Food, Bargains and Stratty's 23rd

I have spent a lot of money lately so I am trying to recommit wholeheartedly to thrift.

James had a voucher for a free burrito at Guzman Y Gomez so we went to the Cronulla shop for lunch on Sautrday.  I had a mini burrito again ($6.50!).  We both chose beef this time and enjoyed it more than the chicken we had last time. 

Afterwards I discovered a corner shop selling old magazines for $1, $2 and $3 (depending how old).  I won't say which, because they might get shut down and then where would I buy magazines at a reasonable price?

Naturally I only bought the $1, but even so I was extra strict and narrowed my selection down to 2.  Cosmo's still not that good, in case you wondered.  Grazia is decent though and it was a bumper issue so well worth my dollar.

Then I came home to play Scrabble with Jimmy and Mum.  Jimmy won with almost 400 points.  What a champ.

Later I went out for my friend Stratty's birthday drinks!  Hello if you're reading and happy birthday!

I had dinner beforehand at Asian King, a Chinese restaurant in Newtown.  They had a deal where you could get a spring roll, a dim sim, steamed rice and a main meal for $12.80 or $15.80, depending how fancy a main you wanted.

$12.80 options included honey chicken (above) and something that looked a bit healthy (below).

I guess I am not as committed to thrift as I need to be, because I ordered Sizzling Thai Basil Chilli King Prawns from the posh menu:

I really enjoyed my prawns though, I think they were worth the extra $3.  I tasted the honey chicken too, which was nice, and also the salt and pepper squid, which I'm afraid I can't really recommend.

On the whole it was a great meal and I will definitely be back.  Thankyou Asian King for a rad dining experience!

Next we went to meet everyone at The Courthouse for drinks and pool and fun in general.

I thought Meg looked pretty good and so did The Willy.

You can't see it in the picture, but she was wearing a necklace with a PRETZEL pendant.

Wiggy wore a Back To The Future t-shirt, possibly the best piece of clothing a person could possibly own.

Everyone else looked like a bunch of babes too, I just couldn't be bothered taking any more pictures.

Today I stayed in, doing miscellaneous tasks and watching Desperate Housewives Season Five on DVD.

I polished my silver jewellery.

You can't tell really but it turned out SO SHINY.  It was pretty much bronze before.

Then I went to Kyle Bay Trivia, where we came third and I ate this garlic bread.

It was okay but I wish I had ordered chippies instead.

And now, a few of my recent thrifty purchases.

Myer had some shoes on sale last weekend.

I have been looking for simple but not dowdy black shoes for about six months so I was pleased to find these patent Miss Shop ones for $29.  They were only $49 originally so not an amazing bargain but they will do the job.

The following wedges weren't on my list but they were on the 75% Off Last Marked Price rack, which brought their price down to $12.50.

They are a bit reminiscent of The Duchess's, except higher and with an open toe and slingback.  So quite different, really.  I think they will be good to wear with black dresses in Summer though.  (I suppose it is nicer not to wear black in Summer but I can never help myself.)

The fabric of my leopard flats is coming apart so I bought these glitter gold ones at Kmart for $8.

They remind me of the sparkly shoes I used to wear when I was little, the ones with sequins and usually also satin roses on the toes.  Does anyone remember these?

I was looking for some hot pink jeans for a while but Kmart sold out of my size before I could get my hands on a pair, and anyway I remembered I had a hot pink blazer so I thought cobalt blue jeans might be better.

I got these at Big W for $18.86.  A great price but I prefer to buy my jeans too small because they stretch, and alas they didn't sell anything smaller than an 8 so these may end up too big.  I will have to see how they go.  They had heaps of other colours (I also bought navy but think they will go back) so if you are looking for some you should get over to Big W ASAP.  I mean Grand Double-Vay.

I have some other bargains too but I will have to show you later because I am too sleepy.

Things I Did During The Week

On Tuesday I went to my Nana's op shop aka Retail Therapy and bought this grey Barkins office dress for $8.

It's quite sack-like because it's a size too big, but I put a belt over it to gather up the excess fabric, and a cardi to hide the gathering:

Betty bought the belt for $3 at an op shop a few years ago and I've had the Tree of Life cardi since 2005 so it's all quite thrifty.

I also saw this blazer there, which I thought was actually really nice but it was too big for me - size 14 I think.  It was only $8 too, I wish it had been my size.

My Mum made toad in the hole for dinner the other night.

This is very English and, despite the name, very tasty.  Amy do you like toad in the hole?

I went to Bay Vista again!

I went a bit crazy and ordered crepes instead of waffles.  They were pretty nice, but the strawberries were underripe.  Even so, I'd order it again.  Only $11!

I went to Trivia Night on Thursday with the girls (hi girls if you're reading!). It was pretty hard this week but we won! The prize was $70 in vouchers, which we used on the spot to buy a few things for the next time we get together at someone's house. So exciting.

And I went to the physio and almost died of pain. That's about everything I did with my first week of holidays. God I'm cool.

Ikea, Trivia, Seafood

    
Last weekend I met some friends (hello friends if you're reading religiously) for lunch in Newtown. I don't remember the name of the cafe we went to but it was pretty nice!

    
Also while we were there I made a purchase, which I will share later, and the girls were filmed for Dumb, Racist and Drunk (Wednesdays at 9.30 on ABC). Exciting!


Afterwards I went to Ikea with Meg. It was pretty ace, they had all kinds of cool stuff that I would definitely have bought if I had my own home in which to put it.

   
               
    

Later I went to the Albion Place Hotel for Jaryd's farewell. Hello Jaryd if you're reading! I will miss you when you go! It is a bit expensive there but they had some cheap food options and the decor was nice.


I loved Meg's dress and I thought Ben looked very dapper in his eggplant shirt.
   
On Sunday I went shopping for office clothes, which is always a nightmare, but I scored a few bargains (more on all this later).
At night I went to Trivia Night at The Kyle Bay. While I was there I shared a seafood platter with James. I enjoyed it last time I had it, but this time the smoked salmon was actually sashimi, and they forgot the lemon. Still, not bad for under $40.


And we won trivia! Yay! Well done everyone. 

In Which I Eat Food From The Crest, Bay Vista, The Meridian, Guzman y Gomez And My Own Kitchen, and read STYD June

I wore this outfit to a "Cover Your Face" themed party on the weekend (thanks Liz for having us).  It was heaps of fun and as you can see I'm bringing down the CPW of the Reject Shop mask I wore to Teen Spirit.  Sorry about the dodgy snap.

If you wondered, it's a Temt dress ($15, but I had a $10 credit note so only $5 really), fleece lined tights from the supermarket, Court Couture "Pearly" boots from DSW ($69 but it was buy one get one half price so I also got the boots I wore in Canberra), Glassons Merino cardi ($60 but on sale for $48, still outrageous), necklaces from Big W ($3?) and a Barbie watch my Dad brought back from Europe one time.

The Crest is doing a 2 for 1 meal deal for members.  Their burgers are pretty good and only $10 anyway, so it's a cheap lunch for me and James.

Plus you can draw on the tablecloths!

James and I had dinner at The Meridian pub in Hurstville the other night.  We bumped into my friend Jason (aka Asian Jason, because this is The Shire and being Asian is still a thing around here), who told us to get the Beef Pho, so we did.

It was pretty tasty and only $7!  SEVEN DOLLARS!  All the food there is comparably cheap so I will definitely be back.  But I probably won't order these disappointing shredded pork rice paper rolls again:

On Mother's Day I made smoked salmon on Turkish for lunch.

For dinner I made this:

It's chicken topped with a creamy mushroom sauce from Julie Goodwin's book.  The orange roast vegetables (carrot, sweet potato and pumpkin) have a sour cream and horseradish sauce and walnuts on top.  The recipe for this is in a magazine somewhere in my house, but I couldn't be bothered looking for it so I just made it up.

The Bet-Dawg and I gave Mum the new Jodi Picoult book, a turtle keyring and a red mini teapot with a strainer in it.

Here's some Mother's Day/Grammar Nerd trivia for you:  Mother's Day has the apostrophe before the S because it's meant to be a special day for your own mother, but Fathers' Day has the apostrophe after the S, because it's just a day for fathers in general.  Mother's Day is a proper holiday invented by some lady who thought everyone should celebrate their mothers.  Father's Day is just what happened when Hallmark realised how much money they made off Mother's Day. 

Isn't learning fun?

My Shop Til You Drop arrived a couple of weeks ago.  They had this promising feature on hosiery:

I wasn't that impressed though, they didn't mention nearly enough kinds of insanely warm tights.  Perhaps Expect Cowgirls should feature tights one day.

I'm really not into this trend of metallic shoes that look as though they are made of cheap plastic and sold in the children's toys section of Kmart next to the tiaras.

Here are some mozzarella-stuffed giant meatballs Mum made.  The recipe is from Justine Schofield.  As you can see, we love our ex MasterChef contestants in this house.

Something else we love is SWEETS.  James and I finally went to Bay Vista in Brighton-le-Sands.  It was SO GOOD.  Oh em gee guys, you have to try it. 

This is an ice cream sundae of some kind:

I had Belgian Waffles with melted chocolate from the chocolate fountain.  This is weird but I don't think I had ever eaten Belgian Waffles before.  I can't imagine why not, because they are AMAZING.  And this was only about $9, pretty reasonable.

We had lunch a while ago from Guzman y Gomez.  On the left is James's burrito, on the right is my mini burrito.  As you can see, they are almost the same size, even though mine was a fair bit cheaper. 

I'll be honest: we didn't love them.  I think we will try Mad Mex next.

Here's a cupcake I made Amy for her birthday:

Naturally I had some too.

Does anyone think I should change the name to Expect Heiffers?