Money Saving Tips for Beauty Products

I have recently started getting a lot more use out of some of my beauty products and it works on many other things too.

You know how so many things now come in those plastic tubes that stand up on their lids?  It gives the impression that when you get to the end and have squeezed the last bit out that you have used all the product.  After all, it is standing up so everything will have drained down, right?  Wrong!  As the product is usually quite thick it just clings to the sides of the container.

 I have found you can get an awful lot more out after that.  Just cut the tube right across from side to side about half way down so you have 2 halves of the tube and you will find there is loads of product still left inside. 

The top half will fit nicely as a lid over the bottom part to keep the product in good condition and it wont dry up.

I have done this with my shower gel, face wash and my moisturiser.  You can afford to pay for the expensive products when you realise how long they can last.  I have still not finished the face wash and I have been using it daily since I cut it in half for over 3 weeks now so I think I will get another months use out of it from what I would have originally thought.

It is quite annoying to think of all those tubes I have thrown away thinking they are empty when really there is still lots of product just stuck to the sides.  They may say 250ml or something on the outside because that is the amount that went into the tube but probably 30-50ml just sticks to the inside of the tube.

It will work with toothpaste as well if your toothpaste comes in those types of tube.  Mine comes in a metal tube that you can keep folding up to make sure you get the most of the product (the same as tomato puree tubes).

So think twice before you throw away a tube that you presume is empty and check how much is still inside just clinging to the sides of the tube - you can possible get a whole months more use out of it which will save your pennies, or pounds / dollars in the case of the expensive beauty products.

For anyone who is worried about having an MRI Scan – my experiences

I had my first MRI scan on my lower back 8 years ago and I hated it, so I was really frightened of having another one when my GP suggested it.

I think one of the main problems I found the first time is that it was not at all as I expected. 

You see people going in them on TV so you know roughly what to expect, BUT what you don’t expect or realise until you are actually in there, is just how close and small the tunnel is once a human being is in that hole.

I can distinctly remember seeing the tunnel and thinking how big it was and not being at all concerned when I lay down on that bed.  I was in for a total shock!

OK if I was a petite 5’2” slim woman it might not have been so bad but I am a “well rounded” 5’8” woman and those walls were close!

They gave me the choice of an eye mask if I wanted or some glasses with tilted lenses so you can look down past your feet to the open.  I chose these thinking that they would be better because I could “see out”.  Wrong – they were the worst things I could have chosen!

Once again, if you are petite they may have been OK but when you are my size it was a huge shock to see how small that tunnel was and I wish I hadn’t seen how little space there was above my body.  What the eyes don’t see…….etc. is a very appropriate saying in this case. 

I am a “pear shape” so I would think it would be even worse for an “apple shaped” person with a big tummy as they would seem like they filled the tunnel even more than me when they looked down with those glasses. 

I am not claustrophobic unless things are VERY close to me – I am fine in lifts but get a bit concerned in close crowds and don’t like narrow passageways or crawling through tunnels etc. 

If I had opted for the eye mask I would not have realised how close it was in there apart from realising my arms were touching the sides of course.  I am positive that my brain would not have realised how close the top was if it only had the closeness of the sides touching my arms to consider.  The eyes give a lot more away than the feel of the arms, I am sure.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Anyway, this time I did a bit of investigation and found that there are Open MRI scanners but there are only about 5 in the country I think and they were only used for very unusual patients as they were so expensive and took a lot longer.

But what I did find is that there are some Feet First MRI Scanners and not only that but my local hospital had 2 MRI Scanners and one of them was a Feet First.  I was, I think, overjoyed.  If I can call it that!

I was still dreading the scan but to go in feet first so that my head would be nearer the open air sounded soooo much better!  If I had to have one, I wanted that one.  Luckily my doctor agreed to send me for that one although the normal procedure was for doctors to send patients to the normal scanner.

I can now meditate so could “switch off” and I knew what to expect this time as well, so I can honestly say that this MRI Scan was a breeze.  I would have no worries or hesitation about having another one now.

Once I had sorted the Feet First scan out I just put it out of my mind right until I lay down on the MRI bed.  There was no point in thinking about it and getting myself in a state so I just put if out of my mind.

I took a CD along with me for them to play into the headphones and of course, just my luck, but the CD player had broken so they could only play the radio!

I obviously opted for the plain eye mask this time and just kept my eyes closed throughout.  She put me in very slowly and it just got very slightly darker as my head went in but I could almost feel (real or imagined) that the end of the tunnel was only just behind my head, which felt so totally different than when your head is in the dark end of the tunnel.

I felt so relaxed it was unbelievable and I could almost have fallen asleep, despite the fact that it is noisy in there.  The 3^rd time the noise went on (which I presume was the 2^nd scan, as the first one is only 20 seconds) it was like a gentle back massage as the bed vibrated a bit.  When I finally got up I felt a bit whoozy as I was so relaxed I think.

A totally and completely different experience to my first MRI – partly due to knowing what to expect, partly because I was so calm and mainly because I didn’t feel anywhere near so hemmed in when my head was so near the outside instead of being nearly 6’ in the tunnel.

So I certainly recommend that if you need an MRI scan and are at all claustrophobic then check with the hospitals around your area to find out if there is a Feet First MRI Scanner.  Don’t rely on your doctor to know because mine didn’t but of course he would now know for anyone in the future.

Importing CD’s to the Computer – How I am getting on!

Well I did say I would be kept busy uploading songs from my CD’s to the computer – but I hadn’t really realised quite how busy!

At first I was going to just upload them while I was on the computer but it was taking so long that we decided to put more of an effort into it and so we are now using 2 laptops and the main PC to get the CD’s on faster. 

It has now turned into a major project.  Even if we are not on the computers we are going back and forth to them to put another CD in as soon as we hear the “ping” to say it has finished.  LOL – our life is revolving around the “ping” now J

 We even take one of the laptops in the lounge uploading them for the short time we watch TV in the evenings.  We would have both of them in there but one isn’t on the wifi  (don’t ask – oh go one then - hubby forgot the password he set up for the wifi and doesn’t remember if he wrote it down anywhere!).

The old laptop freezes regularly which is a real pain but the other laptop is ok.  The PC (which is the computer I use) works fine as long as I have very little open on the interne!  As soon as I open Google+ it is OK for a few CD’s and then it crashes the whole thing and I have to restart the computer.  This happens even if I leave Google+ on an “empty” page so it is not loading anything!  Too little memory left!  Help – I need a new computer, not an iPod – but there is a bit of a price difference!

So I spent the whole weekend loading CD’s and didn’t go on Google+ at all.  I was so very tempted but knew that if I went on there I would be on too long and get involved so thought it best to just get on with the CD’s as it is usually quieter on G+ at the weekends anyway – or that is what I kept telling myselfJ  So I also didn’t list any jewellery items on anywhere either.  Never mind.

Well we were both busy importing them for a while but then household things decided to step in like the downstairs toilet started leaking which turned into an all day task for hubby.  What timing!

Then one of the dining chair seats decided to crack (and yes, it was me sitting on it at the time – well just getting off actually).  We had already had another seat crack as well when I rested a knee on it while standing talking on the phone. 

So yes I have broken 2 chairs now – but as they are only chipboard seats (I think he said chipboard – he said they are not very strong anyway) and they have lasted about 30 years, so I guess they are now getting brittle.  I know that as he tried to flatten it by pushing the other way, it just snapped in half.  They were not fitting properly anyway as they had been re-covered without taking the original covers off so were pushing the frames out.

So now we have major chair renovations going on to mend those 2 chairs properly and strengthen the others as well, because apparently there is nothing supporting the seats apart from 4 small corner pieces of wood that they sit in.  LOL – we need them for Saturday too as we have friends coming round for dinner so no pressure!

The uploading has slowed down a bit over the last few days as I have had to be online so I have been using just the laptop when I have been online on the PC but I am getting there and have loaded over half of them now.

Wow, what is so great is that I have come across so many favourite old CD’s I had forgotten about.  So it’s been quite a treat from that point of view.

Deleting duplicate tracks has caused a bit of problem as to deciding which ones to take off, as they may then not be on an album you were expecting them to be on.  Should I take it off the main album, the “best of” album, the longest length track etc. - various artist albums are the easiest and safest to delete the duplicates from.  Oh well, I suppose I can always change a track over at a later date if I need to J

But the BIGGEST problem I had was just before I was going to bed one night, when I had imported the songs from one of the laptops and was just starting to import the songs from the 2^nd laptop when a warning notice came up to say I was dangerously close to running out of hard drive space!!! 

It was a good job I had just checked the PC before heading off to bed as I don’t know what would have happened if I hadn’t been there to stop the import.

So I had to import everything back to the newest laptop instead, which hadn’t really got anything on it except programmes.  I had to do that just so that I would be able to use the PC the next day.  So much for the idea of having a full copy of all our CD’s on each computer!

Neither of us had even thought how much space we had left on the hard drive for all the new music!  Is that our age or the fact that the PC is 6 years old?!!  When I checked, the PC only had 144GB altogether which is nothing these days.

Anyway I have now loaded 14,558 songs so far (not including the duplicates that I have deleted) and if I started playing them now I could listen to new songs for the next 40.7 days it says!  I definitely have to keep going until I have finished importing them all, otherwise I will never know how far I got and would probably never finish them.

Importing CD’s to the Computer

In an effort at de-cluttering we decided that we needed to copy a load of CD’s to the computer so that we could gain some space.  We have well over a thousand CD’s we reckoned and they are taking up wall space and room space.

Well I say “we” but it is really “me” as I am the collector and although hubby is a music fan, he would rather play music (he is a guitarist) than buy a CD.

I have always been well into my music, as you can tell, and have always collected music for as long as I can remember.  I still have loads of immaculate albums in the loft as I used to keep them in not only their original covers but also in clear plastic covers too. 

I also have loads of single records in their original sleeves as well, although with the names of the artist and the song written on them (A and B sides) as I was always an organiser and it made it easier to find them with the names in the top right corner. 

We have 3 bookcases type storage systems and 4 twirly storage systems so they take up an awful lot of space which we could do with retrieving.

Not only that, but it is much harder to decide what you want to play when you have to go searching through so many choices, so you tend to end up putting the same ones on for a while as they are nearby and to hand.

We keep them in genre order but also in alphabetical so each storage area tends to have its own genre collection but we still tend to only play something from the storage area where we are (upstairs or downstairs).

We did have some CD’s already on the computer in Windows Media Player so they are more easily accessible when we are on the computer (or should I say when I am on the computer) as hubby uses his laptop, but only about 50 CD’s. 

But the time had come to do something about my huge collection, so we decided to upload them to the computer, even though it was going to take days or weeks.

Now, I had been collecting points which had given me £95 in vouchers so I thought it would be a good idea to invest in an iPod so that we could play the music whenever and wherever we want.  So we decided to put the music on iTunes rather than the Windows Media Player.

I checked out all the different iPods and decided it would have to be the Classic 160GB one with room for 40,000 songs as nothing else could possible accommodate all my music.  I just hope this is big enough, but there isn’t a bigger one.

So before the iPod even arrives we are going to be kept busy loading lots and lots of CD’s to the computer.  I will let you know how I get on.

Droopy Eyelids

You know how you have never noticed something until someone points it out to you – and then it stands out like a sore thumb from then on - well that was me a little while ago.  

I had a reminder again on my last visit to the optician.  I had put it off for a few years but now I needed to really look at it and address the issue. 

I just hadn’t noticed over the years but my eyelids, my right one especially, were getting lower over my eyes.  When you see yourself in the mirror daily you just don’t notice these things but she asked me to look through some old photos to see what my eyes used to look like compared to now. 

Well that was quite hard because I am not very photogenic and hate having my photo taken, plus we are not the type of people who take many photos of anything at all, so the only photos really were holiday photos or the odd Christmas one.  

Holiday photos were mainly useless as I was wearing sunglasses or squinting with the bright sunshine.  But I did find some old ones to compare and no my eyelids didn’t used to be so low.

What came as the big jolt though is when she asked me if people kept saying I looked tired or sleepy!  

I can honestly say that it had only happened a few times (when I have actually been tired) but then most people are too polite to say and even friends just think you really are tired (because apparently it gets worse later in the day).  

Also I suppose friends see me so often that they wouldn’t have noticed the gradual change either. 

So I suddenly realised that people may think I am being a bit rude and not listening to them properly, or bored, when really I am feeling perfectly normal.  I don’t want to appear half asleep in conversations as if I am bored. 

So now every time I look in the mirror I do realise how far down the eyelid does come down over my pupil and does seem droopy.

How had I not noticed it all these years?  Mainly I suppose because I only really look at my eyes to put make-up on so that is what I am concentrating on rather than where the lid is on my eye. 

I do know I blink a lot more than a lot of people – I have noticed that.  Not that it is relevant, apart from the fact that I thought the pain of blinking after the operation will be more often!

Anyway my optician has recommended this eyelid surgery – not the top bit where older people get saggy lids but the part of the eyelid below the crease (where the eyeshadow normally goes).  

I haven’t got particularly big eyelids anyway so I am sure that by the time they shorten the muscles the upper part of my eyelid above the crease will be resting on my eyelashes! 

Although I don’t have baggy eyelids top or bottom (or thankfully wrinkles yet apart from a few laughter lines round my eyes and mouth when I smile) but I am concerned that I don’t want that startled look that people who have the baggy  top upper eyelid surgery sometimes end up with.

I have to see the consultant on Friday to see what he says this time.  I saw him three years ago and he was willing to do the surgery then but said it was 50/50 whether I really needed it so I could either have it done then or wait for a few years as it was just 50% over my pupil.  I didn’t fancy the surgery as it wasn’t actually necessary as a medical problem, just an eyesight improvement, so I waited.  

Well it seems that the few years has got to the point that I ought to have it done as it is now more than 50% over my pupil and is apparently affecting my vision as far as the light going into my pupil is concerned.

So I shall see what he says on Friday and if he thinks I ought to have it done then I guess I will have to, as it will be best for my eyesight.  I am not looking forward to it though!

Insomnia?

I only had four hours sleep last night and then woke up as I felt "so wired" - twitchy all over. I couldn't go back to sleep and lay there for nearly an hour before giving in and getting up.   This has happened three times in the last 10 days.

For hours after I gave up and had got up I was still "wired and twitchy" and kept yawning as if it was 4 a.m. and I needed to go to bed.  But it has passed and I’m ok now.

I don't know where the time has disappeared today.  Ok I did have a nap to make up for my 4 hours sleep last night but I guess I just must have been slow at doing everything due to my tiredness. 

My nap didn't work out too well as I stupidly didn't put the dogs in the kitchen so they joined me on the bed.   But as the curtains were open it meant they could see things over the fields outside the bedroom window.  

So by the time they had settled down and stopped yapping at birds etc. I had just started to doze when the doorbell rang!  It was a delivery man with a parcel.

Back I go to bed to lay down again and the whole shannagans started again with one of the cats as well this time (not yapping though obviously) until I finally fell asleep. 

Only to be woken this time by an “invisible” person at the door - the doorbell rang, the dogs yapped, I went down and there was no-one there!  

I gave up then and decided to get up again.  Several cups of coffee throughout the day have kept me going but I just don’t seem to have had any extra time considering what time I got up!   

   

Easter Weather

We are having the usual horrible bank holiday weather in England again so any planned outdoor Easter events will not go well.  It is tipping with rain and has been all day today (Easter Monday) so lots of events will be rained off completely.

Last week we had glorious sunshine and record breaking temperatures.  It always makes me laugh when we suddenly have a warm spell as you get a lot of people suddenly dressing as if it were mid summer even though they have pasty white legs and arms.  Out come the shorts and skimpy tops and off come the men’s shirts.  Then of course you also get the ones who go to the tanning centres and have a dark tan all year round – so the moment the sun comes out they have to show off their tan and you see these middle-aged “teeny-boppers” in denim knickers, a denim bra and 5” high heels.  LOL – and that’s just the men!

I know we don’t have too much of a chance to wear summer clothes in England but it is a bit drastic to go so skimpy at the end of March / beginning of April as it can just as quickly get cloudy and be really cold again within a few hours.  Even though it was sunny for those few days the evenings were still so chilly that we had to have the central heating on.   

A lot of our friends go to dance festivals at Bank Holidays and nearly every Easter we are so pleased that we aren’t stuck in a cold caravan too.  Even August Bank Holidays seem to have been really cold for the last few years.   No, I am really pleased to be snug and warm at home this wet and windy weekend.