Thrifty Beauty Products

I try to be frugal with all things, not just food. Beauty products are SO overpriced anymore that any way I can cut on cosmetic costs is a great thing. On that note, one of my favorite beauty rituals is to exfoliate.

I like to slough off the dead skin and oils that can accumulate on my skin overtime to reveal the last vestiges of my youth full face. (There's not a whole lot of youth left anymore so I have to work with what little I have left.) And instead of spending $10 on a bottle of fancy exfoliater I've found a quick, simple and cheap way to reveal the fresh skin underneath.

When washing my face I suds up my hands with the soap and then I sprinkle a teaspoon of sugar or salt to provide a grainy texture. Then I wash my face with the mixture, rubbing in a circular pattern, and rinse.

Voila! Fresh rosy skin.

For more WFMW tips visit HERE.

Grocery Cart Challenge Recipe Swap - Cheap Teeth Whitening

I'm kind of on a non-food recipe kick lately and this one plays directly on my vanity.

I hate having yellow teeth. Even the slightest hint just grosses me out. I used to use Crest Whitestrips but they are seriously expensive so I've been brushing every few weeks with baking soda because that's all the info I could find on cheap ways to whiten teeth. And I can't say that I noticed ANY difference.

But I came across this article HERE and it talks about using the combo of peroxide and baking soda. I know it works in my laundry but is it safe for my mouth?

And the answer is yes. It's in most teeth whitening toothpastes, mouthwash's and whitening kits already. The key is to brush and spit....don't swallow and to NOT use it every day. Most info I find recommends using it once a week to once a month. Check with your dentist or do some research on your own if you need more details on that part of it.

So....here's the recipe.

1 tsp baking soda
1 cap full of hydrogen peroxide (the kind you get in the first aid section)

Stir together and wet your toothbrush with the solution. Brush as you normally would. It doesn't taste good so I just brush my front teeth with it and avoid getting it on my tongue. Then I follow up with a minty brushing and my mouth tastes and looks better.

And how does it work?

Seriously noticed the difference after just one use plus it's so cheap!

If you'd like to share a recipe please link directly to your post, not your homepage, and include a link back to The Grocery Cart Challenge from the body of your post.

Haircuts At Home - No You Won't Scalp Them

We have lots of hair at our house and we're healthy enough that it grows at a fast rate. The boys could easily get a haircut once a month while my daughter can go longer since her hair is intended to be long. It's those short haircuts that take more maintenance. For a good hairstylist at a high end salon we were paying $30 a head including tips.

For the kids alone that was $120 every 4-6 weeks. Not to mention $60 in cuts for Chris and I as wells as $80 every few months to keep my gray hairs under wraps.

We were sinking in hair expenses.

So we decided to cut back. My hair is long curly and forgiving so I put my years of watching my stylist to use, and held my hair at the same angles so I could layer it myself. Then I bought $3 boxes of self administered hair color. Not salon quality but it passed and didn't look like I was doing it myself. I went from $500 a year to $24 a year.

But the kids and Chris were another story.

Even at the quicky haircut places we were paying $60 total for the other 5 family members. It worked out to be about $500 a year in hair care. I knew I could do better.

So a while back, for about $35 dollars I bought a Wahl clipper set (see my right sidebar under "I Recommend" for the one we use) and armed with the how-to's that came with my set I learned how to cut the kids hair for free. The more I did it, the better I got and soon with the help of a little book called Scissor and Comb Haircutting (also in sidebar) I became brave enough to try the scissor and comb cuts.

So now that the book and the Wahl clippers have paid for themselves, it costs nothing but time to get haircuts. For the boys that like the clipper cuts, it's 5 - 7 minutes. For the people who like their hair longer with a scissor cut, it's about 10 minutes per head, and for my home cut and color, it's $3 and 45 minutes.

That's a serious savings!

Here's some before and afters from today's haircutting extravaganza.

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

And did you know that you can compost the hair? Use it up, baby!

For more great tips go see WFMW.

Yes, You Can Have It All

Ok, I admit, I love a good French pedicure. In fact it is a close second to chocolate for me. And chocolate is as important as breathing.

But when our finances became tight, salon pedicures were the first thing to go. So I had to either figure out how to do it myself or go without.

So into my grocery budget (which covers food, household items, toiletries, cleaning supplies, and cosmetics) I began to make room for drugstore french manicure kits.

My first trip I tried the stickers that you tape on your nails so you can paint nice straight white lines.

Ha, what a joke. If I can’t keep the taped off stripes on my painted walls from bleeding through, I’m sure not going to do a good job on my teeny, tiny, very far away, must-be-a contortionist-to-reach-them toenails.

My next trip I got a small bristled paint brush and thought I could just soak it in polish remover and straighten out my lines that way.

I realized I must have early onset Parkinson’s because my hands would not hold still.

But finally I came to this little gem.

Sally Hansens has this amazing product that comes with three items; a base coat, a fancy little white pen, and the creamy translucent top coat.

And, By George, I think I got it.

It’s that little white pen that is the mini-miracle. It’s kind of like those paint pens that you have to shake and then push the tip down to load it. And it paints a nice little straight line, right across my piggies.

I went from a $40 salon visit every few weeks, to a $10 Sally Hansen 5 Minute French Manicure Kit that has lasted for 5 home pedicures and is still going strong.

And I’m really hoping the pedicure fairies at Sally Hansen notice this endorsement and send me a years supply.

Beauty Bargain #3

There is another everyday item that can be used for so many different things...Hair Conditioner.

It can be used for homemade fabric softener or Dryer sheets...

6 cups of water
3 cups of vinegar
2 cups of any hair conditioner

Mix this in a gallon container and stir. Do not shake, this will cause foaming. Pour a small amount into the rinse cycle or spray on wash cloth and throw into the dryer

But my favorite use is to fill a pump bottle in my shower with scented dollar store conditioner and use a squirt for each leg when I'm shaving. I rub it all over like a cream and it not only conditions my skin while I'm shaving but it protects against razor burn and promotes a close shave. It comes out to be pennies per use versus the $3 or more that shaving cream costs me.

Any other conditioner tips out there?

Beauty Bargain #2

You know that box of baking soda in your fridge that soaks up odors? Well it has so many more uses than that. It’s another one of those everyday products that can be used in place of lots of beauty products.

Toothpaste

Do you know that my dentist says it’s the brushing not the paste that is important. We can do without toothpaste but not without the daily brushing and removal of the food buildup around our teeth. So why do we spend hundreds of dollars a year on toothpaste?

Ya got me!

Baking soda can do the same thing. It neutralizes breath odor and whitens teeth. You can either mix 2 tablespoons of baking soda with 1 tablespoon of peroxide to make your own toothpaste or make your store bought toothpaste last longer by using half your normal paste and dipping your brush in baking soda for a whitening, deodorizing boost.

Hair Conditioner

Sometimes my hair gets buildup on it from all the products I use; hairspray, gel, other conditioners, shampoos, and it starts to feel lumpy and waxy. You can remove all the build up my mixing 2 tablespoons of baking soda into 1 teaspoon of your shampoo and washing. It will strip away the entire gunk that has been weighing your hair down and leave you with clean, shiny, light hair.

Refreshing Facial

Have you been cooking greasy foods or sweating a lot? You can make a thin paste of water and baking soda and wash your face with it to remove any impurities that have attached themselves to your skin.

Soft, Sweet Smelling Feet

If you’ve been on your feet all day and your tootsies ache, you can soak them in a tub of hot water with one cup of baking soda to soften the skin and prevent foot odors.

Homemade Mouthwash

For fresh breath you can mix 2 teaspoons of baking soda in a half glass of water. Swish and gargle for clean fresh breath.

Beauty Bargain #1

Every time I run out of make up or some beauty product, it freaks me out because it costs so much to replace. I could spend half my grocery budget on buying replacement items and have nothing leftover to eat with.

But through the years I’ve gathered some tips from magazines and books and little old ladies that have really saved me some bucks and left me with pretty darn good skin.

And I’m going to share them with you because we are in this thrifty thing together, right?

In most beauty regimens it’s suggested that we use a toner after washing. A toner is supposed to remove any impurities left after washing, shrink down the pores, balance our skins PH and prepare it for a moisturizer. It’s usually applied with a cotton ball dampened with your toner and wiped all over your face and neck. You’ll be amazed how much is left behind after washing.

Yuck!

But the cosmetic companies don’t let you know that toner has been around for ages. Those black and white pictures of relatives with beautiful skin reveal a knowledge that has gotten lost with all the beauty advertisements and marketing ploys. One of the best and most frugal toners you could use is sitting right in your medicine chest.

Witch Hazel is your answer.

Witch Hazel is a naturally occurring purifying agent that works as a cooling astringent, anti-inflammatory, and wards off harmful bacteria. Indians and pioneers used it for insect bites, burns and irritated skin. And the cosmetic companies have been using it for years in their potions.

And to prove it, I looked at my $11 bottle of Clinique toner to find that, yes it’s ingredients consist of witch hazel (hamamelis), water, alcohol, coloring, glycerin (which helps seal in moisture but using a moisturizer afterwards would do the same thing), sodium borate (which I was freaked out to realize was Borax and I use that in my laundry soap) and menthol (for the cooling sensation).

I can do without all the extras.

But the tipping point for me was that the pure witch hazel left me with the same tingly clean feeling but cost only a fraction of the price.

6.7 ounces of Clinique Clarifying Lotion (toner) = $11 per bottle

6.7 ounces of generic Witch Hazel from the drugstore without all the added ingredients = $1.20 (and I bet you can find it even cheaper than that.)

Which would you prefer to use?

***I'm not picking on Clinique, it's just what I had it in the back of my cupboard.