I Ordered It

I ordered the Kinky Curly products. I must say that I am impressed. My hair looked 100% better when I applied the curly custard.

Now I'm looking for a good product to apply to my dry scalp (not grease) and a gentle shampoo for my hair.

Contemplating Kinky-Curly Hair Products

OK. Here is the absolute truth. I really dislike spending a lot of money on myself for beauty products. I have always been like that. I always find the cheapest alternative when it comes to hair care products and makeup. I just can not justify spending a lot of money on products that have to be replaced constantly.

Which brings me to my dilemma. My natural hair needs help in a BAD way. I used to be able to keep my curl definition when my hair dried but not anymore. And I'm having a tough time keeping it moisturized. I prefer wash & go's because they are quick and cute. Or at least they were until I started having these issues with my hair. So I have reached the point of not caring if I have to pay to get pleasing results. Having healthy, decent looking hair is important to me.

So, I started doing some research on Nappturality.com and You Tube and came across many good testimonials on Kinky-Curly. I even watched some You Tube videos of how to apply the product and some before and afters.

It definitely looks like something that will work for my hair. But beauty does not come cheap. The Kinky-Curly curling custard is $26 and the Knot Today, a leave in conditioner needed to go with the custard, is $12 - plus shipping and handling. I have never spent that much money in my life on jut 2 hair care products.

I told my husband about the price but he just wants me to be happy about my hair. So, he is fine with the purchase. That should be the end of it for me, I know. But I still did days and days more of research trying to find a cheaper alternative. I found a homemade pudding recipe on Nappturality. But if I buy the ingredients for that and it does not work then I will still have to shell out the $38 + s&h for the KC products.

What is a cheap, I mean frugal, person to do? Well, in my many hours of research I did find out that it is best to buy the products from CurlMart.com. The price is the same but I can use coupon code iVillage to get 20% off.

Anyway, I will make my final decision on Wednesday. That way I have plenty of time to weigh all of my options.

Christmas Time is Here

DH, the children, and I went Christmas shopping last night. Let's just say that brief outing made us more resolute than ever that from now on we will do the majority of our shopping online. If we purchase items from Amazon.com we get:

• free shipping on orders over $25 (believe me, this minimum is easy for me to reach)
• no standing in line
• no chance that the price will be different when I get to the checkout counter (that just happened to us at Best Buy)
• no taxes - this is a huge savings for us
• no dealing with rude sales people

Those are more than enough reasons right there.

An Article Series on Saving Money

My second article has been published on Bright Hub. This one is about how to save money on gas. It is actually part of a series on practical money saving tips. You can get to the other parts in the series from any article in the series. I like how Bright Hub set that up.

Anyway, my plan is to have the series completed by the end of next week. Originally, the plan was to write one article a day for 4 days. But my life really is about my family. So writing is not a priority for me. It is more like a hobby that pays.

Excited About eHow

I am soooo excited about eHow. I found out about the Writer's Compensation program from WAHM.com. I signed up a month ago today and I am confident that I will make more than the $10 needed to get paid next month.

I read several testimonials about writers making several hundred dollars each month of passive income from eHow. I decided to do a little experiment to see if that was a reality. And I now believe that those testimonials are true.

Once I reach my monthly goal for eHow I will share my own testimonial and show a snapshot of my earnings. That is assuming I have figured out how to take a screen shot by then.

My First Bright Hub Article

I am thrilled to report that my first Bright Hub article has been posted. It's all about how to save money on groceries. Considering how food prices are sky rocketing, this is a timely article.

It feels wonderful to be writing again. I really enjoy sharing with others. And I am enjoying writing again now that I am not putting any unrealistic expectations on myself. I do have some goals, but they are very simple ones. On Bright Hub I want to write personal finance articles that truly help others get a handle on their money. And it is amazing to me that I am getting paid to do something I do all the time for free. I am constantly giving budgeting and finance advice to other Family Managers.

So, I am over writing for money. DH is the bread winner - and a good one at that. So that frees me up to write out my desire to help others.

So Much for Menu Monday

Seeing as it is Wednesday night, it's obviously too late to post my menu for this week. But the good news is that I did actually write a menu for this week. It's in my kitchen and I have been following it diligently. Anyway, I'll try again next week.

Back to Posting Menus

My goal is to start participating in Menu Plan Monday again, starting next week. I have been making meals on the fly lately. This really hasn't been working out that well. I often find it being meal time and I don't have any idea what I'm going to fix.

I'm not sure how or why I stopped planning menus. But it is a necessity so I will be back on track next week.

I'm Writing Again

After awhile, the writing bug will bite me again. It did again last month. That's why I haven't blogged much lately. I've been writing articles for eHow. There is no upfront payment; but, you get passive income from ads that are clicked on.

I also got accepted to write for the Personal Finance channel on Bright Hub. I have not actually written yet. But I have to submit an article by the end of December. So I will have my first article there soon.

I also have 2 blogs at Today.com. They pay $1 per 100 word post. They only pay for 1 post per day per blog. So that is an easy $60 a month. You can even write your articles all at once and post date them. That's what I do. My blogs are: Frugal Tips and Housecleaning.

I have not really set a goal for how much money I would like to make yet. I'm thinking that an extra $100 a month would be cool. I praise God that my husband is the breadwinner. So anything I make would be personal money for myself.

Update: 12/10/08 I found out a few days ago that Today.com has changed their payment structure. If you have a blog with low ad clicks then your pay rate is only $2 for every 1000 page views.

Wish I'd know that before putting up over 60 posts between the 2 blogs :(