Frogdancer has inspired me with her Skinflint Sunday posts and her wealth of ideas on how to maximise the bang for her buck. In preparation for my upcoming maternity leave we have been trying to take a more disciplined approach to budgeting. That involves actually paying attention to the money we spend, setting a budget, and – here’s the bit I’m not so good at – not spending the money if it isn’t available.
The kids have been needing a haircut. Normally I would take them down to the shopping centre and pay Just Cuts $16 each for a trim.
Just by virtue of being at the shopping centre we would probably eat lunch in the food court, buy a few things that we otherwise wouldn’t have thought of and generally waste time in a large commercial building with artificial lighting instead of enjoying the outdoors.
So today I thought – no – it just can’t be that difficult. I watched a few youtube clips on how to cut children’s hair, then pulled out the hairdressing scissors.
And it actually wan’t hard. I don’t think I’ll be winning any hairdressing awards, but they looked less scruffy afterwards and I saved myself at least $32.
Now while I was cutting hair, P was mowing the lawn. I was actually using him as a distraction for Little D to keep him entertained while I was spraying and snipping. Our neighbour happened to be edging his front lawn at the same time, and when it came to edging ours he offered to lend us his petrol edger so P could try it out.
Up until now he’s been using an electric whipper-snipper style thing for the edging, and it goes through its rubber blades really quickly.
It obviously takes a bit of practice, but his conclusion was that eventually it would save a lot of time and yield a better result. A bit cruel of me to post this picture, isn’t it? This was his first attempt, just as he was lining it up for the first time.
I couldn’t help but see some parallels in our activities…
500m2 in Sydney 
“I couldn’t help but see some parallels in our activities…”
Ah yes I can too… I’ve been cutting my children’s hair since I can remember… until of course the dreaded teenage years where the short back and sides with the clippers (I made my money back with just one haircut!) just won’t do anymore… sigh… cherish the time when they will still smile at the end of your haircut… I think they look great!
Thanks Lilian 🙂 I’m sure you did a great job!
I wish that the clippers alone would ‘cut-it’ so to speak, but I think that little boys look so harsh with clippers all over. I’m just going to have to keep practicing, because my results were definitely far from perfect.
Perhaps just not as obvious as P’s first edging effort ;P
If I get good enough, then maybe (eventually) I can start cutting P’s hair too, and save ourselves another $25 every 6 weeks!
Hmmm, just don’t try doing things the other way around. You might do a nice job of the lawn, but if those are the sorts of lines P cuts, don’t let him near the poor kids hair!
I really was cruel – he’s embarrassed now! But then again, you’ll see it in person tomorrow anyway.
Those petrol edgers are really powerful – makes short work of the edging, but only if you know what you’re doing. He got the hang of it by the second edge – might keep an eye out on ebay for a 2nd-hand one.
Well I’m impressed L. I have never tried cutting Miss Two’s hair, she’s just too restless for me to be game enough to try. It takes at least two people as it is, one to cut and one to distract, hold her head steady etc etc. If I have Baby Good with me too then I need another set of hands and eyes as well. Thankfully I have a local hairdresser that does kids cuts for $8, it’s close enough to walk to and other than picking up more milk, bread or fruit there’s no other temptations in the area. Though I know exactly what you mean about spending extra money just because you’re in one of the scary big shopping centres.
I too got quite strict about budgets etc when Baby Good came along, going from two to one incomes again (mind you the new paid maternity leave scheme meant I had more money a fortnight than when I was working two days a week…. but only for a few months). Now I’ve started working a bit again, so I’ve started to relax a bit on the budget front – whoops.
Little D was really restless too. In addition to the lawn mowing (which he loves to watch) I also had my iphone with Charlie and Lola playing. Even then he kept swatting me away!
The paid maternity leave is great, isn’t it? I actually feel guilty that us working mothers get it when SAHMs don’t, and only working 2 days a week normally means that it stretches for ages. Would be so much better if I hadn’t spent waaaay too much money over Christmas, and now actually have credit card debt to repay! And would you believe I’m a qualified financial planner? Oh the shame…
Your kids are so beautiful. J looks like Snow White. Blue eyes, dark hair, porcelain skin… You didn’t wreck their good looks with your hair cut, so job well done!
Thanks Michelle 🙂 Overexposing skin slightly never does any harm ;P
I can so tell in the first photo of D he’s saying “cheese!”. He’s never been a very good talker, but he calls my camera “Mummy’s cheese”. He’s such a cutie 🙂
Mummy’s Cheese! Brilliant!
I cut my kids hair – well usually anyway – I took Miss 5 to the hairdresser for the first time as a birthday treat. She loved it and I was quite pleased to have someone fix the mess I’ve been making. I’ve cut her hair since – I watched what the hairdresser did very closely and it still looks fine. I reckon I can keep trimming til her next birthday (August) and then get a hairdresser to fix it up again then. My partner cut Mr 2s hair the other day and remarkably did quite a good job, not sure that I’ll let him loose on mine though….
You’ve done a great job. My husband is always threatening to cut the kids’ hair himself. But i won’t let him near the scissors. My kids have curls and I think they must be trickier. They’ve had some shocking cuts by professionals.
Hmm..
I used to cut the boys’ hair with clippers when they were little. Saved a fortune and they looked cute. Now they’re either into long hair (musos) or the indie look.