Even though I have tons of lipsticks, it seems that it’s never enough. I want to have a complete color collection that matches all of my outfits. Or maybe it’s just my addictions. Several times en I bought a new color which I thought was a new cool color for me, I got home and found out I already had one of a similar color. Then I ended up having so many lipsticks in similar color or slightly different. That’s really bad bad bad bad ( like my 2 years old niece said) ….and a waste of money too–quite the opposite of my frugal nature ( I know that!!..I try to forgive myself for this

As you all know that we can’t keep cosmetics for too long. Let say for 10 years. There’s a limit on how long we can keep cosmetics for our safety reasons. The best sign on when to throw your make up away is when the color changes or an odor develops. Get rid off them. Most of cosmetic use preservatives to fight bacteria. The reason of color changes or odor develops is because the preservatives may no longer be able to fight bacteria.

Here’s a few simple guideline for how long you can keep your make up in

• Mascara: 3 months ( for this one is a MUST)
• Liquid eyeliner: 3-6 months (for this one is a MUST)
• Oil Free Foundation: 1 year
• Nail Color: 1 year
• Concealer: 1-1.5 year
• Lip gloss: 1.5-2 years
• Powder: 2 years
• Blush and Bronzer: 2 years
• Eye shadow: 2 years
• Eyeliner: 2 years
• Lipstick: 2 years
• Lip liner: 2 years

BUT…….In my opinion, basically, there’s no hard and fast rule on when to throw cosmetics out. I believe we can keep make up indefinitely as long as it looks and smells all right and the consistency doesn’t change. But there are some products that really sensitive and the rule it’s not working.

This season is about natural fresh looking color. Emphasize the assets that you already have Nude or natural lip color for lipstick is in now. I used to get really tempted to buy lipstick which is in season. But now since I have so many lipsticks I want to be more frugal and find creative ideas to use what I already have to create a new color to suit me.

So I came up with this idea…. If you have a lot of lipsticks in bold colors that are too bold to wear everyday, here’s the trick: buy a nude lipstick. First apply lip balm or moisturizer on your lips, then if you like to use lip liner, frame your lips thinly ( I don’t like to use this because if you are are not careful you can make your outer lips darker) then with a lipstick brush, fill the lips with bold lipstick color first. Make it even. Then apply the nude color on top of it, and you are done. Believe me you can have tons of new colors that you create by yourself. And you don’t need to buy a new lipstick that’s matchy matchy with your outfit. Simple but frugal.

Do you have some new tricks with your cosmetics? Anything related to cosmetic stuff. Please share yours. I’d like to hear them.

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

Actually the reason I don’t like the Sunday Newspaper is because most of their coupons are for big projects that you would only occasionally need. Like roofing, tiling, building a deck, upholstering your furniture and etc. You know something that we don’t do or use often. If they have grocery coupons, the coupons are actually for new products or brands that I’ve never heard before. What I need more are coupons for daily necessities.

Recently, I’ve got so many free good coupons on the mail. Some locals and some general like Doves, Victoria Secret and etc. I get some coupons regularly from my 90 year old aunt. I was a little bit sad though because most of the time I end up throwing away coupons. Not because I don’t want to use them but because of the timing.

A few reasons why I throw away coupons:

1. Expiration date. Some coupons have a short expiration date. For example a week. Because I don’t go to grocery every week, then I have to throw away the expired ones.

2. Some coupons that I received are coupons for new products or products that I don’t normally use or wear.

3. Time difference. For example restaurant coupons. Some restaurants coupons are not valid for weekend (Friday,Saturday and Sunday) when we usually go out for dinner.

Coupons mean money to me. I’m sad because while throw away some coupons, I believe there are so many people out there might need that specific coupons.

I have been thinking of giving away coupons that I don’t want and share them with other people who need it. But I don’t know how. I’m still thinking the best way of sharing…Have any idea?

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:
We will start by changing our attitude toward specialization. Make every place in our house as important as other rooms in the house. Treat each room equal. By adding our personality, it will make the house not just a sanctuary but also a place to retreat. No matter what the size of our house is. small, medium or big, or how much budget we have, we can always maximize decorating it. They key here is our willing to improve the quality of our life.

1. FIND YOUR THEME

Every human being has a child-like nature in their heart. Use your imagination. Do not be afraid to express yourself. Be who you are. For example: I always fantasize about living in a bird house. You won’t believe if I tell you that I still like toys even though I’m too old to play with kids’ toys. But that’s no problem at all. As long as you like it, enjoy it. It’s your house, isn’t it? I want to create my laundry room to be as warm as possible, a place where I can release my imagination.

2. DECIDE YOUR COLOR

Play with your imagination. It’s okay to play with color. But since the laundry room is a hot place, make sure to make it as cool as possible. Choose a cool and peaceful color that matches your personality.

3. REMOVE CLUTTER

Clutter is not trendy. In small place, being organize is really important. Throw away things you don’t need: empty laundry bottles, irreparable clothes and etc. Just keep things you really need. That can help you saving time and perhaps money.

4. BUILD YOUR OWN ORGANIZATION STYLE

If you think your laundry room is really tiny and you need more space and storage area, recouping space vertically is likely a better solution than horizontally. You can always build many shelves up high all the way to the ceiling if you want.

Well, let’s start our project. Below is an example of my 6′ X 5′ laundry room. The make over itself cost me below $40.





Here are the steps and tips how you can do your laundry makeover in really small budget.

• 1. Low cost paint
  

For a small room like a laundry room, a gallon of paint is probably more than enough. Go to local Home Depot or Lowes or any hardware store and find the “oops paint” section. What is oops paint? Oops paint is the paint customers return to the store for whatever reason. The store can’t sell oops paint except by reducing the price.There are many cool colors you can pick out from the oops paint corner and the prices are usually very cheap. The regular price for 1 big can is about $25 or more, but you can get oops paint for $5, and a small can for only $1 at stores like Home Depot.The problem here is you can’t choose your own color. But no worry, you can always work with it. If you want to live in frugal way, you have to be smart and play with your frugality.

Here are the steps and tips how you can do your laundry makeover in really small budget.For a small room like a laundry room, a gallon of paint is probably more than enough. Go to local Home Depot or Lowes or any hardware store and find the “oops paint” section. What is oops paint? Oops paint is the paint customers return to the store for whatever reason. The store can’t sell oops paint except by reducing the price.There are many cool colors you can pick out from the oops paint corner and the prices are usually very cheap. The regular price for 1 big can is about $25 or more, but you can get oops paint for $5, and a small can for only $1 at stores like Home Depot.The problem here is you can’t choose your own color. But no worry, you can always work with it. If you want to live in frugal way, you have to be smart and play with your frugality.I always go to the oops corner and collect paint colors that I like even though I may not need the color at the time. I always know I will need it sometime soon because one of my favorite hobbies is changing paint colors

• 2. DPY- Do Paint Yourself

A small room like a laundry room only takes an hour or two to paint. While waiting for your paint dry, you can use your time to clean your washing machine. Here’s a cheap tip to make your washing machine glow again: combine 1 full lid of bleach and 1 tsp of dish detergent. Use gloves and soft sponge to wipe the washing machine. Wait for 15 minutes before wiping it out with a warm wet towel. Guaranteed, it will remove all the dirt from your dull, dirty washing machine.

Clean all the washing machine pipes from the dirt, make sure you remove all the dirt because it can cause fire.

• 3. Build your own shelves
  

You don’t need to have an expensive storage solution. Shelves are really easy to build. You just need to buy a few pairs of triangle hooks. They cost usually under $1 each. Plan how many shelves you want to build according to your need and where you want to put them. Mark the place where you want them hung. Use a leveler for the right measurement and balancing. Remember the aesthetic aspect is important too, here. You don’t want to build them carelessly. Be professional.

For shelves, you can find ready a laminated shelve piece for about $7/piece in any hardware store. If you want them cheaper than that, you can buy a few pieces of lumber that are usually sold around $3/piece. Ask the hardware store to cut them as you desire. They will be happy to do it for you free of charge in most cases. You can always paint it later with your own color.

• 4. Get ready
  

get your screw driver and start building your own shelves.
Screw the triangle hook first in both right and left on the sign you’ve marked earlier. Then put the shelf on top of it. Simple isn’t it?

• 5. Being Organize
  

Organize your laundry stuff on the shelve.
I like to buy all my laundry stuff in the same color to match/compliment to my laundry room colors.

• 6. Decoration ideas
  

Put some nick nacks on your selves e.g. photos, frames, radio, toys, a vase of flowers, pictures of your favorite celebrity, Elvis or Lindsay Lohan for example–anything you like. There are no rules here. Make the place as warm as possible.

• 7. Cheap Curtains Solution
  

Since I don’t like to see my stuff bare, I like to cover my shelves with curtains.
The easiest way to get a cheap curtain is goodwill or the thrift store. You should find a lot of curtains or fabrics for only $2. Or, you can always find a good bargain/sale at Wal-mart, or many other discount stores. It’s important to budget yourself. It’s not funny it only costs you $20 for a makeover and it costs you $100 for curtains. So, be reasonable.



I built 2 storage solutions, upper and lower. (Upper) There 3 shelves built vertical to the ceiling. I used upper storage to keep things like boxes and all kitchen tools that need more space. Below, next to the washing macine, I built a few open cabinets for all clothes that I need to iron soon.

And at last, the most important thing is being organized. No matter how great your room is, if your sloppy, it will look bad.
Good luck with your makeover.

1. Frugal living requires a knowledge of values. How can you get a great deal on a car if you don’t know what a great deal is. Get in the habit of educating yourself on prices, especially before you’re ready to buy anything that costs a lot. It takes a few hours of looking at listings for sale, for example, to know what homes are selling for in an area, but this is knowledge that can save you thousands.

2. Learn from other people. Most of us know someone who always gets the best deal on cars, boats, homes, or even groceries. Why not ask him or her how they do it! One person will tell you that the cheapest coffee in town is $3 per cup, while another will say 50 cents. Ask the latter about coffee shops. People near you are living a good life on half of what you make. Investigate that. See how others do things, and you’ll know your options.

3. Frugal living means always looking for alternatives. You might have just as much fun taking a discount trip to Mexico as you would going to Jamaica. Maybe you happen to enjoy pizza more than fine French dining. If so, why not skip the expensive restaurant and call Dominoes. This isn’t about sacrificing, but about getting even more of what you really enjoy by paying less for cheaper alternatives that work just as well.

4. Pay cash. What happens when everything you buy costs an additional 20% because of the interest you pay over the years? You can’t buy as much! Everything is cheaper when paid for in cash instead of credit. If you want that new patio set, divide the price by the number of weeks you can wait to get it. Set aside that much each week, and buy it for cash when you have the money. Not only do you save on interest, but you’ll often get a better price when you pay cash.

5. Learn to do the math. Did you really save $400 on that car if it costs you $500 more in gas each year? Did you know that some stores are cashing in on shopper’s assumptions that larger is cheaper? It’s true. That gallon of pickles might actually cost more than four quart jars. Make it a habit to do the math if you want to save money.

6. Tell people what you need. Mention it in conversations. Many people get free or cheap things, just because they talk. For example, a neighbor wanted to upgrade her living room debt, and was thrilled that I would take her three-month-old couch off her hands for $30. I sure am glad that I mentioned I was looking for one. You need to make this little trick a part of your frugal living habits.