I confess! I'm guilty. Guilty of hanging on to my hair products past their expiration date. When I started my relaxed hair journey I started going through the hair products I wanted to keep and toss. Boy did I find a few surprises!
I found a shampoo that had been sitting in my bathroom cabinet for almost two years! The kicker is, the bottle was still full, but had been opened. I had used the shampoo a couple of times and then stopped for what reason I couldn't recall.
Additionally, I had some hair serums and oils that were older than I could remember. Same with a moisturizer and hair grease. Seeing how old these products were I got curious about whether or not I should still be using them on my relaxed hair or if I should toss them.
Have you ever had a time where you needed or wanted to make a big purchase and you realized that you didn’t have the money readily available or would need to dig into your emergency fund or even worse buy it on credit?!
If that has happened to you then you may want to keep reading as I’m talking about sinking funds in this blog post.
Sinking funds are something I’d heard about but didn’t really know anything about and honestly didn’t think I needed. Once I learned more about them and had a situation where a sinking fund would have been helpful (buying a new car after a car accident) I started working on a few myself.
I’ve been working on my sinking funds for a few months now and wanted to share what I’ve learned and my experience with you.
Winter isn’t my favorite time of the year. The colder and drier air outside and the hotter drier air inside don’t do
my hair or my oily skin any favors. In the winter my skin is constantly ashy and itchy. Not a fun time. Thankfully wintertime in the south doesn’t last for long.
As I started to pay more attention to my overall skin, the constant scratching of my legs, arms, and back; the dry cracked lips; and tight ashy skin around my mouth, I finally had enough and decided I needed to find some solutions to help my skin get through the winter.
Owning a home is great but it is a big purchase, not just because houses are big items but because of the price. Especially now, with house prices increasing and slightly higher interest rates, having all of your financial ducks in a row is imperative so this big achievement doesn’t become a big nightmare.
I bought my first house in my early 30s, I also sold that house and am currently in the process of buying my second house. While this doesn’t make me an expert on home purchases I do have some personal experience on what worked best in my situation.
As I mentioned in my
2021 skincare favorite things post, I had a good skin year so I didn’t wear makeup as often as I typically do. So I had to think long and hard about what new products I used and really liked this year.
Then I realized that I put more of an emphasis on my eye makeup this year. I discovered brow gel and pencils, these were things that I pretty much completely ignored. I also tried out a few new eyeshadow palettes.
If you happen to be one of the lucky ones to get a decent-sized Christmas bonus this year congratulations! I’ve gotten them a few times over my career and I remember there being a lot of initial excitement. After the excitement has worn off my mind skipped to all of the wonderful, extravagant ways I could spend the bonus.
While that is all great and good, unless you are in a great financial state where this money is extra gravy, this could be a way to improve your financial situation and set you up for the future.
2021 was a great year for my skin. I think this year is the best it has ever looked. I can attribute a lot of that to figuring out not only what my skin likes but more importantly what it needs.
I have oily skin but realized that my skin was dehydrated for a long time I thought the way to deal with oily skin was to dry it out. Doing that was making my oily skin worse. Once I started incorporating more hydrating and moisturizing products into my skincare regimen I started to notice not only a decrease in the oiliness but also a positive change in the texture of my skin. This has made me more confident in going out with no makeup on.
Black Friday 2021 has come and gone. I decided to take advantage of some of the sales to get a few products for my relaxed hair and a couple of beauty products I’ve had my eye on for a while. I was very strategic with my shopping and didn't buy things from a lot of places. In fact, I only shopped at two places - Mielle and Ulta.
It’s hard to believe that 2021 is coming to a close. It started off a little slow and then really picked up speed.
In addition to some big life changes, 2021 brought drastic, but positive, improvements to my hair. When 2021 started I had seen some progress in my hair’s journey of recovery from protein overload. It wasn’t as much as I would have liked but I was feeling better about my hair and no longer feeling like I would have to cut it all off and start over. It wasn’t until late summer/early fall though that my hair really turned a corner and I really felt better about it.
I can’t really pin down what it was that really helped my hair this year. It seems like it was a combination of things.
