my fashion on a budget

One of my goals after graduating from college and joining the workforce and the real world is to dress a little better and to look more put together.  I’ve realized that it’s become harder to look good on a regular basis. I never really had a defined style in high school, and college life quickly became jeans, t-shirts, and sweatshirts, because they were the quickest clothing choice after I hit snooze one (or ten) too many times. So, it’s no surprise that when I don’t have to look decent, I grab jeans, a t-shirt, and tennis shoes.

I work as an IT professional in a corporate office, and I should mention, it is allowed (and highly accepted) for me to wear jeans to work. I can wear jeans and tennis shoes if I want. I’ve even seen people at my job wear jeans and t-shirts! It would make me very uncomfortable to wear t-shirts to work, but you can understand how relaxed the atmosphere is as far as dress goes! 

Being on a budget makes it really hard to shop like I used to. I’ve always been a frugal shopper, but being on a strict budget is much harder! I'm working on Alex to get him to allow me a 'slush' fund that I can spend on whatever I want, and you'd better believe it will be clothes! He's wearing down...slowly. Until then, I'll have to resort to finding ways to more creative ways to wear the clothes that are already in my closet!

colored tips manicure - no purchase necessary!

I did this manicure yesterday, using a grayish/blue nail polish as the base and dark purple for the tips. They were both nail polishes that I already owned, so no hit to the budget here! My husband would be proud, not that he noticed on his own that my nails were even painted differently!


I was experimenting with how color on color would look on my nails, and I think it turned out pretty good! I painted my nails with a couple coats of the ‘gunmetal’ nail polish a couple days ago, so it would have plenty of time to be nice and hard. 

Then yesterday, I put manicure stickers (you know, the ones you get with the French manicure sets, they come in straight across and curved), the straight across kind, on the nails and painted the tips purple. (Yep, I already had the stickers too!) I let them dry and finished up with a clear top coat. It’s a little bold, but I’m really liking it!

my foundation on a budget

I discovered this foundation awhile back online, and decided to try it. It’s one of the best foundations I’ve ever used. It's called Mineral Powder by Maybelline.

It’s colored the same as Maybelline’s other foundations, so if you know what color you wear in that brand it’s easier to order online. I wear classic ivory in their other foundations (I've tried a couple, packed power, cream, etc). 

It is kind of like Bare Minerals foundation, but not as high quality, but also not as expensive. I get it on ulta.com, usually when it is on sale buy one get one free. The foundation is usually $9 - $10, so with the buy one get one half off you get two for about $15. All in all not a bad deal! 

What do you think? Does anyone else use this foundation?

starting point

A quick intro to me – my name is Sara and I live in Colorado with my husband, Alex. We got married last August (7 months!) and since then we’ve been working to cut our costs and live on a pretty tight budget. 
I work full time, and Alex bought a business when he moved to Colorado with me. Since it’s still getting started, for the time being we’re pretty much a one income family.

Alex is really into the budget, and is adamant about sticking to it. We keep receipts, deduct from our allotted budgets when we spend money, and So, I’ve gotten pretty creative about saving money and spending less in general.

This blog will be about how far we’ve come on our financial goals, our journey as we continue, and how I deal with being on a budget and still quench my shopping cravings!