MegfromAllAboutAppearances's comments

"No Pooing" Method - Blog Entry

14 Aug 2008 05:34 PM

Valorie,

I have four cats and our roommate has two -- for a grand total of 6 indoor cats -- and our house does not smell of cats even though they never get baths. And people who have visited have flat out told me that they can't believe that we have so many cats because it "does not smell of cats". Cats generally take care of themselves very well. Assuming that the cats do not have any health problems, generally what you smell isn't them, it's their waste -- which some cat owners just do not take care well enough. Also, some male cats will spray, especially if they haven't been fixed -- and that can definitely smell since it can be hard to find and clean. Our two males have been fixed and have never sprayed.

"No Pooing" Method - Blog Entry

12 Aug 2008 09:41 PM

I also use cornstarch as a dry shampoo sometimes -- especially on my bangs. I have to brush and blow-dry it all out, though, or it looks like I'm going gray.

"No Pooing" Method - Blog Entry

12 Aug 2008 09:33 PM

@Dale and Jonesx6, if I understand it correctly, you'd still shower/bathe regularly but you'd only rinse your hair with water instead of shampooing.

@Valorie, I can't vouch for sticky finger goo, but baking soda is wonderful at removing buildup from hair products.

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I have greasy hair and can't tolerate the feel of it for long, so my attempts at no pooing didn't last long. I've used vinegar as a shine rinse and baking soda to remove product buildup and both were great for that, but I haven't tried either as a shampoo replacement.

I did use some bar castille soap, but it also had salt in it and I think that may have been why it left me with too much of a sticky beachy hair look (though it could just have been the soap itself).

I'm now using a locally-made tea tree oil, clear shampoo made out of 100% natural products. It's great stuff and I've even started using it as face wash. I shampoo every other day now and my hair still looks pretty decent on the second day -- and my mom even noticed that it looked thicker. It's not particularly frugal (not till I learn to make it myself at least), but it is nice to know what's in my shampoo and that it's environmentally safe -- especially if I ever get a graywater system up and running.

5 Ways to Save on Cereal - Blog Entry

25 Jul 2008 12:14 PM

I love how you suggested alternatives! I find a lot of cereal to be quite tasty, but I never really understood why some people seem to think that cold cereal is a necessity -- especially considering it's outrageous price. And most of it is soooo unhealthy. Just because it's been enriched with vitamins doesn't mean that it's any healthier than chasing a cookie with a vitamin. Also, I find that most cold cereal just doesn't fill me up. Seriously, I could eat a whole box if I didn't worry about the cost and calories.

I don't really have separate breakfast or dinner foods. I just have a mental list of things that are easy to fix (i.e. most of what I eat) and things that aren't. Even as a kid I thought eating dinner leftovers for breakfast made perfect sense!

Frequent first meals of mine include tomato and mayo sandwiches on whole wheat bread, whole wheat couscous with olive oil and nuts, steel cut oatmeal (made in the microwave) with add-ins like nuts or fruit, good ol' PB&J sandwiches, and of course, leftovers.

Ways to Avoid Food Waste - Blog Entry

25 Jul 2008 09:22 AM

I was raised in the school of "finish everything on the plate not to waste it", too. As someone who doesn't lose weight easily, it's an awful thing to try to break. I've had to tell myself over and over again that it's not waste if I eat it later. It's not waste if I compost it. And it's not even waste if I throw it out if the alternative is me eating more than I really should and being less healthy because of it.

What Is Your Frugal Roadblock? - Blog Entry

25 Jul 2008 09:17 AM

Books used to be a bit of a roadblock for me, too. I started shopping the library and just reading blogs more and that definitely helped tremendously. The only time I really go crazy is if I attend the biannual library book sale. It's hard to even spend $50 bucks there, though, no matter how many books I buy (and even less now that I already have so many great books on subjects I'm interested in).

Eating out also used to be a huuuuuuuge roadblock for my husband and I. We ate out many times a week, and rarely just at fast food places. When we arranged a once a week "date night" that was a huge improvement for us. Nowadays we rarely eat out (though he eats out on business trips since they pay for it). I don't know what changed for us, but mostly I think we just got lazy. Somewhere we figured out that cooking dinner at home is more convenient than going out, especially since most of our dinners are really simple.

I've even cut way back on chocolate and my mead.

Sooo.... my current vice? Shoes. I can't pass up a great pair of shoes, especially if they're in a great color. I love how they make the outfit, I love how sexy they make me feel, I love how they still fit even when I gain or lose weight, and I love how people go, "Cute shoes!" I have A LOT of shoes. Fortunately, I get almost all of them at Ross or T.J. Maxx, so they tend to be really great deals (often 50-75% off what I see them going for elsewhere). I try to stay out of the stores nowadays, though, unless I need clothes. That's helped some, of course. However, I'm not ready to give up buying shoes altogether and since I now have a fashion-related job, it's a good excuse to keep this vice. And yes, I do wear older pairs still.

I think I do really well on everything else, though, so maybe that's the compromise.

Saving Money on Household Beverages - Blog Entry

25 Jul 2008 08:54 AM

Maybe, Mary. I really can't stand Hersheys anything, so I may be biased. And you may also need to adjust the measurements. If it's too bitter, try less cocoa powder next time before just adding more sugar.

Five Reasons to Stockpile Food - Blog Entry

25 Jul 2008 08:52 AM

We don't stockpile, per se. However, at any given time, we tend to have enough stuff that we could survive for months. At my house we tend to restock a pantry of staples and buy a lot of stuff we use. For example, we get the big bag of baking soda and the big bottle of vinegar since we use them for cooking and cleaning. We also have a lot of rice since it's easy to make in the steamer and extra can always be frozen. Other staples: toilet paper, paper towels (though to a much smaller extent because we use cloth towels almost exclusively), a few types of sugar, a few types of flower, cornstarch, baking powder, different kinds of beans and peas, whole wheat couscous, whole wheat noodles, olive oil, vegetable oil, loose tea, frozen bananas, etc. Then we supplement with fresh stuff from the garden (though it's rather pathetic still) or from the local grocery store.

We have very limited cabinet space so we keep a lot of the dry food like beans flour in matching clear containers on a few bookcases in the kitchen area. It's really quite a nice looking display and there's something very comforting about being able to see how much food we have -- though thankfully I don't find it too-tempting in that form.

Saving Money on Household Beverages - Blog Entry

11 Jul 2008 01:36 PM

You can also make your own hot chocolate. Mix cocoa powder, sugar, and powdered milk (or real milk if you prefer). It's really that simple and loads cheaper. There's a recipe in the Complete Tightwad Gazette, but in my experience, it's not an exact science -- though go easy on the chocolate at first because unsweetened cocoa powder can be overpowering.

Saving Money on Household Beverages - Blog Entry

11 Jul 2008 01:35 PM

Mary, all the grocery stores I around here seem to have loose tea available, though it's usually hidden in with big boxes of bag teas. A lot of times it's packaged in tins, so look for those. Some nice kitchen stores also have loose tea.

A lot of health food type stores have tea that you can scoop or pour into little baggies and get exactly the amount you want. I buy most of mine that way and keep the tea in little jars in a cabinet.

If you have a garden (or even just a lawn full of edible "weeds"), you may also want to check out making your own herbal teas -- or adding them into other tea.

Oh, and if you have on nearby, Teavana is sort of like the Starbucks of tea and they sell loose tea. So long as you get the tea to brew at home and don't buy a lot of their accessories, you can get out of there and not spend too much money. My husband got carried away, though, when we came across our first Teavana ; )