Category: Health and Beauty

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An Update On How Postpartum Depression Changed My Life

May is Mental Health Awareness Month May happens to be Mental Health Awareness month and April marked the ninth anniversary of Frugalwoods! Given that confluence, it seems like the perfect time to reflect on my 2018 post, “How A Diagnosis Of Postpartum Depression Changed My Life.” This one struck a serious chord, as evidence by the 433 comments and abundance of emails and messages I’ve received since. Many of you told me that reading that...

93

Revisiting My 2015 Beauty Manifesto: What I Got Right, What I Got Wrong

As I shared last week, April is the NINTH anniversary of Frugalwoods! To celebrate, I’m typing down memory lane with reflections on some of my most influential old posts. Nine years is a long time to do anything and I’m curious to see if I agree with my old self or if my thoughts have changed in the intervening years. Old Me vs. Current Me: A Showdown The first post I want to reflect on...

95

Reader Suggestions On How To Fight the Pink Tax from Birth Control to Bras

Oh yes, we’re going there today. The “pink tax” refers to the fact that women often pay more for goods and services marketed to them. A 2018 study found that, “…women pay as much as 13 percent more for some categories of products (source: NPR).” Not cool, ladies, not cool at all. This insidious increase in price has been documented in everything from women’s razors to women’s clothing. In some instances, we can just buy...

112

Reader Suggestions: Beauty Routines Of The Frugal And Fabulous

Today, I’ve gathered sage advice from Frugalwoods readers about frugal beauty routines because I’ve always been stumped by beauty routines. When I turned thirteen, I felt like I should do something to my body in the area of beauty routines using beauty products. What that was exactly remained a mystery. I was overwhelmed by the beauty section at Walmart, which was the only store we went to that sold such things. It was off in a...

246

Sunk Costs, Paralysis By Analysis, And Why I Finally Cut My Hair Short

I cut my hair. A lot of my hair. Most of my hair, in fact. Yes indeed, today I am writing about hair. I will cover other thrilling topics such as the sunk cost fallacy and paralysis by analysis. But mostly, this is a post about my hair. With more pictures of my hair than is reasonable. Mr. Frugalwoods told me I should tell you this at the outset because he felt that people should...

118

How We Bought Inexpensive, Awesome Glasses Online

Mr. Frugalwoods needed glasses. After years of competing over who could discern distant signs on roadtrips first, age finally caught up with my mountain/computer man. Both of his vocations–software engineering and forestry management/homesteading–require the ability to see clearly. As does, you know, life in general. Last year he started getting headaches and complained of blurry vision and so, the time had come. I sent him to the eye doctor. Verdict: his vision isn’t terrible, but it’s...

96

Why LASIK Surgery Is The Best $4,225 I’ve Ever Spent

As I lay on the operating table with a laser moving towards my eyeball, I knew I’d made the right decision. Ok, maybe I didn’t know it in that precise moment of mingled excitement and low grade terror, but I certainly knew it about an hour later when I could see without glasses or contacts for the first time in 16 years. A little over two years ago, I decided to take the ocular plunge and get...

288

Less Makeup, More Confidence: My Frugal Beauty Manifesto

I’ve stopped wearing makeup entirely. Well almost entirely–I still don mascara and the occasional lip gloss, but otherwise, my face is makeup free. While undeniable that it’s frugal not to buy makeup, this decision wasn’t solely motivated by my desire for the extreme frugality lifestyle. This choice is more about my drive for a simpler, less stressful existence that’s centered on what brings me joy–not on things I think I “should” be doing. For years, I felt...

190

How I Let Go Of Caring What People Think

Today is my 31st birthday. That’s right, I’ve aged right out of striking distance to my youthful 20s and am careening towards middle age. But you know what, I’m glad. Getting older has been good for me. Aging has enabled me to let go of caring what people think about me and instead focus on who I really am and what I want to accomplish over the course of my life. Sure, I still want to be...

185

Final Frontier Of Frugality: My Husband Gave Me A Haircut

Mr. Frugalwoods gave me a haircut last week and, as I shared on Twitter: 1) we’re still married and 2) it looks really good! I’ll admit, we were both a bit nervous and there were a few tense words, but it worked out just dandy. In other news, I’ll be nominating him for husband of the year (is that a real award? it should be) shortly. There are a number of guides out there on how to...