The Budget Babe | Affordable Fashion & Style Blog

My Latest Steal: Old Navy Gold Gladiators




UPDATE on 6/23: Do NOT buy these shoes!! The very first time I tried wearing these over the weekend, one of the buckles on the left shoe BROKE. The holes are impossibly tight, so while I was struggling to get the pin into the proper hole, the pin broke off. I was able to reattach it, but it popped right off again when I tried to gently coax it through the hole in order to secure the strap. I am beyond disappointed, but I have no choice but to return them. On the plus side, I'll be hunting for more budget-friendly gold gladiators in the coming days, and sharing them with you.

Hello, lover. My gold glads arrived in the mail today and I was so excited, I almost kissed the mailman! Well, not really (not even close!) but you get the picture. They are even more fabulous than I imagined. I plan on wearing them with everything since gold is practically a neutral shade. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Get your own pair of glam Gold Gladiators at OldNavy.com, now $19.50.

Savvy Travel: Fifi's Free-Sail Day

It's a pirate's life for The Budget Babe's International Travel Advisor Fifi LaMode (minus the pillaging). —BB


by Fifi LaMode
So now we've experienced a storm at sea, nights under the stars, all sorts of fish, and we're getting quite used to this sailing routine. It's our last day and it's a "free sail" day, which means we're free to sail wherever we want as long as we're in harbor by 5 p.m. We depart Spanish Town and choose a route that's windier than we want, so we turn away from the open sea and enter the Sir Francis Drake Channel.

The sea is much calmer and we can once more take time to enjoy the scenery. I love the names of these places. They evoke adventurous times and hundreds of years of history: Pirates, ships laden with Spanish gold, and, unfortunately, slaves. These islands have many stories to tell. (For an excellent read, get James Michener's "Caribbean" from your local library. Each set of islands has a different history.)