Thrifty Finds of the Week-Girly Edition-Men Beware

This week was my "stay-cation" which is a vacation at your home. While I was busy every day I was doing things that I enjoy, which is what you do on a vacation when you go away. I guess in a lot of ways a stay-cation is a very thrifty approach to a vacation. While today's post is not "professional" in nature, I am thrifty and I am a band director and I am a person that doesn't always work so here are some of my personal thrifty finds of the week. In order to truly understand my level of thriftiness you do need to understand that it goes through my whole life.

First off I was up in Fremont on Wednesday visiting my good friend Chris and his wife Tanya. On my way to hanging out I came across this fine establishment. One of my personal fav things to do is to thrift shop and also bargain shop at a variety of stores. It does take a lot of patience and time but the rewards can be great! I had to stop and take a pic.

Thrift Town Thrift Super Store, Fremont

NOTE THIS IS WHERE THE BLOG GETS REALLY GIRLY! BUT GUESS WHAT? I AM A GIRL AND I LIKE GIRLY THINGS (quick what movie is that from?)

Saturday was the absolute most THRIFTY day of the week for me personally. The entire week was great but Saturday was a "me day". I live thrifty and you are about to see how! I spent the first half of the day with my good friend Rachel who is a representative for Beauti Control Products. We had a great morning of girl time, massages, facials etc. Rachel did a make-up consult with me and it was a lot of fun. In doing the make up consult I discovered that I would be able to switch to Rachel's product from the one that I have been using and I figure I probably am going to save about $100. Now since I am going to host a party I will continue to get deals so this is good!

Make up application begins

A little eyeliner

Eye shadows used on me

Here's the finished product

And here's the products that we used.

You can reach Rachel at www.beautipage.com/bull

The thing about being thrifty is that its all about networking. So I will be hosting a spa party at my home on Spring Break (April 25-29). I will have spots for 10 ladies at my apartment so if you are interested in coming please let me know. At Rachel's party I also had the pleasure of meeting Christine. Christine is a representative for "Silpada Jewlrey". You can reach Christine at www.mysilpada.com/christine.verra. Christine and I are going to be planning a very exciting fundraising event together with her products at STHS in the library in mid-April. We are going to have an open house and the proceeds from the event will benefit a scholarship fund for students who need assistance in raising money to attend our 2012 Band Trip to Hawaii. I hope to host several parties in the future and other events to support sending more of my students on the trip. You gotta get creative sometimes and this is yet another way for me. There are several vendors with other companies that I bet would be willing to do the same kind of events...you just have to network and find them (they probably are in your band program now...)

At Rachel's party I just got plain lucky and won the raffle.

Here's my sweet pedicure set!

Then it was off to do some thrifty shopping. I was looking for a jacket to wear with my nicer outfits (festival attire etc). I saw it in a magazine but it was $100. I was not going to pay that. So I was off. Being thrifty can be a pain because you have to look at several locals. I looked the jacket up online and went to Macy's. No luck. But I did find this wallet for $7. It matches my thrifty band director red look.

It matches my business cards and my business card holders! (Yes that is my conga)

I used my sweet new iPhone to call Burlington Coat Factory and sure enough they stocked the brand of jacket I was looking for. Wow. That place is full of deals and that's going to be an entire day long journey. I had places to go and people to see so I was power shopping. It took me all but 10 minutes to find it in the bargain area (in black yes!). I was shocked. They had only one and it was a small but I have been loosing weight (yes) and low and behold it fit! Here's the jacket....AND IT WAS $40.

London Fog Jacket $40. That is a $60 savings! Thrifty!

While I was at the fine Westgate Mall (which I think has many deals lurking in it but it is kind of a dirt mall) I came across Hancock Fabrics. As you may or may not know my mom is starting a business that I am managing called "Nifty Handbags." When I have time to deal with working on her etsy site I will profile her business on here. But I decided that in order to properly promote her bags I needed a nifty handbag myself to match my "branding" of the thrifty band director (we will talk about "branding" later but I have to learn more about it myself before I can blog about it). I bought all the fabric on sale for a total of $10.71

Thrifty Fabrics for a Thrifty Bag!

I finally made it home and then I was out the door to the Los Gatos HS Crab Feed. It was a five star event and I will be blogging about it tomorrow (video and pics). However, here's what I will share. The event cost me a total of $70 ($50 for the ticket and 20 raffle tickets for $20). I put most of my "eggs" or "raffle tickets" in a basket sponsored by flute section. AND I FREAKING WON! It included a sweet knit hat, an ipod touch, chocolate covered pretzels (my fav), ceramic Starbucks coffee mug, hot cocoa, $20 Starbucks card, and $15 itunes gift card.

Here's me in my sweet new J. Crew outfit, make up by Rachel, & my new basket of goods

 

 

So yeah it was a pretty thrifty day!

What's on the blog for this week?
-Los Gatos HS Crab Feed Fundraising Profile
-Marching Band Budget Planning (it all starts now)
-We Care Coffee
-Midwest Fundraising Proposal Brainstorming
-101 Marketing Ideas Marketing Seminar by Marketing Maniacs!

And Happy Monday everyone! I'm heading back in the classroom after two weeks of being away! The podium awaits me!