u/Outside_Witness_7268

I have been in love with the Loved Leather outlet bags since I first set eyes on them over a month ago. And I decided to shop in-store instead of online because I couldn't decide which one to get. I just returned home from that in-store shopping trip empty handed. So for those of you still on the fence about which loved leather outlet bag to order--and for those of you who don't live near enough to an outlet to go look in person--I bring this in-depth review of each available bag and why I DID NOT buy it.

Loved Leather Laurel (regular size). This was the one I thought I'd like the most, and it IS the one I like the most. But it is a bit larger than I'd like on my frame (I'm not small--5'6" and a size 14) and it's kind of giving 1980s cigarette mom. Which, coming from me, is not even really an insult. But it isn't the slouchy, edgy bag I'd hoped for. The pockets make it bulky in a not good way. If there was a size between the small Laurel and this one, I'd buy it. It would also need to be priced between the two, because at $270, this bag is overpriced. It just doesn't feel like an almost-$300 bag. More on this at the end.

Loved Leather Laurel (small). Yeah, she's tiny. But if you utilize the pockets, it does fit everything that fits in my Teri. I checked, as I was carrying my Teri. If I had been forcing myself to choose one LL bag, I would have bought this one. But one should not need to force oneself to buy a bag. She's cute when worn crossbody though, and is pleasingly heavy when filled with not that many items.

Loved Leather Rowan. Welp. They are now selling all Rowans with straps that are too short to be worn crossbody--not just the large ones. Whomp whomp. This was the nail in the coffin for this bag for me. Because of the pockets, it's too fat to be worn as a shoulder bag, and the only other option would be to hand-carry it, and that's not my lifestyle. So this was an immediate no. I am sad, because it's a really cute bag. If a bulky shoulder carry works for you, get this bag.

Loved Leather Rowan Bucket Bag. The loved leather is not slouchy enough to make this bag not wear like...well, a bucket. This bag barely slouches enough in the pebbled leather; in loved leather it maintains its huge base and sticks out in a way which is not attractive. Less boho, more tool bucket. Which was a bummer, because I really liked this style in this leather.

Loved Leather Carey (large and small). If I didn't own a small Carey in the loved CANVAS, I'd have purchased the large Carey in Loved Leather. The lack of pockets make this a more high end looking option in this leather, and the large Carey is just a really great bag--thick strap, back pocket big enough for your phone. But it also doesn't have the cargo pockets (I know I just said this was a good thing!) which makes it kind of...not special? It for sure would benefit from a chain or a charm or something.

Of all the new bags that were in store today, the one I kept going back to was...the large Rowan in suede. Which is insane, because I hate suede. But it was so luxe looking--and feeling--and really felt worth the price. The fact that it was $20 LESS than the regular sized Loved Leather Laurel was mind-blowing to me. Side by side, the laurel looked like a TJ Max bag and the suede Rowan felt LV-adjacent. If I had a life where a suede bag made sense (I do not) I would have happily plunked down $250 for the suede Rowan, despite the fact that it was nowhere on my radar.

I hope this annoyingly long review helped some of you! And if you purchased and love any of these bags, that's awesome! I honor your love for your bag! I just thought I'd offer my personal perspective, and welcome everyone to take it with a grain of salt.

Very long story short: we are a year into our part time RV-ing journey, and we want to take a year and do a much longer trip. I will surely share the details of how and why and what in future posts, but for now my main question is: is this even possible? I ask because of the cost of fuel.

I understand that the general advice is "stay put longer to save fuel". Understood. But we want to see (almost) the entire US. And we plan to take 12 months to do so. We are going to have to move a lot, there's no getting around it. And then--and this is key--even if we stay in the same place for a while and explore as a base, we still have to drive our tow vehicle to get around and explore. We tow with a diesel truck that gets 10mpg when towing and MAYBE 14 when not. Changing vehicles is not an option. And our camper is VERY SMALL, so it's not like we are hauling around a huge fifth wheel.

I have figured out how to pay for campgrounds, health insurance, food, activities, repairs--and everything else. But diesel seems like it puts our year-long trip WELL into six figures.

We often go to state parks for long weekends now (we are still working for now) and a trip to a state park only half a state away is a $200 diesel cost.

I guess I need someone to tell me to give up my year-on-the-road dream. Because fuel.

I'm mostly a lurker here because I work in ed tech and don't really enjoy talking about it for fun. HOWEVER. Because it is summertime in the US and many teachers wishing to be ex teachers are on the hunt for a new path, I thought I'd share this one VERY IMPORTANT piece of ed tech job search information, inspired by many questions in this sub. Ready?

Just because an ed tech company is HIRING it does not mean that ed tech company is GROWING.

I work in ed tech. For one of the larger, more well known companies. We are hiring like crazy right now. Not because we are growing; at best, we are stagnating and hanging on for dear life. No. We are hiring like crazy--across departments--because so many people quit this spring when they restructured AGAIN, cut pay and increased workload.

So I beg of you--if you're a teacher looking to transition out of the classroom and you think you've found the solution? First--the solution is almost certainly NOT ed tech. I say this as someone on the inside. But second--please do your due diligence and research the company. I recommend looking at reviews from current or former employees on sites like Glassdoor. Read those reviews and believe them.

And then go get your real estate license. That's likely what I'll be doing this fall. Because working in ed tech is like being the rock someone is squeezing hoping to get blood.

Note: before anyone tells me I have it good, know that I have never made what I was making as a teacher, and that was fifteen years ago (I maxed at $65k back then). Now? Many years I don't clear $30K. No benefits, no pension, no 401K, no PTO, no guarantee of work.

Ed tech companies are on to the fact that they can get former teachers to work for free. Don't let yourself fall victim.

Say it with me now: I will get my real estate license.

EDITED TO ADD: A lot of people are fixating on the real estate piece of this. I apologize that I wasn't clear: that was one example of an alternative which admittedly isn't great either. It was near-hyperbole. I was basically saying: DO ANYTHING ELSE OTHER THAN ED TECH. Not that going into real estate was THE answer.

Hi all. Apologies that I'm new here, but I'm grasping at straws and am open to any advice on how to sell off an entire collection. Here's the situation:

My cousin's father (technically my uncle) passed two years ago. My cousin is in her mid-20s. Her mom--my aunt--is trying to help her sell off her father's massive collection of sports memorabilia. Neither of them are very good at execution, so they asked me to help. I resell handbags and thrifted items, and they asked me "can you help us sell some of T's stuff on Marketplace". I said yes. I had limited information when I said yes.

I've since learned it is mostly sports memorabilia. A lot of it is likely worth nothing, but a lot of it is definitely worth something. My late uncle was a collector, which is what you call a hoarder who is also wealthy.

My aunt brought over a sampling of items the other day as a practice lot. These were all just chosen at random by my cousin who knows nothing. Those items are pictured here. I did my own research and will share what I value these items at below. It doesn't seem like there's a market on Facebook Marketplace for a $1500 bat, so I'm looking at alternatives.

I also understand that an item is only worth an amount of money if there's a buyer who has that amount of money and wants the item. A lot of these items feel very niche.

Does anyone have ANY idea of how I can go about this? The items pictured here are like 1% of what is in the collection. There are also a ton of baseballs, baseball cards, dozens more bats, and other stuff I haven't even seen yet.

Note: she does NOT want to use an auction house or service. She IS giving me 25% of whatever I sell, so I am very motivated to sell. But I want to balance how long this will take with how much we will earn. So like--definitely not a yard sale, but also definitely not listing each individual item on eBay. I have multiple "real" jobs so this cannot become a full time job for me.

Help?

Items pictured along with the number I landed at with a medium-amount of research. Feel free to tell me I'm very wrong--even that information would be helpful. Thanks.

• Tom Brady signed Wilson football: $150–300
• Chuck Bednarik signed vintage leather football helmet: $100–300
• Heisman Trophy football signed by 19 Heisman winners: $750–1,000
• Sugar Ray Leonard signed photo: ~$80
• Roberto Durán signed photo: $150–200
• Vintage The Ring boxing magazines (collection): ~$200
• John Cappelletti signed Penn State mini helmet: ~$100
• Miguel Cabrera game-used professional model bat: ~$2,000

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My title kinda says it all--I am pleasantly surprised by how practical the Trail Bag is. I'm a person who needs a bag to be both form AND function, and I feared this one was cute but impractical. But I took a chance when it went on sale on the last drop day, and I have to say I love it. I took it mini golfing yesterday, which is one of the most impractical daily activities it is safe to do with a little leather bag (anything more off road would mean switching to my nylon belt bag) and it worked out great! You can absolutely take things in and out of it while wearing it, it holds more than you'd think (though I need a shorter/smaller comb) AND it is cute. If this restocks and you've been considering one but hesitant for practicality purposes, I say go for it! I'd get it in other colors. In fact, this was so on sale that I SHOULD HAVE gotten it in black and brown. Oh well! Note: I didn't photograph it while mini golfing, because I am not that extra. So here it is at lunch after.

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I'll try to make this as concise as possible: I work a professional job, but it is considered "per diem" which really just means I don't have a salary or benefits or guaranteed work. We are sent work at the will of those scheduling it, and it is inconsistent. We are paid hourly for this work. When we are not working, we are not getting paid.

I have been placed on new team after new team over the past maybe five years, and on the newest team there is an increased expectation of availability during M-F working hours. My new manager is now three time zones away from me--but the team as a whole is disbursed--so from around 7am to 8pm there's an expectation that I'll be checking Slack, email, and texts on my personal phone.

Last week I pushed back on this, because--to be clear--if I'm not being given work for a period of time, I have to do OTHER work elsewhere so I can eat. I was asked why I wasn't responding in Slack, and I explained that because I had zero billable hours that week, I was not checking Slack. The response was: ok, I'll send it to you in an email. And then he actually sent it in a text instead. I sincerely feel badly, like I'm creating more work for my manager. But also I'm trying to enforce a "I won't work if I'm not being paid" boundary, and I don't know how to say that more clearly without being problematic.

So my question is: is this normal? I recognize it may be a me problem, and that it's actually totally normal for hourly employees to be expected to be online and available when not being paid to work. It doesn't FEEL normal, but a lot about work doesn't feel normal.

It is also worth mentioning that my company rolled out a new pay structure recently, which decreased my effective hourly rate by around 80%. Yes, you are reading that correctly: everyone on my team received an 80% PAY CUT. So I'm coming at this from a place of pretty annoyed already. And yes, many quit. If this job market were not what it is, I would have quit too, and in fact I'm actively working on building up my other income streams and applying for new fractional roles. But for now, I need to remain employed and am trying to navigate this. Note: I do curfrently have two other jobs, so I am legit working on other projects when I'm not working for this company, and the near-constant interruptions are problematic for my flow.

Legal note: we are allowed to bill for up to 3 hours per week for this kind of communication. After taxes, that's around $60/week. I cannot monitor three communication channels for 13 hours/day for $60/week.

I feel like I'm losing my mind. I HAVE TO use Gemini to create content. Like that's part of the task I've been given. And I was doing that quite well. But now it is not working at all. I can enter exactly one prompt per chat, and that's it. If I want to build upon something and I prompt even one more time, it blips. That's the best way I can describe it. It appears to start working, and then POOF--my second prompt is back in the prompt box and no output occurred. It has been getting progressively worse--I used to be able to get a few prompts in before it would do that--but now it's one and done. What is happening? I've searched all the forums and I even asked GEMINI what is happening, and I cannot fix it. I've tried an incognito window, clearing cache, fully logging out. Everything recommended. I toggled back to Flash Lite. NOTHING WORKS. And I legit cannot do my job if this does not work. Help.

Has anyone added anything to a Dakota bag through Coach Create? I'm thinking of taking mine--which should arrive today--to my local-ish store to add some stars and star rivets. But I can't find a single example of anyone else who has done that. I've searched here, I've googled. Is there a reason we are not customizing the Dakota? If you've done it, please share pics! I have a few mockups of what I'm picturing, but they break the "do not share AI images" rule so you'll just have to imagine it. Basically I want some stars of various sizes on the pocket, the area behind the pocket, and on the top corners. Not everywhere all over the bag, just kind of artfully scattered in purposeful places. I'd also like to get the hangtag stamped with my maiden name, which I'm getting back any day now after 20 years. That or the word "shine". I can't decide which is a better divorce purse sentiment!

I’m per diem/hourly in a professional role. No benefits of any kind, no guarantee of work, and a very irregular schedule—seasonal slow times and working across time zones. I’ve been with this company and in this role for 10 years. There is no opportunity for advancement for me. Others have advanced. I have not. This is not me having an ego--I'm REALLY good at a kind of crappy job, so there's no impetus for anyone to help advance me to a better role. But that's not the main issue.

We used to be paid $X to do a 90-minute session on one topic (so one prep). They recently changed both the compensation structure and the session structure so now we are doing 3-hour sessions on three topics (so three preps) and are paid $X - $40. That’s a MINUS $40. Im

I do have a side consulting gig I love that pays my basic bills, plus enough savings to last many months--or much longer if the consulting work continues. Said consulting work could also lead to more opportunities far more aligned with my goals. I feel I'm spending way too much time and energy on a job that's clearly just "not that into me" (and a job that no longer pays enough to live) but I don't know if I want to quit out of spite and bitterness about the pay, or if my feelings are valid. Many others in my role have already quit since the changes were implemented, but I assume they had other opportunities to pursue and/or a spouse or partner partially supporting them.

If it was even five years ago I'd already have quit, but I've watched friends who were laid off job search for more than a year.

I know the answer should be "find another job first" but I kind of already did that with the consulting gig. It's dream job-adjacent and I'm unwilling to put it down right now to pick up a 9 - 5.

What would you do?

I’ve worked in Ed tech for 15 years. Ed tech is dying—or at least the work I do. I build and deliver professional learning for Ed tech companies. I’ve been in my “primary” role for 11 years now. We were recently given a 30 - 40% pay cut and told “if you are unhappy, we assumed some of you would quit”. We were also told that our work would be reduced by a combination of underpaid offshore workers and AI. It hasn’t been (but even if it had been—come on.) I don’t have a salary or benefits or a guarantee of work. I cannot do this anymore.

But I’m in my mid-40s and the current job market is garbage. My degrees are all 20 years old and in education. I will not go back to classroom teaching. That is a hard no, please do not even suggest it. My cost of living is low enough that I could just work at Target. I don’t want to do that, but I would choose it over being a teacher again. I would choose walking into the sea over being a teacher again. I am very tech-proficient, highly self-motivated, and very good with AI. I am ok with paying for additional certifications, but will not do another degree.

Help.

In the spirit of helping each other make good financial decisions, let's talk about the thing we don't usually talk about: how we actually pay for all these Coach bags. Note: if you don't want to participate in a conversation around bag finances, please click away now. I get that this discussion isn't for everyone, and that's ok.

Alright. If you're still here and still curious and/or want to share, here are some more specific questions to guide this discussion. I've put some things in bold to make skimming/scanning easier, because this got long.

If you use a "pay later" option like Afterpay or Klarna, how do you decide what's reasonable and what's too much? Do you have limits for yourself?

If you put things on credit cards, do you pay them off immediately or over time? How do you factor interest into your bag budget?

If you fund your purchases through resale of no longer loved bags, how strict are you about it? Do you only spend money you've made from selling other bags, like a "one in, one out" rule.

If you save for bags, what does that process look like? Separate account? Budget category? Envelope system? How do you manage saving for popular drops? For example: if you saved up for a Scarlett Mott and then it never even dropped, did you buy something else with that savings or does it sit there waiting for a bag which may never arrive?

Do you have a side hustle which supports your bag habit?

Does your spouse/partner fund your collection? If so, do they have a brother or sister? (Just kidding. Kind of!)

And if you're comfortable sharing, what does "I can afford it" actually mean to you? Is it simply that the bills are paid, or do you also factor in retirement savings, emergency funds, an other financial goals before clicking BUY NOW? There's a huge grey area between "I can afford it" and "I SHOULD afford it". How do you navigate that?

I'm not asking to judge anyone. This is a JUDGEMENT FREE ZONE! I'm actually curious how other people think about bag spending and where they draw the line. And I know that seeing each other's thought processes could be interesting and probably really helpful to many of us.

I'll start.

I live debt-free, so if I buy a bag, I have the money to pay for it. It goes on my credit card and my credit card (singular) gets fully paid off twice per month. However, that doesn't mean I'm out here making only good financial decisions. My retirement isn't fully funded yet--for example, I haven't maxed out my Roth IRA this year and I've purchases a *cough* number of bags. I also sell bags I no longer love for less than I paid for them, and those funds go toward new bags. That helps keep the overall flow somewhat balanced, but at the end of the day, I'm still spending money on my collection on a monthly basis.

So. What's your system? And why yes, I am a Capricorn. Thanks for asking.