FROM: STELLA

TO: LAURA

1. I’ve been in Italy all week with my sisters. We’ve been having quite an off-the-beaten path trip. One of my sisters lives outside of Florence and has been our tour guide for the week. We’ve been traveling around Tuscany and Northern Italy — even going as far as Breuil-Cervinia (a small ski town) at the Italy-Switzerland boarder.
2. One of my favorite places to get souvenirs on any trip is the grocery store. I think it’s really fun to share food from your travels and grocery stores are a great place to get something truly local at non-tourist prices. It Italy, my favorite thing to buy is pocket coffees. They are small chocolates with a shot of espresso inside. You have to eat them all in one bite since the center is liquid.
3. A great travel tip that I love is to look up which banks are partnered with yours to help avoid some bank fees. I have Bank of America and even though they don’t have a partner bank in Italy, they do have one in Germany and I had a nice long layover in Frankfurt so was able to go to the ATM there to get Euros.
4. In my mind, a good plane movie includes an interesting (but light) plot and not too much violence or nudity. I think all three of the movies I watched on my flight over totally qualify: Passengers, The House, and Little Italy.

FROM: LAURA

TO: STELLA

1. I’ve been annoyingly busy this week (can you tell by our lack of posting?! 😬 eek!), but my husband and I are going up to Big Bear for the long weekend and we booked an airbnb without wifi. I am actually SO looking forward to unplugging and just staring at trees for as much time as possible. Definitely need a reset.

   

2. Really appreciated Penny’s article this week on accepting (and encouraging!) lowball Poshmark offers. My Poshmark game has definitely slowed a bit in recent months, and I’ve had to give myself a pep talk of “this is a thing I’m doing to clear out my closet” vs trying to make a ton of extra money. I need to go through and lower some prices and then (ideally) start accepting all the offers that will roll in!
3. Millennial Money Man had a list of 36 ways to save money that you may not have thought of before. Some of them are tried and true answers, but I liked the creativity behind a lot of them!
4. My Bank Tracker released their 2019 “Best of Banking Awards” this week and I enjoyed perusing the list. I’m not one to switch up my accounts and cards that often, but it’s a good habit to get in at least annually to double check that you are getting the best deals, interest rates, and card options.