Putting Together a Budget: Part I

Salam 3alaikum sisters,

I had a request to show how I put together the budget for our house. A budget is definitely an ongoing process and needs to be adjusted each month. This first post is going to cover how I first developed the budget.

Step 1: I bought a ledger book to keep track of our finances. I bout the one called "columnar pad" from Wal-Mart. It is not available online but you should be able to find something similar in most stores that carry office supplies.

Step 2: Write down how much I THINK we spend on each category. My categories included:

• Rent: monthly for our apartment 
• Electric: our only utility payment, but you may also have water and gas 
• Comcast: internet bill
• Insurance: car insurance is required
• Phone: our cell phone bill
• Car Gas: gasoline, monthly average, you may have a car payment as well
• Food: include groceries and eating out, I keep note of restaurant amount as well
• Fun: like travel, movies, etc
• Netflix: monthly fee
• Gym: monthly fee
• Clothes: new clothes budget
• Laundry: detergent, dryer sheets, and coins for machine
• Heath and Beauty: medicines, make up, shampoo, conditioner, etc.
• House Items: organizational, decorative
• Savings: we are trying to save a certain amount each month

I put the name of the category in the first column then the amount I thought we would spend in the second column. You may have more or less categories than this.

Step 3: Track actual spending for a month. I keep all of our receipts together and every few days I update out budget. I separate each receipt into categories and keep a running total for each category. At the end of the week I check the bank statement online to make sure I didn't miss any receipts.

At the end of the month I will toss out all the receipts except those that I might need for warranty or return purposes. 

Step 4: At the end of the month, add up all your spending totals and compare to the predictions at the beginning of the month. This will give you a better idea of how you are actually spending your money versus how you think you are spending it. For example, we estimated the first month that we would spend $300 on food and we actually spent closer to $400. That is a big difference... 

Step 5: Use your actual spending to estimate your next months budget. Where can you add and where can you take away? For example the next month we set our food budget at $350 and made an effort to eat out less often. 

Note: Don't forget to add one time expenses into your monthly budget. For example you may know that this month you will need to change the car oil, maybe your husband needs a new pair of dress shoes, or you need to pay your zakat. Go ahead and add that into the budget at the beginning of the month so you can be prepared for the expense.

In part two, inshaAllah I will talk about some other budget options that may work better different situations.

Affordable Beauty Tips #2

Salam 3alaikum sisters,

This is a continuation of my "Affordable Beauty Tips"!
There are many ways to make what you already have in your bathroom work for you in many ways to help stretch out the life of your beauty products. Its all about the multi-taskers!!

Beauty in the Bathroom!

No More Tears Baby Shampoo: Great for removing make up and cleaning make up brushes. You can keep a small bottle with a few drops of shampoo mixed with water to use as a make up remover and brush cleanser.

Tinted Moisturizer: Mix your favorite moisturizer and foundation to make a lighter feeling "tinted moisturizer" and stretch your bottle of foundation! I use this one from St Ives that you can get pretty cheap at walmart. The tub lasts forever and is really light. I can reapply every time I make wudhu without feeling too greasy. It is made for reducing wrinkles, which to me is totally off the point since I just like the weight of it, but I guess an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure inshaAllah!

Left Over Lipsticks: That small amount of lipstick in the bottom of the tube can be gently melted in the microwave and added to moisturizer to make a cream blush. You can also use lipstick and gloss leftovers as a light cheek stain in a pinch. Also you can try mixing colors if you get tired of a certain lipstick color. Mixing with vaseline will make a less intense color as well.

Vaseline: Vaseline has so many uses I might be able to make a whole post about it... I especially like the new vaseline with cocoa butter. Use it to protect eyelashes at night, as a cuticle cream, on rough skin patches, as chap stick or gloss, mix with eye shadow to make a cream eyeliner and apply with an angled brush, vaseline and kool-aid make flavored lip gloss, use to tame eyebrows, apply to cracked feet and wrap with plastic wrap them put on socks over night.

Conditioner: I use one conditioner (Suave Naturals, Tropical Coconut) to cleanse my scalp (instead of shampoo) and as a shaving cream. You can get a huge bottle for just a couple of dollars at walmart! I like this one because it doesn't have any silicones in it that require a harsh shampoo to wash out, plus it smells great.

Affordable Beauty Tips

Salam 3alaikum sisters!

As a newly married lady, I am always on the hunt for affordable beauty tips and tricks. I thought I should share the wealth! I'm hoping this will be an ongoing project inshaAllah.

Beauty in the Kitchen!

Sugar: Mix granulated sugar with your favorite body oil or honey and exfoliate. Add used coffee grounds for a great smell and caffeine that helps firm skin!

Corn Starch and Cocoa Powder: Mix a small amount of cocoa powder with corn starch to make a cheap "setting powder" that reduces shine and is SUPER cheap! You can adjust the amount of cocoa powder to match your skin tone. You could make a slightly darker version to use as a bronzer, and try adding cinnamon for a little more "rosy" hue. Be careful to apply sparingly so as not to dry out your face too much.

Rose Water: Dilute some rose water with a few spoons of water to make a great facial toner. Its affordable, natural, and smells great! Keep only a few ounces mixed at a time in a tightly closed bottle to keep it fresh.

Olive Oil, Coconut Oil: Great skin and hair moisturizers and great for use on dry cuticles and cracked feet! And its something you probably already have in your house. I also sometimes use olive oil to remove waterproof makeup.

DiY Blush: Mix a couple drops of red food coloring into a couple spoons of water. Add baby powder or corn starch until it makes a powdery paste. Add more or less food coloring to adjust the color. The color of the wet paste will be darker than the dry paste, so don't freak out! Press the paste into an old clean empty blush compact.

InshaAllah the next installment will be coming up soon!

How to: Sugaring/Halawa!

Salam 3alaikum sisters,

Sorry this was a long time coming. I wanted to post photos of myself sugaring a hand or something, but then figured that there were men reading this blog... (SHAME ON YOU GUYS, THIS IS A LADY'S ONLY SPACE!!!)

I didn't want to leave you all hanging so I found a youtube video that does it similar to the way I do it, plus shows how to sugar with cloths (kind of like regular waxing).




I didn't actually listen to the sound on this one yet since I picked it while my husband was sleeping lol.

But some tips from me:

• this wax looks much more soft/liquid/sticky than what I usually use. That's ok though as long as it still pulls off your skin.
• if the sugar is too hard to easily pull out of the container you put it in, let it sit in a sink of hot water until it is pliable and easy to remove from the container
• if your hair is a little long, trim it down to about 1/4 of an inch, which will help the halawa hold stronger
• if you are afraid the sugar is too sticky and will pull your skin (which seriously, it almost never does) you can put a light dusting of baby powder or talcum before you apply
• this lady picks up her hand as she smooths on the sugar, but I never do that. I slowly press up against the hair grow in one long sweep, making sure it is a pretty thin and even application, then pull down with the hair growth, the sugar never leaves my hand the entire time
• keep the skin pulled tight, it reduces the pain and seems to help the hair adhere to the sugar better
• if it becomes difficult to control, stop and make a ball with your hands then start again. 
• unlike wax, you can go over a place you have already waxed more than once if some hairs are missed. I probably wouldn't do it more than 3 or 4 times though, just to avoid stressing your skin out
• if you miss a few stray hairs, don't worry you can just pull them with tweezers later
• I usually use the same blob of sugar for an entire leg
• if you are going to sugar sensitive areas (face or bikini area) I suggest using a small amount of sugar and working in small sections.

Using Cloth Strips:

• heat the sugar the way you would wax, make sure it isn't too hot!!!
• you can use cut up denim for this, i heard it works really well, just wash it really good in very hot water before you use it for this
• you can use the same cloth strip more than one time, and use it to pick up missed hairs
• I think this is probably a good method to use the sugar that cooked a little bit too long, but I never tried this before so don't hold my word to it

After: 

• wash off any sticky stuff left with water (cool or lukewarm water is better)
• if you are prone to ingrown hairs, it is a good idea to put an antiseptic after you sugar like witch hazel or something made for waxing
• moisturize moisturize moisturize. I usually apply a thick layer of extra virgin olive oil. I would suggest using an unscented moisturizer for the first 24 hours to avoid irritation
• many sites i read said to avoid hot water on the skin for the first 24 hours as well. 

Question:

Do any of you ladies wax or sugar under your arms? I am terrified to try it lol, but I get tired of shaving. Also if I recall correctly it is sunnah to pluck those hairs out.

Hair Removal: Halawa

Salam 3alaikum ya banaat!

One thing I had to be much more diligent about when I got married was hair removal. Because of my skin type/condition hair removal is very difficult, tedious and often painful. I am very prone to razor burn and ingrown hairs because of all that extra keratin my skin/follicles are producing.

The best method I have found for hair removal is halawa. Some people might know it as "sugaring." (halawa just means something sweet)

Because finding anything useful in my hometown is incredibly difficult, I had to learn how to make halawa in my own house. It takes some time but you can make a big batch and put it in little plastic tupperwares to keep it fresh. If you live somewhere hot it might be better to keep it inside the fridge so it will last longer, but generally I keep mine in a airtight container in the cabinet (not in the bathroom... it gets too hot in there).

So the method for making halawa is like this:
(this is for one batch, you could very easily double or triple it if you like, it wont make any big difference)

1. put 1 cup sugar, 1 cup water, juice from 1/2 lemon into a small saucepan
2. simmer on low heat until the sugar has started to caramelize, turning a nice dark amber color.
3. stir every 5 to 10 minutes, this size batch usually takes me about 30 minutes. larger batches might take longer to finish cooking.
4. be careful not to let it go too long.... if you cook it too long it turns into hard candy lol
5. let it cool a little in the pan, then distribute into containers. if i make a double batch i like to use several small containers which i use to delicate areas like face and bikini area and a couple bigger containers to use for larger areas like my legs.
6. when you want to use it, like it sit in some warm water for a little while so that it will loosen up from the sides a  little and come out easier. otherwise you will have to wrestle with it to get it off the plastic.

note: if you find after it has cooled that the sugar won't form a soft ball because it is too sticky, you can just put it back in the pan and cook it a little longer. there isn't a good way to save it if you cook it too long, but you could always eat it like candy :-P it actually has a nice and interesting flavor!

The color should come out something like the picture on the right inshaAllah. It looks a little goopy in the picture since it is still a little warm.

InshaAllah I will put together another post on how to use it!

How To: My Basic Hijab Style

Salam 3alaikum ya banaat,

I wanted to share my hijab style with you but I am againt posting pictures on the internet so I thought about it and decided to draw a picture instead.

This style is great for getting some chest coverage out of a scarf that isn't quite as wide. Also you can tuck the short end into the back of your shirt/3abaya/jacket in order to get wind-proof neck coverage.

Need: one rectangular scarf, one straight pin

Step 1) place scarf over head with one short side and one long side
Step 2) begin wrapping long side toward short side under chin (if you want you can do a fold over your ears and pin it under your chin if you want it to be more secure)
Step 3) wrap over your head, you will still have some hanging on the long side. You can leave it this way if you like, which I do sometimes when its warmer outside.
Step 4) grab the extra length a couple inches from the end of the scarf and begin moving it under your chin like the first loop
Step 5) pin scarf above ear or at the side of your head, you may have to lower or raise the part you want to pin to make sure the front is even
DONE

I drew the scarf with tassels so you can iidentify where the end of the scarf is, but you can use any long rectangular scarf inshaAllah. It works better with materials that aren't slippery unless you want to use a thousand extra pins.