Salon Style on the Cheap

My hair stylist quit on me!

Well she didn't quit on me so much as she left the state, she moved and I didn't find out till my salon called to confirm my appointment with some other stylist.  It only took me 7 years to find a stylist I really love, so now I'm back to square one.  The salon she was at was a bit on the high end and honestly I just couldn't see paying their prices for someone else, especially not someone who's fairly fresh out of Beauty School.  I'm still not sure who will be going my hair next, but it'll probably be a few weeks.  I'll wait till I can stand it anymore then try out a few options.  One option I'm considering is checking out one of the local Salon Academy's.  After posting on Facebook about my predicament Laurie over at Passionate Penny Pincher told me she'd had good luck with one of the local salon academy's so I'll probably give them a try.

Huntsville has several different Beauty schools now where you can go and pay a discounted fee to have a student provide your service.  Like I said, I've never gone to one of these before but I'm thinking there are some advantages and some disadvantages.  The disadvantage being that you never know what you are going to get and you are taking a pretty big risk that they could screw up your hair... but then I've found I'm taking that risk any time I go to someone new (and occasionally when going to someone I've gone to for a while).  The upside is that their are trained professional instructors looking over their shoulder which should give them a bit more incentive to "do it right".  Another upside is the cost which is usually less than half of what you'd pay in a professional salon.

Today on Living Social our local deal is $15 for a manicure & pedicure at The Salon Professional Academy.  That seemed like a really good deal to me (since it's about 1/2 what I would normally pay for one of those services alone) and I also figured it was a really good way to check out one of these local schools and see how I feel inside of it without the risk of having to carry around a bad haircut for a month or more.

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Rent the Runway

Now here's an interesting concept.  Why pay full price for a designer look that you are only going to wear once?  Rent The Runway allows you to rent designer dresses and accessories for 4-8days for 10% of the the retail price.   Membership is free so keep your wardrobe fresh with your favorite designers! I'm thinking this is a great idea if you've got an event to attend and need a dress. They even give you a back-up size at no extra cost!  I so rarely wear dresses that this is the ideal thing for me.... now I just need an event to go to.

It looks like they have all sorts of looks from just a fun & flirty night out to something much more formal, with rental prices as low as $40.  Check it out for yourself, here.

Swagbucks Code on the Blog

You've got just under an hour (as of this posting) to get your butt over to the Swagbucks Blog and grab the latest Swagbucks Code, worth 6 Swagbucks. Swagcode is good till 2pm PST

What is Swagbucks You Say?

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Weight Watching on a Budget

Today is Day 2 of my SERIOUS effort to really start shrinking my size without shrinking our wallet.  Yesterday, I did rejoin Weight Watchers.  I've success with their online program in the past and knew it would be worth taking another look at, even though it would cost me a bit.  They are running a deal right now that if you sign up for 3 months, you save about $24.  I figured this would give me enough time to get working on things again and get back in some good habits.

Step 2 of changing things is getting back into a good exercise routine.  The last time we made a household decision for positive changes in our health and weight, we joined a local gym and found a trainer.  Unfortunately, I got sick just a few months in and had to drop out of training.  This time around we aren't willing to spend that kind of money, so I'm going to use what I have.

Wii - We have the Wii and the Wii Fit Plus.  While I enjoy playing the games on the Wii Fit Plus and I know it can be somewhat of a workout, it feels like you end up wasting too much time in between exercises.  So, I'll probably use it some, but there are better ways, even on the Wii.

DanceDanceRevolution Hottest Party 3 - if you've never played this, you are missing a fun workout.  I like to dance so this works for me. Even better, I picked up this game with the dance pad on sale on Amazon just before Christmas last year and got the whole thing for under $25. 

EA Sports Active 2 - I actually have the original one. We bought it back when we bought the Wii and I've barely used it.  It is an excellent workout.  This is what I did today and burned about 107 calories in 25 minutes.  Granted it's not much better of a workout than just hopping on the treadmill for the same amount of time, but I felt like I worked up more of a sweat than I would on the treadmill and I got a more even workout.

Speaking of The Treadmill - we have one of those and I do actually use it.  I find the only way I will use it is if it's in the living room facing the TV.  Lately, however, I've gotten into watching a few shows on Hulu, and I've found I can set my laptop up on the magazine rack of my treadmill and watch shows while I walk.  I like to watch "Biggest Loser" while I walk, it motivates me.

So these are my tools by which I hope to lose some weight without losing my wallet.  I woke up this morning to an infomercial for "Insanity", which looks like a great workout and a lot of fun.  Infomercial price was about $120.  I'm still considering it somewhat, but I think I'll check out Ebay and see if someone is maybe selling their used copy.  What can I say, I've gone cheap!

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Surveys for Fun & Profit

If you enjoy filling out surveys there are several sites currently offering incentives for the info you are willing to provide. Some sites offer straight up cash, but most have some sort of points system involved where you earn points based on the surveys you fill out and those points can be cashed in later for prizes (and sometimes cash).

If you are interested in these types of opportunities, here are a few sites you may want to check out:

• Survey Spot
• Mindfield
• e-Poll
• MySurvey 2011
• Panda Research (pays cash $3-$75/survey)
• Opinion Surveys
• Dollar Surveys

Bare Escentuals Giveaway

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Watching Our Weight & Our Wallet

Today I decided to sign back up for Weight Watchers. I've done the online program before with really good results and I'm hoping to see some good results again this time around. The first thing I noticed when I logged in is that they've totally changed the plan. Fruits and Veggies are now Zero points and the way the points are calculated has changed, so that where I used to have a daily limit of around 21-22 points, I now have a daily limit of 29. I just had dinner and I still have about half my points left. Granted, I got up really late today and therefore breakfast was also lunch.

Due to some issues with my jaw, most fresh fruits and veggies have not been in my diet for a while. I've been working to add them back in the last few weeks now that I've found I can eat salad again without my jaw killing me. With that in mind I'm thinking about how this is going to affect our budgeting and grocery shopping. I know we can still eat well and save money, but the truth is it's a lot harder to find coupons and great deals on fresh foods.

I've already found that without coupons and a sale, CostCo is the best place to buy Salad Mix and most meats. I'm going to be looking a lot closer at the sales on fresh foods now to try to pick things up when they are really cheap. We also decided we are going to start making weekly trips to the local Farmer's Market in hopes of finding some good deals on fresh veggies. We considered signing up for a local CSA, but in the end we didn't feel like the price combined with getting whatever they send would work for us. We're a picky household and no matter what I do I'm not going to be able to get my husband to eat Eggplant, Zuchini or Squash (although I love all 3), and we do seem to eat better when we eat together.

Probably the biggest downside to couponing is the amount of junk food we've accumulated. I'm much better about not buying it mainly because I know we have too much already. The worst culprit are those candy bars I pick up as fillers in order to use up Register Rewards or +UPs. So, you'll see me sharing a bit more about watching our weight in my blog here as I learn how to merge these two needs.

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