Tag: shopping

564 Words About Gift Cards (and some special skills)

1 Comment

I, like all of you, have skills.  In addition to organizing,

  • I can quote movies and song lyrics from a range of decades and genres;
  • I can roll my tongue, and wink with either eye (my 12 year old’s suggestions);
  • I can read upside down, and I know the number equivalent of each letter of the alphabet, so writing in code is a piece of 3-1-11-5 (cake); and
  • For today’s purposes, I know way more about gift cards than most people.  (There are more skills, of course, but that’s enough for now!)

gift_card_holder_2lWhy do I know about gift cards?  In addition to giving and receiving gift cards like most people, I help administer a gift card-based tuition reimbursement program at my son’s high school, so I spend a lot of time working with gift cards.  To help you this Holiday Season, I thought I would drop some knowledge on how to use and give these handy items!

Here are some tips to help you manage your Gift Cards:

  • Gift cards are money.  Therefore:
    • They are meant to be spent, and
    • They need to be managed (management is defined as getting the most out of our resources).
  • Know where your gift cards are, and what you have in stock.  Have a single safe place at home to keep them, in one drawer or on your desk (Not all over the house!).
  • If you just don’t know how much a gift card is worth, call the customer service number on the back, or go to the website.  If a card has been used, the company can usually track exactly when and where the balance was used. Grab a sharpie,  and jot the date and current balance on the front of the card.  Keep a small sharpie with you, to jot the new balance on a card if you only use part of the value. This one clicks on a key ring!  minimarker_black
  • If you received gift cards for a certain store or restaurant, sign-up online or via an app or social media (FB, Twitter) for special offer notifications.  Use your gift cards along with those special promotions to get a bigger bang for your buck.  For example, I have a Starbucks Gold Card, and with my on-line account I receive special offers and can add money or gift cards to the balance.
  • Carry the gift cards you plan to use with you, but certainly not all the cards you have. Carrying all of them could be cumbersome and you risk losing them! (There are apps like Slide to manage and digitize your gift cards.)
  • And yet, you don’t have to take your gift cards with you.  If you receive gift cards for on-line retailers like Amazon.com or ITunes, redeem the gift cards and add to your online account balance when you receive them, and then toss the redeemed cards away.
  • USE YOUR GIFT CARDS!  They are money, but some can lose value over time, or merchants may go out of business.
  • If you have gift cards that you don’t ever plan on using, you can sell your cards.  There’s Craig’s List or Facebook groups dedicated to buying / selling, plus other websites or apps just a quick google search away.

This week, collect those gift cards from all the spots you’ve stashed them, and turn them around for more gifts, a nice dinner out or maybe some $$ for Christmas Shopping!

Who’s Driving This Car Anyway? You. You Are In Charge. 

Image

Every day, we’re bombarded by unwanted pressures influencing our decisions.  To improve time management, clear mental clutter and find Peace of Mind, it is important to remember Who Is Driving This Car, Anyway?  You are.  You own your decisions.

It’s hot outside, but a client just purchased flannel sheets… patterned with snowflakes. Why?  Because he keeps a running list of household items he needs, and then peruses emails from his favorite retailers, waiting for a good sale and free shipping.  He found some high quality sheets on clearance, got a great deal plus free shipping.  This client is driving the car.  He’s in charge, and uses retailer offers to his best advantage.

Speaking of sheets, another client asked “Why should I buy sheets in January?” Major retailers typically offer White Sales and special deals on bedding, towels, etc. in January, but she resents pressure from outside forces to buy bedding only in January.  If we need new bedding now, why wait?  And if we don’t need bedding or towels, we may succumb to advertising pressure and begin to think maybe we really DO need them, since the advertisements say we do.  This client is in charge, and will buy bedding based on needs, not on advertising pressures.

What should guide your actions:

  • Your beliefs, faith, personal goals and objectives
  • The needs and wants (within reason) of your loved ones / the people you are responsible for
  • Your own needs and wants, in that order
  • Your work responsibilities, your own agenda, personally and professionally, and the tasks attached

What should NOT guide your actions:

  • Indecision. Fear. Procrastination. Inertia.  Busy work.
  • Pop-culture pressures.  Anything you see on TV or in a catalog, article or newspaper, unless it fits in with the list above of “Should Guide Your Actions”
  • The unsolicited suggestions or opinions of strangers, or other people’s drama / goals / objectives

I mentioned in a paper management class last week that we should unsubscribe from every Catalog.  We live very happily without an item until we see it in the shiny pages of a catalog.  And then we are reeled in with the artfully crafted ad and MUST HAVE that piece!  A class participant shared an insight she gained from that statement:

She has been struggling to stay inside her weekly food budget. She dutifully reviews the grocery store ads for the best deals on her food items, and uses coupons, too.  However, she lets the ads dictate her grocery list, instead of looking first at what she already has on hand in her kitchen.  The stores were driving the car, not her own needs.  She will now shop for what she needs, and not just what is on sale.

I read an article last week about how double spacing between sentences is now outdated, and everyone should single space after a period.  The writer reasoned that the age of computers has eliminated the need for double spacing as fonts are more readable now than on a typewriter.  Reading this reasonable (single spaced) article could influence me to edit the last 20 years of my articles, just to conform to this writers’ assertion.

But… it turns out, I don’t care.

I don’t care if my sentences are single or double spaced. Perhaps I should, and perhaps I will try to start that new habit, but probably not.  I could spend hours and days adhering to some stranger’s suggestion.  But I won’t.  Because 1.  both ways are technically correct, 2. I have other things to do with my time, and 3. I’m driving THIS car.

Get clear on your own beliefs, values, needs and wants. Make sure you are the one Driving This Car.  You will make better decisions, and be less likely to cave under external pressures.

My Shopping trip with Tamika Maria Price, Wardrobe Consultant!

My new favorite jacket

My new favorite jacket

Thursday morning, 9 am:  I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I am really excited to go shopping with Tamika Maria Price (http://www.tamikamariaprice.com/  and http://www.alinechicago.com/) at Macy’s!  I’m never excited to shop, but I am today!

9:45 am:  Driving out to meet Tamika, I realize the unfamiliar feeling in my stomach is Fear. About shopping!  Silly right?  Every day, I do things that frighten others.  Public speaking, singing in public for hundreds?  Bring it on.  Bugs, spiders, wild animals – eh, no biggies.  Leading groups, starting a business, parenting sons and teenagers?  Tough some days, but not scary.  Shopping for clothes for me?  Terrifying.

Why?  My fears include spending too much money; not finding what I want and wasting time; not knowing if I’m buying the right clothes or styles or colors or sizes; being frivolous, spending time and money on me instead of others.

12:30 pm:  I had nothing to fear!  It was great to shop with someone who knows what she is doing!  Tamika worked the sales, came with coupons, helped me find my style, knew my colors and took care of me!  I have 17 awesome items plus accessories, and here is what I learned:

1.  Try Multiple Sizes.  I tried on 3 different sizes of clothes, depending on the type of item and the designer.   Thankfully, my shopping consultant planned for this, because I would not have.  And it’s not just because I am a petite on the bottom, and regular sized on top, it’s because each designer is just a little different.  The pair of jeans I bought – I tried on 3 pair, in two different colors.  I liked the indigo in one color, but the same size in a maroon was too big.  Go figure.Hmmmm, which fabulous new sweater to wear today?

2.  Break Your Own Rules.  I operate under certain rules when it comes to clothes and shopping, and I am not even aware of those rules most days.  What colors go with other colors, what shoe color or accessories go with certain items, etc.  Tamika helped me examine those rules while we worked together, and stretch my comfort zone just a little. 

3.  Go ahead and shop once in a while.  And shop multiple stores.   As we walked to our second stop, Tamika asked me where I usually go to shop.  I looked at her blankly, because there is no “usually go to shop”.  I shop when I have to, and I shop on-line with a few retailers whose sizing I can rely on, like Eddie Bauer and Coldwater Creek.  The problem with that?  All my clothes come from the same two stores, which gets a little predictable and boring.   I will still rely on my favorites, but I will also go in person to shop at least once a season, to try stuff on and see what’s available.

New shirt, earrings and necklace.

4.  Buy a few new things every season to keep your wardrobe and style fresh.  I wore an ensemble this past Sunday: my new favorite white-with-black-stripe shirt and new statement necklace with a slim black skirt, black cami and sandals I already had.  A couple of new pieces updated the whole look.  Looking great doesn’t have to break the bank.

5.  Stay focused, and shop with a list.  Go with a plan and a list.  You never know what you may end up with otherwise!  But of course, when a really great sweater presents itself, fabulous and on sale, consider going off the list just a little, and try it on!

And for the best shopping trip ever, take Tamika with you!!!

I Learned New Things In My Closet This Week!

I like my clothes, but come Spring I always get the urge to purge old items, put away my winter stuff and buy a few things to green dress with accessories update my closet. I have a few challenges:  I like to look good, but often get stuck in ruts when it comes to daily dressing.  I have great accessories but forget to use them.  And historically, I dislike shopping.  I don’t know what to buy, what fits my body type or what the current styles are. I have gotten better in recent years, but I still find shopping for myself a challenge.

I met with Tamika Price, Wardrobe Coach, last Wednesday doing a “closet audit”.  (www.tamikamariaprice.com , or Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/tamikamartellprice).  I spend a lot of time in other people’s closets, but this is the first time I spent time with someone else working on mine!  As we set up our appointment, Tamika was conscientious and punctual, always plusses in my book.  Plus she is very pleasant to spend time with, and looks great all the time.  I know I’m receiving sound style advice from a stylish person!

In preparation for our appointment, I collected everything, even outerwear and my really dressy items, and brought it all togetherdonate pile for review.  Since the dressy items were out, we looked at those first.  A few items went to the “donate” pile immediately; an old dreary suit, and a full length formal black skirt that I have no business, at 5’2”, wearing … ever.  Everything else stayed, but she recommended getting my favorite formal dress shortened to a more flattering length.  Brilliant!  So I started the “to be altered” pile.

We reviewed tops and jackets next.  Since I shaved my head, I am even more drawn to bold colors.  Pastels wash me out now that there’s no hair to soften the look!  A few weeks ago, I pulled out some light-colored items I no longer find flattering, but I waited to hear from Tamika before I let them go completely.  She showed me how to better accessorize one of them, and the others went to the “donate” pile.  I repurposed a favorite but underutilized jacket as outerwear, and now I leave it and another stylish jacket at the back door to grab as I run out in the morning. And all the while we are reviewing my clothes, Tamika was suggesting ways to wear the items I already have, new and different combinations I had not imagined on my own.  And the suggestions were all awesome!to be altered pile

On to skirts and pants. I have a lot of skirts.  I like them, I look good in them, and I wear them often.  Tamika is very diplomatic and focused.  I lobbied to keep a skirt that she suggested I donate.  Respecting my desire to keep it, she suggested a shorter length and some accessories to improve the look. I also mentioned how much I hate boot-cut pants, and my need for a stylish pair of jeans.  She kept notes on all of my preferences, offered suggestions and noted everything on her checklist / shopping list of essential haves and need- to- buys.

Since our appointment, I have used my wardrobe much better.  I have dug a little deeper in my closet and been more imaginative with my ensembles, using both neglected items and regular items in new ways.  I have put together pieces I would not have thought to before, I wear my accent pieces daily, and I have dressed up a little more for client meetings.skirt with yellow tee

To sum up what I learned this week, or what I already knew but needed reminded of:

  1. Be willing to alter your current clothing items to update a look or better suit your style.
  2. Re-imagine what you have in your closet in new and interesting ways.  Tamika paired a skirt that came as a set with a totally different top for a totally different look.
  3. You probably already have really great items in your closet, you just need to      remember and refresh what you have and use it better.
  4. There are some things you just can’t fix.  Itchy or ill-fitting, items that are stretched out or just not my color, yep – let them go.dressed up gray and green henley

Most surprisingly, at least to me, is that I am really looking forward to shopping soon with Tamika!  I know the basic pieces she has suggested will stretch my clothing choices, and that the new items on the list will give me more options and more shine to my everyday work image.  And instead of dreading my shopping trip, I am optimistic that it will be successful, which is a big change!  I’ll update you after our shopping trip!