Zlittle Frugal Living

How many times do you think you should do a pedicure manicure at a nail salon? What would you rather do, save your money by doing it yourself at home or spend your money by having other people do it for you. Share your opinion with me….

Last Saturday, I went to a nail salon to have my nails and toes done. It was the first time in my entire life that I actually paid someone to clean my nails–WHAT?? Where are you coming from? Even a GEICO cave woman does that. I know you won’t believe me. Well, it’s not that I am so cheap, but most of the time I don’t like to spend money especially when I know that I can do it myself.

But this time, my friend forced me to go. She told me that there is a big difference in DIY to DBOP (do it by other people). She insisted that it’s worth any penny. Well, because of my deep curiosity and to test her statement, I decided to go. I paid $30 to have my nails and toes done.

The owner was really nice. He even gave me a small therapeutic massage just to try it out. My only concern was the chair. It was too tall/big for me. Supposedly the chair’s function is to massage your back, shoulder and neck. I was too short for the chair. Instead of massaging my back, it massaged my back head and that made me dizzy.

My first manicure/pedicure experience was OKAY. It’s good though, but a frugal person like me always thought there’s no reason to waste money when you know you can do it yourself better. Besides that, $30 only last for 2/3 weeks. Then your nail and toes get dull and your nail polish get chips again. If you go trice/ twice a months you’ll spend $90. That’s a lot of money.

I think when we go to a nail salon to do a pedicure manicure, we pay more for relaxation and glamor. Instead of doing it yourself, you just need to lean back on your massage chair, read a magazine and let someone else do it all for you. Who doesn’t want to be pampered like that?

Some people are too lazy or don’t have time to do it themselves and would rather have someone else do it for them at a nail salon. There’s nothing wrong with that. But for me, I always think instead of spending my money for nails and toes, I’d rather spend my money for other things that are more important than that.

The reason I want to go to a nail salon this time is also because I want to see the process step by step. I want to learn so that I can do it myself, perhaps even better. I watched each step of the manicure/pedicure process carefully. My eyes ran around to read all the labels of the products they used. I asked them questions about some of the special products/tools that I’d never seen before.

My conclusion is… doing a pedicure/manicure is EASY. You can do it yourself at home in just 30 minutes. The pedicure manicure kit and essential products are available at many retail stores. Doing it yourself is a lot cheaper. For $50 you can get the entire pedicure/manicure kit and essential products which you can use for up to 5 or more times. That means you’ll save: $30 x 5= $150.

I personally think it’s good to do a manicure/pedicure at a professional salon at least once a year (especially after a dry winter). The reason is because there are certain products/tools the professional salon has that we simply don’t have at home such as melting wax, electric wraps, etc. After that, you don’t need to go to a nail salon once every 2 weeks. That’s a total waste of money. You can maintain by doing it yourself at home once every 2 or 3 weeks, or as many as you want. You can even do it everyday before having a shower if you want.

Here’s what I did. I bought all the pedicure manicure kits–the exact same ones that a nail salon has. I also bought, foot bath, foot cream, lotions, foot scrub etc… and wualllllllllllaaaa… I can have a beautiful nails and toes the whole year long without breaking my wallet.

For more details on how to do a home pedicure and manicure, check out these pedicure and manicure step by step

Previous Story

In the early stages of my diet, I convinced myself that I wanted to do it the correct way. As a frugal freak, I thought about how to loose weight without spending a lot of money, or going to the gym, or hiring a personal training, BUT achieve the same goal.

From my experience, I found out that the only way to loose weight comes from within you. Mind set, willingness and attitude become the biggest part of the successful story of my loosing weight goal. That’s why before starting your weight loss program, ask yourself whether you want to do this journey to the end or just half way?

My recipe for loosing wight was “Don’t torture yourself” . Change your life style and just be who you are.

I started my loosing weight program by throwing away all the foods that tempted me, not to the trash can but to my tummy (heheh….. . I actually ate them all for the last time, because I knew that I wouldn’t be able to eat all the junk food again soon. After eating all those foods, I then said to myself “Done!” Goodbye seal and welcome a mermaid.

I cleaned out all the unhealthy foods from the refrigerator. That also helped me become better organized. I cleaned out all the clutter in the refrigerator. I found expired foods, sauces, salad dressing, spices and unnecessary things in my refrigerator that I never paid attention to. I started reading all the labels on food packages carefully before I bought them. Not just the label but the ingredients are the most important part. The food has to be low in fat, calories, sodium, and with no preservatives or sugar.
Purged of unhealthy foods, my refrigerator was now full of food that is good for the body. I bought a few kind of fruits that are high in fiber. Red apples, pairs, banana, grapes, blueberries, kiwi, and my favorite vegetable, sweet potatoes. I bought broccoli, kale, snow peas, tofu, Tempe, fish, natural grown chicken (without hormones), brown rice instead of white rice. For seasoning, I love low sodium soy sauce and sea salt.

This is my diet plan:

I always have something to eat in the morning for breakfast. I started off with rice crispies (even though, they are not a good source of fiber, but I would do my diet gradually). From rice crispies, later I changed to the healthier cereals like: Kashi, oatmeal, toasted 100% wheat bread with cheese, scrambled eggs. I just substituted them as I like each day. Or if I was tired of those foods, I ate baked sweet potatoes.

I ate a lot for my breakfast and drank a lot of water everyday. It’s easier for me, because where I come from, water is our main drink. For my snacks I had blue corn chips, Baked Lays, and dark chocolate. If I was really tempted to eat junk food, I ate chips no more then 5 chips, or 1-2 small dark chocolate. It’s just enough to fill my craving and I STOPPED. I knew my tummy wouldn’t like that and would beg for more. The easiest way to confront that was put my mind back onto my People magazines and all those skinny people.

Before my lunch and dinner, I made fruits smoothie (it’s a combination of fruits. You can mix any fruits you like it + soya milk (organic one. I like vanilla flavor) + ice cubes). I drank fruit smoothie before I ate and that filled me up. It helped me eat much less than I used to. I snacked a lot though (healthy snacks of course). I ate every 3 hours but just fruits or sometimes oat meal raisin cookies or chocolate cake that I made. I got this chocolate puding cake recipe which is low in calorie but tasty. Yummy! I bought low fat ice cream and ate no more then 3 spoonfuls if I wanted them so bad (but I refused to eat it everyday).

I loved steamed broccoli and fish. I made up my own recipe using fish, tofu and tempe. I tried to be creative so I could eat as delicious as possible food and healthy at the same time. My principal was: I don’t want to torture myself. A diet has to be happy.

Losing weight won’t be a success without doing exercise. I started doing my exercise 5 times a week. Tired? YES!!… But, practice makes perfect. Exercise was really hard for me at first because my body fat was screaming whole at me “Don’t torture me please!!” I didn’t push myself to much. If I could go a mile today, I took it. The next day I would try 1.5 miles. After while I got used to it. First I started doing basic exercises then after while I could do the advanced ones. Don’t be discouraged!! keep going …it’s all about the progress.

Want to know what I have for my exercise? …….. continue reading my Losing Weight Diary Part III

Save money using your home grown container vegetables. How to achieve healthy fresh living without spending a lot of money.

“Back to organic” - This phrase is starting to get a lot of attention in our recent society today. People are starting to realize how important it is to live healthy and eat healthy foods. We know eating organic foods like vegetables, fruit etc are much better then eating commercial foods that we can get easily in the grocery store. Organic foods are rich in vitamins. They taste way better than non organic foods. But we have to be careful in using the word of organic.

“Organic” according to Merriam-Webster Online http://www.m-w.com is relating to, or involving the use of food produced with the use of feed or fertilizer of plant or animal origin without employment of chemically formulated fertilizers, growth stimulants, antibiotics, or pesticides.

Okay, for example we spray pesticides to kill the insects. Even though it’s done in small amounts, that’s considered organic anymore. Organic means everything that grows naturally from the source which God has already given to us. It’s from nature to nature.

Because organic foods take more maintenance and care, no wonder they are more expensive than non organic foods. Have you ever imagined eating something that you planted yourself? Oh gosh….. Believe me, once you start doing this, you will feel a new sense of satisfaction in your life. You gain more confidence in life. As usual, we won’t listen to all the different excuses:

• : how? I’m not good at that.
• I don’t have a big yard there’s no way I can do that.
• Well, I don’t have time to do that.
• It’s really difficult and takes a lot of my time.
• why bother if you can buy it easily?
• I don’t have a green thumb.
• I don’t have gardening talent.
• That’s silly. How much money can I save doing that?

Living healthy and fresh starts in our own home. Sometimes I’m so sad to see people who have a huge back yard, but don’t do anything creative with it. They just leave it empty. Every time I pass houses with big back yards, I always speak to myself, “if I had a back yard that huge, I would have a garden where I could grow anything I wanted. I could eat vegetables and fruits from my own garden planted by myself.

Last spring after the last frost, starting from my tiny 5×5 deck, I started growing 3 kinds of tomatoes, peppers, hot chilli peppers, okra, and many kinds of herbs. They turned out really well and I have harvested them a few times. One example: I started growing 2 small seeds of cayenne peppers around May. The 2 tiny little seeds have grown to become 2 big chilli pepper plants. They produce a lot because I keep harvesting them. I made green and red curry paste and put it in a jar so that I can use it several times. I gave some to our friend. I also use it for cooking from time to time. I can’t believe that have more than enough. I am even thinking of freezing some for this winter.

These are a few tips that I can share about container gardening. I’m not a professional, nor do I know a lot about gardening techniques. I don’t have a gardening degree and planting experience that I can put in my resume :). Believe me, anyone can do this. Even our kids.The only items we need to have are these : 2 tsp of TLC (tender loving care) , 1tbsp of effort and 2 1/2 cup of your willingness, mix them together and Wualllaaaaaa–you will get the green thumb you always dreamt of.

Okay let’s start…

1. Before you start your container garden, first, think of and plan what kind of vegetables you want to grow in your deck or back yard.
Use a reasonable formula. If you have such a tiny deck, never dream of growing bananas or avocados for guacamole on trees
2. What vegetables do those in your household usually like to eat?.
3. After you come up with a list, filter the items by how easy they are to grow.

4. Check the nature and level of difficulties of each plant, including climate, maintenance and care. You can always read at the back of the package before you buy a package of seeds or a small plant.

These are the best, easiest, low maintenance home grown container vegetables you can grow at home.

One time, I bought several packages of vegetable seeds of many varieties. I started seeding them all in a few containers. I forgot that we only have a small deck. Each day they grew bigger and bigger. They took all of our deck space. My husband likes to sit in the wicker chair to get sun sometimes. Because there were so many plants and containers on the decks, he had to walk really carefully, step up from one side to another like Batman to avoid tripping on them. If you see the movie ” jumanji” you’ll know what I mean. He complained about that because he couldn’t sit on our deck anymore. He told me that I just needed a few monkeys, lions and birds, and it would complete become a real jungle.

5. Based on that experience I remind you not to get overly excited like me
6. Be honest! Sometimes it’s really difficult to grow plants from seeds. But we can always buy small plants from the nursery stores.
7. If you want to grow plants from the seeds, try to grow 3-4 seeds in each container. I like to use small containers with potting mix soil instead of peat moss. When the first baby leaves grow, wait for a few days until all the seeds have sprouted. You can decide which one of them looks the most healthy. Pull out the weak leaves and just leave 2 or 3 healthy strong leaves.

I made a big mistake when I first started my container garden. I used to grow all of my seeds. I put them all in a few small containers. But, that’s wasteful. Honestly we just need a few healthy leaves as a starter. A few seeds is more than enough, unless you want to have a nursery business.

When the time comes to water the baby plants, I like to water them from the bottom. Put the container on a plate full of water. The soil from the container will absorb the water and spread it out from bottom to the top. That’s a good way to avoid interrupting the plants new growth. When you see the soil is moist enough, you can remove the plate.

8. For small plants that you buy at the nursery, repot them into bigger pots. You can buy mix potting soil specially for vegetables that have already been enriched with vitamins. This can feed plants for up to 3 months.
9. Allow for space from one pot to another. Don’t put them close to each other because each plant has a different structure and immunity toward disease and insects.
10. A little extra maintenance and care is needed when plants are small. But please not too much

I love gardening very much. In my country (Indonesia), growing plants is very easy. Just throw the seeds somewhere in your yard or pot and they start growing. The soil is fertile. But here in the US, the soil texture is so different. I had a tough time trying to grow my container garden at first. Most of the time I didn’t know what they needed and wanted. If I watered them regularly, they became yellow. Or If I watered them once every 3 days they became dry. I never gave up hope. I tried and tried and tried. I thought maybe they need a little extra care but that’s a big mistake. All of my plants were really stress out and slowly passed away because I gave them over TLC. If they could talk, maybe they would say “oooh, here she is again!. Stop touching me please!” I failed so many times but I never gave up. We learn from our mistakes and mistakes make perfect. I finally learned that plants need a quality time just like humans. Everything has to be in balance. Not too much and not too little. Medium will do.

11. Water the plants regularly but don’t over water them. When you see that the top soil is dry, it doesn’t mean that deep down is dry. It’s wise to double check because if you over water them, the leaves start getting yellow and they fall down.
12. Check if there are bad yellow leaves. Always cut the bad ones because it can spread.

I name all of my plants. Every time I come out on my deck, I call them by their names. For example: “Hi Juliet! how are you today?”. I know it sounds silly, but I like to have fun in small and simple things like that! No need to be too serious about life. Just relax and enjoy it. It’s strange; they seem to grow better and produce more.

13. Harvest Time! enjoy good eating and save $$$…

Not related to frugality though, but I found this really cool site. And I’m thinking gosh! I love this site and want to share it with you.
This site is a ” how to ” video that teaches you anything from simple things like, how to use the shower, how to tie a tie, how to brush your teeth, and etc. from cooking to kissing.

Check this out : http://www.videojug.com/

The Laundry Room doesn’t have to be a Boring Place

The laundry room is one of the last areas of the house to get our attention. The reason is that we ask ourselves, who will see that tinny bitty place–the place where we can just dump all our dirty clothes or where we can hide a trash can. Washing clothes is never a cool thing to do in life. That’s why sometimes we are so lazy to do laundry, especially when the time to fold the clothes comes. Watching TV beats that any day. Now, let’s face it, laundry is something we have to do from time to time. There just may be a way we can make our laundry time fun.

We call our house

“home sweet home.”

Wherever we go, no matter how bad our house is, we always miss it and want to go back to it. We have an attachment to that place where we can be who we are. Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz describes it perfectly when she says:

“there’s no place like home.”

Most of the time, we like to do an activity when we enjoy doing it, when the surrounding environment sustains us. We can spend hours and hours doing things we like to do. It’s the same way with laundry. To enjoy the time, we have to attach and build a connection to where we are.

Here are a few tips we can do to change our laundry time from dreading it to loving it: Continue reading