On Saving

Growing up as the 2nd of 4 girls, I know a little bit about hand-me-downs. My older sister is only 2 years my senior and we were about the same size all our life, so I would constantly be wearing the items she cast off or grew out of. I rocked out some old baggy t-shirts, worn-in tennis shoes, and gently used barbies as a child.

Only having the occasional birthday money and special allowance for mowing the lawn from time to time, I had no idea what it meant to have more than $20 on a regular basis. So, when I got my first job at Bob Evans as a server at age 16, Charlotte Russe and Forever 21 were never the same again, nor was my wardrobe.  Money flowed through my pockets like f-bombs in an uncensored Eminem song and I cycled through my new clothes in 1-2 wears and then booted them to the curb.

Now, as an adult with bills, a mortgage, and what seems like a lifetime of student loans, I know the importance of a buck and buying quality vs. quantity as well as the need to plan for larger expenses.

So, over the last year(ish) I've been saving fairly diligently for a Canon 50D and I'm happy to report that I'm about 80% to the amount I need for this camera. It really has been a long process, but i'm really proud of myself! I've only squeezed my hand into the piggy bank a couple of times for other shopping, but for the most part all my extra spending money is going straight to this fund. Looking forward to a day sometime in the near future where I can start snapping quality pics instead of the standard iPhone pictures i've gotten so used to.

Day Dreaming and Penny Pinching

Today, i've been daydreaming about the camera i'm saving up for. I mentioned i was saving for said camera back in June of 2010 and that week I made an awesome piggy bank that is virtually indestructible. Basically, it's a giant plastic almond container from Costco and I cut a hole in the lid. Duct taped the entire thing shut. Then wrapped it in pretty wrapping paper.

behold.

This thing is great, because I can't cheat and take money from my camera savings to buy new shoes. to get into the container would mean I would have to take the entire thing apart which i'm sure will be semi-difficult considering it's that freakish plastic that is next to impossible to cut through. (as a child it seemed that EVERYTHING at christmas was packaged in this stuff!)

this set up is good for me because i have a habit of randomly blowing money on things I don't really need, like another pair of $6 leggings from target, some more black shirts, etc.

Anyway, I've decided I want a Canon 50D, plus a lens or two, a cool camera bag(maybe this one - or this one), a tri-pod, some UV filters, and a clip on flash.

Since i spent some time daydreaming about my camera today i decided it would be a good time to decorate my savings-almond-container to inspire me to continue to put my clothing fund in there every other week rather than blow it all at Target.

I sketched a camera!

Then, to spice it up, I added some stars!

and then willow wanted to jump on my lap. so we took some pictures too.

The only draw back to my almond-savings-container is I have no idea how much i have in there. In order to find out, i will need to rip the thing to shreds. Basically, i would rather wait too long and have too much then then get in there too soon not have enough and then not have a safe continer for my money thus tempting me to go thrifting with my hard-earned camera money.  I should have been keeping track how much i put in there on the side of the container or something, but alas, i was not smart enough to think of such a thing last June. I think I have about $750 in there...who knows. I think come April 1, i'm going to bust in there and see what kind of damage i can do.

Any of you out there have SLR cameras? Which do you use? Any advice for a camera novice?

Hair

I don't know why, but getting my hair done is important to me. I wish it wasn't so important because important unfortunately becomes expensive. Luckily I found a place here in Nashville that has a 50% off on Wednesday's deal.

I got into the coloring trap about 4 years ago and once you dye your hair you have to keep doing it otherwise your hair looks kinda weird. So I always cut and color at the same time about twice a year. Today was the day for the big C&C (cut and color). I decided that since I gave up tanning (due to lack of money, lack of time, and cancer threats) that my skin tones don't work so well with the light blond color of my hair. This time I was going to try to go back to my natural color but add a little bit of red to the mix for fun. No highlights, just all around color.

I was going to a new salon, which is always a little scary because you don't know what the stylist will do to your hair. Dale was my stylist. He ended up being AWESOME. Two thumbs up for Dale. He didn't just start wacking off chunks of hair, he really listened to what I asked for and actually studied the pictures of the cuts that I requested while the color was drying on my hair. I was shocked.

Well anyway, all that to say that my hair ended up being great. The color is CRAZY different than I am used to, but I expected that. I got a good discount and found someone that I will go back to in the future.

However, I do feel funny about the whole thing. I just hate that it is sooo expensive. I hate spending that much money (even at 50% off) and I hate that I care so much. I wish I could just cut and color my own hair. I guess I can justify it because I "wear" my hair everyday for 6 months so spread out over that many days it ends up only being about $.50 a day. Maybe someday I will be able to go all natural in color and only pay for a cut. Unfortunatly, I think that day is about 20-30 years away... We will see.

I will post some new hair pictures sometime soon.