In the world of Save. Spend. Splurge.
ONE.
If you ever thought getting to school was hard, or getting your kids to school was hard, read this and STFU.
And speaking of STFU’ing, the first chef in the world to get 3 Michelin stars for both restaurants was a woman named Eugenie Brazier and she is regarded as the godmother (of sorts) of French cooking, practically all the chefs who are alive today who cook in the French way, were trained by Brazier.
To put it this way, she taught Paul Bocuse.
TWO.
I am not a fan of weddings.
Marriages, yes.
Weddings, not so much. This post from Cassie just confirms what kind of scam it is to have a wedding in North America.
Corking fee? Plating fee? Chairs? 10% of catering fee to be paid? $7.50 for a drink?
Total insanity.
At least we have the freedom to marry whom we want, though. I wouldn’t want to be a Pakistani woman, especially after reading this.
THREE.
Can you believe this is all done by hand, and with just a pen and piece of paper?
FOUR.
You shouldn’t need to have a reason to NOT have children.
FIVE.
This is both sad and inspiring at the same time. If you want another sad and inspiring story, read this.
SIX.
This is pure insanity. The only way I have ever solved a Rubik’s cube is by peeling the stickers off and re-arranging them.
Hat tip to Carensa from Google + for sharing this.
SEVEN.
A seriously good list of super useful websites; not all of them rock but I found at least 10 I could use, most notably:
- copypastecharacter.com
- midomi — to find the names of songs
- scr.im — converting your email address into a safely shareable link
Not on the list (and it should be) is 10MinuteMail when you need a fast email address to use but don’t want to the hassle of having to sign up for one.
EIGHT.
21 things you didn’t know about Japanese food.
Hat tip to NZ Muse for this link.
NINE.
I always knew that commuting sucks the life and happiness out of you.
Speaking of traveling, look at this picture of Pan Am 747 economy traveling from the 1960s.
HEAVENLY!
If we had spacious seats like that, I’d dress up even more than I normally do for a plane ride.
Unfortunately, our seats today are squished together, tight and cramped unless you’re willing to pay top dollar and fly first class. I can’t even imagine sitting on a plane with so much leg room and space.
No wonder people wear sweatpants to travel.
TEN.
When quality no longer justifies the price tag.
Speaking of quality, I myself drove a beater car for $1900 bucks and never did ANYTHING to it for 3 years.
When I donated it to charity, it was still alive and kicking (everything worked, even the A/C), and I think it could have gone for another 5 years to be honest.
But when I read Fig’s story about HER beater car, I had to give her and her Mama props.
ELEVEN.
Even the manhole covers in Japan are gorgeous.. what attention to detail!
TWELVE.
Not that you really needed another incentive to stay alive and healthy, but this is why you shouldn’t do drugs, otherwise you’ll lose your looks.
Also.. on second thought, American healthcare really isn’t so bad after all.
THIRTEEN.
On feminism and fashion. I particularly liked the comment in the post: You can never be overdressed or overeducated ~Oscar Wilde. Hear hear!
Speaking of fashion, these are the 4 patterns that never go out of style, #1 being my favourite and if you were interested in a very thorough, PERFECT review of a Tieks ballet flat, look no farther.
I’m glad I didn’t buy a pair. The ugly blue sole and stripe at the back turned me off as well… that, and they’re made in China.
I’ll probably end up buying either ridiculously expensive Chloe flats made in Italy or Poppy Barley flats that are custom made.
FOURTEEN.
The world is a beautiful place. Here are my favourites:
Terrace rice fields in China:
Netherlands’ tulip fields:
Bac Son Valley in Vietnam:
NYC Central Park:
..and speaking of beauty, if you visit Paris you shouldn’t miss out on the passages couverts.
FIFTEEN.
Kids posing with their favourite things. Some are really telling. My two favourites are pictured below:
Some of them may not be rich, but some of these Disney princesses sure have a killer net worth.
SIXTEEN.
Pink was a man’s colour in the past and blue was a woman’s, and speaking of gender-specific dressing, I think there is some merit in saying that women should dressing professionally, and the reason why men don’t need to be called out to not wear inappropriate clothing is that businesswear for men is pretty much ALWAYS work appropriate.
If a guy showed up in super tight crotch-hugging leggings with a mesh t-shirt, or maybe leather chaps with a spandexed butt I am pretty sure the same memo about inappropriate dressing would go out, this time addressing that all men should refrain from wearing such attire.
Women who wear sky high heels and low cut tops with super short skirts do NOT look professional. You don’t need to look like a man in dowdy pastel coloured suits, and you don’t need to cover up your bust, but you should know the line of dressing that is drawn between looking skanky and skillful.
The one thing I will say is a double standard is women having to wear makeup to look professional. Even though I enjoy it, I recognize it’s a double standard.
Men don’t wear makeup, WTF. They’re out there with bad skin, pimples, dark under eye circles and no one says: OMG he can’t do his job, look at his skin!
SEVENTEEN.
This 8-year old is rocking it out!
EIGHTEEN.
It’s now the Canadian Dream for everyone, folks ‘cuz apparently our middle class and Europe’s middle class is poised to pull ahead of the American middle class.
NINETEEN.
If dogs could text. *cries with laughter*
I don’t own any pets (am allergic to furballs), but this was just hilarious…
Oh and speaking of funny, these Amazon.com reviews of this “pocket knife” are killing me.
TWENTY.
So.. basically she’s making $180,000 as a stripper now putting herself through college but is going to graduate and take a job earning $30,000?
… Hmm…
😛
18 Comments
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The Asian Pear
I love the photos of the kids. My favourite is of the little girl with her collection of sunglasses.
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save. spend. splurge.
It was interesting for sure. Made me think of this one photo of this little Japanese girl with a room full of pink and Hello Kitty.
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MelD
Aw, that Japanese guitar girl – fantastic!! And so cool with it LOL – LOVE!!
No wonder they have such beautiful manhole covers… 😮 (I’m still not leaving here!)Many many moons ago I did the Rubik’s. Today I’m older and wiser… and we didn’t have computers, ipads, iphones, mp3-players etc. etc.!!
Weddings are such an industry it’s depressing. Too many people marry for the wedding, waste a stack of money and then split up. Hello?! Few seem to realise you’re marrying the person for life and not just having a (very expensive) party… Ugh.
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save. spend. splurge.
She is adorable, Lisa-X. 🙂 It would be really neat to travel Japan just to see the attention to detail and care they take with everything.
I tried the Rubiks, but I was just helpless at it. I did not know there was a method to solving it.. and I will never be as fast as that guy.
Weddings are a HUGE scam here, and if you think they’re expensive in Europe, you haven’t seen the price-gouging they do here for the quality of food served.
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GirlinaTrenccoat
Thanks for the link love! 🙂
Those photos of different places around the world are awesome. I especially want to be in the Netherlands smack dab in the middle of those tulip fields!
Weddings are crazy expensive aren’t they?! I used to like watching Platinum Weddings on WeTV, but after trying to budget my own wedding I got sick of the whole thing. It’s scary when you start thinking $5 rental fees for a plain white cloth napkin is normal and $20,000 for a wedding dress is reasonable (and you’re not Kim Kardashian).
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save. spend. splurge.
My favourite was the rice fields. What breathtaking views…
As for weddings, I think getting sucked into the vacuum that is the industry (e.g. $5 for cloth napkin rentals), is the main reason why people turn into bridezillas.
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Cassie
Thanks for including my article about Japanese food and for sharing these other great reads. Count me in the weddings are a scam camp! We did the courthouse thing and I’ve never regretted it once. We saved a ton of money we can use to travel and you know, live life! 🙂
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save. spend. splurge.
You’re welcome! As for weddings, I think if I ever did it, it’d be a courthouse and a big meal afterwards.
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Her Every Cent Counts
This post made me smile. Lots to appreciate. Lots to think about. I love how passionate you are about all the little things. Keep on truckin’ 🙂
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AdinaJ
What, no florals? I call BS 😉
Those aerial photos are stunning.
Cassie is right. We decided to have a small but traditional wedding (for our folks, mostly), and we were not extravagant about any part of it. It still cost close to $20k. Which is why it infuriates me when people brag about their $4000 wedding. Unless you got married at the courthouse, and had a BBQ in someone’s back yard (not ragging on those choices, btw, but let’s compare apples to apples), you just had the good fortune to live in a lower COL area.
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save. spend. splurge.
You and your florals! 🙂 It’s like me and my stripes. I think I counted something like 5 striped tops in my wardrobe… I’m sure there are more hiding somewhere.
Weddings ARE expensive. It does infuriate me when people say they didn’t spend a lot and that they can’t understand people who spend $20K.. Even $20K is on the low-end in my opinion, $30K is the average.
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Cassie
Weddings in North America ARE a total scam. They’ve done their math and set the prices so that you’re paying the same amount of money no matter how you do it (I also ran the math. It sucks). We’ve tried going off season, negotiating, all sorts of stuff to bring the costs down with almost no success. They know they’ve got you snookered, so they just say no whenever you try to negotiate. And they lie, but don’t get me started on that. I read an article recently that noted Alberta has the highest wedding costs in the country, and from what I’ve seen I believe it, because they’re gouging us hard. Those $13 chairs in Edmonton I found being rented for $6 in Ottawa, and even less down in the US. Infuriating.
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Michelle
The Canadian Middle Class specifically pulled ahead about a month or so ago. I wrote a post about why this is good for Americans.
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Thank you for sharing my story! That beater car was one of the best financial moves.
And yeah, American weddings are totally a scam! It’s entirely ridiculous what they charge you for in most wedding businesses.