I love my Twitter friends. I know, half of you are shaking your heads thinking, "Twitter is for nerds." Or maybe you're laughing because I referred to a select group of people as my "Twitter friends." But let's be honest, in the world of fashion blogging, I've made some solid connections that can be largely attributed to Twitter. Today's post is from one of my Twitter friends, Adelle. We're two kindred style mavens who found each other by means of microblogging. Adelle's blog, The Fashionista Lab, is a trove of great outfits, fashion advice and rock star style (and she's always got great things to tweet about, too). But today, Adelle dishes on one of her personal theories about splurging.

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Long before I had a fashion blog I had a critical inner fashionista, and she manifested herself in my now-longstanding fabric-to-price ratio. From the time that my mother began dropping my sister and I off at the mall when we were in middle school, I simply decided that some items were not big enough to pay big money for.

My two basic tenets:

Synthetic fabric – such as polyester or acrylic – should not be expensive. Conversely, it’s ok to pay more for great textiles, such as cashmere, jersey (wool, silk or cotton), or linen. (I’m a textile snob.)

Small things – such as sunglasses or bathing suits – should not cost hundreds of dollars. If it can fit in the palm of my hand and it’s NOT jewelry or a piece of expensive technology, there should not be more than 2 digits in the price.

But the older I get, the more I develop my personal style, and the more money I have to spend, I do come across situations that challenge my ratio. Just today I encountered two beautiful tops I dearly wanted but that gave me serious pause:

The top on the left is just downright Gorgeous. Beautiful. Classy. Satin is a “great textile” and it’s the kind of blouse you can dress up or down and always look fabulous. And did I mention that blouse was originally $395? It’s expensive, but feels like it would be a great investment.

The top on the left is fun and original. How about that print?! It’s the kind of t-shirt you need in your closet because you can throw it on with jeans, make zero effort, and still look cool. We all need t-shirts like that! It was originally $495, so $123.75 is quite a discount. But still, $123.75 for a t-shirt??? But again, this is the t-shirt you want to have in your closet when you just can’t be bothered to think about clothes, but still want to turn heads.

Tough call. I’ve thought about it for hours and still can’t decide what I would do (the black top is sold out – probably for the best), but whatever the outcome, it will certainly be a defining moment for my fabric-to-price ratio.

Remember to go check out Adelle's blog here for more sassy fashion advice and to find out more about her theories on spending!

Dear Pretty and Poor Readers,

Do you like getting designer threads on sale? Good. Me too. That's why I love Shop It To Me. If you haven't heard of Shop It To Me, I suggest you head on over and sign yourself up. Click Here.

Shop It To Me is essentially like an online personal shopper. It's a free service that scours the web looking for only the styles and designers you like. Every week (or whenever you'd like) you get an email that contains all the items on sale that you might be interested in purchasing. Mine usually has tons of great shoes, clothes and accessories from the likes of Tory Burch, Ralph Lauren and Diane Von Furstenberg. And it's all on sale.

So head on over to Shop It To Me and sign yourself up. It's free. There's no commitment. They'll just ask for your email and have you answer questions about your favorite designers and looks. It's just a service that helps you do what you do best: shop.

Oh, and Shop It To Me decided to add Pretty and Poor to its list of Trendsetters this week. Don't they have great taste over there?

Check out all the fun over on Shop It To Me now! It's the ultimate service for the Pretty and the Poor.

Love,
Emily

Being pretty can be time-consuming and expensive. And let’s face it, in a world where everyone needs more time and more money, us fashionistas sometimes go to desperate measures to get more pretty for what’s in our pockets. Just yesterday I was reminded of a story that taught me a lesson about do-it-yourself beauty procedures.

Two years ago I was fresh out of college and busy getting acclimated to being a working girl. Between long hours at the office and a social calendar that would give the Hilton sisters a run for their money, I was busy juggling work and play (to be honest, not much as changed since then). With all I had to do, I barely had the time (nor the resources) to take care of myself. One night I remember getting in my car, looking at my hair and thinking, “Nice roots.” My bright, summer blonde hair was being seriously interrupted by a dark cloud of dirty blonde forming around my roots and slowly creepy its way down my part.

(At this point in the post, you're probably thinking, "Why is she posting a picture of herself dressed up like Lady Gaga?" Well. Let me answer that. As you can see from the photo, Lady Gaga and I have very similar hair colors. This proves that when my roots get bad, it can be a tricky situation.)

Without the prospect of a salon trip I decided to take matters into my own hands. I headed to Walgreens (never a good decision) and bought a highlighting and bleaching kit for blondes. Easy enough. Right? I headed home, slipped into sweats, opened the box and followed the instructions—smearing the bleach in all the right places. Then I settled into a chair with a book to wait the 20 minutes.

Except I didn’t wait 20 minutes. Or 30 minutes. Or 90 minutes. I fell asleep and woke up four hours later in the middle of the night…with bleach still processing on my hair. I immediately ran to the shower (still groggy from my accidental slumber) and began rinsing my hair. The bleach was caked in. I shampooed. I conditioned. And I started to cry as my hair fell out in clumps.

When I finally jumped out of the shower, I began touching my hair and looking at it in the mirror. My hair strands had been turned to a rubbery substance that stretched and pulled as I ran my hands through it. In desperation, I tried to brush it, but my nearly white hair twisted around the bristles like spider webs. It was bad.

At 2:00 a.m. my salon definitely wasn’t open. So I did the only logical thing there was to do. I emailed my boss to tell her I wouldn’t be in the following morning. I explained my mistake and explained the need for an early morning trip to my hair stylist. And while I never went totally bald, I did rock a very short, very platinum hair style that summer. (Luckily, my stylist was able to fix almost everything and take care of any dead hair by giving me a short, sassy style.)

And I learned that a trip to the salon (with my pride still intact) would have been a lot less painful and less expensive than a trip to the salon without my pride. And, I probably wouldn’t have had to purchase a complete set of Bumble and Bumble therapeutic hair treatments (they work wonders, by the way).

So if you find yourself a bit more poor than pretty, don’t rely on those do-it-yourself treatments. Save up for the professional procedure you need or find a less high maintenance way to glow—take it from someone who almost spent a summer without hair.

I spend a latte on lattes. There’s no denying that $4.00 here and there certainly adds up (for more on that, click here). However, I recently discovered a lower-cost alternative to my afternoon desire for an iced latte. The solution? Starbucks Via (instant coffee) dissolved into cold water with ice and a splash of milk or cream.

The coffee flavor is rich and robust, plus, a 3- or 6-pack of Starbucks Via is a small fraction of the cost of a latte. I can get a 3-pack for $2.95. That equates to around $1.00 a beverage! That’s quite a PPD (Price Per Drink). The good news? I don’t even have to leave my office. Click here to check out more information about Starbucks Via or check out your local Starbucks to grab a pack of Via and try this penny-pinching trick yourself!

Here’s to my girls who are to be pretty, poor and packed with caffeine!