April Monthly Favourites Lockdown Edition La Roche-Posay Facial Roller Facial Masks Office Organization

Hello lovelies, how are you all doing?  I hope you are not just surviving but have found a way to thrive as well, notwithstanding the current circumstances.  I thought I would do a Monthly Favourites, the Lockdown Edition, as I haven't done a monthly favourites in..well...months, really!  So let's do this.  First up is La Roche-Posay's Cicaplast Levres (Lips).

I have always had a lot of issues with lip balms.  Despite claims of being hydrating and moisturizing, they tend to dry out my lips and cause massive peeling and flaking.  I hate anything that has mint, spearmint, chilli extract, lemon extract or any type of lemon derivative in a lip product.  These ingredients, while they cause an initial cooling effect, actually trigger an inflammatory response that just worsens the condition of your lips.  La Roche-Posay's Cicaplast Levres is a holy grail product.  It is paraben and fragrance free and contains all the good things like lipids that your skin needs to repair itself.  I picked mine up at Shoppers for $10.95 CDN.  La Roche-Posay, which is a French masstige brand, is usually available at the pharmacy.  Right now, with department stores closed, the only place to go for skincare is the local pharmacy or the grocery store. I am sure that, like myself, many of you are keeping a sharp eye on your budget.  La Roche-Posay isn't astronomically priced like other luxury French brands and it isn't cheap as chips either but for a made in France quality product I would say it is good value for the money. I noticed that the cosmetics section at Shoppers was closed off but, thankfully, the masstige skincare section wasn't.

Next up is a new addition to my skincare routine which is this jade roller.

Can you believe that I picked this up at Dollarama (Canada's version of the Dollar Store) for a bargainous $4??  Who knows if it is made of real jade but the cooling effect is the same.  And yes, Dollarama is still open because it sells food albeit the canned and packaged, long shelf life sort which is what everyone is racing around to find anyway.  There is something so soothing and meditative about using this roller.  Believe me, I have been rolling away like mad.

If, like me, you are working from home, you have had to quickly figure out how to set up a home office.  My home office area has become a bit of a bomb site but this handy gadget has really helped to bring in a degree of organization.

The cable organizer was spotted at Dollarama for an inexpensive $1.25.

Lastly, I picked up a selection of facial masks (and no, not the surgical kind, I haven't seen those around in many weeks) at Shoppers.

They were on offer for well under $3.00 each so I picked up a few to put into care packages to mail away.

Stay safe! Stay healthy!

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Life Update: Suddenly Single and Life After Separation

This week's Weekly Roundup is more of a Life Update.  It's unusual for me to lift the curtain on my private life as whatever gets published on the Internet tends to live on forever.  But for the sake of authenticity, I do want to allow a bit of a sneak peak at what has been going on behind the scenes at LBH just to provide a bit of context.  This year has been tumultuous and stressful, even more so than last year.  Without warning, I became a Singleton again.  I didn't have much choice really as I discovered that my long term partner had been having a long term affair.  One plans for retirement, for a holiday and for buying a new car or appliance but never for a separation.  I ended up picking up extra hours at work wherever I could and for long stretches of time I was working 12 hour days.  Unfortunately, I couldn't keep that up anymore.  Years of being in a toxic relationship had taken its toll on my heart (really and truly!!).  I am so thankful that I live in a country that has public health care.  But now a lot of time gets taken up with visits to the doctor and the cardiology clinic.  On top of all that, after 2 years of negotiating, my workplace finally unionized!  The down side to that is that we had to wait over a month to get even a partial payment of wages while management came to grips with such novel concepts as direct deposit and biweekly pay.  I'll leave my thoughts on that for another post. What this meant was a tightening of the belt.  In the spirit of WWII's philosophy of Make Do and Mend,  anything that needed repair was mended instead of rushing out and buying a replacement.  The strap had ripped off one of my favourite tote bags so I took it to a local tailor to have it sewn on again.

Tintin and Snowy get to live again!  You can make out the extra stitches on the upper left side.  I love that my tote bag gets an extra lease on life and I am supporting a local small business.
I have always liked strolling the aisles of Dollarama (Canada's version of The Dollar Store).  You just never know what sort of deals may be lurking on the shelves.  While I was waiting to get paid, trips to Dollarama  pretty much became the order of the day.  I was very pleased to find Canadian healthy pet treats there.

Any pet owner will tell you that healthy, natural pet treats and food normally come at a premium price.  This pack of freeze dried chicken was only $2.50.  Now if only I can break the furkids' addiction to the junky stuff...

I was thrilled to find a couple bottles of my favourite hypoallergenic shampoo (which I have written about here).

Live Clean hair products go for over $9.00 at the drug store but it was only $4.00 at Dollarama.

I have to take my hat off to anyone who is able to maintain a heart healthy diet and live on a tight budget at the same time.  Recipes and tips would be greatly appreciated!

In the future, I hope to keep you updated on everything I have learned in terms of financial recovery, adjusting to life as a Singleton and reconnecting with myself after living for years in negativity and chaos.

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?

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