Save Money on Personal Care
Posted on | November 18, 2008 | No Comments
Thanks for visiting! If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed.
photo credit: Shereen M (the Powerbook G4 finally died, hmph)
So, have you come to the point where you are willing to adjust your lifestyle to save money? Or have you come to the realization that we don’t actually need everything we think we do? There is a lot of money to be saved on personal care, if you are willing to completely change some habits … or should we say … comforts.
Now, I’m not saying that that any of the items in the following list are bad in and of themselves, but saving and managing money well is all about prioritizing your spending, and there is a pretty long list of items that should come before a spa pedicure. Not that I want to step on any toes or anything.
Ok, here are some specific ways you can cut back on your personal care spending:
Haircuts. Men are the easiest. Husbands and sons can keep short haircuts that are easily managed at home. My husband has shaved his head for a long time now, saving us the every-three-week haircut that he was addicted to (and to be honest, I really like how it looks now). If you figure a man’s haircut to be about $20, this is a realized savings of $346 per year. Girls aren’t too bad. I just gave my daughter her first real haircut, a chin-length bob, and it wasn’t difficult at all. The trick is picking a one-length easy style. Now the tough part: women. I do not cut my own hair, but I get very few haircuts, maybe 3 or 4 per year. I get away with this by keeping a simple, long, layered style. There is nothing exciting about my hair, but I take good care of it and it is healthy. I do not dye or perm my hair either. So the trick here is choosing a style that doesn’t require constant professional maintenace. This is a comfort sacrifice for me because I like to have my hair highlighted, but definitely worth the money saved. If I got my hair cut and highlighted every 6 weeks for a very conservative figure of $50 each time it would cost me $433 per year. Not counting my daughter’s haircut, my hubby and I save $789 per year by keeping low-maintenance hairstyles.
Nail Care. I used to enjoy getting acrylic nails. It felt so good to go every two weeks and sit for 30 minutes while someone made my nails look perfect … no more. I was paying about $25 every two weeks to get my acrylic nails filled. A whopping $650 per year! Now I either keep my nails plain and short or I paint them myself … no, not as nice as perfect, artificial nails, but again worth the savings to me. I didn’t have the habit of getting pedicures so that’s not a tough one for me to forego, but it’s the same as the nails; nice to have, but can be done from home for FAR less.
Electives. I haven’t been an elective-indulger so this isn’t a realized savings for me either, but I’d like you to ask yourself a question before choosing any of these things … How much is my vanity/pleasure/pride worth to me? I know this sounds harsh, but the following things are not must-dos and you can live just fine without them: Professional teeth whitening/repair/caps, breast enhancement, nose job, Botox®, tattoos, piercings, tanning, liposuction, steroids (shouldn’t do it anyway) … I’m sure there are others, but you get the idea.
The point here is that if you want to save money it can be done, but it’s usually going to require a lifestyle adjustment or a comfort adjustment. However, if you’re willing to make that adjustment it can make a pretty big impact. For our family, a total yearly savings of $1,439 per year!
Have you cut back on any of these things? Did you feel the sacrifice was worth it?
Why I do what I do ~ because my hubby was home sick from work today and I was able to be here to take care of him (which is also why you didn’t get a post yesterday)!
Related posts:
- Money Stretched Vs. Money Saved
- Save Money, Be Well!
- 30 Things I Do Daily To Spend Less Money
- Sensible Review: Facial Moisturizer
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Comments
Leave a Reply
About
Using domestic arts to live a simple, frugal life.
