Supplements — $30.12
Fifty day supply. I’m not a big vitamin and supplement person but this stuff might actually be helping.

Haircut — $70.00
She absolutely butchered my hair. I’m not sure how much of my “just a trim; not too short ’cause it’s getting cold” she didn’t understand but its soooo short!! At least I have a good collection of baseball caps. I figure it will take a good 2 months before it’s long enough to curl again I look like a young guy instead of middle-aged woman.

To continue the theme, here are four things I hate spending money on. These are things that I go out of my way to avoid or postpone, things that I’ll need for weeks or months before I finally break down and lay down my cash.

1. Haircuts — I hate spending money on haircuts. I wait way too long between haircuts. Part of the problem, of course, is that I have yet to find someone who gives me a cut that I like. Haircuts seem to me such a terrible waste of money. I usually go in about 2 or 3 times a year. I can’t image shelling out $70 every 6 weeks or so! Sure, I’ve tried barbers. But I’m just vain enough to realize that I do better getting my hair “styled” instead of simply “cut.” For years I avoided the whole haircut dilemma by wearing my hair long. I could go years without a haircut. My hair isn’t necessarily thick but I have a ton of it. When it was long I’d wash it one day and braid it. It would be this thick rope of hair hanging down my back. The second day I’d unbraid it, brush it, and wear it in a long ponytail. The next day I’d start the washing and braiding process again. When I got sick a few years ago, I could no longer take care of my hair. Since we didn’t know when, or even if, I’d recover, I cut all of my hair off and donated it to Locks of Love. Having long hair really is easier and more economical than short hair.
   In addition to only getting haircuts 2 or 3 times a year, I save money by cutting The Son’s hair myself. I’m not a professional but, if I do say so myself, I do a pretty good job. We start with a really short buzz at the very beginning of baseball season. We usually have to repeat the buzz one more time during the season (he has my very thick head of hair; both kids do). After that second buzz, we leave his hair to grow out for the rest of the year trimming every once in a while when his dad makes enough noise or we have some sort of event coming up and I think he needs cleaning up.
2. Clothes — for me. I hate clothes shopping with a purple passion. It doesn’t help when I’m carrying around a few extra pounds (like I am now) but my figure really isn’t the issue. Truth be told, I’ve got a fairly trim, athletic build that a lot of women my age would give anything to have (except for the flat chest, that is). I don’t ever weigh myself; I go by how my clothes fit me. Unfortunately, I’ve had to go up two sizes in my Levi’s 501 jeans over the past 4 years. I resent that upsizing but c’est la vie. As I said, the issue is not so much my size. I just hate clothes shopping and I hate spending money on clothes. That includes shoes. And underwear.
3. HBA (Health and Beauty Aids). I don’t mean shampoo or deoderant. I mean make-up and make-up brushes and skin care products and nail polish and all of those girly-girl products that my daughter just cannot live without. I don’t wear make-up. I have a lipstick that I use every 2 to 3 months. I never paint my nails. I’ve been blessed with fairly good skin, not perfect but good enough. The bonus here is that The Husband knows and appreciates how much I don’t spend each month by not using these products. And the rule in our house is that I buy The Daughter’s make-up and therefore I reserve the right to mandate how much of what and when she wears make-up. Luckily she’s pretty reserved about it so I very rarely have to use my parental veto power. But she’s been struggling with acne. Last year I took her to a dermatologist and he prescribed some stuff but it just made her face red and scaley and painful. Recently she talked me into letting her try Proactiv. Now there’s an expensive habit.
4. Fees. I hate fees. Late Fees, Shipping Fees, Handling Fees, Bank Fees, etc. I’ve managed to cut down on fees. For instance, we now have a Netflix subscription. I love it for many reasons but chief among them is no late fees. We never have overdraft fees because The Husband pays the bills and he’s anal about paying as soon as a bill comes in. I always manage to rack up late fees at the public library but that’s my fault. At least 90% of those fees could be avoided if I’d just let my fingers do a little walking on the internet and renew the materials that, for one reason or another, I can’t get back before their due date.As for shipping fees, I don’t much like them I can live with them. But inflated shipping fees annoy me. And handling fees simply piss me off. You know what, I don’t want my stuff handled, thank you very much! And the last thing I want to do is pay someone my hard-earned cash to handle something I don’t want handled. Just send it to me already. I love Old Navy’s flat $5 shipping fee. And The Gap recently instituted their $6 flat shipping rate. Don’t get me wrong — as the owner of an on-line business, I’m well aware of what it costs to ship packages. Way too much for sellers to simply absorb the costs. But the handling thing…. It’s insulting. Charge me for the item I’m buying and then charge me to cover the postage costs. But don’t insult my intelligence by charging me for your cost-of-doing-business. That’s like if Best Buy charged me $10 for a widget, plus tax, plus a percentage of the stocker’s salary — after all, he put it on the shelf. Oh, and there’s a fee to cover the checkout clerk’s salary — after all, I did use her services when I checked out. Oh, and here’s your portion of the utilities bill to cover the lights and heat and air while you were in the store. Nothing makes me quite annoyed as seeing some eBay seller try to justify their “handling” fees with a sob story about how the fee covers their drive to the post office and the time they spend in line waiting to ship my purchase. I ain’t buying; literally.