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Welcome to Bitches on a Budget .
We're a best selling book from NAL/Penguin, a blog, and an attitude. If you’re a woman who lusts after bargains (and, uh, other things), who wants the high life even when the bankbook’s low, who likes to eat well and look amazing without the guilty conscience, and enjoys a good laugh—well, you’ve come to the right place.
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Simple Syrup
July 7th, 2010 | Comments
Tags: Food & Spirits, heat, lemonade, simple pleasures
Where we live the heat is so brutal that it’s sapped, among other things, our healthy cooking drive. We’ve consumed gallons of water, laid around on the living room couch panting, and spent even more time than usual complaining. Never mind that it’s given us yet another excuse to put off to tomorrow our serious writing.
Hoping to break our heat-induced ennui, we’ve just mobilized to make fresh squeezed lemonade. While having tart juicy lemons is the first key ingredient in our drink, equally important is having cold simple syrup to use as a sweetener. Thankfully, we have a jar already made in our fridge. Otherwise, the lemonade would not be happening – no stove in our house today. Besides, just squeezing the lemons is a major exertion.
Our experience is that some lemons are tarter or juicier or more flavorful than others. We’ll squeeze four or five and then judiciously add the simple syrup to taste. To finish our drink we add several sprigs of fresh spearmint.
Simple, Simple Syrup
1 cup sugar*
1 cup boiling water
Boil the water add sugar. Stir until dissolved. Cool and refrigerate in a glass jar (up to a month). Perfect for lemonades/limeades and all mixed drinks.
*corrected from an earlier heat-induced (what else could it be?) mistake.
Heel Power. Men Lust after Women, Women Lust after Shoes.
July 7th, 2010 | Comments
Tags: Michelle Obama, Sarah Palin, sex, shoes, Shopping
We’ve been thinking about shoes and why we love them. Why is it we have so many pairs and they are all so different? (One might argue that the twelve pair of basic black heels in our closet are all the same, but they’d be missing their complex nuances: the slightly different heel heights, subtly different toecaps, variations in leather grain.) Do men have shoe envy? No. They lust after us (that’s why Tiger, Letterman, Spitzer, etc. got into trouble)… and cars and weapons.
Anyway, recently we were window-shopping on our way to the taping of the Colbert Report (not us; our brother-in-law, the AK 47 history-genius, shared with the country that the Kalashnikov is more reliable than Microsoft Windows, like, duh). Although we were running late, the complex architectural build up of the latest platform shoes caught our eye and we spent considerable time calculating where our center of gravity would reside. Would we topple over in them? Surely we’d be hobbled like an ancient bound-foot Chinese woman. We passed by.
We didn’t get but two blocks before we were stopped dead in our tracks by the most stunning, most simple, most elegant over-the-knee black boot. These were perfect. Tall, lean, aristocratic. At once soft, supple, hard, and stately. Best of all, this boot had a long zipper up the back. It was the sexiest article of clothing we had ever seen. Ever. We wanted to stop and make it ours. Yes, we may be Bitches on a Budget, but this fell into our splurge-worthy category if any item in the history of time ever did. But we knew the guys at the TV studio wouldn’t let us in if we were tardy, and — never mind missing our brother-in-law or Colbert — we wouldn’t get to meet Elvis Costello and his glasses (which are now #2 on our must have list). So we marched on.

We left town the next day and had no time to run back to the shop. Now we have the worst case of unrequited lust in our hearts for that perfect boot. Which we had almost gotten over until we read that Michelle Obama just ordered a pair of Robert Clergerie from Paris. Now we have double-lusting-envy (an awful disease) — our all time favorite shoemaker making Mrs. O a custom pair of thigh-high boots. Drool.
It’s left us wondering: what is it about shoes? Do they mirror our innermost fantasies? Are they ready-made embodiments of our various identities? Work boots, hikers, peep-toes, ballet shoes, stilettos, oxfords, flats, Keds. Perhaps they’re each simply a reflection of the complexity of every modern woman — wife, mother, sister, daughter, party-girl, lover, worker, power broker, on and on. No other accessory can so entirely embody and transform our self-conception.
Well, for now we’ll keep on coveting Michelle Obama’s new boots (they fall into our super-splurge category). And we’ll start our search for those gorgeous babies glimpsed so fleetingly in that Manhattan window (they should be on sale by now). If ever any shoe was the embodiment of all our feminine contradictions this tall strider was it, and now we’re on the hunt.
Whose shoes do you choose?
This is an abridged version of a story we originally wrote for the Huffington Post.
This Summer Vacation Break the Mold
July 2nd, 2010 | Comments
Tags: bargain, budget, Food & Spirits, simple pleasures, staycation, Travel & Entertainment, vacation
With summer vacation on our door we’re thinking about ways to save during your week off and one way is to mix up when and what you eat:
Break the mold and eat fancy for lunch:
We can think of nothing more luxurious than dressing up and and...
Beets!
July 1st, 2010 | Comments
Tags: beets, budget, Food & Spirits, Health & Fitness, recipes
Since we live to eat and we love nothing more than yummy, fresh, local produce we’re in heaven now that our local farms are selling their wares. So far this summer we’ve eaten our way through the arugula, lettuces, strawberries, rhubarb...
Use Less and Live Big
June 29th, 2010 | 1 Comment
Tags: budget, Environment, Food & Spirits, green, Health & Fitness, savings
Our official mantra “less is more” makes us good green queens. While there’s little good to have come out of this recession, we count our blessings that the go-go days of consuming everything in our path are in the past. After all,...
Every Kid Needs Chocolate Chip Cookies
June 28th, 2010 | Comments
Tags: bargain, budget, chocolate chip cookies, Food & Spirits, Health & Fitness, kids, mamas, parenting
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We’ve been wondering what triggers warm memories of feeling safe at home?
The sweetest of all our childhood memories is coming home from school to freshly made cakes, muffins and chocolate chip cookies.
Just this morning we read the...
A Vodka Worth Trying
June 25th, 2010 | Comments
Tags: Food & Spirits, martini, vodka
It’s the perfect summer weekend where we live and we’re heading out to the docks to pick up fish from one of the day boat fishermen. Usually, we can score a whole fish for five bucks. We’ll stuff it with herbs and throw it on the grill!...
Searching for Interior Space Ideas? Free Peeking
June 22nd, 2010 | 1 Comment
Tags: Decorating, home design, interior, Shopping, women's
What woman in her heart of hearts isn’t a secret voyeur?
It’s nighttime. You’re strolling down the street, past rows of homes, curtained window after window. Tell us, are you not drawn to the one room not entirely hidden from sight? To that...
Stop Shopping, Try Swapping
June 19th, 2010 | Comments
Tags: budget, green, Shopping, simple pleasures
Sentimental B’s have cornucopias of junk. Plastic containers, bags, shoe boxes all overloaded with gadgets and gizmos of all shape and size. Belts, watches, candle holders, mirrors, bracelets, keychains, wing-dings, do-hickies,...
The One Must Have Herb in Your Garden: Lemon Verbena
June 16th, 2010 | 1 Comment
Tags: Food & Spirits, Gardening, Health & Fitness, Herbs
While tarragon, lovage and lavender are major players in our huge herb garden (along with the ‘usual’ basil, oregano, rosemary and thyme), this summer we’ve cornered the local market on lemon verbena.
Lemon Verbena
Many years ago, we were...
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| Being a "bitch" means having fun, knowing what you want, not settling for second best. It means being savvy. Smart. In control. In other words it’s a way of living—NOT a way of treating others. Be a bitch without being bitchy. Be generous and share your money-saving tips with the rest of us. Pretty please? We’re in it together, after all. (If that’s not enough to convince you, there’ll be prizes…) READ MORE » |
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