Queercents

I’m happy to announce that my sweetheart Karolyn and I got engaged a couple months ago. It’s amazing to think that just a few years ago I almost married the wrong girl (How To Undo a Wedding). I’m looking forward to finally being a bride next spring and planning as quickly as I can just so I don’t have it looming over my head. But now there are a lot of pressures to be the perfect feminine bride, to use this once-in-a-lifetime chance to flaunt my femininity to its max from the dress to the decor. And although I almost hired an expensive gay male wedding planning duo (fabulous, right!), I thought again.

After the first week of dreaming after the engagement and reading a few magazines, it finally set in that weddings wreak havoc on your bank account and the planet. I finally woke up and said to myself “Your version of femininity has always been more creative than traditional. Shouldn’t this day reflect the real you?” And then after another visit to gluttonous New York together, I remembered that she and I share the same values which include hoping to save a planet our children can live on.

Nina let you in on some larger ways to lessen the financial burden of the big day which made me want to write about some of ways we’ve chosen to save money and the environment:

Invitations: All Online. Save-the-Date cards, Invitations and entire website dedicated to event information is $99/year at WedShare. (A fourth of the price of the cheapest decent package.) Zero paper waste. Zero postage. And I designed them on my own which makes me feel super crafty.

Read the rest of this entry »

Ever wondered why a tiny jar of eye cream is so expensive? I wondered that too and I’ve been doing educated ingredient comparisons for a couple of years now to try and figure out what it is we’re paying for. It seems many women (and some pretty men, of course) are willing to spend anything for a the psychological benefits of feeling like they’ve done everything they can to try and diminish their crow’s feet.

Re-vive Intensite Volumizing Serum ($600 for 1.0 oz) has a “Naturally occurring protein molecule that halts DNA fragmentation.” La Prairie Cellular Radiance Eye Cream ($275 for 0.5 oz) “A multi-complex formula of time-correcting restorative therapy.” Sisley’s Sisleya Eye Cream ($190 for 0.5 oz)

Though I have not compared ingredients on these high-end creams myself, the fact that not one of these “miracles” has been on the front page of the Times should tell you that they really are nothing special in the ‘fight against wrinkles’. Read the rest of this entry »

At first glance, you may have thought this post was a frugal feminist protest of bras. I can’t do that because I’m a rather pendulous DD cup and if I burned my bras, my breasts would touch the ground in just a few years and that would make it hard to walk.

Instead, I’m here to discuss the cost benefits of breast-feeding for lesbians. This is sometimes a hard topic, as you can see when in 2005, Rosie O’Donnell said to a national audience that she was so jealous of her partner’s breast-feeding their child that she made her stop. Now, Rosie doesn’t have to worry about the cost of formula, but I have known quite a few lesbian couples who opted for formula-feeding only so that both moms had the same bonding experience with the baby. Breast-feeding can be hard skill for some women to learn, but formula is expensive. With formula between twenty to fifty cents to a dollar an ounce and at least 24 ounces a day, It’s amazing the other baby items you could afford in your child’s first year if you don’t use formula. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ll admit, this is more of a rant and a survey than anything informational.

I’m looking forward to making a family. We’re in the very beginning stages of planning the future but I can‘t stop thinking about it. One of the biggest things I am obsessing on is wanting a Big House. But this wanting is very confusing for me . Firstly I am not a shallow girl, and secondly, we’re not planning on having more than one child, two at most. Plus, I’ve never been competitive or very greedy or much about keeping up with any Joneses. Okay, so maybe I’ve been called a princess once or twice, but I wasn’t raised in a palace. Then again, maybe this is the reflexive effect of growing up in a two bedroom guest house with skylights instead of windows.

Still, there are big houses in my dreams at night. I am compelled to look at them on Craigslist. By big, I mean at least four bedrooms and a basement. Read the rest of this entry »

Three Reasons to have your shoes repaired:

1. The environment. Less shoes in the landfills.
2. Support your local economy instead of buying a replacement pair made who knows where.
3. It’s less expensive than a new pair.

I actually own and have worn through many less pairs of shoes since I began buying leather shoes instead of plastic and canvas. One of my buddhist vegan professors in college used to curiously lecture us that it was okay to buy and wear leather shoes since they are bio-degradable, don’t require petrochemical production and last longer requiring less consumerist behavior.

I recently did a favor for my best friend while she was out of town. She has asked me to take three of her favorite pairs of leather heels in for repair. I had to locate the best place in town, get a price and decide if it was worth the money. I had never thought of having my shoes repaired other than my tap dancing ones. These were, in fact, regular leather heels appropriated for her career as a burlesque dancer and teacher (high class theatrical strip tease). She is Miss Indigo Blue, Seattle’s Sapphic Sweetheart and I was in charge of three precious pairs of blue shoes. Read the rest of this entry »

Number One Favorite Way to Save Money: Become an Eco-Feminist

That’s right: a more progressive take on feminism includes doing right by your planet, your body and your pocketbook! And today’s Eco-feminist lesson is Make-up. Yes, that pigmented stuff you put on your face.

Now I know some women will tell me that wearing make-up at all is a distinctly anti-feminist act. I don’t have time to fight with that. Yawn. Bore. Get current already. As a queer femme woman, I am obviously not doing it because the Patriarchy and Men want me to. My red lips kiss girls. I wear make-up because I like the way it looks and it is creative- like painting. It is certainly a feminist act to choose make-up products which don’t harm the environment, your skin or the people who produce it and which don’t drain your bank account. To name one aspect of this self-protection feminism, we call up a preservative called Parabens, a synthetic estrogen in few compounded forms in your cosmetics) has been linked repeatedly to breast, ovarian and certival cancers. Chemicals like these and others penetrate do your blood through your skin and accumulate in your body. It is a feminist action to protect yourself and warn others that they are paying way too much to be poisoned. Read the rest of this entry »

Waxing, Facials, Body Scrubs. It’s amazing when people take time out of their schedules to treat themselves well. It has always been a crazy dream to one day open up my own eco-sustainable, organic spa. So I have been researching, that’s right…beauty school! An Esthetician program, to be exact. Cheaper than hair-cosmetology school, and even more marketable. It looks like we’re headed for a recession and it feels like we’re already there. I’m not sure I’m going to do it, but school is the right place for the under-employed when times are tough.

It started because as you may have read in my last post, I decided I needed a job to supplement my Life Coaching practice. Where I could always get a great paying job in less than two days whenever I wanted one; for some reason, it was a little harder during the holidays and in an economic slump.

The truth is that I am overqualified for the work I used to do. Read the rest of this entry »

In the Femme Economics series, I sure love to talk about my love/hate relationship with fashion and shopping. Ecologically and financially, I have said that for me it only makes sense to buy used clothing.  But I have also said that I buy shoes and lingerie retail- well, not quite retail.

Of all the many types of retail stores (boutique, department, discount department like Target), “Off-Price” stores are, in my humble opinion, the best. The most infamous in the fashion world arrived decades ago: Loehmanns. More middle-class shoppers have turned to these kinds of stores than was ever thought possible. And, they did decidedly better than other stores over this past financially dire holiday season. Read the rest of this entry »

While we’re taking a break during the holidays, follow along each day as our contributors provide a recap of their best posts from 2007. Thanks for reading and being a continued supporter of Queercents. Enjoy!

Most Commented:
Corporate America Loves Queers!?

Ultimate Tip:
What To Do If Your Car Is Vandalized

Recurring Themes:
How Gays Go Green- And Save!
Not So Starving Artists: 4 tricks

Personal Favorite:
In Need of Tissues

Read the rest of this entry »

Okay. I have been avoiding these “Sleeping With Money” posts because I was in the closet about something. I’m dating a lawyer. A corporate litigator, no less. I was in the closet partially because this seems to clash with my radical hippy tightwad version of myself ; and because money with us is hard and complicated. Really, it’s the only thing that is hard and complicated.

I mostly haven’t dated people who have jobs, stick with one job or make more than nine dollars an hour. I usually liked the interesting, slightly messed up creative types like me. Early this year I completely gave up on finding Ms. or Mr. Right. I thought I’d just have a baby by myself some day and my friends had decided I must not be attracted to people who are “worthy” of me. I decided the only person I would consider dating is Ellen Degeneres (if she broke it off with Portia). I wanted someone funny, kind and financially stable. I figured I was asking for the moon in that respect so I mused that I would BECOME FAMOUS instead of having a simple life and I set out to do so. Read the rest of this entry »