he's gotta big ego...

So a few weeks ago, I was at the hair salon and I came upon Essence magazine featuring Mary J on the cover. In these tight financial times, a recently laid off editor, producer, or some similar profession lamented about his dating woes. Not the fact that he couldn’t get a date, but rather the devaluation of his ego per his diminished assets.

Basically, when the brother had a job he had no qualms spending $300 a week on dinners, top shelf liquor, opera tix, etc. And now with a dwindling account, he feels obligated to treat his lady friends to those some pre- unemployment experiences. And yet he can’t fully afford the outings. Yet he expresses discomfort when his lady friends opt to subsidize a portion of the outing. he’s gotta big ego He even went so far to share that during a date (dinner & movie I think) he couldn’t afford the movie tix and was embarrassed when his lady friend purchased the movie tix, yet at ticket counter date passed the tix to him to present to the ticket counter and his ego was inflated again. This is thoroughly disturbing to me. I read the article, thinking is it that serious.

What happened to jaunts in Central Park? Showcases at the art gallery? Spoken word viewings? I mean everything doesn’t carry a price tag. And why is your manhood tied to money. I found his story to be a bit disturbing. Men is it that serious. Clearly Bellini is an outsider looking in? personally I like a man who’s more on the frugal side—I am telling my bizness? enough! Am I missing some underlying point? enlighten me fellas

I wonder if he was a husband and underwent the same dynamics with his wife would he still feel the same way considering that’s his partner and all. And should he feel the same way with his wife?

I just found out a lil’ unsettling that the guy appeared to tie too much value to the frequency he’s able to dispense his funds. After all it’s a recession, horde your funds!

cheers,

Bellini

Back to Basics?!?!

If there is one thing, I don’t have is first-hand experience of handling is a recession. Sure our parents can give us advice and our grandparents can tell us how it really was…but what do we really know? We, as in us 80s babies.

A couple of months ago I was telling Amaretto, I don’t know my gut tells me to put a lock-down on the amount of spending I am doing and save even more. And she says to me “Stop acting like you are one step away from being homeless.” (chuckle) That is true I am nowhere near that step or am I, really? So to ease my anxiety, I paid off my undergrad student loan and paid my car insurance in full for the year. Phew…I love it when there are only a few bills to be paid monthly.

Now fast forward, to two weeks before Christmas, my company decides to clean house a bit. URGH!! There goes one of my closet friends, who just bought a house last year and is a single parent with a teenager daughter off to college next year and pre-teen son. WOW! I felt the ground below me shake. But let’s get this straight, the ground wasn’t shaking because I thought that I would be throwing my Gucci purse over my shoulder and walking out the door before lunchtime never to return. I’ve got that covered…I will be fine for a year if things go sour. The ground was shaking because if I had children this would be a different story. A year saved up, plus six months of unemployment wouldn’t be enough for them not to have to wheel me out on a stretcher.

O-kay...get a grip Courvoisier, crazy chic is rearing her head. Either way I am just saying that in today’s economy where next to nobody is hiring and the number of people applying for unemployment is increasing…I am a little uneasy. That is right, I wasn’t uneasy with the mortgage crisis, and I have two of those. And I wasn’t uneasy with job security until last week. I always knew that advertising was the first budget cut but when you work with pharma, an industry that supposedly thrives during recession, I figure, I would be sitting pretty. Oh no, that ideal was shattered last week. Our CEO told us, that even though our sector of the business is growing we needed to show our commitment to our parent company’s need to cut back due to the lost their two biggest clients, one of big 3 and Amex, which to him meant going back to the basics…simple accounting, spend less than we bring in.

I hear you CEO! I think I might do some going back to basics myself…one, cut out cable time and increase the reading. Two, cut out personal internet – I spend more than half my life online at work and lastly three, as basic as it gets, I am officially bartering services!

Extreme?!? I don’t think so…but apparently some 70’s babies tell me it is. And you know what? They might have a point because although this is NOT my first job, it is my first time of potentially being on the chopping block. So paranoid I may be but broke I cannot. Sorry, I know a lot of people were depending on us single, childless well-paid gen-Ys to try and hold it down for the economy but I have to slow my roll on the spending.

(deep sigh) Much luv until next week…and some change? :/
Courvoisier

Tryin to Make a Dollar Outta Seven Cents

For a small piece of paper it carries a lot of weight

Call it lean, mean, mean green

Almighty dollar

I know money is the root of all evil

Do funny things to some people

Give me a nickel, brother can you spare a dime

Money can drive some people out of their minds

- For the Love of Money, Ojays

Times are a bit hard right now. People of every race, creed, and socio-economic status are feeling the sting of the our economy's current state. The "experts" have finally admitted what us regular folks' pockets told us months ago: we're in a recession.

My dollars just ain't stretchin' like they used to. And I am quite the expert at making a small amount of my money work big for me. Clipping coupons, shopping at discount retail outlets, carpooling, and conserving energy (to keep utility costs low) are just a few of the budget savers that I incorporated into my daily life long ago to help me hold on to a few extra dollars. But the tricks of the trade aren't paying off like they used to. There's a global food shortage crisis, gas prices are effin' expensive, the national unemployment rate recently increased at a record rate, our nation is in humongous debt and we're being taxed everywhere to help re-pay it. And if I hear about one more celebrity going into foreclosure... Like I give a damn! I'm a hard working thousandaire trying to pay my own mortgage on time. I could care less about Britney Spears or Ed McMahon losing their mansions.

The bottom line is I don't need Dow Jones to tell me that the almighty dollar ain't what it used to be. The only thing mean these days is just how lean the green is. You know the saying about desperate times... It's only a matter of time before you start seeing clips of folks brawling at the gas station. A couple of days ago, I saw two women buck at each other over who arrived first and who's turn it was to pump their gas. It was not pretty. Watching them made me ask myself how has this weak ass dollar affected me and my everyday life?

• No more specialty shower gels and bubble baths. They are not cheap and never have been. A bar of soap will clean me just the same. I shall leave it to the lotion to make my skin soft.


• No more paying bills by mailing in payment. Stamps add up, quickly. And they just went up another cent. Online bill payment is quick, easy, environmentally friendly, and FREE.


• Only buying food for one or two meals at a time. I realized how much food I waste on a weekly basis because I could not eat it fast enough before it went bad. Being a single housewife on the run, I don't spend a lot of time at home. I started buying 8 eggs vs. 12, smaller sized milk cartons, 2 apples instead of 4, etc...


• No more cover charges to enter a club or lounge. This has always been a personal rule of thumb, but I was willing to bend it if I felt that a specific occasion or event was worth it. Today, none of them are worth it. If there is a cover, I will party somewhere else.


• Making bus transfers. I don't own a car, so riding the train and bus is part of daily life. The bus is $1.25; when you board you get paper (or electronic) transfer that is valid for two hours of riding. I take an expired transfer with the current date and glue it on top of a transfer from a past date that has more "time" on it. Thus allowing me to ride all day without paying the all day fee ($3.00). Yes it's illegal, so don't tell nobody.


• Happy Hour chez Dark & Stormy. If me and the ladies are hitting the town for a night of fun, I get the party started at home. One drink at the club = a six pack at home. And my chicken wings taste better than theirs anyway. By the time I arrive to our destination, I'm ready for a coke and a dance.

The Ojays said don't let money change you. Always easier said than done.

Has the lean green changed your ways at all?

Tumultuously Yours,

Dark & Stormy