As if it wasn’t hard enough to weed out all the sketchies at the bar already, we now have something else to be suspicious of. His phone number.Well, not the actual number, but what he writes it on.

There’s no doubt in my mind that the creator of these Custom Fake Receipts must be some, graduated college in nine years Van-Wilder-type frat boy living off Daddy’s money ‘til he struck it rich thanks to the desperate-for-female-attention market he once was so proudly a part of. (You know those guys that will do absolutely anything to get in your pants?)

These counterfeit ATM slips have an agonizingly pathetic purpose. The gameplan? Mr. I-Used-Four-Bottles-of-Gel-to-Get-My-Hair-Like-This actually succeeds in buying some innocent girl enough drinks to get her nice and sloppy, and just when her beer goggles have set in just right, (he looks more like James Marsden than James Gandolfini all of a sudden) he whips out one of these slips. Read More »

So, you’re getting ready to move out onto your own. Either you’re starting college, setting-up shop in off-campus housing, or beginning your “adult life” somewhere far away from the safety of your parents’ basement.

And you know what would go great with this newfound individuality? A pet. Right?

Something fluffy and cuddly that will always be there when you get home and love you unconditionally, something to keep you company on those long nights when no one calls and all you’ve got is the Food Network to keep you from plummeting into a chasm of mind-numbing boredom.

Something small, cute, simple.

Not to sound like your mom, but it ain’t as simple as you think.

I learned a very expensive lesson this week; having a pet isn’t easy. Especially when they get sick. Read More »

Ah, clothes, purses and sunglasses. Why do you torture me so?

While I do think it is a teeny-weeny-bit ridiculous that you are coming out in full autumn getup, you are, nonetheless, so freakin adorable.

Seeing your quilted leather handles or fur trimmed collar makes me want to pack away my mini-dresses and tanks and pray for a snow day.

But then I see your price tag and am forced back into reality — I can barely afford the final clearance summer rack let alone a new Marc Jacobs fall coat (which is really a shame because what a cute coat you are!).

However, there is hope my fellow penny-pinching college students of mine.

Thanks to Real Simple magazine, I have a few tips that will help you save up for that rainy day shopping spree.

• Buy Gas On Tuesdays: gas prices go up on weekends often because they want to take advantage of errand runners and weekend travelers. Read More »

Whether you are enjoying the high life that is college – complete with parental support – or collecting change out of the couch just to get that much needed after-work-martini, coming into some extra money is a wonderful thing. Especially when you want on of these or, the newest addiction in my life, the latest version of Guitar Hero. (Note: SERIOUS dude magnet!)

But finding extra money isn’t always so easy. Or fun. Especially if you consider selling your eggs or serving your fellow students in the cafeteria. Read More »

Last semester, I woke up one day and realized I was completely out of money. I guess going to the Ralph Lauren Outlet a weekend earlier had been therapeutic for my mind but not my wallet. What’s a girl to do?

Instead of freaking out and starting to dumpster dive, my anxiety mobilized me to act. I started by cleaning out my closet. I isolated the items that sat in there and gathered dust (which was nearly everything) and spent a day listing them on eBay. A week later, I had made three hundred bucks off of old clothes and handbags (and, tear tear, brand – new discount Ralph Lauren Oxford shirts). I took the stuff that didn’t sell on the net to a resale shop in my neighborhood and scored another $20.

The best part was that most of the things I sold I hadn’t bought in the first place (thanks mom!), so I accrued a maximum profit. I’m the farthest thing from a business major, but I know that’s pretty sweet.

So if you’re short on cash, ditch your material sentimentality and purge your closet. You’ll end up with more than just monetary rewards: ebaying my life ended up being more therapeutic than the discount shopping. After I had shipped away my things, I felt the weight of hundred pounds lifted from my shoulders. Out with the old and in with the money! Next stop: MBA.

So you graduated. Whoop-de-do. Sure it’s amazing to be done with final exams/papers/all nighters and the like but who are you kidding? Is there anything to look forward to in the real world?

If you are like me, you are totally hesitant about becoming a Real Person with a real schedule and real responsibilities. And if you aren’t dreading the hard, fast and very rude awakening you are about to undergo, I’m here to tell you to jump on this train because it is going to suck.

But there is one thing to look forward to while you are home unpacking all your memories, sifting through pictures of your senior bar crawl and thinking about how it’s only downhill from here on out… graduation gifts! Now that deserves a whoop-de-do (with an exclamation point) !

Only problem is whenever I am put on the spot with a “What do you want for graduation?” it seems as though I can never think of anything and end up getting gifts I don’t really have any use for. Read More »

Getting a debit card might be the worst thing that’s ever happened to me; compiled with the internet, the two opened Pandora’s Box, rowed me across the River Styx and into Dante’s Inferno.

My parents were always adamant about me not having a credit card and I actually agreed with them. It would just be too dangerous. But the debit card still enables me (and I wouldn’t hesitate to say it encourages me) to online shop unabashedly. Or at least until the honey pot runs dry.

In today’s New York Times, there was an interesting article about unintentionally buying/signing up for things online and then being charged for them for months, even years, without noticing. While this specifc problem might be contained to a specific generation (cough, your parents, cough), online shopping can be a different kind of issue when you’re just too good at the internet, like me.

Or so I thought. Ebay, I have found, is the greatest evil on the internet. I find one million things I want, usually designer and usually from China, and somehow I can justify paying ridiculous sums of money for them because they are still cheaper than they would be off-the-rack. Read More »