Gee.. Thanks Krystal Now I have a new independent site to check out and drool over.

It’s called: SMOKING LILY and I rather LOVE the name.

This Elle Mariachi Top for $89 looks incredibly wearable, classic but trendy. How can that be?

Here’s a sweet skirt called Darjeeling for $96 that could go quite nicely with that Mariachi Top.

Maybe on other days, I could wear this Demi Jacket for $168. I am real sucker for high collars, mandarin collars, and interesting prints on a neutral background – this jacket hits them all! It even comes in different colours/prints.

How about this Checkmate Sweater for $95? It looks sweet, work appropriate and you could wear a bright or patterned top underneath that, with that Demi skirt and some tights and peep toes.

Yes. If only it wasn’t snowing the way it is right now.

Last, but not least, this Hooded Ship Disturber Top for $125 has a nice mix of fun and classic. I love the way the collar wraps across your chest with that splash of colour. They have it without the hood for $92 as well

Must stay focused.

Must stay focused.

Must stay focused.

In that case, check out G&D’s giveaway on her blog here.

7 a.m.: Wake up.

Check to see if it’s snowing AGAIN. No? Good.

Head into shower.

7.30 a.m.: Start kettle for tea.

Realize I have no morning fruit left to eat (clementines and the like).

Contemplate eating BF’s beloved yogurt but decide against it.

This morning…

FB: Do you have a lunch for today?

(sad face that he’s actually on contract now… and I’m at home, uncontracted, bored, but am hoping for good news)

BF: Yep. Made enough chicken for the week.

FB: What do you want to eat tonight?

BF: I dunno. Are you cooking? *eyes light up*

(BF cooks all the time because he’s the pickier one. That’s his joy and his pain)

FB: Sure. But tell me what of my cooking you like to eat, because you are pickier than I am.

(He won’t eat ramen but says it smells good because I add eggs and veggies to it and make it a REAL meal, FB Mom-style)

BF: Whatever is fine with me.

FB: Okay, salmon and… asperge? Do you like asparagus?

BF: NO!!!

FB: See? TELL ME what you want to eat! *exasperated*

BF: …how about…. Broccoli?

FB: Okay. I’ll buy it if it isn’t $3 per broccoli bunch.

BF: No way *laughs* It’s always $1.99 each bunch.

FB: We’ll see. It’s Quebec, remember?

8 a.m.: Get into car to drive to grocery store.

End up turning the car off because I need to remove the garage door key from my car’s key ring.

This afternoon…

FB: *goes to remove the keys* Hey..? WTF?

*starts twisting the key on and off, on and off, freaking out*

*car behind her starts up and pauses*

FB: *gets out of the car* My key won’t come out of the ignition!!!

I’ve never had this happen to me before! Is it stuck? IS IT STUCK FOREVER?….

*hyperventilates*

How did I do that!? HOW!?

Lady: Calm down. Don’t panic.. *soothing tones*… Everything’s fine. Don’t panic.

(like talking to one of her dogs)

Naturally, I have a momentary freak out.

Lady: Okay, let’s see here. *gets in the car* …*fiddles around*…*starts it* .. There you go.

FB: Uh…… thanks. *thoroughly embarrassed*

Lady: You accidently shut off the car while it was in Drive. Gotta put it in Park first.

FB: *turning even redder from sheer embarrassment*

(So I’m not the brightest at cars, okay? It’s my first car, and I haven’t driven it much. Plus it’s old. Yeah.. That’s it. It’s OLD.)

FB: *slinks into car*.. *slinks into parking spot*…*removes garage door key from her keyring*…..and heads out the garage door after the witnesses have left.

HOW I SCORED GROCERIES FOR $6.74

The good news is that I am not so dumb at shopping for groceries!

But I’ll let you be a judge of that. Clearly, my story above did not help…

Broccoli? Of course, it was at $2.99 PER HEAD. I knew it.

So I ended up getting Haricot Vert (fancy name for green beans) because they were on sale for $3.73/kg instead of $8.78/kg.

Oh yeah that’s right. We get screwed on the island for prices.

Scored two pieces of thick, delicious salmon ON SALE for ~$7 each instead of $14 each.

I think the Fish Lady was hitting on me too. She was unusually interested in my shopping choices…and me.

Also scored some beef for my lunch today, originally priced at $4, but it was a 50% off for a quick sale, so I got it for $2.

Picked up some eggs, and some olive oil and honey soap to put my bag into smell rehab.

In the end, I got everything pictured here…….

For only $6.74 !!!!

How’d I do that?…

ORIGINAL BILL

Haricot Vert: $1.19
Salmon 1: $7.18
Salmon 2: $7.08
Beef: $2.09
Eggs: $5.59
Olive Oil + Honey Soap: $3.69
Total = $26.82
+ Taxes = $0.47

ORIGINAL TOTAL = $27.29

DISCOUNTS

$0.45 = Returning plastic bottles at $0.05/each
$0.10 = Bringing my own bags
$20 = PC Grocery Points (used my Mastercard)
Subtotal of Discounts: $20.55

REAL TOTAL I PAID: $6.74

Never underestimate the power of grocery points.

And I didn’t overspend on my Mastercard to get those points either – I just put flights, hotels and whatever else on there, and just clear it from my bank account.

Quick recipe:

Chopped some garlic, started it frying in some sesame oil in the pan, put it on top to sear, then turned off the burner and let it cook as the heat died down (very thin piece of meat, and I do like it quite rare, but this one turned out well-done).

Made some instant oatmeal on the side — oatmeal and hot water, mixed, makes a hearty addition to this instead of cooking rice for an hour.

I know it sounds weird, but beef and oatmeal tastes good together. Think haggis.

I feel extremely full right now.

And for tonight’s dinner: Baked salmon with garlic, haricot vert, rice.. and optional Red Thai Curry (BF doesn’t like it).

BAG REHAB IN PROGRESS

As for that honey + olive soap.. (which we use regularly), I am using it to rehab my bag.

Yes, this one that I bought in Ontario when I went back:

See, the smell of that leather bag makes me slightly nauseous.

I think it’s lamb leather or something totally WEIRD because it has a very distinct smell.

And I don’t know if it’s because I started cutting out tons of perfumes and chemical smells from my life or what, but sometimes I get a whiff of the bag and I want to gag. Other times, it’s fine.

Either way, it’s a problem because the bag is 5-7 feet away from me and I can smell it while I’m typing sometimes.

Luckily, Revanche from A Gai Shan Life on Twitter gave me this tip: put some smelly soap in a box, put the bag in, close up the box and let it stew to absorb the NEW smell of soap.

I was going for coconut soap, but then I realized that I needed to spend $3 on actual soap we’d use after I take it out of the bag, so I just bought another Kiss My Face Olive + Honey Soap bar.

Last night…

FB’s Sister: So… the bag stinks huh? Maybe you should give her to ME.

(She’s been after that bag since I bought it because she already spent $900 on bags and felt ashamed at wanting to spend another $180 on this bag I eventually nabbed).

FB: Not a chance. She’s MINE! I’ll have to bag rehab her to get rid the smell.

FB’s Sister: …… I think she should come home with me next time for a better life.
At least I won’t put her in rehab and she’ll have a better home.

FB: At least I care ENOUGH about her to put her in bag rehab.

Resources:

• 10 Tips to save on your grocery bill

Got this email in my inbox today:

Wrong.

What tipped me off as being suspicious was the email address: paypal@email.paypal.ca

It didn’t automatically realize it was a Paypal email because you can see that it did not automatically download the images in the email (the yellow tab at the top says that I can add them to my safe list and automatically accept images every time they email me).

Second, it didn’t have a filter that I put on ALL authentic Paypal emails that come in when they send me information, or when there’s activity on my account.

I forwarded it to spoof @ paypal.com (something you should do immediately if you think you’ve received a fake Paypal email).

But this will be a good post example for everyone on how to spot a FRADULENT email.

1. What Paypal says….

How can I tell the difference between a real PayPal email and a fraudulent one? (Source: Paypal.com)

Answer : One way to tell if an email is really from PayPal is that we address you by your first and last names or your business name. We don’t say things like “Dear user” or “Hello PayPal member.”

Also, our emails don’t link directly to pages that ask you to enter sensitive information like your bank account, credit card, or Social Security numbers.

If you think you’ve received a fraudulent email, forward it to spoof @ paypal.com and then delete it from your email account.

Check! They didn’t address me by name.. well, sort of “Fabulously Broke” is my user name but.. even so.

2. What is phishing?

“Phishing” is a form of Internet fraud that aims to steal valuable information such as credit cards, social security numbers, user IDs and passwords.

A fake website is created that is similar to that of a legitimate organisation, typically a financial institution such as a bank or insurance company.

An email is sent requesting that the recipient access the fake website (which will usually be a replica of a trusted site) and enter their personal details, including security access codes.

The page looks genuine, because it is easy to fake a valid web site.

Any HTML page on the web can be modified to suit a phishing scheme.

Phishing e-mails are often sent to large lists of people, expecting that some percentage of the recipients will actually have an account with the real organisation.

The term comes from “fishing,” where bait is used to catch a fish.

In phishing, e-mail is the bait.

(Source: New Zealand Government Digital Strategy)

They should already be “Safe Senders”

If it’s a company like Paypal, or your bank that you have automatically added to your email inbox as a SAFE sender, then you should not be seeing signs in the email indicating “SPAM???“, or “Click here to add to Safe Sender List”.

Check the company’s rules for what they do and do not send you

As a general rule, banks do not send you emails asking for passwords, IDs, Social Security numbers, or anything that asks you to identify yourself. But email or call your bank, and ask them what they DO regularly send out, and compare it to what you got.

Do not click on any links in the email, type the address in a browser instead

Avoid downloading or clicking on any links in the email. Period.

If you want to check what they’re saying is true, log into your actual bank account, but type the address of the website (www.paypal.com) in your web browser, and go directly to the page and check out what’s going on.

Most secure sights have a little lock in the URL bar that tells you they are safe.

Use common sense: they sure don’t

Check for basic formatting and EASY things like spelling and grammar.

Remember, these are usually young hackers, or more than likely, Nigerian scammers who can’t spell or know what kind of wording to use in an email, as English is a language filled with many descriptive verbs and words that when used wrongly, sounds.. off to our ears.

These are some things to look out for…

If the font looks unusual

If it is not what your bank or company normally sends you as a standard font, BE SUSPICIOUS. If it’s in Comic Sans font (or what I got above), BE SUSPICIOUS. Paranoia and being overly cautious is better than being too trusting.

If the spelling is whack

Phishers are not the brightest people in the world, if they were, they wouldn’t be trying to cheat people by creating emails without spell checking it.

If the grammar sounds weird

Read it out loud to yourself. If it sounds awkward, like a noun or the proper conjugation of the verb is missing, then it’s more than likely to be a fake email.

Banks and other institutions read, and re-read any basic emails with a magnifying glass because they want to be SURE they don’t come off as sounding unprofessional and stupid — you’re giving them money, remember?

The whole email feels wrong and unusually urgent

It sounds too panicky. Or urges you to IMMEDIATELY take charge of the situation and rectify the problem. Nothing THAT large of a rush from your bank or other accounts, should ever be sent in an email to you — they should pick up the phone and call you immediately.

If you are concerned, call your bank immediately, report what you read in an email and ask them to verify.

If it isn’t something you are interested in anyway, don’t click on it

Like if it’s asking you to send money faster (huh..) by using invoicing or setting it up.. well, if you don’t care or need it, then don’t do it and delete it immediately.

Or if you care, type the url into the browser and get to the site safely!

Phishing, cheating and scamming to get your credit card or bank info are NOT exclusive ONLINE ONLY tricks

It was done a long time before the internet came along.

Check out this picture of a real-live credit card skimmer found in a Wamu bank machine by a smart banker.

Waitstaff for example, can skim your credit card info by pretending to clean it on their apron, when they’re really swiping the info off into a skimmer hidden in their apron. It has happened so many times without people noticing… it isn’t funny how easy it is to steal info.

Never let your credit card out of your sight (I generally stick to paying cash in shady places that make really delicious food, unless they bring the card to the table and/or let me watch them swipe it at the counter).

Check your statements all the time. Even when you haven’t spent anything. And check each amount and place it was spent in.

In conclusion, that email above isn’t so bad. But just by a couple of indicators like the weird email address, lack of a filter, strange font, odd spelling and strangeness of it, I marked it as a phishing email, notified Paypal and deleted it.

It could very well be legitimate, but better safe than sorry, I say.

UPDATE: Turned out it was legit. Better safe than sorry anyway. And they should know, better than ANYONE ELSE, not to put damn links in an email.

*slaps Paypal’s wrist*

THE TEST: Is this a Phishing email? If so, name 3 reasons why

RESOURCES

• Another good phishing email I caught