Low and No Cost Beauty Tips

Rebecca has already posted about the magical powers of baking soda, and this month I've started thinking about ways to cut my beauty routine without "letting things go". So I've come up with some low and no cost beauty tricks (some of which I'd already been practicing), and wanted to share.

Do your own nails - this is an obvious one. Manis are expensive. Even if you buy really expensive nail polish (which I recommend, because it won't chip as fast and make you mad), it's still going to be under $10 a bottle. Know how many manis you can get from one bottle of nail polish? I'm not sure exactly, but I know it's a lot. Essie and OPI are my favorite brands, although I've recently been introduced to Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics (which are vegan and cruelty-free) by my dear friend Shauna, and I'm HOOKED! I have "Pansy" and "Blackboard" and I love 'em.

Use eyedrops regularly if you have red eyes - If you're a sleep-deprived mom, you probably have slightly red eyes all the time. This is the same principle as bleaching your teeth. Use eyedrops regularly to moisturize tired eyes and get the red out. If the whites of your eyes are truly white, you look healthier, happier, brighter, and better, even when you're not wearing makeup.

Bleach your teeth - Less obvious tip, because buying at-home bleach kits can be pricey. But IMO it pays huge dividends. Having white teeth makes your whole face look brighter, even when you're not wearing a drop of makeup. I also drink my coffee through a straw to minimize contact with my teeth, and try to choose white over red wine to avoid stains. I like Rembrandt Whitening Strips, which unfortunately appear to be out of stock. The two-hour whitening kits sound great, but left me with SUPER sensitive teeth (as did Crest Whitestrips). If you experience sensitivity after whitening, take some advil or tylenol and know that it'll only last for a day or two.

Anti-aging lotion - You don't have to spend a ton of money on anti-aging products. The drugstore brands are fine (I prefer cruelty and paraben-free). Actually I've heard that the drugstore brands have more money to do research and therefore have better products...but that's just a rumor. At any rate, my feeling is some kind of anti-aging product is better than none, no matter what the price. Also, if you're going to splurge on one anti-aging product, eye creams are what you should go for.

Sunscreen - When I was ten years old my mother gave me a bottle of Oil of Olay classic moisturizer with SPF 15 and told me to put it on my face every day. I listened. I firmly believe this is one of the reasons I don't look a day older than 25 (ahem-ha-ha-ha). I'm still on the hunt for a good non-greasy paraben and cruelty-free daily facial moisturizer (if you love yours please let me know what it is!), but I've used one every day since the talk with my mom fifteen (ahem-hahahahah) years ago. Sunscreen on your face is a MUST in every beauty routine, even in the winter, even on cloudy days, and it's never too late to start using it.

Pluck your eyebrows - Costs you nothing, but well-groomed eyebrows will frame your eyes and face and make you look neat and tidy even when you're not wearing makeup. There are tons of resources online that can help you get started. As a veteran plucker who started at age fourteen (you seriously don't want to see any photos of me pre-plucked, it was scary), my best advice is to periodically take a step back from the plucking and get the full-face view to see how the shaping is coming along. It's tempting to get stuck in the super-magnified mirror and over-pluck. If you're nervous to shape for yourself the first time, go to a professional once to get advice on the best shape for your face. Take a photo when they're done and use it as a reference in the future - all you have to do is maintenance.

Don't dye your hair - My hair has been artificial color-free for the past ten years (until I recently got bright purple lowlights - I'm a hip mama now!), and one of the big reasons was the cost of maintaining color. Every six weeks really adds up.

What are YOUR low and no cost beauty tips and tricks?

CBM Confessions: Pizza Night

Well, it only took one week, Dear Readers, and I'm already writing the post I was dreading. Although I thought it would come later in the month, perhaps at least week two....

We've broken Cut Back Month. But I've vowed not to sugar-coat anything, and I think perhaps there is a lesson learned here. I know I waxed poetic in my first post about how Cut Back Month wasn't intended to be a sustainable endeavor - but rather a financial cleanse that only lasts a month. My goal was to take a hard look at our spending, and find some areas we could trim without a major lifestyle overhaul. We don't want to become people who save money at any cost and essentially give up our lives. (I say this as if my husband would even allow that to happen. When I proposed Cut Back Month to him, he grudgingly agreed to a Cut Back Week.) I think the hard reality is that we like living our lives the way we've become accustomed to living them - duh, right? Although I suppose if drastic financial changes were that easy, no one in the world be in credit card debt :)

I think one area that we can make some changes without feeling the crunch too much is food costs. Perhaps groceries, but I'm more talking about eating out, and ordering out. We love going out to eat, and we love ordering. It's easy, it's convenient, and it's usually delicious. In December we spent $1,576 on food and dining (thanks Mint.com). Now before I hear your collective gasp (the first step is admitting you have a problem right?), that's everything - groceries, takeout, restaurants, bars, coffee shops, Jeff's lunch at work - EVERYTHING. My goal is to reduce that. I'm not sure how much, but we've GOT to be able to reduce that.

When I think about how far we've come, I know it's possible. Before we had Charlotte it was not unheard of to go out drinking with friends and spend over $200 in an evening. NYC bars are expensive, and taxis at the end of the night - it all adds up. Having a baby has (thankfully) dampened our bar habits, and now we do most of our drinking at home. Like good parents. At 1/10 of the cost.

But there's obviously more fat to trim. Having a $3-5 cup of coffee a few times a week adds up. Buying lunch at work costs Jeff at least $8 per day. But here we are again at the intersection of what's possible and what's liveable. Preparing and packing Jeff a cost-effective and delicious lunch every day is probably not going to happen. So maybe we can start with twice a week. That feels manageable.

Back to my confession - we ordered a pizza. It was Friday night, we were both pooped from a day of working, Jeff had just received some potentially questionable medical news (more on that later), and the undercooked beans in the fridge just weren't doing it for us. $21.33 later, the three of us were cheerily munching on Pizza Plus and having a great family night. If that's wrong, Dear Readers, I don't want to be right.


And so far, according to Mint.com, we've only spend $186 this month on food & dining. So even with the pizza slip, if we can keep this up for three more weeks we're on track to cut our food & dining budget by half. Not too shabby, right?

The Slow Cooker: My Maiden Voyage

 I'd heard that a great tool for cutting your food costs is using a slow cooker. Actually, I'd heard lots of good things about slow cookers - and they sound pretty tempting to a busy mom: Prep your food the night before, turn the slow cooker on in the morning, come home at night to a lovely-smelling home and a freshly prepared hot and delicious meal the whole family will love. Who says we can't do it all? Not the fine folks at Crock Pot!

Counter space is precious in our NYC apartment, so I don't have a slow cooker. Luckily, one of my dear friends does, and was willing to loan it to me for Cut Back Month (perhaps an indicator of how useful a slow cooker ACTUALLY is?). She is also doing the Paleo diet (you go, girl!) so she gave me a few packages of heirloom beans. CBM score! Free food. And I didn't have to dumpster dive. She gave me a pound of Cannellini Beans and a pound of Midnight Black Beans. Don't they sound divine? She also mentioned that dried beans cooked in a slow cooker taste amazing - creamy and delicious.

I'd previously experimented a little bit with dried beans because they do cost so much less than canned (and are also way easier to transport - and important factor when one carries their groceries home as we do in NYC), but had little luck. It seems like such a process - the soaking, the cooking, the preparation, and they always seemed to be a *wee* bit underdone...when it takes two seconds to open a can of beans and add them to virtually any dish. Perhaps this is a key learning of Cut Back Month - a little preparation will save you lots of money.

Anyway, I decided to make smokey barbecue baked beans in the slow cooker, and adapted my own recipe from these two: Lima Bean Cassoulet from A Year of Slow Cooking (great blog) and Hot and Smokey Baked Beans from Smitten Kitchen (amazing blog). I'd made the Smitten Kitchen recipe before in the oven, and they turned out delicious, so I'm excited to taste the slow cooker results with the heirloom beans. Here's my official recipe:

1 pound dried beans
1 28 ounce can diced tomatoes
2 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
1/2 cup pork sausage, cooked and crumbled
1/4 large onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 chipotle pepper canned - (optional, and I only used 1/2 because Charlotte will hopefully eat these. If I were cooking for Jeff and myself, I would have used probably 3 or 4 peppers, chopped - we like it hot!)
1 cup water
2 teaspoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons barbecue sauce
2 teaspoons dijon mustard
2 teaspoons worcestershire sauce
black pepper

Soak the beans overnight in water, discard water. Pre-cook the meats. Add all ingredients to the slow cooker. Cook for 7 hours on low.

Cost Breakdown
I'm doing two costs here - one what it cost me, and one what it would cost if you purchased everything. All prices are co-op prices. Obviously (as with all recipes!) if you went vegetarian the cost would be reduced significantly.

MY COST
Beans - free from my Paleo diet friend
Tomatoes - around $2.50 from the co-op
Bacon - $6.50 per pack - $1.70 for two slices
Sausage - free from my mother (South Dakota sausage, had been taking up space in my freezer)
Misc ingredients and spices - under $5
Approximately $8 for the entire dish - I'd estimate there are at least ten generous servings in there, so 80 cents per serving. Not bad, especially when you calculate that buying a sandwich for lunch at a deli will run you $8.

PURCHASE COST
Beans - $5.50
Tomatoes - $2.50
Bacon - $1.70
Sausage - $7.50 for full package, I used half = $3.75
Misc - under $5
Approximately $17.50 for the entire dish. Still not too shabby at a price of $1.75 per serving. What can you get for $1.75? A cup of coffee? Maybe.(And you could of course lower the cost by forgoing the heirloom beans and eliminating the meat.)

Soooooo, what's the verdict you ask?

Meh.

I know I know, we had such high expectations. The house smelled amazing, it all looked so delish...but dried beans are apparently my kryptonite. 92% of the heirloom beans are cooked to perfection: creamy and velvety, melt-in-your-mouth delicious with extraordinary flavor - truly I can tell a difference in the heirloom variety - their flavor is like somehow magnified. Unfortunately 8% are undercooked. And I cooked those suckers for 10 hours on low, put it in the fridge overnight, then cooked it for another hour on high the next day. Still, every 5th bite contains an undercooked bean. Sigh. Perhaps I should have soaked them longer? (Longer than 8 hours overnight, I ask you?). The flavor of the dish is divine, highly recommended. Alas, the texture of the beans foils me again.

Financial Obsessions

I'm not motivated by money. Even though I dream of having more money, it's just not what motivates me to make decisions; after all, I work for a non-profit and couldn't imagine going to work every day if it weren't for some cause that I believe is at least in some small way working to make the world a better place.

Still, I am fraught with financial obsessions, most of them involving having more money in some form or another to provide a financial cushion to my family in case anything ever happens to me, or to ensure that financial constraints aren't a barrier in my old(er) age.

To feed my obsession, a fairly large chunk of my salary goes directly into a 403(b) [the non-profit version of a 401(k)], and I fantasize about increasing the size of my life insurance plans (one through work that is free to me, and one small one that I pay each month).

While my partner doesn't like to talk through depressing scenarios, it actually helps me to sleep knowing that we have planned for worst case scenarios. In 2011, that meant finally talking through the issues - and shelling out the money - to deal with creating will, trust and guardianship documents (even more important because we aren't married - and have no desire to get married - so some things that are automatic for straight married couples require legal paperwork for us). I want us to do whatever we can to ensure our daughter is well-cared for no matter what happens to us, and, being older parents with an only child, that we minimize the toll on her as we get into our "wisdom years." 

Along those lines, my latest obsession is getting long-term care insurance for both my partner and me. I've recently watched both my parents go through long-term care situations with their parents: my maternal grandfather was able to stay in his home with 24 hour care until he died at 94, while my paternal grandmother is currently in a nursing home.

These obsessions are part of the cash flow constraints that we're facing. The long-term care insurance plan we are in the process of purchasing is going to add $150/month to our expenses...for the next 45 years or so (fingers crossed that neither of us needs it before we're well into our 80s)! And that is money we simply don't have right now, so part of our goal with CBM is to find that extra $150.

What are your financial obsessions and how do you feed them?

Cheap, Healthy Meal Idea: Bean Burgers

In an earlier post, I asked for ideas about cheap, healthy, organic meals that can be made in 30 minutes in order to make both CBM and family dinners feasible at the same time. 

I came across a super easy recipe for bean burgers by Mark Bittman in the New York Times magazine this past weekend (you know, before *cancelling* our subscription as part of CBM):

2 c. cooked beans (white is great)*
1 medium onion, cut in chunks
1/2 c. rolled oats
1 tbl chili powder
salt and pepper to taste

* Canned is fine (drained of course), but if you're really committed to CBM, then you'll use dried beans like I did, simmered with a bay leaf and put into the freezer in 2 c. serving sizes 

Throw everything in a food processor and pulse until well-combined. If too dry, add a little water; too moist, add a little more rolled oats.

Shape into about 4 patties; cook in olive oil until nicely browned (turn carefully).

Serve on a toasted bun with lettuce, tomato, and onion (we used red onion slices and added swiss cheese and dijon mustard - which admittedly upped the total cost, but was worth it!)

I even froze a couple of uncooked patties with wax paper in between them, although can't say yet how those will turn out, and served it with Bittman's Sweet Potato and Quinoa Salad, which I loved and no one else touched. Sigh (but that's a post for a different blog!).

CBM Beauty Tip #2

In addition to Larissa's great money-saving tip for soap-y products (although personally I would replace the liquid softsoap with Dr. Bronner's), we have also been trying a replacement for shampoo and conditioner recommended by our squad leader at the Food Coop: baking soda and vinegar!

I was pretty doubtful - after all, I have long, highly over-washed and over-conditioned hair, and I like it that way.  But our squad leader told us her #1 beauty product is baking soda: she uses it to brush her teeth (ok, that I had heard of), as face scrub (hadn't heard of it, but makes sense), and as shampoo (what?!?). And that she uses apple cider vinegar as a replacement for conditioner (seriously?!?!).

Trying to put my skepticism aside, I took a closer look at her skin and hair, and have to admit that they are both quite lovely. So I decided to give it a go myself.

For the shampoo, you wet your hair as you normally do and then put about a tablespoon of baking powder in your hand and massage it into your scalp, then rinse as you normally do.  I absolutely LOVE this, and will keep this one well past CBM.

For the conditioner, I've just been kind of pouring organic apple cider vinegar on my head and hair.

This one I'm less sure about, and it may just last for CBM only, although the jury is still out on it's performance. I find it hard to use (since it's not viscous like conditioner and so just runs through my fingers/hair) and the smell is, well, not what I'm used to. However, although it doesn't de-tangle quite the way that conditioner does, my hair is really soft all day. To counter the smell, I've been spraying my hair with a water and lavender oil mixture that we use on Sasha's hair every day (see Larissa's post below about daycare + lice prophylaxis!).

Bottom line: while I'm not sure I can recommend that you replace your conditioner, I highly recommend that you give the baking soda shampoo a try. You might just find a lifetime of shampoo-savings is in store for you!

Liquid Hand Soap for Less than a Penny

So as I've previously boasted, some expenses in our life are already pretty lean and mean, and there's one that I'm particularly proud of that I thought I'd share.

We use a LOT of liquid hand soap in our house. NYC is a germy place, Charlotte is two years old and in daycare, so we are CONSTANTLY washing hands. We need one soap dispenser at each sink - so three total. For awhile I was really into the Bath and Body Works foaming soaps - they smell amazing and have fun scents. But they're PRICEY! If you get the 6 for $20 deal, that's $3.33 for 8.75 ounces of product, so 38 cents an ounce.

So I did some investigation...and it turns out the "product" is mostly water with a little bit of concentrated soap and fragrance in it. The foaming mechanism in the pump top is pretty genius - its invention has enabled BBW to make a MINT on these little beauties. So I decided to try to make my own.

I should back up a little bit and say that I did have a mid-step. I bought a jumbo container of softsoap liquid soap at Costco. Actually, since it was Costco there were TWO jumbo containers of liquid soap, and I split it with my friend. I believe it cost around $10 for two huge jugs, so $5 for one. Each jug is 80 ounces, so about 6 cents per ounce.

For awhile I was just refilling my old handsoap containers, but when I had the foaming pump mechanism epiphany, the game changed.

I bought three foaming handsoaps from the Co-op (around $5 each), and have been refilling them for the past 6+ months with about a tablespoon of liquid handsoap, a few drops of lavender essential oil, and water.

Yes, you read that right, only about a tablespoon of regular liquid handsoap goes into a WHOLE container. The rest is water. Now you see why I think BBW is making a mint off this. They're using about 1/20 of the actual product, and filling the rest up with water!

So what's the new cost, you ask? Well, 160 tablespoons in 80 ounces (the size of the handsoap jug from Costco), and one tablespoon of actual soap goes into the foam dispenser (which holds 8.75 ounces - the rest it filled with water, remember?). So 3 cents worth of handsoap goes into each full foam dispenser, divided by 8.75 ounces....it's less than a penny. For a whole container of foaming hand soap. And if you want "foamier" soap, why not splurge, and use two tablespoons...bringing your cost up to  - oh wait, still less than a penny.

Now I did also mention that I use lavender essential oil to scent the soap. That does add some cost - it's about $9 for a small bottle. We use the lavender for a lot of different things though - in our bath, a few drops in the humidifier at night for relaxation, in Charlotte's hair to repel lice (remember the daycare thing?), spritzed on our sheets before bedtime...and in our hand soap. It gives it a lovely scent, and makes it feel more luxurious than it actually is. 

Now I know what you're thinking - can't I use this "foam" principle with all my household soaps? Like facewash and shampoo? You bet. I tried it with my pricey organic anti-aging Vitamin C facewash with great results, and have heard of people doing the same thing with baby wash/shampoo. You may have to play around a bit with the proportions - I had to up the facewash to water ratio to achieve the cleansing power I desired, but in the end it really helped to stretch my facewash. Take that Cut Back Month.