Free reading materials!
And I thought I was cheap by going to thrift stores for 50¢ paperbacks.
This is even better! and FREE! and you have more to choose from! And they don’t smell like grandma’s graveyard attic!

And there are no portly old men trying to pick up on you (no comment).
And you can sit down for a moment and hang out at a clean desk- and ask someone for their expertise on literature!

amazing stuff people- free. FREE!

Even with budget cuts and strange hours, the library system is a great resource for the avid reader and non-avid reader alike.
If you don’t care for reading, get a library card and rent a book on tape, rent a movie, do some family history research, or watch a concert!

So many FREE things to do, borrow, and learn about in you own neighborhood.

Find your neighborhood library, here.

Remember how excited I was when I found that coupon online for an $8.88 haircut?

I haven’t had a haircut since.

It wasn’t a horrible haircut, one that would send me into hiding and searching for collections of hats and scarves to wear for the next month, but it was okay… It was even, but quite a bit shorter than I asked for, and really not meant for my hair type, but she did what I asked of her (and then some).

So is my hair down to my knees now? no. I still get it cut. In the bathroom. With scissors. By myself. FOR FREE.

I am letting my hair grow out just a little, but I do keep it neat and trim, and that includes a trim once a month or two, and trimming my bangs every few weeks. Those of us with bangs know that you can get them trimmed for a small fee (around $7 usually) but that can add up! Do that every 2 weeks and you spend $182 a year to have someone take off a quarter of an inch of fringe!

Do it yourself:
*you will need a sharp pair of scissors- ones meant for cutting hair are probably best, but I have this awesome pair of kid’s fiscars I got at a fabric store when I was 10 and they work perfectly.

*A mirror helps with the back of your hair.

*do not attempt to do fancy cuts without learning techniques. I just do a basic trim, and feather the ends. Everyone’s hair is different, every cut is different. I trim my boyfriend’s super curly hair, and it is much more forgiving than my baby fine strands.

*less is more. Especially with bangs. Really really short bangs can be cute, but not always. Always go slowly and evenly. You can always cut more off if it isn’t short enough.

*cleanup tip: take the rug out of the bathroom before starting. Spread a trash bag, newspaper, junk mail, etc. over the sink before starting and make sure your toothbrush is out of range of flying bits of hair. No one likes to brush their teeth with bits of hair.

*to wet or not to wet: I don’t personally- I have a better idea of how it will look afterwards if it is dry. I always wash my hair after trimming. Better yet: shower afterwards to wash all little hairs away.

*research before you start: I found several online sources of amateur hair cutting advice like this, this and this. Take what you need, and experiment (gently).

FREE! you can’t get better than that.

Boy have I been busy. It’s been almost an entire year since I got laid off (July of the summer of 2008) and a month or so I finally started a job. Hundreds of resumes emailed and handed out, hundreds of responses to job ads, more even to companies not advertising their employment searches (perhaps I should have omitted the line: “I know you want to hire me- so do it! Hire me! Do it now or else!”
And so one lonely little craigslist ad urged me to respond, and what do you know, they actually called back. I think in the last year I maybe got 5 responses, and out of those, 2-3 interviews, all which never really went anywhere, for whatever reason.

So I had the interview! and I was late because I went to the wrong building! But I still got hired!

yay.
granted, all my co-workers are at least 10 years younger than me, and it is a minimum wage job at an amusement park, but hey. It’s something, and it might cover my rent for the month, and maybe a bite to eat here and there.

Working with the public, especially with such a diverse touristy public, is interesting. So far, I have gotten a marriage proposal by a gay guy, an offer to get me drunk (“I’ll bring you a beer- you need a beer don’t you? – I’m gonna go get you a beer”) and several very nice people enjoying their day getting sunburnt and paying five dollars for a salted pretzel.

The perks? I get discounts on park merchandise (um… yeah…) on food, and on other park admissions, including movie tickets. The employee area has a cafeteria, and the food is cheap. I’m talking $1.50 hamburgers. I don’t eat meat, but that is cheap! There are a few options for me, like salted pretzels and macaroni and cheese that looks a bit plastic-y, but for the most part, I bring a snack and save my dollars.

in other news-
HEDWIG and the Angry Inch is in town, and there are some cheap tickets available. I’m gonna skip it this time, but if you’re interested, here’s the link to the tickets. Such a good story. Love the music too. I used to have the soundtrack to that, wonder what happened to it….

This lady is my hero. She saved 97% on her grocery bill by using coupons.

I don’t know how she does it, but she has tons of coupons. The only coupons we can find here are for 50¢ off when you buy 5 jars of pickles. We don’t need that many pickles, and certainly spending $20 on pickles just for 50¢ off is ridiculous.

watch and wonder:

cnn story

sure, they may have some holiday graphics, but throw them on under a tshirt for an extra layer of warmth- and they become like any other soft cotton longsleeve shirt. oh, and they were on clearance, most of them for: 97¢

I got 9 shirts for under $16

I highly recommend you go peruse the clearance aisles at Old Navy before everyone clears them out!

let’s talk about Dr. Bronner’s Magic all-One Castile Soap,
Peppermint, to be exact.

I love it!
I would drink it if my digestive track allowed me to.
That tingly pepperminty sensation, the sweet minty aroma, the invigorating lather that leaves me squeeky clean.

For some, it is recommended to use lotion afterwards, unless you have oily skin, and if you do like I do, ah it’s fantastic!
Just enough oil-wicking to calm down skin, but not over-drying like other oily skin soaps. You may notice it is All-One Soap, and taking a look at the short novel on the label, you get the idea of how extensive the use of this product is. For babies! For cleaning! for Laundry! for Shampoo! For brushing your teeth!
Yes, it can do all that and—- it’s biodegradable, vegan, and fantastically stricken with a hippie vibe.

It is a bit pricey per bottle, though, and for that reason, I treat it as a rare commodity. It is from this 32 ounce bottle I take 2 drops from to wash my face with. Three months later, I am counting the last few drops, diluting them with water to get every minty drop out. I am afraid I only have one or two more minty shower experiences, and it will be gone.
When it’s gone, it’s gone, and my morning shower is dull, un-tingly, and not filled with minty vibrance. So how do we find a better price? 32 ounce bottle on the official Dr. Bronner’s website goes for $14.99. yipes! (keep in mind, it does last a while, as it is quite potent (DILUTE! DILUTE!), but still- yipes!)
A full gallon costs $52.49. for soap. (a bit too much for a one-time purchase for an unemployed gal in this economy)

I have seen this stuff at 2 places mostly- Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods. Both under $10 for the 32 ounce size, the cheapest being at Whole Foods. Amazing- huh. It’s the only time I go to Whole Foods and check out not feeling like I was just overcharged for a bunch of over-hyped organic food.
Eight dollars and some change. What a deal! a little over half the online price, and I have yet to hear of a better price.
I read about filling stations where you can take your empty bottle and refill it, saving money and plastic from the landfills. I have yet to find a place that will do that. I would be there in a heartbeat, with my empty bottles, refilling and telling the masses about this fantastic soap, the economically feasible refill options, and the environmental statement it makes.

Just emailed the company to see if refill stations are just a tall tale from the local hippies.

UPDATE: well it seems like its been ages since I bought Dr Bronner’s at Whole Foods. They used to have it cheap, but now it’s 11 something. I did not get it there, BUT when I was at Trader Joe’s I saw it for 8.99 for the 32 ounce bottle. Ladies and Gentlemen, the cheapest price around.

and Dr. Bronner’s company emailed me back saying they are not in charge of who has a filling station in their store. Some vendors buy the big 5 gallon containers to use for refilling, but there is no way to find out. She then suggested I buy a 5 gallon jug to refill my own and save money. Technically that would save me money… but just a 1 gallon jug is $52.49. The 5 gallon would be over $200 bucks…

Did I mention I am unemployed? And food tends to be a priority (silly, silly food).

yes yes, it’s the talk of the “news” world. something makes me think that if people were just honest, none of this would happen. If people would just be ethical, caring, non-greedy and honest, we would not be in this financial meltdown. Would we even have a stock market without greed?

The uncut clip of John Stewart interviewing Jim Cramer on The Daily Show- Here

The economic problems of today are affecting everyone. Even if you’re not affected, you know someone who is, and so therefore, you are affected.
So we have to ask, what got us here? Why is everything screwed up in the housing and financial sectors, why are my neighbors loosing their houses, and why is my bank on the brink of internal combustion?

Thanks to Jonathan Jarvis, we have a clear, visually appealing explanation.  (runs a bit over 10 minutes, but worth it) 

ah…

i see….

’twas greed….

you know what’s better than a sale?

FREE!

free food is awesome.

Sign up with a valid email address and print out a coupon for a free Quizno’s sub (“small”)

you’ll need to put your real name on it, cause they supposedly check your ID.
Seriously- free lunch.  I so could use that. (and so can you!) 

Hurry! They are only doing a million of these!

Mine expires Saturday.

MMMM…. veggie sub…mmmm

Go get your coupon here

These days, traveling is enough to send you spiraling into a lifetime of debt.

Since most of us are already in that position, let’s go traveling!

Destination: San Francisco

Airline tickets were free for us this time, due to August’s trip with a slew of bad management, cancelled flights, bad customer service, and hours of negotiating on the phone for reimbursement. Thank you Delta.  

Remember, when all else fails, when you spend hours on the phone, being transfered from one clueless employee to another, its always nice to do a executive email carpet bomb, and all will be well.

So with our free flight vouchers in hand, we planned ourselves a little trip to get out town for a while and scope out affordable places to live in San Francisco (I’ll explain that another time), with no fear of paying steep prices for airline travel.

Next we needed somewhere to rest our weary little heads when night falls.  
Hotels came to mind, as most citi-dwellers look down upon random travelers knocking on their doors looking for shelter.

Kayak.com does a nice job of rounding up hotel sites and giving you the cheapest rates (they do more than hotels, but I’ve never used them for anything but hotels).  They sent us to Orbitz with a great price on a boutique-like hotel, complete with 30% off winter special rates. So we had a great price for a decent hotel, near the center of San Francisco.

That’s not good enough!

On to the coupon sites, searching for hidden coupon codes to save us cash.

One of my favorites, and lesser known than coupons.com is RetailMeNot.com

With the coupon code for Orbitz.com, we saved an additional $75 total.

Now we have to figure out how to pack light to avoid Delta’s checked baggage fee.
That’s a checked baggage fee for your FIRST CHECKED BAGGAGE! 

sigh.

time to condense our goods to carryon luggage only…