Hi everyone,
How are you? I'm doing really well. I am happy to report that I am feeling better and no longer sick. That's been like that for awhile now and the antibiotics really helped.
I was in Whole Foods this morning and going to buy a gluten free shampoo, when I found another one that I use was on sale AND it had a coupon on the bottle. While I do eat gluten free for health reasons, I don't necessarily have to use gluten free body and haircare products.
Here's a photo of the shampoo that I use. It's a really good brand that leaves my hair soft and shiny. Plus, the area that I live in has hard water, which can sometimes make my hair feel like straw, but this shampoo seems to counteract that really nicely. In any case, here is a photo of the shampoo that I purchased today:
This was really cool. I normally like to buy my products via Vitacost to save money. However, my budget is tight and I don't have enough money to place an order and get free shipping. So I have no problem just buying individual items at Whole Foods or another store when I absolutely NEED them. In this case, I needed a new bottle of shampoo, but it's one that is good for my hair and my skin.
I've used the 2Chic ultra sleek shampoo from Giovanni. Just so you all know, I am talking about this product because I LOVE IT and IT WORKS FANTASTIC. I was not paid in any way. I'm simply blogging about this because I love the product and at a fantastic price.
This bottle of shampoo normally costs $8.99 and with general sales tax of 7.5% comes to $9.66.
Now here's the cool thing. It was on sale for $7.19 AND it had a coupon pasted on the bottle for $2 off the purchase of any Giovanni product of $5 or more.....so I saved some major chaching...because I was able to combine both of those discounts along with my 10% mall employee discount and I only paid $5.18.
That is a savings of about 46% off of the original cost. That's a great savings. Now I can get shampoos for much cheaper than this, true....but this is one thing that I don't compromise on in terms of the quality of the ingredients. I'm a really careful shopper and save in other areas, so I can afford this because it's important to me.
I also got paid today and gave every dollar a name. I budgeted 10% of my gross paycheck for tithe and have that all in cash and ready to go for Sunday.
God has been really faithful to me as I've been faithful to manage what is His to begin with. It's been really interesting, because my budget is working out. I still have to be careful with how I spend my money and there are still things that I need and want. However, all of my current bills are getting paid easily and that is a huge praise ;) :) :)
It's going to take me awhile to reach my goal, but I will get there :) :)
Enjoy the weekend. The weather here in Monterey is absolutely beautiful today. It's so warm. It feels more like summer than winter. That is the news from the ocean shores of California today.
Love and hugs, Heather :) :) :)
Hi everyone,
Okay, so this post is four days late. I'm really sorry. Talk about a crazy last few days. We're gearing up for the holiday season at work and it's already starting to tire me out.
I hope all of you are doing well this week so far.
One of the things I LOVE to do is color my hair. I keep it pretty much my natural color with a hint of red in it for warmth. That and I am starting to see just a few white hairs. I've decided I don't want to go all white until I'm at least 50 years old.
Coloring my hair at home is NOT an option, since I make such a big mess in the bathroom every single time. I also have some limited mobility in my right shoulder, so that is sometimes painful and not the easiest thing to work around when trying to apply color to my head.
I'd heard about henna hair color and thought I would give it a try. There is a LUSH cosmetics store in Carmel that sells this wonderful, chemical-free henna. I went for a color called "Caca Rouge"..yes, they used that word on purpose because when it's all mixed it up it looks like muddy runny stuff. It looks gross, but it works fabulous.
The salon I go to normally charges $65 for color application. Here at my local LUSH cosmetics store they only charged about $28 for the henna.
I called the store ahead of time to make an appointment, just in case they were busy. This particular henna is set with cocoa butter into hard blocks like this, but it melts down easily with warm/hot water. When it's melted down, it sort of looks like this:
It does feel a little heavy on the head, especially after it starts to dry. However, once it is applied to the head, I looked a bit like a cave woman:
I also didn't have a blessed stitch of makeup on my face, not even moisturizer. Henna takes a really long time to set. Here I waited about 3 hours total before I washed it out. Now I left for home as soon as the henna was applied to my head. I did wait a little bit while the lady who a pplied henna to my hair helped other customers. While waiting a took a couple photos of the store. It's a beautiful store that is light, airy and just really lovely:
The store was small but so well decorated. I didn't feel closed in.
After the henna had been drying in my hair for about three hours, it was time to wash it out. That took about 15 minutes, because it was caked on my hair and it's really, really grainy and gritty. It took me awhile to wash all the henna out of my hair. I LOVE the color result. I wanted to add back some of the red undertones in my natural hair color and this did that. However, my white hairs are now carrot orange...but when blended in with the rest of my hair it looks great. Next time, I'll probably try the LUSH "caca marron" henna. That's more of a reddish brown color.
The only real negative is the smell. It doesn't smell bad. It reminded me a bit of muddy wet grass while it was wet. Later, after I washed it out, the smell of my hair reminded me of patchouli spices. Here is how my hair color turned out. It wasn't a dramatic color difference, but it did add a lot of vibrancy to my hair.
This is what my hair looks like from the back. I deliberately stood in direct sunlight so that you'd be able to see the red tones a little bit better. All in all, I'm very pleased about how my hair color turned out. I'll let you know if I try it again.
The associate at my local LUSH cosmetics store said that it fades out in about 4 weeks.
Have you ever tried henna hair color? Or do you use something else to color your hair? What do you do to keep up with hair color and save a little money at the same time? I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments.
That's the news from the ocean shores of California today. Love and hugs, Heather :)
UPDATE: Saturday - November 9th at 7:07 p.m.
HI everyone,
I'll do my Friday "cents" post tomorrow on Sunday. I worked today. It was 4 hours that turned into 5 because it was unusually crazy busy at work...but it was so stressful that it felt like 10 hours today and I'm just physically wiped out.
So I'll blog about the henna tomorrow. I got fabulous results with it and I can't wait to tell you about my experiences with that product :) :)
That's the news from the ocean shores of California today. Love and hugs, Heather :) :)
Hi everyone,
I'm actually going to do my usual Friday post tomorrow on Saturday. I went and had henna hair color put on my hair this morning. It was quite the process but I saved a lot versus regular color in the salon.
I went to the LUSH cosmetics store in Carmel.
I'll tell you all about it tomorrow and have photos and everything :)
Have a great weekend everyone. That's the news from the ocean shores of California today. Love and hugs, Heather
Hi everyone,
Wow, is my head ever swimming. It seems like I was in a rut in terms of how I was going to come up with a game plan for knocking out my student loan debt etc. Now that I'm starting to turn my dream into a concrete vision, all these ideas are swimming around in my head.
I am starting with small baby steps.
One thing that I like to do is to make a list of things that I'll be "needing" in the future. Here is a list of things that I will definitely be needing at some point, but I don't have to buy them right away:
First thing, the word "Einkaufszettel" is German for "shopping list". I still write it out that way, ever since I lived in Germany as a study abroad student.
In any case, these are things that I'll be needing to buy in the near future. The MAC lipstick and lip gloss are really nice, neutral colors that I can wear anytime. It's funny, because I'm almost out of both colors.
I almost stopped by work to buy some today after church. However, I didn't really have a piece about it and I kept asking myself the question: Do I really NEED this right now or can I wait just a little bit longer before I plunk down money for this?
My answer was: I CAN wait and I will wait a little bit longer.
One thing I have learned is that just because you have the money to buy something RIGHT NOW doesn't mean you have to. So I will wait until I'm completely out before I replenish my make-up inventory :)
I do wear braces, so dental floss is a MUST right now. I go through that stuff really fast. The same for the toothpaste. Since I'm paying out-of-pocket for my orthodontic care, I want to make sure that I get my money's worth and that means taking very good care of my teeth.
The toothpaste is gluten free and so is the shampoo and conditoner on my list. I do use the Raspberry Shine. Here's a photo again of the conditioner:
I was paying $8.99 a bottle for the shampoo and conditioner and probably about $6 for the toothpaste. They are gluten free products and those things are important to me. So I am willing to make the sacrifice for those things.
HOWEVER, a very sweet reader sent me a private email the other day and told me of a really great site, where I could get my conditioner for much less. The site is called Swanson Vitamins. Click here to visit their site. I found my conditioner listed here for about $4.98...yeah, my jaw dropped to the floor, too. With as often as I use this product and even factoring in shipping, I won't be buying it at my local store anymore.
There's also another site called VitaCost that has awesome natural and organic products at really great prices. Click here to visit them. The last time I checked I found my shampoo and conditioner selling here for about $4.98 a bottle and my special toothpaste for $3.98 a tube. the BEST part is that shipping is free on orders over $49 and they often have free shipping specials on smaller orders.
I don't normally spend that much at one time on my hair and body care products. However, with such great deals, I can afford to make a BIG purchase now, knowing that I'm saving a LOT of money in the long run.
Today is payday. I'll let you know what I end up ordering, what the total is and what I ordered.
UPDATE at 6:23 p.m Pacific Standard Time:
Hi everyone ;) :) Okay, so I ended up having to place my order as a "guest", but I was able to reset my password this afternoon after work. WOW, did I save a boatload of money...at least a lot for me.
After work, I went to my local store where I usually most of these products I'm about to tell you about. If I payed full price (including tax) for everything I ordered today, it would have been $91.99.
As it happens, with my VitaCost order I only paid $50.31. There was no tax and it was FREE shipping because I ordered over $49 worth of product :)
That's a savings of 45%. That is HUGE in my checkbook and that frees up that much more money to put towards paying off bills etc. I just placed the order this morning and it should arrive in 1-4 business days.
Here's the breakdown of what I purchased. I will highlight in BLUE what the regular retail was and factor in the taxes at the end. Unless otherwise specified, I only ordered a quantity of ONE of certain items. In other cases, I ordered multiples because it's something I know that I will use consistently.
South of France Bar Soap Acai Pomegranate - 8.8 ox
$3.94 / $6.39
Desert Essence Dental Floss - Tea Tree Oil - 50 yds
$2.29 x 4 qty / $3.99
GUM Eez-Thru Floss Threaders - 25 pieces
$2.96 / $3.29
I will say that this one came as a surprise, because I didn't even know that VitaCost carried this, but they DO :) :) :) I use these ALL THE TIME to help me with flossing. They're necessary in order to floss the teeth while going through the process of braces on the teeth.
Auromere Herbal Toothpaste Fresh Mint - 4 oz
$3.44 / $5.99
Desert Essence Organics Shampoo Raspberry Shine for All Hair Types - 8 oz
$5.29 x 3 qty / $8.99
Desert Essence Organics Raspberry Conditioner Red Raspberry - 8 fl oz.
$4.98 x 3 qty / $8.99
So here is the breakdown again. Hopefully it's a little easier to see this way:
Vitacost Order total (no tax/free shipping) - $50.13
Regular Retail (including sales tax 7.5%) - $91.99
That means I saved a total of 45%. What does that mean?
Serious CHACHING back into my wallet :) :) :)
I can hardly wait for my VitaCost order to arrive. When it does, I'll show you all a photo. In the meantime, enjoy this vintage beauty :) :) It's a vintage Ford Mustang that I saw in the mall parking lot a few days ago:
That's the news from the ocean shores of California today. Love and hugs, Heather :)
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