You don’t have to give up being beautiful just to save money and simplify your life. Between hair, nails, perfumes, clothing, etc. there are many places to save money, and not just spend a ton of your hard earned money. Here are ten easy beauty tips to help you not only save money, but also simplify your life. Just remember though, God gave you natural beauty, so use it to your advantage with helping you save money and simplifying your life.
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1. Hair: Coloring
This one I admit, can be hard. We all want what we don’t have. I personally have blonde hair, but enjoy dying it dark reds and browns. The hair studios can get super expensive though, and before you know it, $250-$300 is gone!
If you cannot stop dying your hair completely, I get it. Good quality hair dye (similar or the same ones that salons use) can be found at local salon supply shops. It costs me about $32 per year for the developer and dye. That breaks down to $10.67 per coloring (three times a year/every four months), and at the salons, I would spend $250-$300 per coloring. I found my personal savings from coloring was $654-$804 per year!
If you can learn to be happy with your natural color, you just saved even more money. (Nothing spent is all the money saved).
Besides all the money saved from not going to salons, if you choose not to dye your hair, that completely clears up your calendar space and helps create a simpler life as that is one less thing on your plate. If you are like me and dye it at home, I tend to color my hair when I have about two hours of downtime. It does not save me much time (as I do two different colors in my hair at once and get fancy with it) but it still saves me money from the salon and the gas it takes to get to the salon.
2. Hair: Cuts
Of course everyone needs to get their hair cut, but how often really? If you are like me and the hair dresser says every three months, try stretching it out to every four months. Just that will save you a cost of a hair cut every year, and clear your busy calendar a bit. Instead of spending $280 per year if the hair cut is $70 per time (and you go four times a year), you could save $70 and spend $210 just by waiting an extra month between haircuts. It may not sound like an abundance of savings, but combined with saving on other things, that can really add up. It also will save a bit of space on your calendar of not having to take a couple hours out of the day to drive to the salon and get it cut.
3. Hair: Shampoo & Conditioner
Shampoo is an easy way to cut back a few dollars. Even us curly hair ladies don’t need the most expensive shampoo on the shelf. Not shampooing everyday and leaving the conditioner in for a few minutes is more important for good hair health than having one of the most expensive bottles. Having a good conditioner can help, although it does not need to be the most expensive either. Most basic store bought shampoos do the trick, so does a reasonably good conditioner, and you really don’t need too much product (of shampoo or conditioner), which will save you money over time.
4. Hair: Products
How much product do we really need for our hair? A lot of sales people in the beauty stores or salons constantly try to sell us extra products. Or we see this ‘latest and greatest’ product in a magazine or on TV and think we just have to try it. We clutter our bathrooms with all of these products (most which are not good for the environment to make or use), and end up never using them. Only buy your favorite one or two products. You can also leave your hair natural (no blow drying, curling, or flat irons) as this saves money on not needing as many products and on your electric bill, and saves time. It may take a couple of times to learn how to style it naturally, but your hair will thank you for the less products and styling; and your hair will over time repair itself by leaving it natural and more simple. Your wallet will also thank you for not spending money on more products.
5. Makeup
Many women spend hundreds of dollars, and even sometimes thousands of dollars a year on makeup, plus countless hours applying it. Our culture does a great job of convincing women they need to look 20 years old and the same model perfect for life instead of embracing their natural beauty at every age. This is an easy way to save money once we embrace our natural beauty and let it shine, instead of hiding underneath layers and layers of makeup. I personally have noticed I have much better looking skin when I do not wear makeup as even the hypoallergenic tends to clog my pores and upset my skin. I have also noticed that ladies who do not wear as much makeup over the years tend to look younger than the ones who have worn a lot of makeup over the years. Foundation, concealer, blush, etc. helps the laws of physics by helping gravity pull the skin down over time with adding extra weight to the skin. Enjoy your natural beauty with wearing less makeup, and let the world enjoy it too.
Wearing makeup also takes time to put it on, and time is money, right? So it is like we are spending double between the cost of the makeup and the time it takes to put it on. Saving that time also simplifies our life and gives us more time for more important things like sleep or enjoying a cup of coffee with a loved one before heading off to work.
6. Lotions & Perfumes
Just like a ton of hair products, we tend to have a lot of lotions and perfumes laying around. We really only need one or two lotions, and one or two perfumes. And for those ‘special’ products that you are saving for that ‘perfect’ occasion? Maybe its time to quit telling yourself its too special, or good for you, or today is not the day for whatever reason, and enjoy it now. Tomorrow is never a guarantee anyways, and if this pandemic has taught us anything, it is that these special events may not always come around. Lotions and perfumes also expire (normally after just a few years), so enjoy them while they are still good. And if you have a ton of bottles of lotions and perfumes, use them and do not buy any new until that stash is gone. It saves the planet some waste, and your wallet a lot of money.
7. Nails
The average nail salon out where I live costs about $35 – $50 for nails a time (not including pedicures). Going twice a month is $70-$100, which results in $840 – $1,200 spent on nails per year. If you add pedicures once a month at $25 – $50, that also adds up to $300 – $600 a year, which makes the total amount spent on nails $1,140 – $1,800. A nice bottle of nail polish costs $8 – $10. If you buy 3-4 bottles of nail polish a year and paint your own, you only spent $24 – $40, and saved $1,100 – $1,776 ($800 – $1,176 if you do not take into account pedicures) per year.
Leaving your nails natural or just a clear coat of polish is also a higher money saving way to do nails, and provides a classy look still.
Besides the obvious costs of getting your nails done, you also have to make time to go down to the nail salon and get them done. That is at least an hour or two out of your day a couple times a month. Over the year, at one to two hours per nail appointment, that is 24-48 hours gone to just going and getting your nails done. This does not include the commute time. Doing them at home allows you to take care of your nails ‘after hours,’ tends to be quicker, and keeps your calendar more free to see the people you care about and be able to have time to do the things you want to do without rushing around as much.
8. Jewelry
Costume jewelry is clearly cheaper than the real jewelry, but many of us keep buying jewelry here and there when we see something we like. How much of our jewelry do we actually need and wear? I was guilty of owning a ton of jewelry and wearing only a couple of pieces at one point. Not buying any more jewelry has saved me money, and I have even decluttered some of it so someone else could enjoy the beautiful pieces that I never wore. $30 here and there, even just a few times a year can add up to over $100 spent over the year.
Also having a ton of jewelry can make it hard for us to decide what to wear, which then takes up time and does not help when trying to simplify life. Enjoy the pieces you already own, as this will save you money and time (spent shopping and trying to decide what outfits work with it).
9. Clothing
So many of us have a ton of clothes, and wear less than half of what we have. We hear about decluttering and donating our clothes, which is not helpful to the environment as most donated clothes still end up in landfills. Now, if you do not like the outfit anymore, then yes, donate it instead of hanging on to it so hopefully someone else can enjoy and so you are not cluttering your closet; but hang on to what you do like of your wardrobe that fits.
To save money, I personally have put half of my wardrobe away in a box after decluttering it. This forces me to wear all the clothes I have left out, and when an item wears out, instead of going shopping and buying more than I need, I open my box of clothes that I packed away and ‘go shopping’ in there. You may want to put more than half of your wardrobe away if you have a lot of clothes. I personally have about ten days worth of clothes out; keep out however many feels necessary to you.
Not buying clothes, and shopping through your box wardrobe can save a ton of money. Stores and online make it so easy to buy more than what we really need, and this method can help because nothing spent is all the money of that price saved. This can also help produce less waste, as we are now not throwing out as much, and not buying as much.
When you wear out the clothes you own (both hanging and in the box), then yes, buy the item(s) you need while keeping in mind two things: 1) only replacing what you need to save more money and help the environment in the end, and 2) how good of quality is this item I want to purchase? If you buy a better quality, it is usually more money now, but will be less money in the end because it lasted two to four times longer than the cheap items that wear out quick and take up more space in the landfills. The cheap items also can end up costing more in the end than the one nice item that will last you years.
If you have a friend about the same size as you, you can also trade clothes, which gives you new looks and saves you both money.
When it comes to simplifying your life with clothes, the box method helps. Less choices means less time being spent deciding what to wear. Also, not going shopping clears up the calendar for other events and more time to relax.
10. Shoes
For a lot of us, we also have a fair number of shoes. We can do the same thing as with the clothes, not buy anymore shoes until we have worn out what we already own. There will be cute shoes every season, and we need to enjoy and use what we have, not buy more and add it to a collection that sits in the closet. Remember, nothing spent is everything saved.
Conclusion:
A lot of our spending money habits stem from comparing ourselves to others, keeping up with what society is doing, trying to impress people we do not really care about, and a fear of missing out (FOMO). When we learn to be happy with ourselves and what we have, it is much easier to follow these tips and other tips to save money. It also helps to have a goal and write out why you are saving money. Put sticky notes several places (bathroom mirror, fridge, inside of the door you walk out of every morning) where you will see your goals to help remind and motivate you of your goals to save, that you are more than enough, and don’t need everything our culture says you need.
Saving money can also help simplify our lives because we are not spending a lot of our time shopping, getting hair/nails done, etc. This clears our calendars for more important things like time with family, rest, and doing a hobby.