Money and Laughter

We all know that times are tough out there and we all look for ways to cut spending and tighten the belt. In our household we tend to spend money on food (mainly at the grocery store with only a few meals out), on the boys' hockey sport (the club dues, the travel associated with tier travel), the household stuff (mortgage, gas for the cars, utilities, phone, cable) and health care (all out of pocket while DH is looking for a job).

We have been lucky with our weather temps here, for they have been cool enough to turn off the AC and open the windows for the majority of the summer (except for a few days here and there when the temps did reach 100), which has cut our energy bill in 1/2 if not more.

As stated above, we don't go out to eat much except on special occasions and have been trying to plan out meals at home so that we can shop the grocery store wisely.

But lately there are things we have done that have made us laugh so much it hurt...

First...Alarm Clocks

Did you know that if you turn on the alarm of your alarm clock, it takes more energy for that little thing to make a noise at a certain time???

And, if, you press "snooze", it takes even more energy for that little appliance to count to 10 minutes and then start the alarm again??? Can you imagine how much energy you are paying for if you press the "snooze" again???

Well, Robert (older son) came up with a better way to make sure that he was woken up at 6am on Tuesday morning...

He took several index cards and wrote:

"Wake me up at 6:00am"

and staged them in several key places that I would see when I got up in the morning (my morning routine is to get up around 4:15-4:30am and get on my stationary bike so that I can get my exercise in before the day really starts). One was set on the book easel on the stationary bike that I set the laptop on while I ride. Seeing the "wake up call request" at this location is somewhat a sure thing, as long as I get my butt out of bed and on the bike before the required wake up call. Robert was lucky this day that his notice was seen, for there has been some mornings I haven't been able to get out of bed for my early morning exercise...however he must of thought about that, for all day long I found white index cards all over the house, which just made me laugh all day long. There was one by my bed (hoping that I would see it when I woke up), one on the laundry pile outside our bedroom (hoping that it would get noticed when I walked out of my room)...well, I guess he was lucky that I got out of bed before 6am to see those notices.

And as far as a "snooze" button...when your mother wakes you up - throws off the covers and turns on the light so it shines on your face - you better wake up because you don't want to find out what mother's "snooze" button is :)

Second...Hair Cuts
Having all boys/men in the household, getting their hair cut is pretty easy. You walk-in to the nearest Great Clips, sit in their chair and when asked how you want their hair cut, you point to the picture of the boys with a very short shaved cut, saying "that one". The $15 hair cut consist of the person taking out their razor, attaching either the no. 2 or no. 3 measuring attachment and "zzzzziiiippping" the hair off on the floor. In 5 minutes, they hop off the seat with a shaved cut and your wallet is $15 + $2 tip lighter.

Three guys in the household equals $51 a month or $612 a year in grooming expenses. So what is the solution...get your own WAHL hair cutting kit and start grooming your boys/men at home.

Well, we have seen informertials about the WAHL clipper and have thought about this very thing. One day as the whole family was tooling around our local Target store, we see one of these kits for $21. And, laughing uncontrollably in the middle of the aisle, we decide that we would invest in this and cut out the need for visits to Great Clips.

I, being the creative one in the household, was designated the barber and my first guineapig  customer was DH (let's say that the "D" stands for daring in this story...lol)- and last night was the night for his new do. It took awhile to get the right attachement figured out for the desired lenghth of his cut, but once that was determined, off it went. Soon, there were little piles of "salt and pepper" hair on the patio (we were outside, best to have hair out there than in the house). The boys and I couldn't stop laughing at the thought that we were actually doing hair cuts at home. After a little cutting was done, he would have to run into the house to check himself out in the mirror - then he would come back out, sit in the chair giving me directions on what what was still too long, what needed to be cut more and what needed to be blended so that it didn't look lopsided. We did have a good time doing this and in the end, it didn't look too bad - confident that we can say that it looked better than what he has been getting at our local GC.

So, after his cut was complete, I did a little trimming of Roberts...so we probably just paid for that appliance in just one evening.

Well, turning off the AC - eating only at home - not using the alarm clock (lol, Robert just doesn't like the noise of the clock) - cutting our own hair...may not really save us a lot of money but what we do save -

we can laugh all the way to the bank with :)

Hope everyone is having a good day...remember:

Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch often!

Lisa

BTW...I haven't gotten my hair cut in a long time for I am growing it out. However, I have been trimming my own bangs to save money :)...I am not sure that I would let any of my boys/men cut my hair...