$25 Metro Grocery Haul

There's no doubt that groceries takes a big chunk out of any household budget.  I have noticed that, living downtown, groceries tend to cost significantly more than outside of the downtown core.  I do a big monthly grocery order online and then do a smaller weekly shop as needed. By keeping an eye on the weekly loss leaders and sticking to a grocery list, it is possible to maintain a reasonable grocery budget.  Below is my haul from Metro.

1) Metro has daily dinner specials and their Tuesday roast chicken is a winner in my book.  $8.99
2)Cashmere toilet paper $3.33
3)IOGO yoghurt was a great deal at $1.99.  It is lactose free which is a bonus as Monsieur is lactose intolerant.
4)Lactantia butter for $3.33.  Another great deal for name brand butter.  Normally, I only see this type of price for no name or house brand butter.
5)The ice cream was $2.99 for the box.  It's summer time, enough said.
6)Monsieur is a hot sauce addict and the Grace hot sauce is his favourite. $1.69.
7)Totally unnecessary but we were in the mood for soda.  $1 each.

It all came to a little under $25.00 (before taxes).  Not bad for a quick grocery run.  How do you grocery shop?

This is not a sponsored post.

Getting My Hair Cut By A Student At The Aveda Institute

I am addicted to getting my hair cut by a student.  Yes, a student!  For years, I went to a very expensive salon.  Initially, I was paying $45.00 then it slowly crept up towards $75.00, then $95.00, then $120.00.  Now with taxes and a hefty tip, I was looking at a $150.00 haircut and, pretty soon, I knew it would be closing in on $200.00.  I don't colour my hair or have it permed or straightened.  It is a simple trim. I know that, in certain places and circles, a $200.00 haircut is nothing.  But, for me, I noticed that I was beginning to dread booking my appointment.  It wasn't just the money but I would go in expecting to come out with a revolutionary haircut worthy of all those dollars and, despite constantly asking my stylist for suggestions, I always came out looking like me, with the exact same hairstyle that was now 1.5 inches shorter.  So, I let my hair grow and grow until one day I couldn't stand it anymore and typed in "cheap haircuts" into Google. And it came up with Aveda Institute.

It turns out that it is a feeder school for my very expensive salon.  What?!  You can book an appointment with an Institute, Academy, Advanced Graduate, or Educator Level stylist and the prices reflect the stylist's level of expertise.  Usually I request an Institute Level stylist who is still a student.  The cost?  Under $30.00. This includes a blissful head, neck and shoulder massage and an offer of coffee or tea.  It is quite amusing that you can get such a bargain at a place that is located just a stone's throw away from the financial district. So far, I have had amazing haircuts and haircuts that were average but I have never had a haircut that was horrendous.  Be prepared for the haircut to take a long time.  Depending on the student's skill level, it can take anywhere from 2 to 3 hours as they are supervised and have to constantly check in with their educator.  The trade off is that this means peace of mind for the customer as there is almost no likelihood that you will come out looking like you had a run-in with a  lawnmower.

Looking back now, I do wish that I had known of this option much, much sooner.  But as with everything in life, it required a turning point in mindset.  I grew up enduring years of bad home haircuts.  From the time I was young, it was drummed into me that I had horrible hair.  It was slightly wavy, like my father's, and, boy, was my hair hated for that reason.  I grew up convinced that, if I so much as set foot in a salon, the hairdresser would take one look and faint away in horror.  When I finally was old enough to earn my own money and venture into a salon, it was a relief to find a stylist who did a decent job with my hair and didn't look at me or my poor hair like I was the spawn of the devil.  I should stop and say here, that aside from a tendency to get frizzy during humid summer months, there is nothing untoward about my hair or anything remotely suggesting that I have DNA derived from supernatural beings, aliens or similar.  At least I hope not. Even when the cost kept creeping up, I stuck with her, too afraid to look elsewhere.  I know this sounds ridiculous but isn't it true that all those deeply buried anxieties are ridiculous when dredged up to the light of day?  Getting to the root of the negative livestreaming in my head helped spur me to make a change.  It is highly unlikely I will ever go back to the land of $100 plus haircuts as I can think of many, many other things I would rather spend my money on.  Now when I pay for my student haircut, I feel truly happy that I got my money's worth for that service and that the student acquired valuable on-the-job experience.  To me, it is an even, value for value exchange.  Now, I am not saying that an expensive haircut is inherently bad.  There is something to be said for going into a swanky salon with delicious perfumed air and bowls of fresh flowers.  I had a cordial relationship with my old stylist so that wasn't an issue.  But I was going for the wrong reasons.  I was letting fear dictate my actions and leaving feeling dissatisfied.  So the takeaway from this story is that, by letting go of an old fear, something beneficial and positive came out of it.  Have you ever had your hair cut by a student?  Let me know in the comments!

This is not a sponsored post.  

I will be embarking on a 30 Day Wellness Challenge starting in June.  I am definitely going to need an internet running buddy, maybe even an entire team of running buddies to drag me over the finish line.  So this is a call for help.  Watch this space and stay tuned for that!

Why I Don't Stockpile

I should change the title to "I used to stockpile then it made me crazy so I stopped."  There was a time when I became fascinated with extreme couponing and stockpiling and tried my hand at it.  I thought I was helping the family budget by creating a stockpile.  The problem was that coupons aren't that easy to come by in Canada and the majority of stores don't allow coupon stacking.  I tried and tried to download online coupons and, no matter what, each time my computer would freeze and crash.  A lot of my free time was spent scanning the weekly flyers.  My anxiety levels began to rise as I compared my miserable stockpile to photos of gargantuan stockpiles that resembled a Costco warehouse.  But as I looked at the enormous stockpiles of extreme couponers, I noticed that many of these couponers were a touch, shall we say, OCD about their hoards.  If they used a product from their stockpile and left a space on the shelf, this triggered a frenzy to fill that space with more.  It didn't matter that they had enough to last them the next 10 years.  The fact of the matter is that I live in a small home with limited storage space.  I was never going to achieve a stockpile large enough to fill a warehouse because my home doesn't have that storage capacity.  One time I bought a huge bag of rice and there it sat on the dining room floor for months because I had nowhere to put it.  It was such a relief when we finally finished it off.   It is weird to think of a staple food such as rice as clutter but that is precisely what it became, sitting in the dining room, annoying us every time we needed to vacuum, silently reminding me of the error in judgment I had made.  There are several grocery stores within a few blocks of my home and many convenience stores.  The likelihood of a shortage of any necessity is nil.  There is always a sale on a necessity somewhere and, if I run out, it is easy enough to get it.  So eventually, I stopped.  Now, if I happen to see a good sale on something that we use regularly such as toothpaste, I will buy a couple, one to replace the tube that is running out and one as backup, but no more than that.  I still peruse the flyers but only to see if there is a sale on something that I know is running low.  The only time I consider having a very small stockpile is if I know a very busy period is coming up and I think that it would alleviate stress to have extra on hand.  If you have a large family that goes through groceries like wildfire or if you live in a remote location, then I can see the value in having a stockpile.  But for me and my situation, it wasn't worth the anxiety and seemed to be the antithesis of slow living. Do you stockpile and why?  Let me know in the comments!

LBH Frugal Life Hacks 1.0: Coralling Clutter, Repurposing Containers and Dollar Store Finds

When my health took a nosedive, it was months of struggle before I admitted to myself that I had to take stock of my home and my life and start changing things that weren't working for me anymore.  I think that, as a whole, we often become numb to those little things that annoy and aggravate us.  For example, the clutter and mess under the kitchen sink was a continuing source of embarassment for me.  I have been very good about taking reusable tote bags with me wherever I go so the amount of plastic bags entering my home has been greatly reduced but there was a time when a vortex of grocery plastic bags  would explode forth whenever the cabinet door was opened.  Various cleaners would be tossed on top which would fall down below the heap, never to be found again.  I couldn't rummage around like I used to and had to think of thrifty ways to arrange the morass to allow for ease and efficiency of movement.

Enter Command Strips to the rescue!  I found a caddy at Dollarama (Canada's version of the Dollar Store) which was meant for holding soap on a shower wall, took off the two suction cups on the back and stuck on a Command Strip.  The caddy holds a roll of garbage bags and twist ties and is affixed to the back side of the door.  I love Command Strips as you can MacGyver so many things with them.  The caddy was only about a dollar so is an extremely affordable organizing solution.  Elevating organizational tools helps to relieve clutter and ensures easy access for me.

Another Dollarama find was a car socket charger.  What did we do in the days before a GPS in our smartphone?  However, I have found that using the GPS drains the battery very quickly.  Name brand car chargers can be quite pricey and I can't tell you how many I have bought that just stopped working.  So, I was very pleased to find this little gadget that actually works.  It was only $4.00.  I have my smartphone charging the entire time that I am using the GPS so the battery is never drained when I arrive at my destination.  Just remember to unplug it when the car is not running otherwise it could drain your car battery.

Easter is around the corner and maybe you will be lucky enough to be given a box of Ferrero Rocher chocolates.  After you have gobbled down the contents, it is really easy to remove the label and you will be left with a clear box that can be repurposed many different ways.

As you see, I have filled it with cotton swabs, balls and pads. It makes a lovely, minimal Muji style toiletries container for no added cost.  I have reused spray bottles that once held all-purpose cleaners for my homemade vinegar and water cleaner and am always on the lookout for containers that can be repurposed.  A caveat to this is to use your common sense.  If the container once held a toxic or caustic substance then I would be wary about reusing it.  Do you repurpose containers?  Do you have any frugal tips to share?

Subscribe so you don't miss another post.

This is not a sponsored post.  Affiliate links may be added in the future.