Purchases, Melbourne, Thrift

I did declare another Frugal Feb at the beginning of last month but I wasn't so involved this time around. After all, my main expense - stuffing my face at every opportunity - was already covered by work while I was in Melbourne, and I'm trying to cut down on shopping.

Having said that, here is some stuff I acquired during Frugal Feb:

 

Windsor Smith black patent wedges, $64 (was $129.95) - DFO

Witchery pink jeans, $40 (was $99.95) and Witchery Kids leopard print belt, $7 (was $19.95) - DFO

 

I have wanted a skinny leopard belt like this for ages but the adults' ones are too big for my waist. I was so happy to find this one, especially at that price! From now on I'm doing all my accessories shopping in the kids' department.

This bracelet was a Valentine's Day present from Jimmy so it was free! Thanks James, I love it!

 

Our Man In Havana is borrowed from Jim and thus also free.  Watermelon came from the Salvo's store in Altona, I think it was $2.

 

Cotton On Body bras, $5 each - DFO. 

 

The Cotton On shop at DFO South Wharf appears to sell things from their stores overseas as well, because unlike the regular Aussie stores, this one had heaps of size 8 bras.  So if you're always searching for them like I am, you know where to go!

 

Target leopard print dress, $8 I think - Salvo's Altona

 

Howard Showers black dress, $40 (was $189 or something equally crazy) - DFO (Charlie Brown store)

 

I wore this dress three times while I was in Melbourne, i.e. once a week - cost per wear!  The first time was with black peeptoes and silver & diamante jewellery, to dinner with James.  The second was with the same shoes and the leopard print belt above, to Rockpool.  The third was with gold & black enamel earrings and my leopard shoes, on our awesome last night out.

 

You can't see it in this picture, but I'm pretty sure I wore my bee ring as well.  Buzz buzz.

 

Alcohol was another of my few expenses - I wasn't that restrained, but I did buy this on special!

 

Pilgrim navy camisole, $4, and Jacqui E raspberry knit, $6 - Salvo's Altona

 

Trying to pack light meant I bought most of my toiletries down there, then left them behind when I came home.  All of these were on sale, especially the body scrub ($3 I think, from DFO), the OPI You're A Pisa Work polish ($10) and the Hair Academy products from The Reject Shop.

 

I really liked the smell of the Herbal Essences shampoo.  The Taft hairspray is a new favourite, as is the Hair Academy pump action hairspray.  The Nivea lotion was like applying sunscreen, but gosh it worked well!

 

The body scrub smelled like the air fresheners in a shopping centre bathroom.  The John Freida hair stuff works pretty well but doesn't prevent static at all, and as the most expensive of the lot I really do not think it is worth a repurchase.

 

I bought these Kmart earrings for $6 (not on sale, that's just how much Kmart charges for earrings!) to wear with my black dress on our last night out because I was sick of all the jewellery I'd packed.  The J necklace is from Gloss, my favourite cosmetics and accessories chain - I think it was about $2 on sale.

 

 

So that's the lot! I am pretty happy with my purchases. I think I was pretty restrained considering, and quite practical too as I've worn/used almost everything already.  The total cost of all my clothes/accessories/cosmetics shopping plus two bottles of gin, three magazines and a few other sundries was about $330-$350 for the month.  It wasn't exactly the Struggle Street scenario of last year's Frugal Feb, but I'd call that pretty thrifty!

 

I was less thrifty with club entries, taxis and drinks when I went out, but I still reckon I would've spent about $300-$400 at the most.  It's a lot more than I'd spend normally but $100 a week for socialising isn't very much really, and for the amount of fun I had it's an absolute steal.

 

Last year I had lots of thrifty tips.  This year my advice is get a job at my work! (Disclaimer: the partying to working ratio will end up being like 1:100 - still beats most jobs!)

A Bit More Food And Stuff

Yesterday was super hot so I went to the beach with a bunch of my coworkers (hello if you're reading!).  It was the best thing ever, we stayed for about three and a half hours.

Afterwards we had dinner at Al Porto Vecchio again.

The steak was a bit overdone but otherwise v tasty.

It was such a fun night, thanks everyone for being so awesome!


Tonight I had a burger for dinner from Burger Culture.

 

It was totes delish.  This one was called the New Yorker, which is just a basic burger, but they had heaps of options and I bet they'd all be fantastic.  It's no The London, Canberra, but it was pretty damn good.

 

I also ate a hash brown, an egg, half a roast chicken, potato wedges, two lemonade icy poles and half a chocolate bar today.  I feel like such a heiffer.

See My Vest, See My Vest

We had tapas at some place in Williamstown the other night.  They had heaps of nice options on the menu but I thought the food was good-not-great.  Those huge fried things are meant to be zucchini flowers, what?

Nice place though and good service, I'd probably go back.

 

That was "Canadian Wedges".  I thought it would be like poutine, but it was actually just cheese and bacon on top - which would be delicious if it had been grilled, instead of microwaved.  Ugh.  Everyone else liked it though.

I made my housemates participate in an experiment of telling the difference between tonic, soda water and sparkling mineral water.  We couldn't be sure which was which out of soda and sparkling, but everyone successfully picked the tonic.  (Emily are you reading this?)

It was John's birthday on our first weekend here so we had a few drinks and snacks at the house.  If you know me in real life (i.e. all but about three of you), you know what that means:

 

Castle dip! (Hey Pistolzzzz)

 

Naturally I made cupcakes too but we actually didn't eat them til the next day.  Mmmmmm.

 

 

Anyway happy birthday John!

Here's me in my sexy tradie outfit.

I liked the fluro orange so much I got it in a jumpsuit too.

Flashdance moment:

We went out for breakfast to some cafe.

I forgot to take a photo of my own breakfast (what a dweeb) but it was delicious - eggs Royale! (Like Benedict, but with salmon.)  I ordered sides of spinach and avocado but alas they were both yuck.


The house has a well-stocked bookshelf.  I have wanted to read this for ages:

 

Lucky I did because it was SO GOOD.  It is one of my favourites now.  If you haven't read it yet sort that out ASAP.

Malbourne

Hello! If you didn't already know, I am working in Melbourne, or Malbourne in the local dialect, for the first month of my new job.

It is brilliant! There are a whole bunch of other people here too so it is heaps of fun.

And also frugal, because pretty much everything is provided.

I flew down on a free flight, eating a free cookie and reading a book my Nana (hello Nana if you're reading) passed on to me.

 

I came to my free share house, which is v lovely and full of rad people (hello rad people if you're reading!).

 

 

 

 

My room - the best one!

 

 

It's in Williamstown, which is quiet but nice, and full of good restaurants. The first one we tried was El Burro. We had tapas and paella. I liked it all. It was decent value, not super thrifty but we get a meal allowance, so it's frugal for me!

 

 

 

This beef was less blurry in real life.

 

 

 

Our first day of work was just induction stuff, like have good posture at your desk, don't hit on each other, get a super fund. And we got lunch, which in addition to being free was mega tasty.

 

Dinner was tasty too. I actually didn't love either of my dishes but I just ordered badly, the restaurant itself was great.