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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The Fashion Model -- Not!

I dared to take a few pictures of myself in some recent purchases.  I was brave.

I love bargains!  And when a friend's two daughters took me thrift-store-hopping (yes, hopping) with them, I was game.  I spent about $40 and brought home about $400 worth of stuff!  Good stuff, okay?  I got ride of a few clothing items in my closet to make way for the new items.

Here we go.

Oh, and not all of these items were purchased at thrift stores.  And there are only a few below.  I didn't want to take the time to change clothes that many times.  Plus taking all those pictures of myself...  No, thanks.

Remember, my body shape is short apple, so I'll be describing some of the clothing characteristics that appeal to my body type.

My first purchase was a new coat!   Off-white, which is not my color but it's tinged with enough brown that it works for me, and sparkly, too!  This is a great coat for those in-between winter/spring days--I'm keeping my old, old brown "movie star" coat for the really cold days, and this coat works very well for days that are 30+ degrees.  The original price was $230, and it was on clearance, plus I had a $10 Kohl's coupon (now you know where I bought it), plus my mom had a 30% off coupon.  Final price:  $44.

The next purchase is below.  If you're a regular reader, you've seen the top before ($4 at Goodwill).  This time around, I purchased the skirt, a chocolate microfiber.  Now, I already have a chocolate microfiber skirt, but it's a teensy bit bit in the waist, and this one fits perfectly.  Note the fullness along the bottom--it's an A-line, good for us apples.  Plus, there are no pockets or bulky fabric (gathers, etc.) around the waist, which helps minimize the tummy area.  Goodwill price:  $4.

Oh, and as long as we're talking apple shape, the top above is V-neck (I'm wearing a modesty panel for obvious reasons), and flared at the waist/hip to minimize the tummy.  Plus, you may not be able to see it in the picture but it does have an empire waist, another apple body plus.

I happened upon the boots at the second Goodwill store on our shopping trip.  My old brown boots were very, very old, to the point I colored in one of the decorative buttons along the side because the fabric had completely worn off.  No one ever noticed, but I knew the boots were nearing the end of their life.  These boots below have heels a tad higher than I would have liked, but they're comfortable to walk around in (for short periods of time!), and they were new.  Coupled with a red half-price sticker, and I was sold.  Final price:  $2.50.

The dress below was more expensive, so it was a splurge.  Back at Kohl's and during the coat-purchase, I found this dress.  I bought a red one from Kohl's with the exact same pattern, and you know how I love blue.  I called Fernando and explained, "You know the red floral dress I have?  Well, there's a blue one just like it here, and it's on sale, 65% off."  He responded, "Get it."  Now I have two fancy dresses--not too fancy for church, plus we have a growing list of weddings coming up in the next few months.  Perfect!

Apple body--notice the V-neck, the flared sleeves (not necessarily apple but it de-emphasizes my rather large upper arms), the empire waist, and you can't see it but it flares nicely a smidgen below the knee.  Yay!

Okay, that's enough looking at me.  I was happy and excited to share my purchases with you!


Back to life,
Christine

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A Smidgen of Tightwaddery

My mom taught me to scrape the bowl.  Not just with a spoon, either.  Use a bowl scraper!  And when you're done scraping, lick the scraper.  (That last part is my own homegrown wisdom.)

Squeeze as much as you can out of a bottle of ketchup.  If you add a splash of water to it and shake it up, you can get the final drops of ketchup out.  That goes for any bottle of anything, from ketchup and mustard to shampoo and conditioner.

The list goes on.  The summary:  If there's something left in the bottle, I must get it out.

Kitchen shears work great for this task.  I cut the bottoms (or sides) off of bottles and scrape out the _____ (fill in the blank).  In the case of body lotion, I didn't add water to thin it and get it out.  I purchased a little plastic container for the hard-to-get lotion.  See?

 That's my tightwad tip for you today!


Back to life,
Christine

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