There is no Such Thing as a Free Lunch...

…but there is such a thing as a free haircut.

At the beginning of August, my wife saw an advertisement on TV about JCPenny giving free haircut to kids in 6th grade or lower throughout the month of August. I must say that I was skeptical. There are tons of kids out there that fall into that category and I am sure most of them usually get haircuts at the beginning of school at their parent’s request. There must be a catch. There is always a catch.

Well, my wife finally made the appointments for their cuts and we stopped by the school, picked up the kids early and off we went. When we got there, I soon realized why they were giving away free haircuts. The place was like a ghost town. There were at least five hair dressers in their salon and none of them were busy.

They assigned one hair dresser to all four of my kids. She did an OK job on each. My two boys just got their hair buzzed but she took a longer time with them than with my two girls who just got a trim.

Anyway, after all was said and done, our bill was $0.00. Yep. A free lunch. Or in this case, free haircuts. That was great. Can’t beat free unless they had paid us to cut my kids’ hair (like that would ever happen). I started out with t he kids and my wife got the receipt and we all loaded back in the van and were on our merry way.

My wife said how cool it was that we got all four of our kids hair cut for only $20….and there it was. Yep. Nothing is free. Not even a free haircut. She paid the woman $20 as a tip. She probably should have paid a bigger tip, but that is all we had. The reason we were getting free cuts in the first place. Money is almost extinct around our house these days. We still thought it was a good deal.

Haircut Day

This past Saturday was haircut day. It was a long time coming. It was just one of those things that kept getting put off until it couldn't anymore. By this time, my two sons and I were in desperate need of a good trimming. We looked like we had porcupines on our heads. As usual, my sons tried to avoid getting their hair cut like we were trying to get them to eat canned spinach. Maybe that's just my kids that exhibit this behavior every time they get their hair cut, I don't know. I am hoping that as they get older, they will become more enthusiastic about it. They act like it is painful and humiliating.

My wife has been cutting our hair for a number of years now. It came about while trying to save money. The price of clippers was about the same as one visit to the barber for me and my two boys and the clippers could be used many times. I usually had the barber just shave our heads anyway. It seemed a good financial decision. Also, it is not that difficult to shave someone's head.

By having my wife perform this task, it has saved us a lot of money and time waiting for our turn at the chair. Granted we don't get stylish cuts, but it is better than looking like a porcupine head. As with getting any haircut though, we have to take showers after to get all the itchy cut hair off. An inconvenient for sure, but the savings is worth it and it can be done in the comfort of our own home, or as we often do to make clean up easier, the front or back porch.