Grocery Shopping in Boston

Finding good deals on grocery items isn't an easy task in Boston. I have definitely learned a lot about how to be a smart shopper in just a few weeks. Here's how the process went.

-First stop: Stop & Shop -- this is owned by Giant, so I thought the prices would be pretty decent. Attempting to stock up my fridge since I had nothing, I went to one close by. I came home with juice, 3 bananas, and a loaf of bread... not exactly "stocking up". Everything was way more expensive than back home! Even ramen noodles were more expensive! I did find out that you can use a Giant card at the Stop & Shop, and it works just fine.

-Attempt #2: Shaw's -- this must be a northern thing. Their prices were better... if things were on sale, then they were prices that I would be willing to pay when I was living in D.C., but they weren't sales that rivaled the "good" sales in D.C. They do double coupons up to 99 cents, though!

-Third try: Target -- their food prices seem pretty stable to what you'd see in other areas. Their sales on food are nationwide, so that is another advantage. I found a few great buys on clearance items, but not everything at Target is always a great deal.

-Numero Quatro: Market Basket -- finally!! I was talking with my landlord and his wife about the best place to buy groceries. They highly recommended Market Basket as having the most reasonable prices in town, and although I have to drive a bit of a ways to get there (meaning it is a weekend-only kind of place), I was actually able to stock up on food! Some of their prices are even lower than what I have seen in D.C. (although some are still higher). At least I will now be able to eat more than just PB&J all the time!

-#5: Trader Joe's -- I can walk there, and there are always a few staples that I like to get: 100% durum semolina pasta for 99 cents a package, their tasty minestrone soup, frozen naan, and jarred masala simmer sauce.

So, it took a while, but I finally found some places in Boston that will be able to serve my needs as a poor graduate student while still eating semi-healthily. Now the challenge is to see whether I will have the time to actually eat once I am loaded down with law school classes!

Truck Rental

For my 9+ hour journey to Boston from D.C., I figured that I needed a rental truck to haul all my stuff from the condo to the new apartment - I definitely can't fit all of my belongings into a Prius! Now that I've had this experience with rental truck companies, I think I have some helpful advice for others who may be considering this option for a move.

1) Look up different companies online to find out their best prices -- they will vary company to company. Since I was doing an inter-city move, the options were fewer than if you are just moving within one city. Most companies won't rent you a moving van in lieu of a truck if you are returning it to a different location.

2) Make the reservation a couple of weeks in advance if possible -- there'll probably be fine print when you make the reservation saying that you can only change or cancel it up to a day or two in advance. Here's what I learned that can really save you money: After you've made the reservation, call back and say you want to cancel to use another company. They want your business, and they don't want to give it to a competitor, so they will reduce your price. I had a 12' Penske truck reserved for $450 (the most competitive online price), and called to tell them to cancel because I found a better offer on a Uhaul van. They reduced the price to $250 -- a huge difference! If I hadn't done this, I never would have known that you can haggle with these rental truck companies.

3) Be prepared to pay dearly for some gas. Ouch. We made it all the way from D.C. to Connecticut on one tank of gas, but I paid $175 to fill it back up (gas was ~ $4/gallon at the time).

4) When you make a reservation for a certain-sized truck, you may in fact receive a larger one. My reservation for a 12' ended up with 16' truck -- way more than I needed! But when I expressed dissatisfaction to the manager, he threw in some extra tape and other supplies, which was nice. And supposedly, the 16' gets the same gas mileage as the 12'.

5) I never realized before just how many roads there are that do not allow trucks. These rental trucks qualify as real trucks, so you have to stop at the weigh stations and can't go on roads that say "no trucks". I also had never noticed the road signs before limiting trucks to only certain lanes of the highway.

Yipit!

I just found out about a new deal website!

Check out Yipit. It is a deal aggregator that collects daily deals from hundreds of different sites and recommends the best ones for you based on your preferences. From the sound of it, this could save a lot of time looking through all of the daily deals at so many deal websites, and it could provide you with deals from ones you might not know about yet.

World Market Explorer

Do you like shopping at World Market? I'm really excited about what I just received in my inbox!

Apparently if you join the World Market Explorer Rewards Program, you'll receive a $10 reward during the month of your birthday! I was already pretty happy about getting e-mails every once in a while with 20% off any purchase, but this birthday reward doesn't have any requirements other than "Valid on minimum pre-tax purchase of $10 or more" and that it has to be used by the end of the month. I will definitely make a trip to World Market very soon. Especially with how reasonable their prices are on kitchen items!

Happy August!

Since it's August, I decided that such a lovely month deserves a little bit of a theme. I've been doing a lot of cooking at home lately, which involves trying to plan ahead with meals and using mostly items that can be stored long-term to buy them when they are the cheapest. The fresh produce and perishable items I buy dictate a lot of what I am making.

By grongar via Wikimedia Commons

So this month's theme is food!

I'm going to try and put some of my best ideas... many of them being modified versions of recipes I've found on different websites. The fewer [quickly] perishable ingredients, the better. Items like shredded cheese and salad dressing I don't really consider perishable, because they tend to last a long while before going bad.

This Creamy Seafood Lasagna recipe from Food.com went over very well with my family. Since I make mine using a 9x9 baking dish rather than a special lasagna dish, I end up halving the recipe. For three people, that amount lasted for two meals when I had a small side salad or bread served with it.

Yum!

The [relatively] expensive ingredients: I buy imitation crab meat and shrimp and freeze them when they go on sale at Harris Teeter, buy one get one free or better. Most of the other ingredients were ones that I would already have anyway, except for half-and-half and ricotta cheese. When I saw both of these items go on sale at the same time a couple of weeks ago, I knew it was time to try out the recipe.

The changes: I didn't' have an onion, so I just left that out. I used wheat flour instead of all-purpose to try and make it a little healthier. I also added a little less half-and-half and a little more canned chicken stock for the same reason. Looking through my freezer, I found some squid and added that in to the seafood mixture. Instead of buying mozzarella and parmesan, I just bought one of those bags with the mixed Italian cheeses. I also used dried parsley rather than fresh. When making the ricotta mixture, I also added some Italian seasoning to flavor things up a bit.

The preparation: For those of us relatively new to cooking -- layer of sauce, layer of lasagna noodles, layer of ricotta mixture, layer of seafood -- Repeat -- add cheese to the top. The end. If you know the general idea of making a lasagna, the only differences about this one are that you have to make the sauce rather than opening up a can and the meat portion isn't already in the sauce. It doesn't actually take very long, either. Just follow the recipe and make any substitutions you want. Because the shrimp and squid I used for this were raw in the bag, I just added them that way to the lasagna and they cooked up just fine in the oven.

Grocery Shopping

So, I do recognize that the title of this blog post may cause some people to flee immediately. Who cares about grocery shopping, and what is there to discuss on a blog, really? Well, in case you've been living under a log and haven't heard about this "extreme couponing" craze, it can be actually quite satisfying. Who doesn't like getting really great deals on stuff that you have to buy anyway (like food)? There are all kinds of guides out there on how best to organize your shopping so that you can save most efficiently and effectively, but here is my own personal take on what works for me.

1) Grocery Gadget - This is a free app I downloaded off of itunes for my iPhone. Get it (yes, it works for Androids too). You can sign up and access your grocery list either through the app or through the online portal when you're on your computer.

2) Weekly Circular - I shop for groceries primarily at Harris Teeter; I used to make a trip to Giant once a week too, but under detailed comparison found Harris Teeter to be superior as far as the price goes for all but maybe one or two items that I buy. Other than Harris Teeter, I only tend to shop for groceries at either Target or the local H-Mart (Korean grocery) -- but those stores only for specific items.

3) Online Shopping Cart - I hate when the weekly circulars only tell you "buy one get one free"... that still doesn't tell me how good of a deal I'm getting. If I type the item into the shopping cart, I can find out for sure how much the non-sale price is and what the sale price is. It even provides the nutrition info so that I don't have to go searching around the internet to find and compare products.

4) Coupon Binder - I was just putting all of my coupons into a little checkbook-sized folder, but I had a challenge remembering what was in there. After deciding to try the coupon binder approach -- which involves using baseball card protector sheets purchased on Amazon and organizing the coupons alphabetically-- I have gotten a lot better at actually making sure I use the coupons I have in conjunction with sales.


5) Wunderlist -  This is another free app that helps me keep things organized and has an online version too. I have a whole "list" set up for grocery coupons; each item in the list specifies the product brand, specific item name, coupon amount, and I place the expiration date under the task "due date". As I build up a larger selection of coupons, this will help me keep them organized and also provides me with a quick list that I can look through to see if I have a coupon for a particular item. You just have to be good about updating the list when you use the coupons.

Once a week when Harris Teeter sends me the weekly circular, I open items 1-3 and 5 in tabs on my browser. Starting from the circular, I create a grocery list from sale items that a) I actually need b) are a good price and ideally c) have a coupon to go with the sale. Sometimes they will try to be tricky and say "sale!" but the sale price is only 10¢ cheaper than the item would be regularly, so not exactly a great deal. I really try to keep this in mind and make a goal of saving at least as much as I spend. Although this doesn't always happen, I think it's a good goal to try and reach. If you can stock up on items when they are on sale, especially for shelf-stable items, it really helps to reduce the overall grocery expenditure. And once you get used to what kind of prices are good in general, you'll be in a much better place in the future for knowing when to buy and when not to.

For right now, my biggest weakness/problem when it comes to grocery shopping is making sure that I look around for coupons. There are a lot of websites available where you can print your own coupons, and I am really bad about doing that. I should also look at manufacturers' websites when I'm making up my list to see if they have coupons, too. Kashi and Seventh Generation are two brands that come to mind that usually have coupons available when I take the time to look.

Creating a Candy Bar

Being that I was a bridesmaid in one of my best friends' wedding not all that long ago, it also necessarily involved throwing a great bridal shower. Along with all the decorations, games, and regular food, we created a candy table that ended up looking really great, if I do say so myself. :)

If you've never done it before, it can seem like somewhat of a daunting task with all of the different elements, but I think I've now got a good handle on the best way to get all of them to come together and look really great. I decided that it might help someone else out there to have some tips on making this aspect of a bridal shower, wedding, or really any event come together as smoothly as possible, even when you are on a budget like me.

Candy Buffet!

1) Ok, so you've decided to do a candy bar for your event. Wonderful idea. Your first task is to keep your eye out all the time for whimsical glass jars, bowls, and containers to use. If you go to some of the more expensive places, you can end up spending your life savings on glass containers... so don't. Enlist the other event helpers to check out their local thrift stores for unusual-shaped glass items. You'll want ones of different heights and shapes, so keep that in mind. The display will look the best if you can keep all the containers with the same clear glass theme. The places I had the most luck finding these items at reasonable prices were:

• Thrift Stores (Salvation Army, Goodwill, etc.)
• Craigslist (make this website your best friend! it really pays off -- make your own "looking to buy" ad, as well as checking ones from sellers.)
• Your mom/aunt/friend/other person who already has these items for you to borrow
• World Market
• HomeGoods Store -- I had never been into one of these stores before this project, and it's got a lot of cool stuff! The glass containers are some of the most reasonably priced with the largest variety you'll find at any regular kind of store.

2) Choose a color scheme. The presentation will be much more eye-catching if you stick with 2-3 color options. Our colors were blue and green, obviously, but it can be a bit of a challenge to find candies that are in that range -- you'll just have to think outside the box for that one and come up with unique ideas to stay as close to homogeneous as possible with the colors.

3) Find scoops to scoop up the candy! This was the hardest thing for me to find. Everywhere I looked online seemed to have very expensive options. In the end, I found very nice metal scoops at World Market, along with a few others from a local dollar store and thrift store. You may also need tongs or a cake server -- so check with friends and family, or go to World Market for those too.

4) Create or find labels to label each candy type. Our maid-of-honor found a really cute set of labels made especially for a candy table from a local party supply store, with three different display formats: cards folded into a "v" to place directly on the table surface, labels attached to popsicle sticks to place directly into the candy, and ones with ribbon to tie around the outside of the container. Obviously each display format will not work for every type of candy, so it was easier for us to go through the options the night before and pick which containers would have which labels and candy type, so that we didn't have to worry too much about figuring that out the day of the party.

• A great place to purchase labels or get ideas is Etsy, like these cute printable labels you can order.

5) Find the candy and other items for the candy bar! Depending on where you live, it can be a bit of a challenge to find bulk candy to put in the containers. Living in Virginia, we had the most luck at Wegman's and Martin's. It got a little annoying at times to pick out the candies with the blue or green wrappers from the bulk bins, but it looks a lot nicer in the end, so it's worth spending your time doing that. I spent a lot of time figuring out if it was more expensive for me to purchase the candy in-store or online, and by far it was cheaper in-store. Even with certain websites offering discounts and/or free shipping, it still wasn't worth it.

Here are some helpful ideas for items that you can make for a candy bar, and the ingredients/colors used can be interchanged depending on your color scheme:

• Double Blueberry Pie - I actually made this with blackberries for the party, but again with blueberries later. It's a really delicious pie and very refreshing with fresh berries on it. If one of your colors is red or pink, try raspberries or strawberries.
• Cookie Balls - Use food coloring to make the white chocolate coating the appropriate color for your scheme. I used regular double stuf oreos instead of the mint, but either would taste great.
• Chocolate-Covered Pretzels, Sugar Cookies - Do the same thing with the food coloring as for the cookie balls.
• Mochi - This is a delicious Japanese dessert that is really easy to make. Use the basic mochi recipe with food coloring to make it whatever color you want.

6) Set up the display, and enjoy eating your creation! Yum!

In the Empire State of Mind

It has been a few weeks now since Michael and I returned from our weekend getaway over Presidents Day weekend in New York. Being one of those great trips that is jam packed with lots of events, the time went by extremely fast.

We took the Vamoose bus from Rosslyn extremely early on Friday morning. It was very convenient that the bus had internet, so I was able to work for a few hours on the bus to save some of my time off. After arriving at Penn Station, of course Michael had to make a stop into B&H -- which has every photography-related item you could ever want to purchase. Of course this can be very dangerous, because it's like taking a kid to a very expensive candy store. B&H even has this cool conveyor belt system that carries all the merchandise to the cash register for purchase. It is also run by a group of Hasidic Jews, so most of them have the really identifiable and neat hairstyle. After dropping off our bags at the Doubletree, we stopped for lunch at Turkish Kitchen. I had my eyelash curling appointment at Lavilash, and afterward met Michael at the flatiron building and had a delicious nutella and banana crepe from one of those food trucks. We strolled over to Vada Spa for my eyelash and eyebrow tinting appointment, and spent a long time after that enjoying the wonderful street performers in Washington Square Park. It was a lovely day and very comfortable weather, maybe around 60 degrees.

On Saturday morning, we grabbed a bagel at Bagel Bob's and went over to Michael's favorite coffee place in the city. I think that a total of maybe 6 people can fit into the coffee shop -- it is so tiny that we were all packed in there. I actually didn't mind though, because it stays nice and warm in there! Saturday was quite a change from Friday, as it was actually quite chilly. After a few hours at the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art), we met up with my coworker, Shez, and her husband for dinner at a really cool tea house. We all cabbed it over to a comedy show and had a great time laughing at some seriously funny comedians.

Michael trying on the latest NY fashion...

Sunday was the day for me -- I went to have my hair Japanese straightened! I arrived in Brooklyn around 8:30, grabbed a quick croissant to eat from a little bakery on the way, and finished up the process around 1PM. It was definitely a long morning, but completely worth it. My hair is now wash & go -- I absolutely love it. It's straight, but also very silky and not damaged. I won't bore you with the intimate details, but my yelp review is very thorough. I took the subway over to Williamsburg to meet Michael for lunch at the Rabbithole Restaurant and also so that he could show me what he loves about Williamsburg so much -- if and when we move to New York, that's where he would want to live. After heading back to Manhattan, we did some shopping and bought some tea from this amazing little tea shop -- I bought a chrysanthemum tea and a tea that tastes like Christmas. They are wonderful. Craving seafood, we ended up eating at the Mermaid Oyster Bar and enjoyed some tasty oysters and mussels. It was a very romantic dinner, and I had a great time.

It snowed on Monday morning... so much for that beautiful warm weather from Friday! Packing up our suitcase, we headed out to an appointment for teeth whitening at Park South Dentistry. I did not realize this, but apparently my teeth were already pretty white -- before the procedure, they were already whiter than the teeth-whitening scale even went. After lunch at a little bistro (French Roast), Michael and I ran over to DLK skin care for the photofacial -- unfortunately, by far the worst experience of the trip. They were running so late that even though I warned them when I had to leave, I was totally ignored and ended up getting back to the Vamoose bus only 10 minutes before it was leaving to go back to DC! That was a very close call.

Some of my appointments were wonderful (actually, most of them), but then some were less than desirable. Even though some things I would never do again, I think that the amount of money I saved on the other ones makes me feel at least a little bit better about it. You can check out detailed reviews from my experiences through my NYC list of Yelp reviews.

In the Empire State of mind

What's this?

My New Pet!

So most people know about this pet....

But I just got a new one off of Craigslist a couple of weeks ago, and I'm still really excited about it!

I've been on sort of a Craigslist spree ever since planning of Tiffany's bridal shower started. There are sooo many great things on there that people just don't use anymore, and then I came across this little guy:

Apparently his previous owners just never found him that useful, and they had only used him once! Mr. Vacuum only cost us $50, and he was basically new. He does a great job cleaning our carpets and tile. I also recently found a posting on Craigslist for a roomba home station, so that once he is worn out from vacuuming he can guide himself back there -- so now we have the upgraded setup! This particular model is selling for over 3x as much on Amazon.com! It's a really big help to no longer have to worry about a significant part of the house cleaning. We can turn him on before we leave for work and then have a freshly vacuumed house once we get back! I find him especially helpful since our whole condo is on one level and we don't have a huge place.

Oh the Places We'll Go: Caribbean 2009

Oh the Places We'll Go! (Click me!)

Michael & I created this wonderful photobook from Pixable.com based on our trip to the Caribbean in 2009 -- We had a LivingSocial deal to create a hard cover 16-page photobook for only $10.

We traveled to Miami, St. Thomas, St. John, Tortolla, Jost Van Dyke, and St. Lucia -- all in one trip. As you can tell from the pictures, we had a wonderful time on our trip scuba diving, snorkeling, laying on the beach, hitchhiking, zip lining in a rain forest, and meeting the locals. Since it was a while ago, the dates on the Jauntlet app below are all just estimates.

Above all, I would highly recommend a trip to Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands for anyone who wants to see the Caribbean that you probably fantasize about. It's such a tiny island without much commercialization. There aren't more than a few places to even stay there. Our stay at Ivan's was completely remote and amazing -- our one room cabin was just what you'd image a beach lifestyle to be. No frills, but everything you need to be comfortable so that you can hear the waves at night and walk 10 steps to the beach in the morning. Ivan's even has an honor bar, where you can make yourself the local Painkiller drink and put it on your own tab.

Lunch Boxes

So what does it mean when I come across some adorable lunch boxes on luggage.com, and looking at them makes me want to have children so that I can send them off to preschool looking so cute with their little lunch boxes?

Don't worry, I'm not planning on having children any time soon. But if you are in the market for some adorable lunch boxes, or any luggage-related item at all, there is a great Eversave deal right now -- $25 for $50 worth of merchandise from luggage.com. By adding coupon code "LUCKY" at check out, you save an extra $3.They also sell fabric sandwich holders, which is a great alternative to packing with plastic.

Stevia in the Raw

I'll admit it... I'm a pretty picky eater. It doesn't matter that I've had rattle snake, raw beef and pork, beef tongue and brain, and sea cucumber. There are still some everyday foods that I avoid. One of those things happens to be sugar substitutes. Diet sodas just aren't worth the difference in taste for me. Splenda, Equal, Sweet N' Low? Not my thing. I'd rather not have a drink that tastes like chemicals and has a weird aftertaste, thanks.

Photo of Sugar Packets: Rama

Now my point is not to get into the debate over high-fructose corn syrup (I'll leave that for another post). But being from the south, I do like my drinks sweet, y'all. I don't really see the point of unsweetened iced tea. As much of a skeptic as I am about no-calorie sweeteners, I can definitely say I was pleasantly surprised by Stevia in the Raw. After trying it on a whim one day when Michael decided to buy a package, I've actually gotten to the point that I put it in my hot tea at work on a daily basis. Although I wasn't really looking for something to help reduce my caloric intake, I guess it doesn't hurt either.

Some of the things I like about Stevia in the Raw:

• It is sweeter than sugar, so I can substitute my 2-3 packets of sugar for ~½ to ¾ of a packet of Stevia in the Raw.
• With a smaller amount needed, I don't have the issue with it not dissolving in cold drinks as much as with sugar.
• 100% natural product -- made from the extract of the Stevia plant.
• It's good for diabetics, kosher, and gluten free.

Let's not get carried away, though. It's not perfect:

• Although it's been available in Japan since the 1950s without any detected issues, there are still some potential risks, but most seem to be related to consuming way too much of it.
• It's not expensive, but not particularly cheap, either.
• Because it's 300-400x sweeter than sugar, a corn derivative (dextrose) is added to dilute the sweetness of the Stevia packet -- and I'm not exactly convinced that I need any more corn-based products in my diet.

There is currently a coupon on Stevia in the Raw's website for anyone interesting it trying it out!

Discount Websites

I think most people that know me well also know that I love a good deal. I can't remember the last time I bought some item of clothing that wasn't on sale or I didn't have a coupon for. My grocery list pretty much only consists of things that are on sale, and I've gotten to the point where I have the prices memorized for certain items -- I will not pay more than $2.50 for juice drinks (100% juice required). When it goes below $2, I tend to stock up.

Then, I found Groupon -- and all the related sites that offer great local deals on everything from restaurants, to salons/spas, to any kind of service or store you could think of. Many of the places are either a) businesses I already go to, b) places I was planning on trying out, or c) services I have been wanting but were price-prohibitive. That's really the trick to making purchases from those websites. If you didn't have a desire to make the purchase before the deal showed up, even if it is a wonderful deal, it's best just to not buy it. Some of the buys can be real money savers, but others can be just a bust. I've been keeping track of my ratings of most of these businesses I purchase a deal from (the ones that aren't online deals -- all listed on the map below), and my average rating of them is probably 3 or 3.5 stars out of 5 -- so really just about average.

I Heart Deals

What's this?

It can get annoying to feel compelled to check these e-mails daily, since many of the deals are only available for 24 hours -- but I find that only Groupon and LivingSocial are the ones that tend to have such strict time limitations. Below is a comprehensive list of the deal sites I get information from, so you can check them out if they are in your area:

• Groupon
• Living Social
• Homerun
• Eversave
• Specialicious
• TownHog
• KGB Deals
• OpenTable Spotlight

• What's the Deal
• Half Off DC
• DC Half Off
• Bloomspot
• BuyWithMe
• Tippr
• Deals for Deeds
• DealOn

A few other sites that have deals (but I consider to be in a different category than these deal sites) are Amazon's Gold Box Deals and Restaurant.com. Many times on Restaurant.com, you can get a $25 gift certificate to a restaurant for $2-3 (with certain restrictions, depending on the restaurant)! And they aren't available for just one day -- they are there all the time. If you were already planning on eating there, why not?!

Here are two current examples of why I like these deal sites:

-Two Fandango Movie Tickets for $9 from LivingSocial

• If you go to the movies (which most people do), and were planning on doing so between now and when you would have to use the deal by (June 6th), then it really only makes sense for you to get it. Fandango is available for so many theaters across the country, it's really not prohibitive for most people. And if three friends buy from your link, then your deal is free! That happened to me when they had an Amazon.com gift card deal, and I ended up getting a free $20 gift card!

-An IPL Photofacial in McLean, VA for $99 from Eversave

• I've really been wanting to get another photofacial that will improve the complexion of my skin like the one I had at Rejuvalase (but I will only pay $100 or less), and then this deal popped up -- plus, I get another $10 off because of the "refer a friend" discount. I'd never get this done for the regular $300 per session price, but I can swing $89 maybe 1-2 times a year.

I'll probably keep posting the most exciting deals from the deal websites as they pop up! Oh yeah, there is Lifebooker.com -- but that is specific to NYC and LA, so not applicable to me on a regular basis. If there are any websites I'm missing, please let me know. :)

Yelp Review: Hot Yoga Bikram Tysons

Hot Yoga Bikram Tysons (McLean, VA): 5 Stars

I had my first Bikram experience at this studio, and I love this place. If it weren't so inconvenient to get to from where I live and work, I would make this my home studio.

I had been thinking about trying Bikram yoga for a while: 90 minutes of yoga with 26 postures in a room heated to 105 degrees and 35% humidity. When I saw a deal on livingsocial to try out this studio at a great price, I knew it must have been fate! This place is the reason I am hooked on Bikram.

All of the instructors I have had at the studio were great (Stephanie, Ron, Cassandra, and Rana). They were very patient and encouraging when the workout got intense - but they understand that many people may need a break from the workout to just sit down. I will admit that my first class was very intense - at one point I lost my vision as if I were going to pass out - but I sat down and rested for a minute, and I was fine after that. It does take some time to adjust, though.

The Power Yoga classes that Cassandra teaches seemed the most similar to traditional yoga (just heated). The main yoga room was pretty sanitary (no weird smells), and the locker room is spacious. All of the people who work there seem pretty laid back and nice. The one thing I really appreciated most of all that my current studio doesn't have is a refreshing, cold lavender-scented hand towel for each student at the end of class.

I did hear a few people complain that it didn't feel quite as hot to them as other Bikram studios they had gone to, but I think that may be one thing that makes it even better for beginners. I noticed that sometimes the room would be hotter than others, but you'll definitely feel it! Bikram has helped with my flexibility, strength, and posture. I leave refreshed rather than exhausted. Both Bikram in general and this studio in particular are two things I would recommend without hesitation. I would recommend that all new students bring at least the following: bottle of water, yoga mat, towel, workout clothes (but not long pants).

New York Experiment

A week from tomorrow, I will be on my way to New York City with Michael. We haven't had a chance to get back there together since right after we started dating, so I am very excited about taking the next trip. It's definitely not cheap to stay in New York, so I really want to make our trip meaningful and get a lot out of it. In addition to the sightseeing, dining, and shopping, I really want to take advantage of some of the cheap opportunities that New York has for salons and spas. There are some things I have wanted to do for a long time, but financially they are just way out of reach usually. For instance, Japanese hair straightening is usually ~$600 in D.C. What a joke - I'd never pay that. Well, in New York, they will do it for less than $200 (including tip). I'm not so sure I can pass up the opportunity. I am very excited about doing the following things next weekend, and I will surely be posting again with how satisfied I was with the treatments:

-Japanese Hair Straightening: Let's see if it is the miracle I've heard it can be. For someone like me who has struggled with their hair for years and years, I'm willing to take the risk of some hair damage to be able to have my hair act normal without lots of time and effort. I recently had the Brazilian Keratin Treatment, but it's not permanent - and I would rather pay the same amount for permanent straightening than something that will only last a few months.

-Eyelash Perming: So it sounds kind of sketchy to put perming solution near your eyes, but hey, other people have done it and they can still see. I found a wonderful coupon for 1/2 off of eyelash perming at homerun.com, so I thought, what the heck? Of course my hair isn't straight like I want it to be, but my eyelashes sure are! I'm looking forward to seeing how much of a difference it will make.

-Eyelash and Eyebrow Tinting: I really don't like putting on makeup, and some days when I'm just going to work I just decide not to wear any at all. Hopefully this will help me continue to do the same thing and deceive everyone into thinking I may be wearing some. ;)

-Photo Rejuvenation: I've had this done once before on a discount- it is amazing at reducing freckles (or wrinkles for people who care about that)! I really dislike my freckles, so I'm hoping that having this done again will help even more. My review of the previous photofacial is on Yelp.com.

By scheduling my appointments on lifebooker.com, I've been able to get these treatments even cheaper. Hopefully they will all be a success - especially the hair straightening!