View Again

Otherwise known as Re-View.  Get it, review?  GET IT?  Hahaha…ha…ha.  Moving on.

Tip Of The Day:  Three reviews, to enhance your consumer knowledge.  That is, if you’re in the market for a hair care product, skin cream, and frozen brown rice.  SURE YOU ARE.  Also?  The World Premier of my latest exciting frugal and fabulous goal.  Hint – reaching this goal idea will result in maximum Cheap Chick embarrassment, plus Oprah Winfrey.  What a winning combination of awesomeness!

Tip For The Weekend:  As it’s All Hallow’s Eve tomorrow, I recommend eating tiny candy bars and watching scary movies.  Preferably whilst dressed in some form of costume.  Yes, sitting around your own house dressed as a mummy or ghost is perfectly normal behavior.  At least, it should be.

Further Elucidation Of My Cheap Deal:  Today, I’m reviewing these three items –

Sorry about the craptacular picture, I haven’t taken a photography class since 1988.  Let me share what’s in that photo – Garnier Fructis Style Curl Sculpting Cream-Gel, Neutrogena Tone Correcting Moisture, and Birds Eye Steamfresh Brown Rice.  (NOTE: each product has about 5 or 6 more words in their names, but I shortened them in an effort to move this post along.  Also?  Because no product anywhere needs an eleven-plus-word title.)

Curl Sculpting Cream-Gel.  I’ve written a review of this hair care product before, I know.  But it bears repeating that the Cream-Gel works wonders as a light-weight styling product.  I rub about 15 cents worth (a dime and a half-sized blob) into my wet hair and then blow it straight and dry, and in record time.

The C-G holds my style all day, keeps it smooth and de-frizzed, and provides enough “slip” when I’m drying my hair to keep it tangle-free.  It smells good, dries quickly, never feels tacky or sticky once dry, and costs under $4 at Target.  Two thumbs up.

Tone Correcting Moisture.  This is a revamp of the moisturizer with Retinol and SPF 30 that I bought from Neutrogena last spring.  It’s now got added skin correctors – Stabilized Vitamin C – and comes packaged in a glass bottle with a pump top.  However, the price tag is still the same – around $19 after tax.  It’s worth noting that Neutrogena skin care is often on sale at either Target or Walgreens.

Over-the-counter Retinols will work as good as their prescription counter-parts, without being as harsh or stinging.  You do need to use them consistently to see results, but dermatologists round the globe agree – Retinols rock.  They help smooth wrinkles and even skin tone.  So if your fall complexion is lacking luster, try this product today.  I have definitely seen an improvement in my skin in the 3 weeks I’ve been using it.

Brown Rice.  If you want a fast side dish that tastes great, cooks in 3 minutes, pairs well with pretty much anything, and is inoffensive to small children, frozen brown rice is your new best friend.  The Birds Eye product is often on sale at Target for $1.79 a bag (actually, I think it’s on sale RIGHT NOW), and lasts a life-time in your freezer.

Granted, it’s much more frugal to by uncooked rice, cook the entire bag, and freeze it in 1 cup batches.  Which I often do.  However, my grocery store stopped carrying the brand of brown rice I usually buy, and this frozen kind is the only stuff that comes close to the texture I prefer – nonsticky, firm and separate.  So I buy it as a treat when it’s on sale.  Don’t judge me.

And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for – at least, since the beginning of the post when I announced it – the latest and greatest Goal For The Cheap Chick Empire.  I present to you,

Operation Oprah:

When I began this frugal living web site back in September 2007, I had two goals in mind.  One, spend $20 or less on every single purchase I made for one full year.  And two, get on the Oprah Winfrey Show.

Why?  Obviously the first reason was-and-still-is because Oprah is awesome.  The other reason was not so pro-O.  At the time, Oprah was still living in denial about our world economy.  We were all on a downward spiral into a mini-Depression, and she was advising us to grow organic food on our 50 acre farms like she did.  Or buy one of her thousand dollar “favorite things.”  Or how cashmere was the one true fabric everyone should have in their closets.

Since the dawn of 09, Oprah has gotten with the frugal program and often has guests on to talk about how they live nifty and thrifty.  I want to be one of those guests.

Why I Should Be On Oprah:

1.  I’ve been writing about frugal living, talking about frugal living, filming segments about frugal living – in short, DEDICATING MY LIFE to frugal living for the past 2 years.  Furthermore, I was cheap long before I started my frugal media empire.

2.  I’d like to share my two main philosophies on frugal living.  One, you don’t have to suffer to save money.  You can still have fun, dress cute and eat well for less.  And two, in order to save money, you have to spend time.  Remember it’s not easy to be cheap, but it is fabulous.

3.  I want to represent my adopted home state, Minnesota.  Minnesotans have been keeping it real-n-thrifty for YEARS – long before the rest of the US jumped on the frugal living bandwagon.  Think of how many times you’ve heard a Minnesotan (or other Midwesterner) say, “Yeah, I got this on sale 50% off, and I had a coupon, too.”  We brag about what we save, not what we spend.

My Promise To You:

I can’t get on Oprah alone.  I’ve tried emailing the show, but I’ve heard nothing back from her or her people (why won’t she love me?).  That’s why I need your help.  I’m begging politely asking you and everyone you know to email Oprah and tell her The Cheap Chick from the Twin Cities should be on her show.

But what’s in it for you?  Besides knowing a guest on Oprah (which won’t even get you a free cup of coffee in this joint)?  How about the chance to watch me embarrass myself on Fox 9’s Morning Buzz?  Would that be worth your while?

I promise I will perform the Richfield Senior High School Tapaire’s Danceline dance for the Spartan Fight Song, in my dance uniform, with pom-poms, on the Morning Buzz – if you guys help me get on Oprah.  I’ll even sing along to the Fight Song while I dance.  Don’t pass up the chance to see me dressed up like a cheerleader from Hell on local TV news.

How To Play Along:

Click on this link, https://www.oprah.com/ord/plugform.jsp?plugId=216, fill out the form, and tell Oprah you’d like to see The Cheap Chick on her show.  Then, wait a few days and do it again.  Lather, rinse, repeat.  The idea is, if enough people tell her enough times I should be on her show, maybe she’ll listen.  It takes a village, folks.

Remember, if I get on Oprah, I WILL embarrass myself on TV.  That’s my promise to you, the constant reader.  Thank you for your support, and let Operation Oprah commence.

Talk Amongst Yourselves – do you think this is a good idea?  That it could actually work?  Or do you have a better plan?  Share your thoughts in the Comments below.