{"id":127,"date":"2020-11-23T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-23T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/high-maintenance-is-expensive-how-i-went-from-a-320mo-girly-budget-to-a-negligible-one\/"},"modified":"2025-08-29T16:23:39","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T16:23:39","slug":"high-maintenance-is-expensive-how-i-went-from-a-320mo-girly-budget-to-a-negligible-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/high-maintenance-is-expensive-how-i-went-from-a-320mo-girly-budget-to-a-negligible-one\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cHigh-Maintenance\u201d is Expensive: How I Cut $320\/mo. in \u201cGirly\u201d Expenses"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"sqs-html-content\" data-sqsp-text-block-content>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\"><strong>2025 Update<\/strong>: This 2021 blog post was the original inspiration that became <a href=\"https:\/\/www.moneywithkatie.com\/rich-girl-nation\" target=\"_blank\">the first chapter of my book <em>Rich Girl Nation<\/em><\/a>, all about the Hot Girl Hamster Wheel. Enjoy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/image-asset-2-scaled.webp\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<div class=\"sqs-html-content\" data-sqsp-text-block-content>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">This is one of those articles that feels like it requires a disclaimer, but I\u2019m trying to get away from explaining away my opinions, so I\u2019d encourage you to take this as one individual\u2019s perspective on a purely financial basis and not a personal attack on your spending habits. (Strong start, right?)<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">That said: Being a woman is expensive. There\u2019s nothing inherently good or bad about being \u201call natural\u201d or \u201call made up,\u201d but one certainly costs more.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">I don\u2019t even just mean the \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.healthline.com\/health\/the-real-cost-of-pink-tax\" target=\"_blank\">pink tax<\/a>\u201d \u2013 I mean the baseline existence of being a woman costs more. Men don\u2019t budget for manicures, pedicures, highlights, waxes, spray tans, facials, or eyelashes \u2013&nbsp;they budget for haircuts. That\u2019s it. <\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">I calculated how much money I <em>used<\/em> to spend on my general female upkeep:<\/p>\n<ul data-rte-list=\"default\">\n<li>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">$200 every three months for my cut and color<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">$100 per month on eyelash extensions<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">$15 per month on eyebrow threading<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">$100 per month on manicures and pedicures<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">$500 per year on makeup<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">When I broke it down and looked at the average, it equated to about $320 per month (or $3,840 per year) that I was spending on <strong>literally being pretty.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Are you kidding?<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">That\u2019s not negligible. That\u2019s also not fair. I don\u2019t see my boyfriend traipsing to the salon every 12 weeks to get his highlights re-done or schlepping it to the pedicure chair to get his callouses scraped off by a stranger.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">After I got super into frugality, I essentially said f*** it \u2013 I\u2019m not paying for this shit anymore. <\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">And to just drive home the point about how much this costs over a lifetime, if you assume I\u2019m that high-maintenance for merely 5 years, that\u2019s nearly $20,000 invested in being an attractive woman. I won\u2019t even run it through the investment calculator because I don\u2019t want to become a personal finance guru meme, but if you\u2019re reading my numbers and thinking, damn, that feels in line with (or lower than) what I spend, hopefully your attention has been sufficiently #piqued.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">The sad thing is, nothing feels that terrible in the moment. $45 here and there for a gel manicure doesn\u2019t feel like it\u2019s going to derail your retirement goals. <\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">But (okay, screw it, here comes the calculator) my annual hot girl budget (at $3,840 per year, conservatively) would become $62,000 if invested over a <em>10-year period<\/em> (investing $320\/mo. for 10 years with a 7% rate of return).<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">UGH! Being a woman is so dumb!<\/p>\n<h4 style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">The initial shift<\/h4>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">I know that, while <em>seeing<\/em> the power of your investment is a strong start, it often pales in comparison to the allure of feeling attractive (we\u2019re being totally candid here, right?). I had gotten USED to looking a certain way \u2013&nbsp;fake eyelashes, blonde hair, perfect eyebrows, pink nails. The works. <\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Then I listened to a podcast about (are you ready for this?) how we\u2019re all essentially being sold lies by the very profitable beauty industry. Exploiting insecurities is LUCRATIVE. And we all know it, sure, but we still play along, because all the OTHER women around us are doing it, too, and we don\u2019t want to be the ugly ducklings combing our unibrows in the corner. But this time, I had never heard someone state the facts so simply. <\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">This female blogger who goes by \u201cMrs. Frugalwoods\u201d did an interview where she essentially was like, \u201cI mean, sure, I can spend hundreds of dollars every month on hair and makeup, but I\u2019d rather invest it so I can retire earlier and do what I want with my life. I\u2019d rather be free to not work and explore the world than pretty and chained to a desk for an extra 15 years.\u201d That\u2019s an oversimplification, but\u2026 it has some merit, and I was like, shit, she\u2019s right!<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">That stuck with me, and then I noticed not only the amount of money, but the amount of <em>time and planning<\/em> that had to go into maintaining all these various things. It was all on a schedule that had to be accounted for. In some ways, it felt like an additional chore to schedule the manicure into an already-busy day. <\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">When I decided to pull the plug, I did it little by little \u2013&nbsp;but immediately, I noticed it was just less\u2026 stressful. I felt like I had been freed from this weird, subtle obligation.<\/p>\n<h4 style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">How I started<\/h4>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">The first thing to go were the eyelashes because they were (a) really expensive and (b) stupidly time-consuming. I had this realization rushing to a lash appointment to which I was about to give an hour of my time and $50\u2026 for two weeks of long eyelashes. I remember thinking, <em>How long do I feasibly plan to continue doing this? This feels inherently short-lived.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">So I did what any reasonable person would do: When it was time for the next one, I canceled, and I literally pulled them off my face one by one, leaving me with a lash line a la Rufus the Naked Mole Rat. <\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">I was HIDEOUS, and mortified. <\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Enter Latisse, an eyelash solution that helped me grow my natural lashes back to a state of normalcy. Latisse (the generic version that I get is called Bimatoprost) is $75 and lasts between 3-4 months, giving it a cost of between $20 and $25 per month on average. After I noticed how beautifully my lashes regrew, I kept using it \u2013 and now they\u2019re insanely long and dark. I know if I stop they\u2019ll go back to \u201cnormal,\u201d but I\u2019m good with $20 per month for this prescription \u2013 especially because I can use my HSA to pay for it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">If you\u2019re interested, I\u2019d recommend asking your doctor at your routine physical. I have a friend who works for a plastic surgeon, so he prescribed it for me. It\u2019s pretty easy to get your hands on a prescription, and it works. <\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">The next thing to go were the manicures and pedicures. This one was easier to let go of, and I didn\u2019t really replace it with anything. I tried painting my own nails for awhile but ended up enjoying (pretty quickly) the freedom of not being beholden to a gel nail polish schedule. Now I have naked nails and it truthfully doesn\u2019t really bother me. Shedding that $100 expense didn\u2019t hurt too much.<\/p>\n<h4 style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Creative solutions abounded<\/h4>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Some things, like eyebrow threading, were relatively cheap \u2013 but I found I could maintain the same shape with tweezers pretty easily. Every once in awhile I\u2019ll go back to get them reshaped, but for the most part, it\u2019s pretty easy to maintain your own eyebrows once they\u2019re properly and professionally snatched once.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">I had just become intrigued with full face waxing and threading when I decided to go full Man Mode on my beauty regime, but luckily, I discovered these <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Tinkle-Eyebrow-Razor-Pack-6\/dp\/B014HNOXZS\" target=\"_blank\">Tinkle razors<\/a> (they\u2019re a few bucks for a pack). They have a straight edge, and you essentially lather up with face wash, then scrape the peach fuzz and dead skin cells off your face. It\u2019s extremely exfoliating and creates the most beautiful base for any makeup you end up wearing (more on that later). <\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">There are tons of videos on YouTube that explain how to do it (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?t=714s&amp;v=rVBc4RNVmVg\" target=\"_blank\">I\u2019ll link an entertaining one<\/a>). Between tweezing my own eyebrows and using the straight razor to do a baby \u201cdermaplane\u201d on my face at home every month, I really don\u2019t feel tempted to go get facials or fancy treatments because my skin looks and feels fine.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">I used to have terrible acne (and was on Accutane for 8 months), so I understand the allure of facial treatments and expensive products \u2013 but at the risk of sounding insensitive, the best thing I\u2019ve done for my skin in adulthood is simplifying the routine. Basic cleanser, basic moisturizer, once-a-month exfoliation. Done.<\/p>\n<h4 style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Where things became more difficult<\/h4>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">I\u2019ve always said that my hair is one thing I\u2019ll always continue to pay for, but I\u2019m starting to feel differently now that it\u2019s just about the only high-maintenance thing left about me. I don\u2019t know if I\u2019m competitive with myself or just cheap, but I\u2019m getting to the same point with my hair that I reached with everything else \u2013 a mix of \u201cWho cares?\u201d and \u201cI don\u2019t feel like paying for this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">It\u2019s funny how over time I\u2019ve pulled away all the layers of artificial femininity through either frugality or laziness, and now I\u2019m at the last bastion \u2013 the last stake in the ground. Being BLONDE. Growing up, all the prettiest girls in my high school were blonde \u2013 even the cool girl friend group was nicknamed \u201cthe Blondetourage.\u201d Is it any wonder why I decided to start coloring my hair? Somewhere deep down, I\u2019ve equated blonde with beautiful and popular, and now \u2013 10 years later \u2013 I\u2019m still paying someone else to help me keep up appearances. It makes me sad for younger me (and her natural hair color), who I deemed wasn\u2019t sufficient or good enough on her own.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">My strategy for prolonging the time between highlights visits was using <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Joico-Color-Balance-Shampoo-Purple\/dp\/B00U2Y52QQ\/ref=asc_df_B00U2Y52QQ\/?hvadid=309760582713&amp;hvdev=c&amp;hvdvcmdl=&amp;hvlocint=&amp;hvlocphy=9026908&amp;hvnetw=g&amp;hvpone=&amp;hvpos=&amp;hvptwo=&amp;hvqmt=&amp;hvrand=6152296460065583189&amp;hvtargid=pla-350671145497&amp;linkCode=df0&amp;psc=1&amp;tag=hyprod-20\" target=\"_blank\">the purple shampoo from Joico<\/a> \u2013 it\u2019s cheap at Ulta (I think you can get 32 oz. for $20) and it makes your color super vibrant, which helps distract from your roots. That works fairly well, but after you go six months without highlights, it becomes obvious that you\u2019ve abandoned your colorist.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Now I think I\u2019m going to pay for one final appointment to have my roots blended with the blonde so, as it grows, it looks natural, and eventually it\u2019ll all be my natural hair color again. <\/p>\n<h4 style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">The undertones of these suggestions<\/h4>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">My intention is never to tell you what to do. My intention is <em>always<\/em> to get you to think critically about how you spend your money, and why. <\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">When it comes to spending on beauty products and treatments, I (personally!) arrived at a point where it felt like it was more trouble than it was worth. I <em>wanted<\/em> to be more comfortable (naturally) in my own skin, and I didn\u2019t want to feel beholden to treatments and appointments that I scheduled with the consistency and devotion of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders\u2019 practice schedule. <\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">There are certainly times where I see other women with perfect nails, a beautiful blowout, a glowing tan and eyelash extensions and think, <em>Damn, she looks GOOD,<\/em> but in a lot of ways I\u2019m trying to wean myself off caring about the artificial so much. Having gone to school in Alabama where every girl looked like she grew up in the pageant system and had the flawless skin and pearly white smile to prove it, this was a little bit of an uphill battle.<\/p>\n<h4 style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">My \u201cGirly\u201d budget now<\/h4>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Really, it\u2019s just the Latisse every few months \u2013 and haircuts where necessary. Clearly, the goal is to get my spending habits as close as possible to that of a man. We\u2019re almost there!<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">And to bring this full circle: Yes, I do invest the money that used to get washed down the drain with the salon shampoo. My current contributions to my various accounts are:<\/p>\n<ul data-rte-list=\"default\">\n<li>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">$660 per month to my 401(k) + $500 employer match ($1,160\/mo.)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">$500 per month to my IRA<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">$880 per month to my General Investing account<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"white-space:pre-wrap;\">Obviously, not ALL of that came from my reformed Girly budget, but man \u2013 it sure did help. And you know what? I feel more genuinely pretty and like <em>myself<\/em> than I did before, which was an unintended \u201cwin\u201d that came from this female social experiment. Worth a shot, right? <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2025 Update: This 2021 blog post was the original inspiration that became the first chapter of my book Rich Girl Nation, all about the Hot Girl Hamster Wheel. Enjoy. This is one of those articles that feels like it requires a disclaimer, but I\u2019m trying to get away from explaining away my opinions, so I\u2019d [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178814,"featured_media":2453,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"si-template-single-post-everyday-spending-and-budgeting.php","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,36],"tags":[45,59],"class_list":["post-127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-financial-independence","category-spending-and-saving","tag-everyday-spending-and-budgeting","tag-popular-everyday-spending-and-budgeting"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>\u201cHigh-Maintenance\u201d is Expensive: How I Cut $320\/mo. in \u201cGirly\u201d Expenses - Money with Katie<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/high-maintenance-is-expensive-how-i-went-from-a-320mo-girly-budget-to-a-negligible-one\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u201cHigh-Maintenance\u201d is Expensive: How I Cut $320\/mo. in \u201cGirly\u201d Expenses - Money with Katie\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"2025 Update: This 2021 blog post was the original inspiration that became the first chapter of my book Rich Girl Nation, all about the Hot Girl Hamster Wheel. 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