Thursday, March 5, 2009

Recessionista tip of the season: READ CITY CHIC!


This gem of a book is the ultimate resource for all you recessionistas out there. It is a savvy and smart go-to guide for a city girl living on a budget. If you have been following our "Recessionista Tips" you will love "City Chic."

"City Chic" written by Nina Willdorf, has an array of tips on how to maintain a fabulous life when living on a budget tighter than your skinny jeans. With a wide range of suggestions from how to furnish your apartment to the best ways to make your makeup last, this guide is overflowing with suggestions. In a big city like New York, there is expensive temptation everywhere. As a woman in my mid 20s working in fashion, I lack the resources to live an expensively fabulous NY life. So, instead of compromising everything to save a dime,"City Chic:the modern girl's guide to living large on less" has suggestions such as making lists before grocery shopping, doing clothing swaps, pregaming before going out, the cheapest ways to do laundry, free exercise, and how to get free furniture.

I think all of these ideas are great, I practice most of them myself, however, the one tip I am weary of is finding furniture on the street. In a big city like New York, there are germs and bugs crawling just about everywhere. Bed bugs are a serious epidemic in this city and most often live in old furniture. For this primary reason I am opposed to picking up furniture from the curb however good the condition it may be in. Instead of going through the hassle of having to spend the money to get rid of these awful bugs (its expensive) and dump the contaminated items, just buy your furniture from a store or get it second hand from a legit source.

Aside from this minor blip, I found the book useful and it is currently sitting on my coffee table. I have even come home and found my roomates perusing it and yelling out ideas for the next time we go out to eat etc.

Even though the state of the economy has everyone talking about savvy spending tips, it has always been in style to be thrifty.

3 comments:

  1. Such a great book! Def a culturista recommendation!

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  2. Another way to get inexpensive furniture is through thrift stores and auctions, especially the latter since they fumigate things like mattresses before putting them up for bid. In Los Angeles I think there is a weekly auction in the city of Lawndale, near LAX.
    Since so many households are now liquidating because of foreclosures, there must be similar auctions with great bargains all over the country.

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  3. thanks so much for the great tip!

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