Fed up..Old Style pick me ups??

voodoozoe

Please can anyone suggest how you find out about beauty colleges in your area??? I haven't lived round here long so don't know the area and am gagging for a hair cut!!!!!!!!!:eek:

I am 30 with OH and 3 cats. These days since our business disaster, I work full time in a horrible office-y environment that makes me feel exactly like you lot!!! I just have no style or natural ability to look good in conventional clothes. It was okay when I was a tattoo artist and could look as wild as I wanted but those clothes are consigned to boxes as I don't go anywhere that isn't work at the moment. OH is struggling to get work and despite paying a fortune in tax and NI all his life when self employed, his benefits have now been stopped because I am working.

My greatest pick me up at the moment is to read books constantly to keep my mind off any depressing thoughts. OH can't understand it and feels like I don't pay him enough attention but its my way of coping. I would love to have kids but its out of the question until OH can earn some money too.

**purpleprincess**

voodoozoe wrote:

Please can anyone suggest how you find out about beauty colleges in your area??? I haven't lived round here long so don't know the area and am gagging for a hair cut!!!!!!!!!:eek:

</p>Where do you live?

mrs_baggins

You are never gonna beat them so dont bother trying!! Dont mean that in a nasty way but if they only have themselves to spend on and no respponsibilites we could all be like that!! A woman at work came in yesterday saying she was now having to pay someone to walk her dog for gods'sake!! I hear others talking of going to a hairdressers and paying £100 for a cut!! I would love to buy all my food from m and s but its just not going to happen! Things probably look a bit bleak at the moment but how do you know they are any happier than you?

moggins

What is the point in having a dog if you have so little time for it you have to pay someone else to walk it?

Colleges, it doesn't have to be a separate beauty college, our city college had a beauty salon run by trainees in their last year. Search through the yellow pages for colleges and then ring and ask if they have a hair and beauty section.

Now if anyone can find me a cheap gym I shall be happy as dad has just shown me the photos he took 3 weeks ago and I look so fat!!

Biddyrolo

You can rent a rowing machine from https://www.concept2.co.uk for £50pm, we're thinking of giving it a go.

recovering_spendaholic

anniebooklover wrote:

This is going to sound like such a weird suggestion but hear me out and the OSer in you will really appreciate it.

Have an hour or so browsing on the web putting together the holiday of your dreams. Tell yourself money is no object. Check out the hotels, choose the best flight, etc. (Expedia are really handy for this as you can have a good look at most of the hotels). Then research the place you are going to for nightlife, shopping, attractions, etc. Send yourself off on a little dream. But DON'T book anything. While you are actually doing the browsing you will feel better and in the morning when you realise how much you have saved by not booking anything the OSer in you will give you a pat on the back for not spending frivilously. PLUS, you can give yourself a goal to aim for when your LOs are all grown up.

I swear this has made me feel much better on more than one occasion.

If that fails, some wine, some crisps and Mr Darcy always do it for me. :rotfl:

OMG I do this all the time!!! I swear I could get a job as a travel agent the amount of time I spend on Expedia and the like!! I know the names of all the good hotels in major cities around the world and often "book" myself on holidays to dream destinations.

Also, I try to be OS as much as possible but I do use fake tan - it's fairly cheap to buy in Boots if you get the BOGOF on the likes of Dove summer glow or Johnsons holiday skin - I also colour my hair and use make up! One of my best friends is really OS, lives to a very strict budget and never buys any processed food and cleans with vinegar and stuff. She buys all her clothes in Primark and George and believe me she looks a million dollars and everyone thinks she is loaded!!

Downsizing__for_sanity

I sympathise too - not only are we poorer now I don't work (except some temping) but our first baby is due on 10 Nov so we tend to keep all our spending for that! Being pregnant is also testing because I obviously can't fit into most of my clothes and have tried to buy the minimum amount of maternity wear (Only 9 weeks left so no point buying more now really).

I stil try to pamper myself - long bath with lavender essential oil or something, deep condition hair with a little olive oil or lots of normal conditioer, then use my Holiday Skin or other body lotion, paint toenails and fingernails and I feel like a new woman. You could also use a salt + oil scrub on hands and feet and take time to really cleanse your skin and let your moisturiser sink in while you're in the bath. This always makes me feel like a new woman!

I know it's not too easy to have time to yourself when you have children but could you have a sauna and long hot shower at the gym and a bit of pampering there? (Also using their hot water - v OS!;) )

I've been saving up my Advantage points for nice things - means I appreciate them more now. I used to have a very well paid job up till last Nov when I decided to go back to university, but didn't have any time to spend with my OH. Although I could afford to have salon treatments, I never had the time to book them or if I did, I felt like I missed out on "us" time.

Now I mentally add up how much my "St Tropez, mani/pedicure, mini facial, and deep condition" would have cost me - probably at least £100 spent in only 2 hours! And the bonus is I have most of the products already from free samples and other stuff in the house. Time definitely = money! If you don't have one, use the other!

DFS

ellas9602

hello :hello:
Thankyou so so much for all of the brilliant replies, I actually feel quite good today!!! and I haven't even been shopping yet

I'm pleased to see that a lot of you feel this way too. I sometome wonder if I lack self-esteem, in some ways I do I guess but in other areas I am quite confident. I'm quite happy to speak in a meeting and can proudly tell people about my kids but, and despite what I've said I don't think I would even enjoy going into a beauty salon. My OH bought me a posh massage once and I just felt really paranoid in the salon that all the girls were looking down on me! OMG I have an inferioty complex don't I????:eek:

Buuutt, I feel so much better today, and in all honesty I'm not that bad I'm a about a stone overweight and do wear make up each and everyday without fail (applied in the car on the way to work(with OH driving of course)!!!), its just that the people around me are soooo gorgeous I could never match up.

Now that I have taken the TIME to think about myself I realise that I do have some nice clothes and loads of beauty stuff! I just try to get so much done each day that 'me' time probably equals about five minutes. Normally I can look down at my odd socks at work and think 'ah well at least I got the slow cooker bubbling and two loads of washing done before I left' but I don't know what got into me this week!

Can't wait to wrap my feet up in lemon and sugar tonight :T :T :T

rls1973

wow, ellas6902, the way you described yourself physically sounds just like the woman in my mirror!! :rotfl:

those perfect chicks also reside around here, have you noticed they are always scowling, v.beckham style, it must be because they are starving hungry i always think!!

yes i 'd agree with everyone else, it's got to be bubble bath, diy pedicure/manicure, body scrubbing etc etc. apart from that, no new brilliant ideas to add, just wanted to say, a lot of people feel just the same. chin up.

elona

Don't forget the plastic bags on your feet or you will be scrubbing lemon paste out of the carpet for weeks!

If you then put big socks or towels over feet then you can feel your feet "heating up" as the paste works on the hard skin.

If your hands get rough and red in the winter then use the paste to "wash your hands" and then rinse it off with warm water - it stings like mad but if you use hand lotion afterwards then your hand do feel much softer and are less red!