Do you spend a significant amount of money on your appearance/grooming

[haha]

I know by now some of the males on this board have probably had a heart attack even thinking about how much all of the above costs. However we do balance it out by my husband only getting his haircut once every 3 months.

I'm happy that y'all are staying pretty.

It's especially attractive if you pay for it yourself.

ha

 

[Sundance Kid]

Only, if there's a chance, I'll be in a police lineup.

 

[CyclingInvestor]

#2 buzz cut from friend every 2 months - $20 clipper 2 years ago

Shave once every 7-10 days - free

Exfoliation and moisturization routine from canine - free

Overall, pretty inexpensive for the last 10 years

 

[Mwsinron]

My wife bought me one of those nose helicopters a year or so ago. I'm good to go.

Heh speaking of which mine needs new batteries

 

[Goonie]

I bought a pair of hair clippers about 33 years ago for $18.95 ($19.90 with sales tax)......and so I do my own hair.....thus far it has cost on average 60 cents per year or about 10 cents each hair cut (haircut about every 2 months)....and that price drops every year!!! Of course I have to add in electricity, but that, too, is minimal.

 

[Linney]

That's the problem with doing expense tracking in Quicken -- with one click I can find out exactly how much I spend on grooming per year. $960? Whoa! Let's calculate that as a per month expense instead..... whew, "just" $80 per month, now that doesn't sound quite so bad. Most of the cost is haircuts and highlighting. I skimp and try to extend the period between touchups (that's the cheap in me)

Shiny, I want to get laser hair removal too! That'll cost a bit. Maybe next winter ? ? ?

 

[donheff]

I'm surprised at how many people cut their own hair. I'm in that camp but I haven't actually met anyone else who does it. The back is the hard part

 

[Outtahere]

I do most of the basics myself but I'm very lucky I have a sister that owns a salon, she cuts my hair about every 8 weeks, does any waxing needed, all at the family discount I don't need to color my hair, it's a deep strawberry blonde (red?), have natural waves and highlites. Manicures and pedicures I've always done myself and prefer it that way after a friend ended up with a nasty infection from a salon. I'm pretty low maintenence, don't wear a lot of makeup but I tend to splurge on moisturisers and creams, I have nice skin and want to keep it that way. Dh gave me a GC to a spa for a facial, I didn't enjoy it, didn't enjoy the hardsell for products and my face broke out for days after.

I cut DH's hair once a year to trim the ends off his braid, he gets split ends from it whipping around behind him on the bike.

 

[kaudrey]

Although I do spend $60 to get my haircut 4x a year, I always feel that it is an extravagence I allow myself. I color it myself, so about $6 every 6 weeks or so.

I do get pedicures in the summer - I play a lot of sports and my feet look like it if I don't do something! So maybe 4 or 5 pedicures a year at $25 a shot.

I wear very little makeup so whatever I do buy lasts a LONG time.

Karen

 

[Moemg]

$80.00 for cut & color every five weeks.$25.00 for pedicures once a month .Estee Lauder make-up probably $50.00 every few months . They give me free samples of the eye cream so I save some there.

 

[Khan]

Don't cut my hair.
Don't dye my hair.
Shower every other day.
(sponge bath on non shower days)
Put on clean clothes every day

 

[OKLibrarian]

My splurge is my cut and color every 6 weeks (~140). I get my products off-brand, though. don't go in much for the creams, moisturizers, etc. I bought some Mary Kay makeup about 6 months ago basically as favor to a friend who was selling at the time. The experience was actually worth it as I learned some cosmetic tips i hadn't known , though all the hard-sell crap to become a consultant (from my friend's "up-line", not her) was definitely NOT worth it. I'll probably try some different brands once I run through the MK stuff to see what I like. work clothes are through kohl's/gordman's. when I'm off the clock, I live in jeans and Ts unless we're going out somewhere nice. in other words, I spend on what I care about, and ignore the rest.

 

[Sheryl]

My splurge is my cut and color every 6 weeks (~140).

I tried waxing before our last trip, since I was given a spa gift certificate. It wasn't all that impressive for the bother and pain, so I think I'll stick to shaving.

Yeah, me too. My nails and eyebrows are just left to their own devices, except that in the summer I will sometimes paint my toenails.

My other splurge is Clinique soap and moisturizer, but the $18 soap lasts me about 6 months and the moisturizer is only used infrequently, so the cost is about $50 a year total, I think.

I almost never wear makeup, but there is a pretty large pile of stuff that has collected over the years if I ever want to. I buy a mascara once in a while.

Nope - the "grooming" budget item can't hold a candle to the "books" catagory as far as discretionary spending is concerned!

 

[Jarhead*]

I'm surprised at how many people cut their own hair. I'm in that camp but I haven't actually met anyone else who does it. The back is the hard part

Meadolark Lemon (of old Globetrotters), had the longest arms I've ever seen. Standing erect, his hands extended past his knees. He might have been able to pull off shaving the hair off his back.

Congratulations to you for even trying this stunt.

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

haircut $20 plus $4 tip every 5 to 6 weeks. new batteries for nose/ear hair trimmer. just started developing back hair, yuck, not sure what i'm going to do about that but i'm leaving room in the budget. shave with a hair trimmer about once a week. don't like putting blade to face. have 5 o'clock shadow 24/7. have to replace trimmer about every two years for 50 bucks. suntan lotion especially for summer in florida and skin lotion for a couple bucks a year. buy natural bath soap by the gallon and have spa-type dispenser in shower. so no real significant money spent here. but that might explain why i don't get so many dates. oh yeah, i'm also considering a face lift in the future. do i put that under the heading of grooming?

 

[lem1955]

Haircut every 4 weeks - $37.
Hair color every 3 months $70.
No manicure, pedicure --- but I clip at home regularly.
No make up.
Massage every 3-4 weeks $50 (would hate to give this up in retirement. I'll skip the hair color instead.)

 

[rec]

I bought a pair of hair clippers about 33 years ago for $18.95 ($19.90 with sales tax)......and so I do my own hair.....thus far it has cost on average 60 cents per year or about 10 cents each hair cut (haircut about every 2 months)....and that price drops every year!!! Of course I have to add in electricity, but that, too, is minimal.

You're story is great. I have a 12 year old clipper I guess it is still just a pup.

 

[mickeyd]

I buy Ivory soap whenever it's on sale. I get a haircut every 90-120 days, even if I do not need one. (I generally shower at the nearby Army fitness center after a workout so this tends to keep my Ivory usage lower.)

This all tends to keep me below my $50 annual budget in this area. 8)

 

[martyb]

I'm still in the reserves, so I hafta get a haircut every month at least, at 10.00 a whack. I was getting it done cheaper, but the $10 barber is doing a much better job so I'm sticking with him. My dad was a barber, and I may research into whether I could do this for myself without messing up. Any advice on self-haircuts would be appreciated. Otherwise, I just use regular old Irish Spring bath soap, and whatever deodorant is cheapest at the moment, Ultrabrite toothpaste which is about the cheapest there is, I think. No pedicures, manicures etc. I'm a real basic guy, but I do stay clean & neat. I do sometimes go a day or two or three between shaves, though. DW seems to like it.

 

[Goonie]

You're story is great. I have a 12 year old clipper I guess it is still just a pup.

I figure they should last me another 33 years.....then I'll just let my hair grow long and be an 83 year old hippie!

And I did forget to add in the cost of the 2 drops of light machine oil that I put on the clippers once a year!

 

[Meadbh]

However.....a great hair dresser and manicurist/pedicurist are worth their weight in gold

Ain't that the truth! I call my hairdresser "my psychologist". She can always sniff out stress a mile away from the state of my hair. And the camaraderie at the store is, well, "to die for"!

 

[free4now]

The haircut is the one expense that I can't seem to trim down (no pun intended). I spend $40 including tip for a men's haircut in a boutiquish place. I just searched my calendar to find out how often I actually go, and was a bit embarrassed that it looks like I often go three months between haircuts, but less if there is a special event coming up that I want to look good for.

I tried cheaper haircuts but they don't seem to last as long and just aren't as good looking.

I did a cost/benefit analysis of different shavers recently, trying out the Gillette Fusion (5+1 blades), Quadra (4 blades), Sensor (2 blades), Gillette disposables (2 blades), and a Gillette one blade disposable. I found that the sweet spot is 2 blades... More blades are more comfortable but way more expensive. Interestingly, the Gillette Sensor (non-disposable 2 blade) costs much more, about $1.10/cartridge than the Gillette disposable 2 blade shavers (about .70 cents each at Costco). You do get a slightly better shave with the Sensor and the blades do last a little longer, but after using both on alternate days for a while, I decided the Gillette disposable 2 blade shavers at .70 cents each were the best deal.

So my shaving cost is approx 10 cents a day for the shavers, probably $50/year including shave cream and depreciation on the electric shavers I use for various small spots.