Todays Lady

Would you like to know how to get your car repaired and not get ripped off? Well now that's a silly question, I know unless you really don't care about giving someone your hard earned money. I know I'd rather spend that money on a great outfit. So I knew I had to get what I wanted or someone else would. I found that knowledge and some well timed complaints are great tools to get me what I want. As you keep reading you'll feel confident that you can get what you want even if you know nothing about cars, I'm not talking about taking a class on car repair, no something much simpler than that.

Check this out. Take a second and jot this down, there are some critical steps to take to keep from getting ripped off.

Essential steps to take before just complaining to a car mechanic

The set up, this takes a bit of work but it can save you thousands of dollars, plus you have to have ammunition to get what you want.

Get more than one quote about what's wrong with the car. Don't ever trust the first person you go to unless you already have an established relationship with the mechanic. Request an itemized quote.

Once you get this complain about how high the cost is, looked shocked, even if you don't know anything about what the repairs should cost.

At this point you'll often have them work to convince you that their costs are the best in town, or they'll sell you on some particular aspect of the shop. Don't fall for this.

Just walk away, let him know you'll get back to them.

Critical, ask how long the job should take be sure you jot this down you'll need this later.

1. Compare Based on the quotes go online or to a library and compare the costs you were quoted with the warehouse cost of the parts.

2. Call back anonymously and ask for the hourly rate and the mark up. Don't be surprised if you don't' get the mark up amount, that's easy to figure out.

Okay now let's make a simple comparison

If you take the total cost per part, and add in the hourly rate for the job what do you see?

For example:

If the hourly rate is $40.00, this will vary depending on the place you live and the shop.

And the warehouse cost for parts, compare this to the shop costs for the parts.

Hourly Rate $40.00 job 3 hours total $120.00

Parts from the ware house $300.00 now take away the total from

Parts from the Mechanic $ 400.00, mark up is $100.00.

So in this example the cost for the work is $ 120.00 + $100.00 = $220.00

Compare the quotes, who has the lowest?

Next choose two:

Revisit the shops dress nice but not too nice you don't want to give him the impression that you've plenty of money lying around the house.

Find out who would handle your repair, depending on what's wrong they may have one guy who specializes in this.

Complement the shop; tell them what caused you to choose their shop for business. Thank him for his time, and then let him know what you've learned.

Complain about the high prices of other shops in the area, tell him you appreciate that the markup is not as high here. But tell him you've found another shop that's similar in price and then ask him why you should consider this shop over the other.

Do this at both shops and then make your decision.

These valuable tips will keep your money where it belongs with you, not with someone who thinks they can get the upper hand just because you're a lady; complaining and knowledge, now you're armed to get what you want.

Women have worn dresses as their main style of clothing, throughout history. While the dress styles have changed, one thing has remained; the dress is still the main representation of women and femininity. For example; think about the last time you went to the restroom and saw the picture demonstrating which is male, and which is female. Was the female caricature in a dress? Most likely it was.

Women moved away from wearing dresses, as the main clothing style, starting in the 1960s, when the jeans explosion began and the women's revolution took hold. The 1960s were also filled with capri pants, giving women even more choices away from dresses and skirts. Towards the end of the 1960s jeans and pants were being worn more often than dresses. Today there is a surge of women's dresses popularity. While women still wear jeans, shorts and other forms of clothing, dress popularity is on the rise.

The rise in the popularity of dresses can be attributed to the new vintage dresses popularity, as worn by Katy Perry and Dita Von Teese. But more than just those two Hollywood stars, dresses are being flaunted by all TV and movie stars. The vintage styles such as pin up girl dresses and pencil skirt styles, are part of a rising fashion craze.

Vintage styles are more popular as dresses because, historically speaking, women wore dresses almost 100% of the time. Indeed, women even wore "housedresses" while cleaning house and doing chores at home. Dresses were the essence of femininity. While women may still enjoy wearing dresses, there was a time period when dresses were considered as the only proper clothing for women, which created a sense of forced style. Pointedly not wearing dresses, or being refusing to be forced to wear dresses, was part of the women's revolution. Now, with women's rights being more prevalent, though still not complete, women can feel more comfortable wearing dresses to work, without feeling as though they will be seen as too feminine.

Women's dresses for work are a mixture of pencil skirt dresses and, thanks to Michelle Obama, sleeveless style dresses. Popular brands are J Crew and Jones of New York. While sun dresses are not as popular as other dresses, for work, there are many dresses which can be worn in warmer weather that are also professional looking. Women are choosing classic styles of dresses, for work, such as copies of the little black dress modeled by Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's.

When the sun is shining and the weather is warm, women are choosing vintage sun dresses. Vintage sun dresses are the halter dresses with Peter Pan collars and ties around the neck. These gorgeous dresses can have pencil skirts, like in the late 1960s, or the swing skirt style from the 1950s. Lovely reds and navy blues with polka dots or white collars with navy bodice.

Plus sizes are available in any style of dress you wish, including sun dresses and evening dresses.

When you're shopping for your dresses this year the colors and styles in fashion are yellows and greens. For evening dresses off one shoulder is very popular. Ruffles and lace are back in style, but Lycra isn't. Some great online shops offer inexpensive dresses and most offer free shipping with a certain amount of purchase.