Remember How I Force Someone Else to Pick Out My Clothes?

My Stitch Fix posts are some of the most-read ones on the entire blog. Which I guess means that a lot of my readers enjoy my lovingly mocking reviews of clothes that I forced a hapless Californian stranger to curate to my exact specifications.

I guess it also means that not a few of you have noted the dearth of Stitch Fix posts recently. I haven't indulged in a Fix in almost six months. Why? Well, I didn't break up with Stitch Fix or with Jessica V or even with newbie Jill, if that's what you're wondering. I just a) am trying to be financially provident since I just paid for an appendectomy and some other large purchases and b) don't need enough new clothes to justify getting a Fix. I'm planning to buy some new sneakers and maybe a light dress for summer, but other than that, I'm good!

I do plan to get another Fix eventually, especially since I have some referral credit (and FYI, Stitch Fix changed their referral structure; if you use my link, we both get a $15 credit). I just don't know when that will be.

After I started Stitch Fix, the Seamstress came home one day all excited. She had a coupon for a dinner subscription box—kind of like Stitch Fix, but with food. She proposed that I try this subscription service and review them, too. More fodder and fun for the blog, right? I was amenable...until I investigated and saw how much it was even with the coupon.

You may find this hard to believe (since I routinely talk about my clothing and vacation splurges here), but I'm stingy. Like, really stingy. I hate buying things, even when I need them. My mom hates that I hate buying things. It's not uncommon for her to buy things (makeup, clothes, various household items) and give them to me since I won't buy them for myself. That's why I took one look at the dinner subscription box price and was like "ha ha NO." The price of a couple of meals a week far exceeded my entire seven-day grocery budget! No way. No way, no way.

Now that we're on the subject of my dinner habits: I cook once a week and eat that meal all week long. There are respites (I have dinner at my parents' on Sundays, and I usually eat out a couple of times a week), but for the most part, I eat the same thing for seven days straight. This can be problematic when I'm trying a new recipe and it turns out terribly, so I don't try new recipes as often as I'd like. (Sadly, after at least six tries, I still haven't found a good curry recipe.) And some weeks I don't have time to cook before last week's meal runs out, so I end up ordering a bunch of takeout food to tide me over. Weeks like those make me wish I did have some kind of food subscription box (or someone at home to cook for me, preferably of the male variety).

Happily, this week over at Ask a Manager, the awesome Alison Green advertised a steep discount on two weeks of Blue Apron. The steep discount makes it affordable enough to try, so I signed up. There's no way I'll be able to continue using it after the discount expires; even with the discount, it's still just over half my week's grocery budget to get two two-serving meals. But I thought it would be a fun adventure to experience and blog about. (I'll just be eating super cheaply for the rest of those two weeks!)

Another FYI—my mom once suggested that if I was going to blog about Stitch Fix, I should get paid for my reviews. Though I get where she's coming from, I'm really not an influencer! No one pays me to review anything; I just do it for fun and because I'm a snob who thinks she has discriminating tastes. Sometimes I do get referral credit for Stitch Fix, but it's nowhere near enough to write reviews solely for gain. If by some wild chance anyone ever does pay me to review something, though, I'll let you know.