to finish a major, which I feel is increasingly likely).
If your starting salary is between 50K (basic jobs) and 100K (finance jobs, like a CPA or banking person), maybe 100K in loans isn't that bad in 2026 dollars?
I was in university 2010-2015, year honours Bachelor double major.
In the US?
Hahahahahaha. The monthly payment on $100K of student loans on the standard 10-year plan is $1,161 at 7% interest. That’s catastrophic for a single person earning 50-100K.
You can’t even live on 50K, much less pay student loans.
I’d say for a 50K job, you just can’t have loans and you need both roommates and a PT job on top of that. Teachers need to work a summer job.
As a single 22 year old with no dependents, yes, you can live on 50k, almost anywhere in the US. You likely need roommates; and you’re certainly not buying a brand new car or paying for burrito taxis, but this is totally doable. If you really truly don’t know anyone who lives on 50k, get out of your bubble a little.
Agree for single 22YO. It will get old when you see friends with vacations, cars, $ for a robust dating life (weekends away, nice dinners, cute outfits). But you have to start somewhere.
My husband and I both have advanced degrees but work in public service. We make too much money for need-based financial aid, but given our lower salaries and our own student loans (which were eventually forgiven under the public service loan forgiveness plan but not without lots of money going toward them) we have only recently been able to save for our kids college. We have had conversations with our high-schooler about this and the reality is that unless he gets significant merit scholarships, he will likely have to go to one of the state schools (we have a major university that is great and also smaller schools that are also fine) where tuition is cheap. Then maybe go somewhere else for grad school. Our state is geographically big so even if he went to the other big school that is in the other part of the State, he will be hours away from home if he wants to get away from here lol. It feels somewhat unfair because I wish I could have saved enough that money would not be an obstacle to him choosing a college, but the reality is that it will be.
Yep. Thanks to a bait-and-switch on the part of the university re. tuition and funding, I ended up with significant unplanned grad school loans. We repaid them on the standard 10-year plan and finished a couple of years before our kid went off to college. The monthly payment was equivalent to our mortgage or child care bill. We were therefore unable to save much for our kid’s education, but we earn just a bit too much to qualify for huge amounts of aid from the selective private schools. My kid’s choices were in-state or a private school that offered merit aid.
Again?
Usually it’s Friday afternoon. A day early, this week.
I think there’s two things here: what’s a typical debt load for undergrad/what’s the most financially effective path for undergrad for a middle class kid (and let’s say a smart one, but not “going to get a full ride at Harvard/very selective schools with fantastic endowments”; and separately, what do kids do whose parents can’t/won’t pay the expected family contribution?
The first just varies so much by school that I’m not sure an average number is that effective. I’d strongly advise anyone in that position to look at the school’s graduation rate – a few years of school, a lot of debt, and no degree is the worst of all worlds. In-state is often a good deal; with a lot of variation by state. 100k in debt doesn’t sound unreasonable to me.
The second has always been a problem – divorce with 1 parent refusing to help is a common situation but not the only one. It is a bit of an oddity in our social system, where we *kind of* have a social expectation that parents help their kids with undergrad if they’re financially able, but not *really*, and there’s certainly no legal obligation to, or fallback social programs for kids who’s parents aren’t going to. If there’s a genuine financial hardship that’s not reflected in the FAFSA, the kid should reach out to the school’s financial aid dept and talk to them about it (Parent #2 can’t pay expected financial contribution because they just lost their job – they’re much less likely to help when it’s just “Parent 2 doesn’t believe in paying for college”).
No one is getting a full ride at a selective school based on merit. All aid at those schools is need-based.
I agree — everyone at those schools warrants “merit,” so no one gets merit. Maybe 1 person per class, but not generally (like at SEC schools to lure in well-statted kids from OOS). If it’s hard to get into, you get need-based aid, which may be much more generous than at State U.
Less and moderately competitive private schools can be generous with merit aid.
I had friends like this in college. Many of my friends had chosen our State U because it gave ample scholarships and would minimize their debt burden. Maybe they had gotten into an expensive, higher-ranked private university but chose State U to graduate with less debt. This section of my friends were more likely to work jobs during the semester and generally during the summer. They may also have been attending classes over the summer to graduate faster. They would be less likely to do something like an unpaid internship because they wouldn’t be able to self-finance.
Help me decide what GLP option to choose? I’m most concerned about price. Been on a GLP-1 since 9/23 and only lost about 20#, went off and gained weight so coming back. (Still 50# overweight at least.)
$449 – Eli Lily, 4 vials of 5mL, can stretch to 6 doses but PITA
$999 – compounded, 200 units in 1 vial, approximately 8-10 doses but previously there was a lot extra so it went further
$149/mo – the new pill that apparently you have to take 30 minutes before any other meds which would screw up my other schedules
Following. My husband is interested in taking one (he has a BMI of about 32, hypertension, non-alcoholic fatty liver, and high cholesterol) but our insurance stopped covering them unless you have a BMI of 40+ or type 2 diabetes. He would need to gain 60 lbs to get to the BMI threshold. How are others who don’t have insurance coverage even navigating the options?
Out of pocket. Like anything not covered by insurance that you want. OP, if you know what you need, check out the online providers like Ro and Hers, they’re cheaper than what you’re posting here. Also Amazon pharmacy is supposed to be decently priced too.
Is one of these a different drug from the one you were on? I think I’d be inclined to try something new based on results, though wide studies do show smaller losses than we often see touted on social media and such.
As a Danish woman I am pretty heartbroken about the current affairs of the world. I have family and friends in the US who are horrified about what is going on, so Iknow a lot of Americans are against it too. For us in Denmark it is really hard to understand how the relationship between our countries could erode so quickly. International relationship between nations have something in common with relationship between people. It takes a long time to build trust, but it can be destroyed very quickly
Is there a sense on the ground that an invasion is likely?
Wait. Are we seriously at this point?
A well-meaning relative with hoarder tendencies bought us a lifetime supply of scented hand sanitizer from Bath & Body Works. I think some may also have glitter? Because I’m a child of a child who went through WW2 with ration coupons and a mother who went through the great depression, I need to appeal to you all for a blessing to just let this stuff go. It’s 2026. The stuff has largely gone unused. I have used the sanitizer spray to freshen the closets up when they seem a bit musty. But the gel stuff? Needs to go.