Photo: SkinRocks |
THE SAVVY SHOPPER
Life ... curated and with purpose. First a dreamer, then a realist!
Tuesday, March 25, 2025
Faces Love Ultra Violette Sunscreen
Monday, March 24, 2025
Rosec Jewelry For Customized Handmade Fine Jewelry
There are several reasons to consider Rosec Jewelry. The company specializes in homemade fine jewelry including certified diamonds, sapphires, rubies, emeralds, pearls, and semi-precious gemstones at not cheap but affordable prices. Their skilled artisans have been jewelers for 15+ years and they only work with hallmarked gold, 925 sterling silver, and certified and ethically sourced gemstones.
Friday, March 21, 2025
A Milk Cake
A recipe on Facebook that found me is from the page, N'oven Foods. Called a Milk Cake, it's very similar to a Buttermilk Cake. Both are sponge cakes. I'm posting the recipe because I think it solves the problem of too much cake without enough visitors to eat it!
Milk Cake by N'oven
Wednesday, March 19, 2025
Half Day's Garment Duffel Bag
Half Day's Garment Duffel Bag is a game changer! It's the most versatile travel bag we didn't know we needed. The duffel is durable, water-resistant, and lightweight, yet it hangs a business suit, dresses, and shirts wrinkle-free while also carrying shoes, folded clothes, and accessories. There is lots of room and pockets to separate a wardrobe for travel! After you get to your destination, you can unfold the bag and hang the whole bag up on a closet or shower rod if you wish. (After the bedbug invasion of 2010, I'd suggest not using hotel closets.)
Only having discovered the bag, I'm unaware of how to score a discount on Half Day's full retail price of $108 or $168. A search doesn't pull up any department stores that sell it. Major department stores always have promotion days, yet it isn't listed on Macy's, Nordstrom's, Bloomingdale, Saks, or Dillard's websites.
Monday, March 17, 2025
Commence By Brooke Shields
Let's take a closer look at each one:
The 2-in-1 Instant Shampoo - Cleans and balances dry hair, adds volume and leaves the hair more squeaky clean, lifted, and full. Cost: $21 for .75oz/21 g.
The 3-in-1 Leave-in Conditioner - Hydrates, tames frizz, adds shine, and contains ingredients like alfalfa extract and quinoa peptics to protect hair from the heat of blow dryers, straighteners, and curling irons. It is a lightweight formula that supports hair growth and thickens hair strands. Cost: 26 for 5 Fl oz/150 ml
The Root Serum - Is designed to nourish and support the scalp microbiome. It calms, hydrates, and strengthens hair from its roots to its ends. The result is softer, smoother, and stronger hair. Cost: $30 4 fl oz/ 120 ml.
While testers are pleased with how the products improve the texture of their hair, the products are costly! You could probably splurge to try them, but you must decide how much you can afford to continue using them. Ask what sum you are comfortable spending on your hair over the course of a year. The Commence haircare line adds up to a pretty penny!
I won't lie, I'll spend more on skin products than hair products. Over time, I've found budget-friendly drugstore brands to match expensive luxury brands, and T.J. Maxx stocks amazing shampoos and conditioners containing botanicals. Enter T.J. Maxx in the blog's search box to read about some of those.
Friday, March 14, 2025
6 Canned Produce I Like
But guess what? There are canned foods I don't mind or like better than their fresh, or refrigerated, or frozen versions. I'll list 6 of them below.
6 Canned Produce I Like:
2) Refried beans - I see little difference in taste or texture between canned beans and dried beans you soak and tenderize yourself. With refried beans, I like the convenience, and unless you cooked a huge amount, the extra cost of buying them canned is minor. For soups or sometimes chili, I will use either canned or dried beans depending on how much I'm making.
3) Pumpkin, puree - Who in their right mind would unseed, clean, cook, and scrape the flesh out of a fresh pumpkin to use in a dish? Oh, the many steps and mess!😳4) Tomatoes, whole plum, diced, or crushed for cooking - Cheap and you have the same consistency every time when making sauces.
Wednesday, March 12, 2025
Mainstays Is Walmart's Private Label
Monday, March 10, 2025
Dry Food Storage Containers & Cookie Jars
THE SAVVY SHOPPER loves to write about jewelry, luxury bags and the occasional fad, but it's the less costly, less sexy (to borrow a financial writer's term) things we buy every day that can raze through our paychecks!
If you need dry food containers or cookie jars, you don't always have to buy them. You can easily repurpose the containers from some of the food items you buy. Occasionally I buy tomato sauce that is sold in a Mason jar. Repurposing it is one less Mason jar, I have to buy. As it turns out, I already use Mason jars to store my rice, dried pasta, cornmeal, oatmeal, and ground flax seeds. They work very well to keep bugs out and the grains and ground seeds fresh! I also like the transparency of seeing the contents to know what to grab.
Glass jars with screw-on lids are my preferred dry food storage containers, but lately I repurpose Premier Protein Powder plastic cylinders to hold 4 pounds of white sugar, 2 pounds of dark brown sugar, bags of chocolate chips, bars of baking chocolate, and 64 ounces of dried powdered milk. I'm a buy-in-large-sizes to forget about it for a while type of gal! Like Mason jars, these much bigger plastic cylinders with screw-on lids keep my food items fresh and free of pests that crawl into dry food boxes. I like the ease of unscrewing the tops and scooping out the dried food when cooking or baking. Larger with a bigger opening and lighter than glass, the plastic containers are easy to lift from my cupboard.
Thursday, March 6, 2025
Splurge Like A Savvy Shopper
So Savvy Shoppers who earn regular salaries, do we forget about a splurge? Heck, no ... if you can afford to treat yourself, you should every once in awhile! However, as a Savvy Shopper you should search for a ring that has a similar effect within your personal budget. Use the out-of-your-budget temptation as inspiration!
Be flexible and willing to compromise to find something similar that you can afford. Many people who don't wish to go into debt wouldn't pay $32,000 for a single piece of jewelry just because they have the money in the bank. Ask if this ring is worth 32,000 smackers leaving your bank account? Proof!