Saving Money on Haircuts

July 23.

I do not like cutting hair.  I've done it for my guys, even Fernando, for 24+ years, and we've saved a lot of money, but I still don't like it. 

Now that a few of my guys have jobs, they pay me to cut their hair.  So, two haircuts done and $13 sits in my pocket.  I feel better.

How about some more money math to make me--and you--feel better about cutting your own kids' hair?

Let's go conservative, with only four haircuts a year.  Since I don't like cutting hair, as I've said, this number is actually probably pretty accurate.  :)  Let's also say their first haircuts were at the age of one, which is true.  Here we go...

Joseph is 25, so 24 years of haircuts = 96 haircuts in his lifetime.
Jacob is 23, so 22 years of haircuts = 88 haircuts.
Danny is 21, so 20 years = 80 haircuts.
Thomas is 18, so 17 years = 68.

I've probably given Fernando haircuts half the time, and he goes and gets it cut the other half.  So two haircuts per year for him, for let's just say 15 years, is 30 haircuts.

Add that all up:  96 + 88 + 80 + 68 + 30 = 362 total haircuts.  At least.

Let's also be conservative in the cost of a haircut, given that little kids' cuts are less expensive.  We'll average it out at about $10 per cut to make the math easy.  I'm not the best at math.  That comes to $3,620 not spent at the hair salon.  But wait, we've bought two sets of very nice clippers (about $60 apiece), plus a cape ($10), plus clipper conditioner (about $6).  So let's subtract $136 from our total, and we get:

$3,516 in savings!

Not too bad.  Now I feel better about having given all those haircuts.  I guess my reward for all that unpleasant work is the knowledge that I saved us a bunch of dough.  :)


Back to life,
Christine

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Decorating Storage Boxes for the Pantry

I'm linking up with the Clever Chicks blog for this post.  Please click on their button to the right to see what they're all about, and to visit others' blogs and be inspired!

I'm not the most craftsy person; actually, I freely admit I'm not craftsy at all.  That's why I love Pinterest--for the ideas I find that may actually be do-able for me!  I had discovered Mod Podge through Pinterest, and you'll see that gluey-sticky whatever-it-is coating stuff featured in today's blog.  Read on.  :)

Remember my newly cleaned and reorganized pantry?  Here's the reminder photos (left and right sides) from yesterday's post if you didn't see it:

Nice and clean, tidy and organized!  But, see those green Chicken of the Sea tuna boxes?  And the cut-out oatmeal boxes?  Even though I love them for their function--holding groups of smaller items in a neat and tidy way--I am somewhat disturbed, shall we say, about their "cluttery" and messy feel.  Let me amend that:  I was somewhat disturbed.  I am no longer, because I fixed it.  :)

To me, order = beauty.  And order means neat and clean lines, not busy, out-of-place colors.  Something had to be done with my free storage boxes.  I didn't need Pinterest to inspire me, either.  After discovering the beauty and ease of Mod Podge for crafts such as beautifying these glass food storage jars, I had just the thing for my pantry boxes, which now look like this:

What I used:

• Mod Podge -- matte finish
• foam brush
• scrapbook paper
• pencil
• scissors

Here's what I did:

First, I cut around the top of this Quaker instant oatmeal box (yes, my husband requests I purchase these for quick breakfasts on busy mornings), and cut out an opening in the front.

I traced this front section onto the back of a sheet of scrapbook paper (12x12 which is what I have plus these boxes were too big for smaller paper).  Then, I cut out the shape with about a one-inch or so border all the way around.  I cut slits all the way around the edges, and cut out corners at the tops (they look like tabs).  I figured the tabs would fold over those littler sections more easily than folding corners up and around and over (you'll see that below).

The reason for cutting the slits:  the paper folds more easily over the edges of the cardboard box in smaller sections rather as one whole section.

I love this stuff!

I coated the backside of the scrapbook paper with Mod Podge, staying within the pencil lines I had drawn.  I carefully set the front of the box down onto the paper (easier to me than lifting the paper up and putting it on the box, but whatever works for you is fine).  I carefully smoothed the paper toward the edges to get rid of buckles and air bubbles, and let it dry for several minutes before the next step.

Then, working in sections, I coated three or four tabs with Mod Podge, then folded them over and around and into crevices, pressing them down.  I worked my way around the entire front of the box with this method.

Those "tabs" at the top folded over nicely, without extra bulk.

The corners got folded over and around.

For the front labels, I used Microsoft Word 2010, created several identical one-cell charts, typed in my titles using the Nauvoo font, printed them out on simple printer paper, and cut them out along my border (I chose a fancier border than simple solid black).

I coated the back side with a thin layer of Mod Podge and secured the label to the front of the box, slightly higher than middle.

Once the label had dried, I coated the whole front and papered sides of the box with a thin layer of Mod Podge.

I let the boxes sit all afternoon to make sure the Mod Podge really dried well.  I didn't use any finish coats, or extra coats, since these were free coardboard boxes and they won't see heavy use.  Here's my baking box on my pantry shelf:

Here's another oatmeal box, below.  You can see that I didn't use scrapbook paper to cover the sides, but just enough to fold the paper over.

After two successful boxes, it was time to conquer my tuna boxes!

Below, you can see that I used extra paper to cover more of the sides of these boxes than I did with the oatmeal boxes.  That's because these boxes stick out a little further from the edge of my "lovely" metal shelves, so they'd be more noticeable.  I wanted to make sure they were covered more deeply.

Yes, I have a box for other stuff!

Here are the boxes on my shelves!

With metal shelving units, the shelves themselves are not even (you can see the Lunch and Snacks box above tilted along the sag in the shelf), so smaller jars and boxes always fell or slid over or never stayed together properly.  These boxes contain like items in a way that makes them easier to find.  Plus, they're so pretty!

Lest you think I'm this wonderfully craft-minded and awesome organizer, take another look at the photo above.  I completely missed one of the tuna boxes on the left!  I didn't even see it until after I took the picture.  *rats*

I have that last silly tuna box to cover, but it's not the only one any more!  Fernando and I just made our bi-weekly run to Costco, and I came home with three more boxes!!  Two of them are going right into my pantry to contain some bulk spices on the left.  Hopefully I'll remember to cover that other box along with my new ones!!


Back to life,
Christine

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My Penny's Worth ~ Making Lime Cubes

A dear friend, Helen, gave us some "going" produce--all organic!  I was thrilled with this gift, and used the fresh stuff right away.  I made sauteed kale with mushrooms and tomatoes, with scrambled eggs, for breakfast two mornings in a row.  Mmm!

In the produce bag I found a few lemons and several limes.  One of the lemons ended up as slices in the water I drink throughout each day.

After a few days of forgetting about the bag of citrus in my fridge, then spotting it again, I immediately grabbed my Bosch Universal blender, attached the juicer attachment, and juiced all the limes and one lemon that was left.

After juicing them, I poured them into an ice cube tray.  Each cube is one tablespoon--I measured.

I left all the pulp in, and this little batch made six cubes.

I put the tray in the freezer, and after a few days I simply popped the cubes out, sealed them individually with Glad Press-N-Seal®, marked "Lime Cubes 1 T each" (yeah, a lemon was mixed in, too), then placed them into a quart-size freezer bag.

Now when I need fresh lime juice, I can simply take a cube out and let it thaw!  Easy-peasy.  I tend to use these in fresh salsas, , guacamole, and bean "caviar" recipes (like salsa with beans in it).  It's so nice to be able to use these food items that would otherwise have been thrown away!  Thank You, Lord, for Your provision, even for six lime cubes!


Back to life,
Christine

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Simple Christmas ~ Food Gift Baskets

We put together two food baskets for our family Christmas grab bag.   Since I had picked my dad, and Jacob had picked Uncle Matt, we knew that we should use only food items, and nothing that had to be cooked or baked.  Too bad we didn't pick one of the girls in the family, but there are only three, and I'm one of them!

Here's what Jacob and I did for our recipients.

The first item in each basket would be my maple-sugared almonds.  Click here to see how I decorated the lids to these ordinary jars.

The basket on the left was for my dad, and the one on the right is for Jacob's Uncle Matt.  Each basket was 99 cents at Goodwill!

To Uncle Matt's basket, we added a jar of pickled jalapeños, because he likes spicy things.

As each item was added, we set it in front of its basket and checked it off our lists.

Above, here was what we ended up with!  Here's the list:

• Whole-Wheat Banana Bread Loaf
• Outrageous Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Maple-Sugared Almonds
• Grape Preserves (made with agar)
• Lightly Sweetened Applesauce
• Peach Preserves (made with agar)
• "Chock-Full" Granola (we usually call this Gourmet Granola)

You may not be able to see it, but for the canned products--applesauce and preserves--I made circular labels and used Mod Podge to affix them to the tops of the jars.  Then I painted a thin coat of Mod Podge over the label and the lid, and let that dry overnight.

Since we waited until Christmas morning to actually package these up into each basket, I'm sad to say I have no actual pictures of the put-together baskets!  For the filler, I used tissue paper--oh, and I totally ran out after doing one basket!!  Can you believe that??  Fernando ran upstairs to the wrapping paper box and came down with lime green paper and royal blue paper.  Argh.  So what I did was use white and lime green in one basket, and white and blue in the other basket.  They actually turned out beautiful, whew!  Here they are, in wrapping paper under the foyer table at my parents' house:

When my dad opened his basket, he showed off his maple-sugared almonds--he had sampled a ruined batch I had made the week before and loved them.  Ruined = didn't dry right because I messed up the recipe so they stayed messy-sticky, but they still tasted super awesome!  Notice the lime green paper!!

Finally, here's Uncle Matt opening his blue and white gift basket:

Although our family members knew we didn't have any money to spend on even the $20 gift limit, Matt commented that the items in the basket were probably worth around $50.  He's probably right, but it was our pleasure to give these gifts this year!


Back to life,
Christine

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Simple Christmas ~ Decorative Jars for Food Gifts

Since some of the gifts we gave at Christmas were homemade food items, I wanted to make sure they were packaged beautifully.  This may have presented a problem budget-wise, but I have Pinterest to thank for this idea!

Original idea from Pinterest:  Click here to go to the link

Items Needed

Mod Podge - matte finish
foam brush
various glass jars, thoroughly cleaned and dried
scrapbook paper -- the thinner kind, not the cardstock quality; most patterned paper will work

First, I set the jar lid on the back side of the scrapbook paper--and I used leftover scrap scrapbook paper--and traced around the jar lid with a pencil.  Then, I free-hand sketched a circle about an inch or so wider than the first circle.  I cut out each piece around the wider circle.

Then, I snipped into the circle at about 1/4" widths, cutting up to the inner circle and stopping, all the way around the circle.  No need to measure here!

This is the Mod Podge I bought below.  I had no idea there were so many varieties!  I brushed the Mod Podge (no need to go heavy) in the inner circle, covering it with a thin layer.  Then I set the lid on, picked it up, and smoothed the paper over the lid.  The paper shifted every now and then, so I did this carefully.  Pretty soon it began to set and I could really work on smoothing the paper, pushing it into the crevices around the lid.  (Sorry I don't have a picture of that step!)

I set one lid aside to really dry, then repeated the above step with the next lids, one by one.  Then it was time to fold over all those little strips cut around the circle.  First, apply a thin layer of Mod Podge to maybe three or four strips, then work them up and over the edge of the lid, pressing them in, over, under, and around the edge.

Once I worked all the way around, I set the lid on a piece of waxed paper to dry, then repeated the process with the next lid.

Once all my lids were dry, I carefully held one lid with my fingers from underneath, and spread a thin layer of Mod Podge over the top and around the sides of the lid.  It looks pretty much like glue.  Try not to apply too thick a coat--you may get bubbles which will dry into it.  I did get a few bubbles, but they didn't seem to matter.

Once the entire lid and sides are coated, carefully set it down on the waxed paper to thoroughly dry.  Each drying process takes maybe 15 minutes or so, but for this final step--coating the tops and sides--I let the glue dry overnight.  Below is one finished, dried-overnight lid!

I had made some maple-sugared almonds, which went into a few of the jars.

Isn't it the prettiest thing?  I almost didn't want to give it away.  For the label, I created a chart in Microsoft Word with a triple border, chose the Nauvoo font for the writing, centered it, printed it out on printer paper, cut it out, and taped it to the jar with clear packing tape.

This was just one of the food items we packed in gift baskets for two very special people whom two of us had picked in our family grab bag.


Back to life,
Christine

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