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.

Obama's Insult (cross posted from my livecheapordie.wordpress.com/)

Yesterday, I took our aging mini-van to a private mechanic to get an estimate on how much it would cost to fix the brakes. After he test drove it, he gave us the bad news.

Yes, he could fix it, but the brakes were not the top priority. Catastrophic failure was imminent. In addition to the brakes being shot, one of the shafts in the front is about ready to give way and an engine fire is in the near future due to a severe oil leak from the valve covers.

The total price for repairing these problems was $700. There are other major problems also but he wouldn’t discuss them until these other ones were taken care of.

My wife and I decided that we would not put any more money into this van which is on the verge of hitting 200,000 miles, but use that money towards a replacement.

But, with the money we do have, it is almost impossible to get a replacement that doesn’t have the same types of problems. We definitely can’t afford a new vehicle, and a good used one is also above our financial ability.

Obama suggested to someone that to combat the high price of gas, they purchase a more fuel efficient vehicle, specifically a hybrid.

First of all, they don’t make a fuel efficient vehicle that can sit seven people comfortably, let alone a hybrid, which are not fuel efficient and pieces of crap anyway.

So, since we can’t afford either as he suggested, I think the federal government should take money from rich people so that we can get a newer car and are helping to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and global warming.

Also, we can’t afford a new energy efficient flat screen TV so the rich should also give us money for one also (a 52 inch with built in 3D would be nice). Reducing our energy use and global warming in imperative. Rich people should be glad to help out.