Frugal Friday’s Workwear Report: Puff-Sleeve Crewneck Top
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Our daily workwear reports suggest one piece of work-appropriate attire in a range of prices.
The Nordstrom Rack closest to my house closed recently, and I’m in deep mourning for the loss of the thrill I felt searching through those racks for a hidden gem.
Fortunately, there’s still the online storefront, even if it’s slightly less exhilarating. This puff-sleeved top from Renee C looks like a fantastic basic for the office or the weekend.
Pair with trousers, loafers, and some basic jewelry for an easy business casual look.
The top is $36.97 and comes in sizes 1X-3X in dark gray and red; it’s also available in black in regular sizes. There is also a version with a V-neck.
Sales of note for 1/16/25:
- M.M.LaFleur – Tag sale for a limited time — jardigans and dresses $200, pants $150, tops $95, T-shirts $50
- Nordstrom – Cashmere on sale; AllSaints, Free People, Nike, Tory Burch, and Vince up to 60%; beauty deals up to 25% off
- AllSaints – Clearance event, now up to 70% off (some of the best leather jackets!)
- Ann Taylor – Up to 40% off your full-price purchase; extra 50% off sale
- Banana Republic Factory – 50% off everything + extra 20% off
- Boden – 15% off new styles with code — readers love this blazer, these dresses, and their double-layer line of tees
- DeMellier – Final reductions now on, free shipping and returns — includes select options like Montreal, Vancouver, and Venice
- Eloquii – $29 and up select styles; extra 50% off all clearance, plus ELOQUII X kate spade new york collab just dropped
- Everlane – Sale of the year, up to 70% off; new markdowns just added
- J.Crew – Up to 40% off select styles; up to 50% off cashmere
- J.Crew Factory – 40-70% off everything
- L.K. Bennett – Archive sale, almost everything 70% off
- Rothy's – Final Few: Up to 40% off last-chance styles
- Sephora – 50% off top skincare through 1/17
- Spanx – Lots of workwear on sale, some up to 70% off
- Summersalt – BOGO sweaters, including this reader-favorite sweater blazer; 50% off winter sale; extra 15% off clearance
- Talbots – Semi-Annual Red Door Sale – 50% off + extra 20% off, sale on sale, plus free shipping on $150+
I was intrigued by the boots on yesterday’s afternoon post and am convinced that if I had some, I’d wear them. Currently in knee-high suede heeled boots that I love in winter because they keep me warm as a dress-wearer, but my feet are not loving heels and I’d like a pair with that smidge of heel. And rubber soles.
Does anyone have the Sarah Flint model (they are spendy, but good, I hear). I have had good luck with Aquitalia, but they don’t seem to have any like this currently. If you have this type boot that you’ve bought recently, what is it? Bonus if you have duck-shaped feet or need width around the toes. A skinny / stretchy shaft is also what I’m looking for (it’s the only part of me that isn’t well-insulated).
going anon since I wore my brand new pair of these to work yesterday lol-
https://www.saksoff5th.com/product/cole-haan-the-go-to-leather-knee-boots-21638493.html
Adding, I also wear heels less frequently now (see – consigned all my 3.5″+ heels!), but the block heel is comfy and stable. I wore all day including an hour-long team building thing on my feet.
I just bought the Cole Haan boots too. They are cheaper at Dillards FYI. Also, I found the heel to be too high for me but ymmv. I like a bit of heel but I felt like I was clomping around in this one. Also, I have kind of a thicker calf so I would say these might be big on a skinny calf. I think one of the stores that sells this particular boot has the calf measurements on its website so you may want to check. I will probably send mine back although I did like them.
When I lived in Chicago, I lived in Born boots this time of year. The 1-2 in chunk heel is super comfortable and I’d wear them on a mile+ walk to and from work.
Now my Borns come out rarely though they’re still super comfortable.
This seems heartless to post elsewhere, so its going here.
I’ve been thinking about what I would take if I my apartment was on fire – and there aren’t that many things? I own my condo and it is well decorated with lots of personal things, but I wouldn’t be viscerally gutted if they were gone. The main things I can think of are some sentimental jewelry, a letter from my childhood, important documents. There is some art that used to hang in my parents house that would be nice to keep, but framed art isn’t that carryable anyways. Maybe I’m just not that sentimental? Photos are all online. I have a framed/signed newspaper article of something I did that would be a nice to have.
I guess its just making me think of what makes something sentimental. There’s a framed painting that my friend gave me before I went to grad school and now has been with me for multiple moves so now I’m attached to it. There’s also like a knitted blanket my grandma made for me but that’s also not the easiest to take out in a hurry.
So my neighbors house burnt down last month and the only things I grabbed were my work tech, passport, and pets. Everything else I really care about is too large to evacuate with. I have a lot of historically significant furniture which I’d feel awful about losing.
(The spike of adrenaline from a fire 3 feet away and evacuating as quickly as possible is a hard feeling to describe, planning be damned you just go)
I’ve thought about this. I’d grab the jewelry because gold has intrinsic value and I have copies of probably a dozen photos and some documents in a to-go bag, plus some emergency outfits. Otherwise I have a few sentimental and small pieces I might grab, but not much else that I’d keep.
I’ve gone though the pack things up because I live in a fire warning area thing several times now (though never actually had to evacuate) and came to similar conclusions. I basically only packed practical stuff: laptop, phone, chargers, clothes, meds, toiletries, some important paperwork, emergency supplies, and stuff for my pets. As long as my family members and pets were okay, I honestly didn’t really care if I lost everything else. It would obviously be a huge pain to deal with replacing it all, and to find a new place to live (especially in already very expensive CA where the rental market is now going to completely blow up with very wealthy people who can dramatically outspend all of the normal people looking for housing), but the stuff doesn’t really matter to me and the cost is covered by insurance.
Jewelry would be first (both inherited pieces from grandparents and lovely gifts from my family over the years). I have some irreplaceable not-fine art from purchasing pieces during travels and if possible would take that (it’s all small so could fit in a suitcase).
Practical stuff – our passports and life documents, personal tech, etc.
I would be bummed about furniture as we have some great family hand-me-downs — not Antiques Roadshow type stuff, just really good wood pieces that have lasted now 3-4 generations of use. So I’d have a bit of mourning for that but nothing that I could do about it!
Clothes – oh man, I have a collection of quality stuff at this point that you can’t just go to a mall and replace, and many of the pieces have happy memories associated with them, but I’d try to keep perspective on that!
I’d grab nothing other than my children. I’ve done enough arson trainings to see how quickly fire can spread and none of my material possessions are worth enough to risk even seconds. All of our important documents are in a safe that’s supposedly fire-proof.
Fire proof safes are only fire proof for a very short period of time. Bring anything truly important with, or you’re coming back to ash.
Fine by me! My kids are the only thing in my house that’s truly important. We have on average 2-3 minutes to get out of the house (down significantly from decades ago, fun fact!) so I’m not wasting my time on anything that’s not a living thing.
Yeah, if your house is on fire, get out asap and don’t waste time. Stuff is replaceable, people are not.
But living in the west, sometimes you really do have time to plan (not for a fast moving, brush fire in high winds) — when I’ve been in the “get ready” zone (again, this is not advice for the “go now!” zone); the stuff I would want in addition to practical is:
– a box of letters
– a few souvenirs from past travels and jobs
– a small religious icon/piece of art
An overlap with the practical though is that I take some camp gear, which is both useful if the evac center is crowded but also I have a lot of happy memories associated with.
Yeah, with wildfires you often have some warning. I don’t live in California anymore, but when I did, this kind of weather alone was enough to get my go bag restocked with fresh meds and supplies and make sure everything was ready to access if there was going to an evacuation on short notice. I didn’t even live in an especially high risk area, but close enough that it was better to be prepared than caught by surprise in the middle of the night.
Wildfires are not the same as a house fire, unless you’re unfortunate and right where they start, you have more time to organize.
The question was specifically asking about what would be sentimental. People should know that anything truly in this category should be in your go bag. I was shocked when I first learned that a fire proof safe will only protect for about an hour or even less (also constraints around flooding). If you have a house fire (versus evacuating for an emergency), you’re probably not even grabbing the go bag.
Kids, pets, medicine, documents, technology/chargers (phones, ipads x2, a computer). Nothing else is worth the risk.
That’s if it was like you have 5 minutes to get out and go.
If we were in an evacuation zone and had a little more time (like 1-2 hours), I’d make sure we had many changes of comfy clothes and shoes, comfort items for the kids, water bottles, baby bottles/food/snacks that were already in the cabinets (I have an infant). But I wouldn’t think about grabbing art, furniture, etc. I have a ton of material and sentimental things in the house that mean a lot to me, but nothing that I would sacrifice room in my car for. I’d be really focused on packing things that would help my children through what would certainly be trauma. Heck, I might even throw a bike rack on the back of the car and toss my 7 year old’s bike on.
Hubby and I each have a smallish painting by a grandoarent that we’d grab. Beyond that, laptops and phones and we’re gone. Oh, and passports if we have time to get them out if the safe.
Good reminder to get all photos on the cloud. A lot of oldest photos still exist in albums at our house.
I would bring the paw print mold they made after my soul dog died and ashes. That’s really the only things that mean a lot to me. Still family.
We don’t live in wildfire or earthquake territory so my list is geared towards damaging thunderstorms (hail, flooding, strong winds).
If I had 60 seconds to flee, I would grab my loved ones, keys, and the nearest coats and shoes to toss on in the car. We did this once when a slow-moving tornado was spotted in the next county over, with a projected path aimed directly at our house. Fleeing tornados in a vehicle is generally NOT recommended, but we have no good shelter location (no basement, lots of nearby mature trees), and we had enough warning that we were able to drive away perpendicular to its path. We were safely 15 miles away before it reached our home, and it had fizzled into nearly nothing by the time it got there. It just left twigs strewn across our yard.
Two minutes, I would grab the small firesafe that holds our passports and my backpack where my laptop lives.
Five minutes, probably my husband’s desktop computer tower (but I’m not being gentle with the cables) and the Rx bottles (could do without until refills are available, but smoother without skipping).
Half an hour would give me time to pack clothes and turn off the power, gas, and water main.
A day and I would load up the one large sentimental piece of furniture I inherited and comforting small hobby and entertainment supplies.
I went through this. My husband was out of town and I was alone with my 1 year old. I woke up in the dark early morning to a towering inferno just yards from my house and had to immediately get out. I got my daughter, grabbed my purse and a change of clothes for her that was already sitting out for daycare that day, and we left. I couldn’t have cared less about jewelry, papers, even photos compared to our safety. It turned out ok for us and we didn’t lose any belongings, just had some minor damage to the house. But I don’t think I’d feel any different if it happened again. The memories are in my heart, and the important papers all have other copies elsewhere anyway and can be reproduced. People can’t be.
oh for sure. I responded above and my thoughts were if it it was something where you have some notice (a few hours to a day – like an incoming hurricane) as opposed to something like an inferno next door where you just have to GTFO.
Urban fires are terrifying to me. It must be like what London or Chicago people experienced in olden times. I read a story about a guy who had a “fire room” in his house and that sounds like what I’d want to use for storing precious or important items that aren’t daily use items. We had a fire at a storage facility in my city recently, so I’m thinking of what do I do with all of the things that aren’t in the very small fire safe (where the passports and birth certificates are; IDK what would happen to it if our house burned to the ground — we can’t easily move it and it would fall through from the second floor to a crawl space / basement area and take out the heat pump probably). Not sure what would happen with the gas appliances and propane canisters for camping.
If you have thirty second, then you just run with whatever you are wearing and your family members (including pets, if you can), but if I had two hours and needed to evacuate with the potential of being away from my home or it going away completely, then my mindset shifts to being able to keep myself and my kids going in the aftermath. I have a binder of essential docs, a binder for my home, and a financial binder, so I would grab those three. I keep our meds in a container that I can grab and have a general go-bag of other essentials (masks, granola bars, flashlights, etc.). I know it may seem extreme, but these type of events are increasingly common. My focus isn’t on the sentimental stuff (maybe a stuffie for each kid), but on helping the three of us after.
We have an go back packed with emergency supplies (the kind of things we would need at a shelter), and a bag in the car of stuff for natural disasters. We would grab our jewelry, watches and passports from the safe. We still need to do a video inventory of our house, though, so we can deal with insurance questions.
Yes to the video and where do you keep it? Somewhere safe in the cloud? I remember VCR tapes but then people kept them in their houses.
I just have a bunch of photos of every room in iCloud. Plus I buy everything online, so all the receipts are in my email.
We have videos of our house for insurance purposes and keep a copy on our backup harddrives, which are in our safe deposit box at the bank, and on the cloud (google drive in our case)
Yes, in the cloud, in our case Apple.
Years ago my apartment had a fire (it ended up not causing severe damage luckily) and I did have to evacuate. I grabbed my phone, my medications, and my cat.
Cat
Important documents
Portrait of my grandparents, sketched when they were newlyweds
Jewelry (inherited)
Previous cat’s ashes
Things important to my son: his blankie, stuffies, toys
Change of clothes
Laptop, iPad, emergency flashlight
Give me time to pack the car and other stuff is going, too, like clothing.
There are tons of lists for what to take if you have 5 mins, 30 mins, and longer time periods to go. If you live in a fire area you’re very familiar with these.
I have a lot of things I like, but if I have to go quickly, purse and pets. That’s it. Everything else is just stuff. I am not sentimental.
I posted yesterday about having evacuated twice. Both times I took quite a lot of stuff but that was because I started long before I got my evacuation warning/notice (the first time I woke up at 4 am to the smell of smoke, started packing at 5 am when the news was saying the fire was 25 miles away and got my (way too late) evacuation notice at 10 because when the wind is 60 MPH those things move fast; the second time it was even farther but when I saw the smoke the day before I started packing because it was to my east and again – wind was 60 MPH. I was out when I got the warning and long before I got notice). To this day I keep three boxes in my garage in close proximity to my car: (1) a small box with important documents that are not on-line (passports, certified copies of things it would be a pain to replace, etc.); (2) a box of important keepsakes (mostly my kid’s art from childhood, baptism dress, my grandfather’s medals from WWII and my grandmother’s wedding ring, some keepsakes from my own childhood); and (3) a box of my “important” Christmas ornaments. The plan is to put my laptops (work and personal) in my computer backpack – which always has its own set of charging cords – put that, the boxes and the pets in the car. Anything else I have time to grab is extra.
I have a well developed plan. If my house or street is on fire, I grab my pets (1) and phone (2). If I have 5 minutes, I add the boxes. If I have any more time, I get my jewelry (not a lot of cash value but important to me), a few art pieces, and a few big garbage bags into which I have thrown any clothes I can get (easier to fit into the car than suitcases). Both times I evacuated I had time to cram my little car with everything that could possibly fit but it was worthwhile to have gone through the exercise on what was most important in advance.
Also, my car never has less than a quarter tank of gas. And I never have less than 20 gallons of water and order a new bag of dog food as soon as I open the old one – but that is for earthquakes because I was in SF for Loma Prieta and LA for Northridge and I am paranoid.
Where do you put 20 gallons of water? I have two “big” water containers that I use for camping for potable water, but one is collapsible and the other I don’t really have a place for. Maybe I’d just fill the bathtub with water in a pinch?
I park on the street in a city and don’t dare leave anything in it or it would be broken into.
I get bottled water delivery in 5 gallon re-usable containers. I always have at least four (right now have six). I do not use bottled water for everything but I use enough that I rotate through them.
Also (for those of you in California), I am resisting the impulse to type out the lists you can easily find on-line, but one piece of advice from someone who lived through two major earthquakes: put a pair of shoes UNDER YOUR BED. When everything starts flying, there will be broken glass and plaster everywhere. And if that earthquake hits when it is dark outside and you lose power, you will need to be able to find a pair of shoes in the dark that do not have bits of said glass and plaster in them to avoid cutting your feed to shreds on what used to be your TV and lamps.
And also, I have just successfully outed this user-name to anyone who knows me.
Meanwhile I’m all “doesn’t everybody have shoes next to the bed?”
Also — FLASHLIGHT next to your bed. We keep a headlamp from camping there. We lose power a lot due to ice / downed trees / older neighborhood with power poles next to commuter road and aging trees.
You could use your phone, but if the power is out, usually you want to conserve that battery (and we have external battery charger things, but who knows if they’d get grabbed).
You would think but both times I had roommates who did not have real shoes under the bed – in one case she only wore sandals/slippers inside and in the other she had just never thought of it. The second one I had to physically restrain from running through our glass strewn living room in the dark.
Good times.
I had no idea about shoes under the bed. I’m on the east coast.
I would have never thought about shoes next to the bed (I’m east coast). I do keep a flashlight next to my bed for random power outages, and I keep a pair of flats in my office building if we ever have to evacuate that so I don’t have to walk down 10 flights of stairs in heels.
Ha we always have headlamps next to bed, too — at home and on vacation!
If you work in an “old” building, check to see if the stairwells contain those emergency battery lights. I found out the hard way that the beautiful, frequently (cosmetically) updated DC Metro area highrise office building I worked in did not have lighted stairwells because it pre-dated the requirement and was grandfathered. We walked down more than 9 floors in the dark in a pre-dawn power outage while the fire alarms blared (just after 9/11, before lighted cell phones). Good times. Small mag flashlight in my desk and bag now at all times.
20 1-gal containers of water between dining room table and buffet so that they cannot be seen from the front door. I use a gallon a day, then replace after 20 days
This is so interesting. As an immigrant, I need ALL of my visa, national insurance (similar to SS in the US) and banking paperwork. Visas can’t be replaced, I would need to leave and reapply from another country, and then lose my job for being out of status. My passport country is a third world dictatorship where you need to bribe police in your native country before they allow the embassy to release any replacement or renewed passports. I’m still a citizen of said dictatorship so I still need to have paper copies of everything to access my funds and my rights. I’m also not eligible for any public financial assistance as a non-citizen.
Bottomline, my human life isn’t important as my rights and if I don’t have time to grab all of this paperwork – a whole cabin luggage’s worth – I’d rather perish than struggle like a sub-human. There’s an infamous video of my country’s people refusing to evacuate a burning plane safely because they wanted to grab their bags with their documents and money. I knew immediately where they were coming from.
In that case I would keep it in a “go bag” near the door like others have mentioned. Even if your area is not prone to natural disasters if its that crucial might as well take precautions.
Would it make sense to keep it in a bank lock box or similar?
Actually this makes me think – are bank vaults fireproof?
Bank vaults are tricky too, because if you have to leave quickly, you’re very dependent on their opening hours. This is not ideal, but I keep things in my car and hope for the best. If I were in the visa situation I’d keep everything on my person at all times (purse, backpack.)
Yes, I have a go bag of just these documents. It’s a fine balance between making sure they’re out of easy reach of burglars, though. Bank safes aren’t fireproof at all – at least ten bank branches burned down in LA.
Do you have a long term plan to get another citizenship and renounce your citizenship of the dictatorship?
Yes, 100%! Been trying since I was 18, but either the newly elected government clamped down on immigration (the UK) or I lost my job and had to move (the US). This is my third safe haven country, hopefully I’m lucky this time.
This is a stunning question. I’m not the visa commenter, but I know enough to know that “long term plan” implies a level of control that simply does not exist here. Lots of people are just doing the best they can and taking the steps immediately in front of them.
Right??? Good grief. US citizenship – and I would imagine citizenship in other developed nations – is not something that happens overnight. A lot of my friends are college professors who came to this country as highly skilled workers to do a job no American was qualified for, and in many cases they still don’t have citizenship after a decade or more of living and working here and being sterling members of society. It’s a long process!
Oh I’m the visa poster – I don’t mind this question at all as no one wants anyone to be in a position where they choose not to flee for their lives because of their paperwork situation.
What? This is so minimizing to suggest that people in this situation aren’t capable of or aware of the need for long term plans while they are also keeping their heads above water on a day to day basis. Of course there is a long-term plan. Executing it in the midst of daily struggle mY be hard but let’s not belittle people and suggest they never envision themselves taking two steps forward or even manage to do it.
Well my husband and my brothers wife (SIL) are in (or rather were in) similar positions so I’m pretty well aware of the challenges. There’s a lot of refugees in my family.
When I evacuated for Hurricane Ida with DH, our 6-year-old, and a cat, we had about 2 hours to prep the house (lots of stuff you wouldn’t do for a wildfire), pack, and load the car. We probably spent 30 minutes packing. We have a large SUV but really only took practical things. Clothes, medications, toiletries, tech, IDs and important documents, kid activities and comfort items, etc. We took a “more is more” approach, and it’s faster to just dump clothes in a suitcase than to make hard choices.
We have valuable, sentimental art, and we left it behind. We did put most of our sentimental items that were stored on low shelves or low cabinets up on counters or desks, which obviously doesn’t help in a wildfire situation. And if we’d lost the roof or had a flood over 2.5 feet, we would have lost it all.
If I have 30 seconds, I’m running out with my 2 cats and nothing else. If I have a little more time (like an evacuation), I’m bringing the following:
– Box of important documents, which is already ready to go
– Shadow box that has photos of my parents and grandparents, a certificate of my grandfather’s that is important to me, a letter that JFK wrote to my dad (that my dad gave to me)
– Laptops
– Medicine
– Cat food
– Some jewelry (I don’t have much, but I’d probably grab a few pieces)
– If I had time and space, I’d also grab a few musical items that are signed by my favorite artists. They are displayed on a shelf so they’d be easy to grab.
– Maybe some clothes for the interim time period? I imagine I’d pack a suitcase.
I once lived in a ground floor apartment and the fire alarms would go off every time the temperature dipped low enough (so always at 2 am during the coldest February nights) and people were always coming out w their cat carriers. My cat refused to be handled during fire alarms and would hide so I’d have to leave the balcony door open in case the fire danger turned out to be real. It never was but I’d always be a little nervous for him. Memories 😂
Windows and doors should be closed during a fire! Keeping the balcony door open lets a constant stream of oxygen into the room, fueling the fire. You might save your cat but you drastically increase the risk of spreading the fire to neighboring units.
In the moment, I don’t think I’d think of grabbing anything except my pets, assuming all human family members are out. I have an engagement ring I don’t wear because the diamond is loose. If I had an extra second I’d grab that. I like nice things but am unsentimental about mementoes to a fault.
You can muse on a thought without posting here. This is tone deaf.
+1. You state that you know it’s heartless, so this is the place 😂
I don’t think it’s thoughtless. Lots of people have contributed their experiences of having been in the situation and I think it’s something everyone should think about and be prepared for. It could happen to anyone and you’re better off having thought about it in advance (while recognizing that nothing truly prepares you for the panic you’ll be in if you actually have to flee with little notice, but wildfires do often give you at least bit of time to grab things).
And as one of those people who has had to pack up all my stuff to evacuate, I’ve found it helpful to realize how little I cared about my stuff. It made me less likely to keep buying things I didn’t really need.
And now I know about shoes under the bed!
For people with pets, consider keeping leashes or carriers in your bedroom. If you need to escape with your pet in the middle of the night, you’ll need to contain/control them. Your pet may be in your room, but the leash may be several rooms away.
Yes, along with shoes under the bed, a carrier under the bed can help.
I keep crucial medications in a cosmetics bag on the night stand so that my essentials are within reach, even if I have to leave out the back window.
I think it’s a lovely thought exercise that goes out the window if you’re truly in an emergency. In a similar situation, I took passport, birth certificate, marriage certificate, pet food (and pet, obviously), and car keys.
This was well done; I’m sorry it was nececessary.
I think if there’s a go bag it does help, though ours is geared towards hospitalizations (since it’s unfortunately been needed for this purpose in recent years).
*necessary
I don’t want important documents in the hospitalization go bag, so I should probably think about whether I should gather them somewhere more accessible than where they live currently.
Ha, for a while it actually was really helpful for to keep them all in the go bag because I knew where they were!
House fire: My kids, shoes, coats (if cold) and my purse/phone. If I have time I’ll grab the safe with all our important documents (could always be replaced but a huge PITA). I have 3 cats and would grab them if I could quickly find them on the way out but not risking my life for them (sorry, cats).
2 hours to get out: essentials (clothes, medicine, toiletries, diapers/wipes), water and snacks, cat food, cats in carriers, handful of sentimental items (jewelry, photo albums), tech (laptops, iPads). I have personal possessions I’d miss if lost but wouldn’t spend a ton of time gathering stuff before evacuating.
When my condo building had a major fire, all I grabbed was my great grandma’s wedding ring. It was winter, so I took my coat and slipped on shoes instinctively as I ran out the door. TBH, I couldn’t keep the coat or shoes because they smelled like smoke and I got PTSD from the smell, even after cleanings. I highly recommend having some sort of inventory for your stuff for insurance purposes. Itemizing the losses (everything from couch cushions to fancy hand towels to toothpaste) was a months-long endeavor on top of the rebuild.
I am firmly attached to some family pieces of furniture, art, and rugs. I have some custom pieces of furniture made from wood from trees from my grandparents’ farm. One of my houseplants is a seven foot tall pony tail palm that is at least sixty years old.
With that said, I was in a very strong, very wide tornado that was on the ground. There came a moment where I realized that I might die. I also realized that if I and my dog were to walk away when it was over, I didn’t care if everything else was destroyed, so long as we were safe and healthy.
That was the long answer. Short answer: me, my dogs, my wallet, my phone, my glasses and contacts, and my already existing “because, elderly parents” go bag.
I’ve done this for hurricanes and we basically had like a 30 gallon storage container with things. Photos and documents are the main priority. Sentimental jewelry. Because my family actually had a house fire where they lost everything, I think letters or cards from my grandparents and great-grandparents are things to save. I have one piece of furniture that survived that fire that I would take if I could.
But in a scenario when you have to literally flee, like everyone else has mentioned, pets, people, and your purse/money/ID. Your loved ones are not replaceable.
I’d like to get a longer single-br3asted faux fur coat that is a bit shaggy and in the brown family. Sort of looking real or more vintage? Must close and have pockets.
[I bought a non-buttoning short faux fur jacket for $50 on a whim for a fancy event and have been amazed by both how warm it is and how lightweight. I’m going all-in on the concept now.]
This reminded me of the coat from Almost Famous, so I googled “Almost Famous coat” and found several that look like “the” coat. They are not all-over fake fur, but they’re brown and shaggy.
Now I need a Penny Lane coat.
Google vintage faux shearling coats
I have been eyeing this one for a while but it’s a little out of my price range
https://lagence.com/products/lizbeth-faux-fur-jacket-ganache
Ooooh. OP here and this is more my current life vibe. I wasn’t looking for anything as shaggy as the Almost Famous coat, but some faux fur coats are so short-haired that they look even more fake. I wanted something more luxe and real-ish, and this hits all the right notes (wallet is not happy tho).
Is there a good online guide anyone can recommend for understanding 529 plans? I know the basics but want to make sure I understand any pitfalls, guidance on funding amounts, state nuances to be aware of, etc. One kid (newborn, so no clue on college aptitude yet) and live in CA. TIA!
Sources like the Bogleheads (especially the wiki: https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/529_plan) and Morningstar are the places I would start.
Heh too bad you weren’t at dinner with us the other night at our Puerto Vallarta resort. The woman at the next table explained it all to her college age kids in great detail!
This is discussed quite a bit on the moms page, so you might look there. One thing to know is that you can open a 529 in any state, although you’ll only get state tax benefits if you’re a resident of that state. Utah is popular for some reason, but I don’t remember why.
Personally, with only one kid, I’m a little hesitant to put too much money in there, so we stopped contributing once we had enough for four years of public in-state, which in my state is really not that much (we reached that point when our kid was in kindergarten, just by maxing out our contributions for state tax credit). We have additional college savings not in a 529. You can easily transfer the beneficiary, but we don’t have anyone else we want to give potentially $200k+ to (we plan to help nieces and nephews with college if we’re able, but not to that degree). This is less of a risk with two or three kids though, since the odds that one of them will need private school money are much higher.
Do you put it in your kid’s name or yours?
For the 529, I’m the account owner; my kid is the beneficiary. I’m pretty sure the owner has to be an adult.
Non-529 savings are all in our names.
paying for college dot com is a good place to start
wait, SAVING, not paying. sorry!
and dot org. my kingdom for an edit button
there are new rules where you can roll a certain amount of excess into an IRA. I forget the specifics but when we were talking to our financial advisor about the current balance for our young child, he mentioned it.
Your state’s 529 page should have good basic information
i believe you can roll $35k into a roth ira, once; if there’s more that you don’t have to use for tuition, books, etc, then you’ll be taxed like 10% on it. or you can name a new beneficiary.
A different Californian here, I opened the California plan for both of my kids when they were babies because I thought there might be some state benefits to using my state plan. (There weren’t at the time, but I think there are now.)
It has worked beautifully one kid is through college, one kid is 3/4 of the way there.
I invested in the H adjusted portfolio which automatically reduces risk the closer. Your kids get to college age.
I used saving for college.org to estimate how much we needed to put away to have in-state tuition room and board by the time they hit college age, and that’s exactly how much we had. It was rather amazing actually.
As long as we used the proceeds for college related expenses, which I just attested to when I made/make the withdrawals, I didn’t have to pay tax on the investment gains, which were like 50% of the total amount by the time they were college age.
*Age-adjusted portfolio
if you don’t mind sharing amounts that would be helpful. I feel like I’m just guessing here with $350 a month for 4 and 7 year old. Basically what’s left over from retirement savings, and our living expenses.
I wouldn’t cut your retirement savings to save more for college. There are loans and scholarships for college, but not retirement.
My kids are still several years away from college, but I just max out the state income tax benefit in our state. That’s $2,500 per beneficiary, or ~$210/month. I am pretty sure we rounded up and are doing $250/month per kid, which I’m about to completely cut if I don’t have another job when my severance runs out. 529s are our last savings priority behind retirement, HSA, and vacations, because as mentioned above, there are lots of ways to pay for college.
We stopped saving when we had ~$50k per kid in the 529s. You hear a lot about college costs being insane, but so far the accounts are growing much faster than the cost of our state universities, even factoring in inflation. We now have ~$80k for each kid which should basically cover four years at our state universities, including room and board. For private school, there are a bunch of options including grandparent help (they’ve expressed interest in paying), us cash-flowing the difference, merit scholarships at lower ranked schools or need-based aid at the top tier schools (the financial aid calculators tell me we’d get substantial aid, like $30k+/year at schools like Harvard and Columbia, although of course getting into those schools is very competitive). Worst case scenario, if none of those work out, we’ll just say no to private school and the kids will be fine at a public university.
Our state universities are now running close to $220K for four years.
I mean $180K. Need coffee.
We aimed at around $100k for each kid. The calculator we used asked us to make assumptions about average investment returns and inflation of tuition, room, and board 18 years into the future. We looked at a range of outcomes by playing with the assumptions and chose something in the middle.
How much we contributed varied over the years but we were always aiming for the $100k. If you’re starting today, I’d inflate that.
Looking for recommendations for smaller carpet cleaners. I don’t have pets or huge stains, but I’ve lived in this rental for 9 years, and I’d like to be able to do more than spot cleaning. (Yes, I know I can rent, but it’s a pain and I’d get more use out of one I own.) Thanks!
I have a Bissell Little Green carpet cleaner. There are a few different models and you can review the features to see which one meets your needs. I have cats who will sometimes puke and it does a good job cleaning those spots on the carpet.
Second! The Bissell Little Green Machine is fantastic! I had borrowed a smaller, different Bissell my friend used to clean up after her cat and wasn’t in love with it. Watched some tutorials on YouTube and decided to order the Little Green Machine on sale. What a difference! I’ve used it to sprin clean my couch, upholstered ottoman, and spot clean my cream carpet, and it’s fantastic. I also really like the feature that cleans out the hose so it doesn’t get smelly or funky.
I live in a humid climate where it is not the best idea to get carpets wet. If I were going to get my own carpet cleaner, I guess I’d get the Kobosan snow Vorwerk set up that is what I look for when I hire carpet cleaners. The results also just seemed a lot better than what my neighbors achieved with regular carpet cleaners.
I got a Resolve Easy Clean Brush Kit for this (available at Amazon). It is just a brush with a long handle with a place for a can of carpet cleaner to fit in it – it sprays the carpet cleaner and the brush works it in. Worked amazingly well. Cheap. Super easy to use and easy to store.
Do you live in a dry, warm climate? Most residential carpet cleaners leave carpets extremely wet and soapy for days, even with a so-called dry mode. I live in the UK and learnt the hard way to only call in the professionals once a year. My friends with pets and messy kids have a spot carpet cleaner for spills (Vax, Bissell, Shark are all good) but often need to blast with a hair dryer to speed up the drying in the cooler months.
Have robot vacuums improved? I have one that is FINE from 2018, but it gets stuck and has a battery that dies so quickly I rarely use it. Is it inherent in the tech, or should I try a new model?
I bought roombas in 2014 and 2022 and I actually liked the older one better, but neither one of them have had much trouble with getting stuck or batteries. They can do the whole house on one charge (but I generally only do one floor at an time) and only get stuck sometimes on one particular chair that has a weird flat base it runs up on. I would guess it depends a lot on your house layout and furniture, though.
I got one in 2022 and was super underwhelmed. It gets stuck on everything and it takes more time to pick it up and move it to a new spot than it does to just run a regular vacuum (which is really not that time-consuming). We never use it.
I swear by my Roborock. I have the Q5 Max+ model, which is not top of the line, and it does a great job with pet hair. I feel like both Roborock and Dreame are a step up from roombas. I like that I can set it and forget it, but I do need to do a sweep for legos and other debris before a cycle.
I would assume that a machine with a new battery will always be better than a machine with a 7 year old battery, so I might replace solely on that basis.
I have a bump and turn 600 series Roomba and have had it since well before the pandemic so I wanna say it’s coming up on 8-10 years old? It is super reliable, does what it’s supposed to do, we replace parts and we can make it like new. It’s honestly the best.
Unfortunately, because we have a two story house I thought it would be nice to have one for upstairs and one for downstairs, so I bought a 900 series Roomba, which has smart mapping.
I would not buy that one again. I still use it, but it’s less reliable than the 600 series. I just wouldn’t spend the money to get the smart model again. I’d just buy another bump and turn.
+1 dumb roombas are great.
I spend so much time troubleshooting my robot vacuums. I have gone through two Roombas (currently not working, can’t figure out why) and now have a Shark that’s supposed to also mop (that function is useless because it trips itself on the mop towel part) and I always have to rescue it from being stuck on a rug or in a corner. There was also that time when the Roomba got hold of my elderly dog’s poop accident and smeared it all over the house….
We have a new one that vacuums and mops, empties its own dirty mop water, cleans its own mop pads. It’s amazing. We run it every day to vacuum and mop and our floors stay (mostly) clean. It’s not perfect, but it’s darn close. I love it.
What brand / model please? Thanks!
Consumer Reports and Wirecutter and similar review these regularly, every 6-8 months or so. I actually haven’t bought one, but maybe you want like a combo with a mop now, or one that’s more quiet, things like that that they review for. I access both Wirecutter and Consumer Reports through my public library so I don’t pay for a subscription but I do register
Hi there! We have had a few discussions over the last few weeks about reducing or stopping social media consumption. I’m about 4 months into it and thought I’d share some thoughts.
First, here was my strategy: I deleted all social media from my phone, and only have the apps available to me on my ipad. I can log into LinkedIn on my browser but nothing else. I occasionally re-download, like when we went on vacation over the holiday, but for the most part, if I want to look at my feeds, I need to open my ipad, which is a reasonable deterrent. I also downloaded an app (Opal) which bricks some of the other apps on my phone that I waste time on, like the news, and which logs the time I spend on other apps.
How it’s going: After some time, I can report that the desire to check in on what my favorite influencers are up to (lol) is all gone. I pop in every once in a while, usually while I’m eating lunch, and then I’m done for the day. The step back has also been great for my mental health and outlook on life as I am no longer reading posts about how horrible the world is right now in every conceivable way. That was a bit tongue in cheek, but one of the primary reasons I did this was because social media became this deluge of friends and others posting one sentence hot takes about nuanced situations. I still waste a fair amount of time these days, just not on social media. I spend time reading the news, I read articles on various sites, I read here, and I like to play NYT games. And if I do find myself on a social media app which has something like Reels, it is still scarily easy for me to fall back into a doom scroll. I think that has been a real wake up call to me on how addicting it can be.
So all in all, highly recommend for everyone. I am usually an abstainer and not a moderator, so I have found that I need to set barriers for myself to using those apps, and this seems to be a working solution for now. Fingers crossed I can maintain it, as I can honestly say it does not feel like I am missing anything.
Thank you for posting this. I don’t do social media, but I have fallen into watching YouTube shorts. And when I woke up this morning, after watching that for about an hour last night, I asked myself whether spending time that way is making my life better in any meaningful way and whether I’d rather spend that time reading or doing a craft hobby. I was already concluding I should just delete the app from my phone. Your post has given me the push.
Second deleting the app from my phone. I redownload it from time to time but the moment I feel the addiction I delete it again. I briefly check Instagram for any major life update posts but that’s all I really need.
This was very helpful to read. I have set limits on my devices and haven’t cut out social completely, but it’s so easy to ignore the setting that I’m not sure it’s doing what I want it to! (In general, abstaining also is easier for me than moderating.) At least I’m asking myself the questions about what I’m getting out of social media use? The answer seems to be less all the time.
Oh yeah! I should totally add that I You might try Opal. It the option to create a block on certain apps that you cannot get around until the time is up. It is a paid app though.
are there other free apps that do this that people recommend?
Some people really like Forest.
I deactivated my insta and facebook amd delted app apps from my phone. it helps that my phone storage is small so the only apps I keeps are for work 2fa, bank, and ride sharing and delivery.
The only social media I use is reddit, watching youtube, and my tumblr. All of which I do on my browser and I only log into tumblr on my laptop.
I do not miss social media at all.
I am in individual contributor. My boss wants me to learn managerial skills, and to that end has suggested having me feed some of the more administrative aspects of my role to his EA. I would be teaching her new skills, overseeing her completion of these tasks, and providing guidance and feedback on her work. The intent is that if this goes well, she ends up reporting to me and I get promoted.
What resources do you recommend for learning how to be a good manager? I want to start off on the right path, not completely winging it.
Radical Candor is one of my favorites.
I started managing a larger team about 2 years ago. Radical Candor was great. I didn’t follow First 90 Days religiously but the general ideas were helpful. Honestly a lot of the books I thought were just common sense.
This is a great way to learn managerial skills, and pretty much what I did. Starting with one person is a good way to get your feet wet.
Try looking for courses or books on some of the specific skills you cited like delegation and feedback. These seems like basic, broad topics, but there are theories and skills to each. HBR (podcasts like HBR On Leadership or HBR Women at Work) or LinkedIn Learning are good options if your company doesn’t offer these.
Has he already had this chat with his EA? They might be totally on board, but that conversation shouldn’t start with you.
Yes, this.
Just reading about this as if I were her, it could easily appear that she’s being asked to take on even more work and also get demoted as a result of it — she ends up doing your work and then having to accept you as her new boss, rather than her previous boss.
Is this somehow a promotion for her, too?
Manager Tools podcast
Does anyone have a good countryside hotel to recommend between Carcassonne, Toulouse, and the Spanish border? If you’ve read Kate Mosse, basically Labyrinth territory, looking to explore villages, Cathar castles etc. I’ll stay in Toulouse and Carcassonne some of the time but also want something more rural.
No suggestions but based on your comment I need to add Kate Mosse to my reading queue.
Oh yes for sure, they’re absolutely transporting books and they are long and there are lots of them. So happy for you!
And if that sounds good also try Sharon Kay Penman.
For cat stains in my house, I use Resolve “Pet Expert”
https://www.target.com/p/resolve-pet-stain-remover-spray-22oz/-/A-13966084
Sorry, nesting fail
Making myself wait to check the library before I immediately buy the Languedoc trilogy!
I like Relais & Chateaux properties. There is one in Carcassonne, but we have not stayed there yet.
Holy cow, how did I miss this author? This looks perfect to me. I just placed a hold on the e-book at the library.
I am looking for recommendations for two types of cleaners:
One would be for cleaning up tea/coffee discoloration on a porcelain sink, mostly near the drain.
The other would be a good cleaner for cat vomit/poop off carpet. The one I use now leaves the carpet crusty and does not do a good job removing the color stain.
Baking soda for the first, bac out stain and odor remover for the second.
I have this exact problem with my porcelain sink, and the only solution is actually Soft Scrub. It has bleach in it. The bleach is what takes away the tea and coffee stains.
It works pretty quickly, but make sure you don’t get it on your clothing cause it will leave bleach stains. Ask me how I know.
I find sodium percarbonate more effective than pure soda. I use it in so many ways:
Add 2 tablespoons when washing whites; remove coffee stains in coffee maker/thermos/pots; remove any stains in white sink.
You just need to remember it activates at 60C deg+. If you want to use it for laundry, choose a 60C (or higher) wash cycle. To clean a sink, I fill the sink with hot water; put the powder in a mug, add boiling water, let it fizzle for a minute and then add the liquid to the hot sink water. Let it work for an hour and rinse. If your sink is heavily stained, leave it overnight.
Natures miracle for the pet issue.
It might be good for stains, but beware that this stuff smells awful and the smell never goes away. It’s even worse than the cat urine smell I was trying to clean up.
Huh, I have never noticed a smell and it works wonders. We use it for all stains.
Barkeeper’s Friend and Folex
I’m a big Folex fan for my cat vomit. I haven’t used it on poop, but my cream colored carpet has been saved by this many times. I remove all the solids, use a clean cloth to blot any excess liquid, spray Folex, wait, return and rub with a new dry cloth. Repeat, as needed.
For cat stains in my house, I use Resolve “Pet Expert”
https://www.target.com/p/resolve-pet-stain-remover-spray-22oz/-/A-13966084
Oxiclean for tea stains.
Kids’n’Pets for the cat stains. It works better than Nature’s Miracle and doesn’t have the awful smell. I think it’s cheaper too.
I’ve learned it helps to mark the spot I was cleaning because after the ten minute soak period I have had trouble finding it again.
For carpets: (1) pretreat clean carpet with something like Scotchguard carpet protector. This works really well on our wool area rugs; I can get most spots out just with a wet rag. (2) Use a lot of water when you are working on stains. For dried vomit, I typically leave a damp rag on the spot for a while to soften it up, then work on the spot with a rinsed out rag until it is mostly out. Only then do I treat with cleaner — we just use Resolve; I think we have a couple different flavors of it. Then I go over it again with a rinsed out wet rag.
For a white porcelain sink, you can fill the sink with hot water and add a small amount of bleach (a quarter cup is plenty for a bathroom sink). Let it sit and the bleach will work its magic on stains. No scrubbing required. I wouldn’t risk using bleach on a colored porcelain sink, though.
Clorox spray for stained sinks works well for me. Rinse with water after.
Help me shop! I’m hosting a Galentine’s party and I need something cute to wear. I’m thinking a pink sweater dress? But I’m open to suggestions! Any ideas or links? I’m a size 12/14, short (5’2, so long/maxi dresses are always too long for me), and have a big chest. I do like a V neck or scoop neck but not TOO deep (see big chest).
Pink sweater dress: The V looks a little low but maybe with a coordinating cami?
https://bananarepublicfactory.gapfactory.com/browse/product.do?pid=596409021&cid=1045225&pcid=1045225&vid=1&nav=meganav%3AWomen%3AWomen%27s+Clothing%3ADresses&cpos=12&cexp=368&kcid=CategoryIDs%3D1045225&cvar=2363&ctype=Listing&cpid=res25011009258954425928627#pdp-page-content
https://bananarepublicfactory.gapfactory.com/browse/product.do?pid=888777011&cid=1045225&pcid=1045225&vid=1&nav=meganav%3AWomen%3AWomen%27s%20Clothing%3ADresses&cpos=5&kcid=CategoryIDs%3D1045225&ctype=Listing&cpid=res638721266439778947#pdp-page-content
https://bananarepublicfactory.gapfactory.com/browse/product.do?pid=596444031&cid=1045225&pcid=1045225&vid=1&nav=meganav%3AWomen%3AWomen%27s%20Clothing%3ADresses&cpos=4&kcid=CategoryIDs%3D1045225&ctype=Listing&cpid=res638721266439778928#pdp-page-content
https://bananarepublicfactory.gapfactory.com/browse/product.do?pid=596444031&cid=1045225&pcid=1045225&vid=1&nav=meganav%3AWomen%3AWomen%27s%20Clothing%3ADresses&cpos=3&cexp=368&kcid=CategoryIDs%3D1045225&cvar=2363&ctype=Listing&cpid=res2501100983895922677542#pdp-page-content
J Crew Factory has a bunch of pink/red/heart stuff right now.