Thursday, September 14, 2017

Frugal September

So many things have been going on this month.  We finally got our debt below $200,000.  Yes, $200,000 - the several degrees between my husband and myself, and a very small car loan that is almost finished.  This is a great accomplishment!  It makes me even more fired up.  The plan is to pay off that whole amount by July 1, 2021.  We are really working hard to do it!  Making everything from scratch, saying no to most wants, selling things, reducing every expense possible....these are all things that we are doing to pay off debt.

One of the ways that we save money is by doing all personal care ourselves.  This includes haircuts and hair styling for our family.  As you can tell by my profile picture, I am African-American.  As such, my hair requires a bit of a different kind of attention.  This is also true for my daughters.  I already know how to do many things like cornrow, flat twist, two strand twist, etc.  But this month I endeavored to learn a new skill: braid extensions.  This involves adding hair to one's natural hair to not only provide volume and length, but to a break from the stress of daily styling. Braid extensions can cause tension on the hair line, so for me, being able to do it myself allowed me to control the amount of tension and make sure that there was no pulling, which ultimately lead to hair loss, headaches and even sores if not done properly.

I am really proud of the job I did.  This style could have cost as much as $150 at a salon.  I only paid $15 for the hair :)  It took about 4 1/2 hours:



My youngest daughter did not want extensions, so we worked together to find a style that would be appropriate for her fist day of school:


What new skills are you teaching yourself to save money?
Posted by at

5 comments:

  1. Mrs. Chrissy TSeptember 18, 2017 at 5:56 PM

    Awesome work!!! We are also working on debt. We were debt free a few years ago and then some unexpected chain of events through a hiccup at us.

    Way to save money!! You did great. Thanks for stopping by my blog at Keeping Home.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. MelissaOctober 24, 2017 at 8:35 AM

      Thanks for visiting here. I pray I can get blogging mojo back...it is so hard to do when working full time and trying to keep the wife/mom responsibilities afloat :)

      Delete
  2. BlessOctober 19, 2017 at 7:25 PM

    Looks like you've mastered that skill! I used to try to braid my daughter's hair with beads, but I could never get them to stay on!

    Thank you for visiting my blog and leaving a comment. Wish you all the best on your debt reduction. Looking forward to reading more on your progress.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. MelissaOctober 24, 2017 at 8:38 AM

      There is a trick to keeping the beads on - you place them on the end of the braid, and then pull the braid up around the last bead, so that the end of the braid is now touching the braid that is pulled through the bead, and then secure the touching parts of the braid right above the bead with a rubber band. The other beads will conceal the rubberband. I pray this made sense :) It is really easy once you get the hang of it.

      Thanks so much for visiting! I need to get blogging motivation and update on our debt reduction progress :)

      Delete
  3. Out My windowOctober 28, 2017 at 6:36 PM

    Wow that is beautiful. My girls all had long hair. I spent alot of time braiding hair, but not African American hair. I know that kind of nappy hair is hard to work with. My oldest had very think curly hair and a sensitive head. I never took my kids to a beauty parlor. School loan debt is awful , but remember they can never take away that knowledge. I am so excited to meet you. If you have any mending questions or hemming let me know and I will talk you through them with pictures so you can save some money.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)