doingitonabudget

[doingitonabudget]

You have an idea - now what?

You want to start a business- but how do you go from idea to prototype to profit? Oh and by the way - do all of this on a budget?

The first set of steps are to see if the idea/concept:

works, 

“Can you make a functioning prototype?”

can be profitable, 

“How much money would you make (price of product - cost to make product) each time you made a sale?”

at what point in time will it be a profitable. 

“One year? Three years? Five years?” 

One investor (oh my dear Kevin O'Leary) advises that if profitability isn't met within three years- it's time to move on. This of course is a personal decision. 

When bootstrapping (personally financing) a business - every penny REALLY counts. You don't want to invest a lot of money (and time) into an idea where the finances just don’t work. 

Example: Your product requires expensive materials/shipping which means you have to sell the product at a very high price point. If the consumer doesn't want to pay $100 for your cool new shoe laces then you likely will have few sales and a failing business.

Effective financial management and tracking will be key. Pictured are some of the things I bought to test my idea - which would be counted as "start up costs" and necessary to determining my "break even point." The break even point is when the amount of money made has equaled the amount of debt accrued by the business (e.g. in my case, for now, equipment costs paid off).

Budget Tip: Learn some basic financing concepts/skills through free courses!

I don't have a business background so I found some great FREE online resources to get me up to speed. HP life offers interesting short courses on a multitude of things including basic finances. This course provides small business financial scenarios & skill building exercises. PLUS, they offer downloadable excel templates to calculate things life break even points, cash flow and more! Courses are not too long and quite relatable.

[doingitonabudget]

Who knew a single string of beads could make one feel so FANCY. Half braids/corn rows offer a lot of versatility. Will try to hang in there for a few weeks with these twist/braids so there's a few more variations to come. #twists #braids #natural #naturalhair #hairstyle #hair #boxbraids #stitchbraids #locs #dreadlocs #protectivestyle #afro #braidout #twistout #cornrows #cornrowstyles #cornbraids #teamnatural #blackgirls #blackwomen #hairspiration #beads #hairbeads #hairdecoration

[doingitonabudget]

Wakanda-Ready

Because we black folk know how to make an entrance, I knew that my hair had to be on POINT for my viewing of Black Panther this weekend. 

So Saturday, to save moolah, I spent  ALL DAY doing my hair.

This style evolved, I actually had no idea how it was going to end.

I knew that I wanted corn braids in the front and twists in the back. I also wanted a “statement” piece that allowed for versatility and settled on beads. I was inspired by:

Serena and Venus Williams old school braided/beaded style.

Trip to Puerto Rico where two little girls who had one single long braid in the back of their head. One was teal and the other little girl rocked blue. It was so simple but it struck me. 

Attire: Kept it simple with all black and a bold necklace. 

More pics to come - to show the versatility on IG.

IG:doingitonabudget

[doingitonabudget]

My skin has been GLOWING thanks to these Body Shop butters. I snagged these from Marshalls for $6 each! Price direct from Body Shop is $21. Sixty-seven percent off you say Marshalls? YES PLEASE. Would I like another? Don't mind if I do! Take a walk down the body/skincare aisle at Marshalls and TJ Maxx. I have found that the product lines offered have been expanding and are priced fantastically.

[doingitonabudget]

It's here! Tag team by @doingitonabudget & @kwohtations (one of my #1 boos & entrepeneur extraordinaire)! Sorry they touched your hair card: It's one of life's biggest mysteries: How did the Egyptians build pyramids without modern day tools? Is there life on other planets? Why can't people seem to keep their hands out of your hair? It's magnetic (like you), and I'm sorry that all social norms and etiquette seem to go out the window when it comes to how people admire your hair. You can snag one of these at: kwohtations.etsy.com #teamnatural #naturalhair #hair #natural #kinkycurly #afro #fro #curlyhair #curly #braidout #twistout #melanin #blackgirls #blackgirl #blackgirlproblems #naturalhairproblems #cards #card

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Happy curls! I don't trust these suckers to survive this humidity so no #washandgo this time. Happy Friday :) #teamnatural #naturalhair #deepcondition

[doingitonabudget]

Natural hair tip #1: The key to more predictable natural hair is daily moisturization. The goal for me is to do 4 to 8 braids in the evening, lightly wetting my hair (using my spray bottle mixed with water & conditioner) before braiding. When lazy, which happens more often than it should, I hike my hair into a ponytail and do 3 to 4 braids on the loose ends. In the AM, I rub coconut oil on the braids & take them down. Voila! #braidout #naturalhair #teamnatural #conditioning #winningThisMorning

[doingitonabudget]

Look at this cutie! Caption ideas? Let me know! Sneak peak of what’s to come from @kwohtations Customizable cards that celebrate all of life’s important, & at times, quirky moments! (Kwohtations.com)

[doingitonabudget]

She deep conditionin' that thang like...

No…no one caught that reference? Lol The Dream - was rockin’ out to his hits the other day. Back to the matter at hand - deep conditioning!

DISCLAIMER: If your hair does not currently have a curl pattern when wet with conditioner, following these steps will not create one. 

I do this ….every week or 2 weeks depending on what my hair feels like or my laziness level.

1. What does she mean by, “what her hair feels like?” Well if my hair feels rough….dry to the touch, has more tangles than usual or isn’t curling or getting kinky as much…I know that it is in desperate need of moisture and most likely a deep conditioning treatment. (I think weekly deep conditioning is a good rule of thumb but frequency should be determined for your hair.) You have to have a base understanding of how YOUR hair typically “behaves.” For example if it isn’t responding to products or typical styling routines, you may have a lack of moisture problem. Responding meaning that that hairstyle usually comes out X way but today it resulted in a Y outcome. (There are other causes for hair that decides to “go on strike”/not cooperate too but will talk about that in another post).

This is what my hair looked like, pre- deep conditioning.

2. You’ve established it is time to deep condition, now what? A. Mild detangling on freshly washed. First thing, when I step in the shower, I let the water run through my hair and as it is running through my hair I remove shed hair and detangle with my fingers. Use your fingers like a comb …starting from the ends and working your way up as the water runs through your hair. If your fingers gets caught, stop and gently remove the tangle. Repeat for the whole head. This usually takes about 20 to 25 minutes (it is not perfectly detangled).

B. Condition while hair is wet (slightly dripping). Add copious amounts of conditioner. COPIOUS. Part the hair and add more. Essentially you want to make sure to coat every strand of hair with conditioner. My conditioner of choice is Nature’s Gate Jojoba (but the other Nature’s Gate offerings also work well but I have found Jojoba to be thickest. I also like Henna and the Pomegranate versions). When done your hair should look gray…when you squeeze a clump of hair, conditioner should ooze a but through your fingers. (Yes, we mean serious business here.) You can’t really put too much but if you’re trying to not waste product you should mind the amount you use. You will eventually get a sense of what is appropriate for your hair. For me, I would say it is about a quarter of the bottle. 

C. Let it sit. When I’m feeling “fancy” I will put a plastic shopping bag (hah!) over my hair to keep some warmth and open up the cuticle. Or most times, I will opt to just continue to smooth the conditioner through the hair with my hands for a few minutes. This helps to clump curls together and relax the hair. Then I let the conditioner hang out for about 15 minutes while I finish the rest of my shower routine. 

D. Rinse it and don’t disturb your curl. Let the water do the work. Do not finger detangle - Nothing. Just move your head around and the let the water rinse out the conditioner. If you can stand it, rinsing with cooler water is best to close the cuticle and lock in moisture.

3. Style Immediately. (style pics on instagram)

Once that sucker dries…shrinkage city. Also as it dries, I find my hair to be more prone to frizz. While dripping wet I will use a bit more of the same Nature’s Gate Jojoba conditioner and scrunch it into my hair. Then I will also scrunch in coconut oil. Then style. If you want the most bomb braid out of your life- do 6 braids, let dry completely (typically overnight), unravel with coconut oil on your fingers.  Hope this was helpful! 

If you aren’t, follow me on instagram @doingitonabudget 

[doingitonabudget]

Sippin' this here lemonade & noshin' this banana bread

It is the year of banana bread and lemonade. What nonsense does she speak of you may ask? Life has not handed me any particularly heartbreaking outcomes or left field injustices. Just the every day annoyances and “wish-it-were-different” moments we all experience, such that if you took a deep breath and paused - you would ultimately see how blessed you are.

However, life has not been so kind to some of those that I love dearly - lost jobs, lost loved ones, lonely hearts. This set to the backdrop of headlines plagued with hate crimes and terrorist activities would leave an uneasy feeling in the pit of anyone’s stomach. Life is short. Life is volatile. And as corny as it sounds - carpe diem and loving harder have been on my mind.

Lemonade. Ugh. Yes. A Beyoncé reference. Taking life’s not-so-pleasant surprises and flipping it for better. (Sour lemons artfully coaxed into a refreshing, thirst-quenching, summer drink. Hmmm.) That album? Capturing one of the most vulnerable moments of her life (to be determined, but that is neither here nor there), displaying it for the world and channeling it into art? AND framing the whole thing with your grandmomma’s sage advice? Boss move. Particularly for someone who is as private as she is. It takes a fearlessness and courage that many would not dare to tap into. And of course - I mean she is Beyoncé -she has been greeted with crazy album sales and success.

Banana bread. The ultimate culinary transformation (in my mind). Hear me out. You have these bananas - old(er), kind of mushy, way passed the enjoyable phase of the typical “peel-and-eat” sort. The banana, when eaten like this, is just…too much…its flavor essence is multiplied at least twofold and bombards the taste buds in a less than pleasant fashion. But that is just what’s needed to make delicious, moist, oh-so-banana-y banana bread. Nothing goes to waste. Banana bread calls for you to take the undesirable to create the desirable.

Banana bread and lemonade (the drink, the album) are beautiful illustrations of taking the not-so-great and making it a stepping stone for greatness. It allows one to benefit and grow from every one of life’s hiccups.

This simple notion (and certainly not novel) has me sporting a new life perspective. I want to do more, fail more (FYI: hate this), win more, love harder (FYI: kind of hate this too). Living in the safe in-between breeds an unsatisfying mediocrity that so many of us are comfortable with…a sticky bog that is hard to rip yourself out of. (Like that fog that you get when you take that God-forsaken three hour midday nap. PS Never.a.good.idea. Lol) It is attractive to so many of us because if you fall, at least you didn’t fall that far or if you win, well, it was pretty good (but you miss out on the feeling of a mind-blowing triumph). 

What does this mean for me? Cheers to seeing me more on the blog and the ‘gram. There’s more, but surprises are more fun, no? (;

If you aren’t, follow me on insta- @doingitonabudget

[doingitonabudget]

Pre-emptive 2016 Swaggin

Tryin’ something new with these jumbo yarn twists. Whatchu thank?! Pre-emptive? Well I technically did this at the end of December.

I’ve actually been eyeing this style for ages - trying to achieve it with my own hair, but natural hair becomes compact when twisting or braiding (even when stretched/de-curled) so I could never achieve the fullness I desired. (And trust, I have enough hair for at least two people.) This is in fact just yarn...like what your grandmomma uses to knit/crotchet.

Since this is the first time doing this, I won’t be putting a tutorial up until I know I have a good thing going ;) But so far cost, maintenance and compliment wise - it’s a winner!

Follow, like, check me on the ‘gram.

[doingitonabudget]

Fringe Mayhem

My two new latest obsessions are:

fringe

wide brim floppy hats

Perhaps my inner 60s flower child is trying to escape? Who knows. I haven’t figured out a way to acquire a cheap over-sized floppy hat just yet, but I’ll keep you posted. However, I have found a way to re-purpose those old t shirts that you get from --insert random event-- e.g. conferences, family reunions, your great aunty’s 80th birthday, the company picnic -  you name it. You know you have a closet full of over-sized t shirts that you’re probably using as pajamas (me) or as a runnin/gym T-shirt (not me lol). I’ve got a stylish new use for those tees.

What you’ll need:

scissors (make sure they are sharp)

t-shirt 

old hair tie or thicker string (matching one of the colors in your t-shirt is preferable.)

Turn your shirt inside out. Lay out your shirt completely flat. Cut off the sleeves by following the line where the sleeve is attached to the body of the shirt.( At this step, you can do a lot of variation. You can create various silhouettes- tank, muscle tee, v-neck, however I advise keeping it simple the first go around. Cutting symmetrically on both sides of the t-shirt is tricky tricky.) 

My shirt was huge. So I cut deeper than the sleeves so I could create more of a muscle tee effect. (I had the intention of wearing a brightly colored tube top under this shirt.). 

Tip 1: Mark your shirt with a pencil lightly so you know where to cut. Fold your shirt in half (sleeve over sleeve) so you can make the marks on the other half of the shirt.

Tip 2: Try on your shirt throughout the process so you can see how the shirt is hanging on your body.

After a quick try-on, I noticed that the sleeves felt a bit boxy. To fix, I cut an old hair tie in two. I tied each of the sleeves using the cut hair tie halves (yes, while the shirt was still inside out) which helped to gather the shoulders of the shirt and opened up the neck line.

Begin cutting strips into your t shirt - equal-sized. I recommend not cutting too thin - as you can see for my shirt, I cut really long strips and you cut higher it becomes tougher to cut straight. (If you want flex, you could do a pattern with your strips - e.g. 3 skinny strips one fat strip and continue that pattern.) I warn that cutting a ton of strips is a bit tiring, but the pay off is worth it. The high impact of the shirt comes from having thin strips as it created more movement when worn.

Advance: On the back of the shirt, I created a V- effect with the fringe by cutting deeper and deeper into the shirt as I approached the center. After cutting all of the strips the same length, I then went back to create this V effect. 

First find the center cut (red line) and cut 2 inches deeper ( this will be the deepest cut). Now, cut deeper into the cuts on either side of the center line (as shown by the green line) and so on and so forth as indicated by the colored lines in the picture above. As I moved away from the center line, the cuts decreased by about an 1/4 of an inch (I just eyeballed it).

Voila! There you have a very cute fringed out tee. Could be a bathing suit cover up or an effortless chill day shirt for weekend errands or the like. 

Shirts don’t have to be over-sized. I recommend using shirts that have interesting graphics - heightens the impact of the shirt.

Pair your fly shirt with high-wasted pants and you stylin’ - on a budget!

[doingitonabudget]

#didNOTwakeupLikethis

Words cant capture the height, depth, breadth nor vibrant intensity of my frustration with my hair.  Follicular Frustratus. Yes. I gave it a name. 

Symptoms: 

Strong annoyance at tried and true styles (braid outs, puffs, etc) now yielding inconsistent and poor results 

Overall dissatisfaction and low tolerance for maintaining hair regimen

Tendency to eye the large pair of craft scissors comfortably nested among the pens, pencils and highlighters in the cup that sits on your work desk. Hair cut, anyone?

It’s as if my hair has been throwing a temper tantrum for several weeks and like a toddler hell bent on getting his or her way, there’s no sign of my hair cooperating with me anytime soon. I’m deep conditioning, trimming protective styling..not protective styling. I don’t know what is. I’m just tired, and in response have resigned myself to a lazy lopsided bun. Every.day. Adding a scarf for effect for days where I was feeling extra fancy.

Suffice it to say, it’s time for a break. To keep my incessant scissor happy thoughts at bay, I needed a seriously low manipulation, low maintenance style option.

Cork screws. I got them done during a few summers ago when I was visiting family in St. Lucia. What are cork screws you may be asking? The best way to describe them is they’re the illegitimate child of a braid and a twist. You simply braid the root and then after an inch or two you complete it as a two strand twist. (Quick tip: For the front of my hair I braid about two inches before transitioning to the twist. For cork screws in the back, I braid about an inch from the root and then switch to twisting.This helps to create more fullness and hide my not-so-perfectly-straight parts.) For folks who know how to three strand twist, it could be a better option for transitioning from the braid portion to the twist, but definitely not necessary.

Truth be told, I actually started out with the intention of doing braids and realizing how incredibly clumsy and slow my inept fingers were for the task, I quickly aborted the mission and opted for cork screws.

Gains: The nice thing about cork screws is that it’s a fuller look than braids (LOVE BIG HAIR). Also I have found that my twists get crazy at the roots, so having a tighter more structure start to my twists helps the style to stay a bit longer. Also, for me, it’s much faster to twist than braid. 

Losses: Draw back is that, having relatively straight parts become important with this style since your scalp is a bit more visible than regular twists. Have you tried doing a straight part on the back of your head? No fun!

Nevertheless, the style is worth it! No to low fuss hair for 3-4 weeks!?! *church stomp* Limited pics on this tutorial only because I thought that the process was fairly straightforward but if you y’all feel that they’re necessary, inbox me and I’ll update the post.

Follow me on instagram and facebook- getting back on my blog grind! 

Also my lovely wonderful, incredibly talented friend, Alexis Dennis, recently launched one of her photo projects, “The Self Care Exhibit: A Word & Image Act of Political Warfare.“ Check it out - also you can submit your own work to the exhibit! 

[doingitonabudget]

Infinity Ponytail

Back at it again! I'll save the apologies for my lack of posting because if we are all real with ourselves and history is an indicator of what's to come, this is likely to happen again. However, as always it is with good reason! Made a move at the end of the summer -the new city + new internship has been really hard, but it has also been so good. Risk can be a good thing.

 As a result, things are crazy busy as I adjust to the area and figure out next steps. Blog-wise, probably reverting back to the look book for a bit. In the midst of my move, I forgot to bring the camera I usually use so apologies for the lackluster pics. I'll get better with my mobile and hopefully get a hold of my camera soon. 

Most recently, I have been fighting the plague (aka the flu plus a series of back-to-back bad colds). To celebrate finally being able to breathe out of BOTH nostrils, I decided to do a new updo: the infinity pontytail.

Frizz! Took care of that by misting my hair lightly with a water and conditioner mix, tying my head with a satin scarf and going to sleep! (See smoothness achieved in the last set of pics)

This style is actually easier to do than it looks.I did a series of pony tails (3- one on top of the other, pictured below).

I twisted (2 strand twisted) each ponytail into one another and pinned to my head with bobby pins. The continuity of each ponytail created the illusion that I had a super long pony tail. CUH-YOOT.

I actually wore this to work, but this is also a great edgy-ish night style with the right make up and accessories. (Also note how the frizz has disappeared!)

Depending on likes/reblogs- I will do a proper picture tutorial. 

Like what you see? Like the facebook page!

[doingitonabudget]

Romper City

It's been a while since I have posted a DIY project. (For my regular followers, I heard that, it's been a while since you've posted at all....fair, fair :) ) 

I've got to say - I.LOVE.rompers. It's like a stylish onsie for adults! Throw on a romper + right shoe + a few accessories and you look fantastic for day or night. 

With the renewed popularity of rompers over the last few years - you can snag one for under $20 from H&M or  Forever 21. However, if you're anything like me- like a jealous lover, you cringe at the idea of encountering your onesie draped across the body of another and conversely crave the feeling in which you know that you are wearing a rare or even one-of-a-kind piece. My shallow pockets and lust for originality dovetail well with the art of thrifting. 

Last year, my local thrift shop was doing a sale in which I got 3 jumpsuits (long pants rompers) for $10 each (only have 1 before shot-sorry! The other suit I had cut by the sales clerk...which was dumb because he didn't cut it even). They were wild, super 80s, intense and I loved it. As you can see from the picture above, sometimes you got to trust your gut and see through the ugly.

Here is how I transformed them into cute modern rompers:

1. Try on the suit and figure out how long you want the shorts to be. Turn the suit inside out. Then go about 1 to 1.5 inches longer than your desired length and mark it. Use pencil (or marker that won't bleed through) and ruler to create a straight light dotted pattern so you know where to cut the fabric.

Why 1 to 1.5" longer?

You are going to want to give yourself room for error if you don't cut straight

You need a little extra fabric so you create a smooth hem line.

2. Cut your material. Fold material upward  and insert (safety) pins to hold the fabric in place. (Now you have smooth edge at the bottom of your short. Rough edges of the bottom of the garment, you shold be able to see. (FYI: when you finish sewing and turn the garment right-side-out, the rough edges will be hidden)

3. Fold the pant legs over one another to make sure they are the same length. I would now try on the garment at this point to make sure the shorts are your desired length. Be careful with pins! Adjust length as you see fit.

4. Find thread that matches closely. You can find sewing kits with lots of different colors for pretty cheap (~4) at Walmart or a Michael's craft store.

5. Now begin to hem! You can do this much faster with a sewing machine but I don't own one so I sewed it by hand.  Try to only make very small stitches, about an eighth of an inch apart. After every few stitches, it would be good to knot the thread (as if you were finish stitching) so that if your thread breaks in the wash..all of your hard work isn't unraveled in one swoop!  

Finished product!  

For my close readers, yea I bought three but I only got through 2 of them. I'm still trying to decide whether not I want keep it as a jumpsuit or shorten it.

Questions, comments, love? Leave it on the facebook page. If you haven't- like my fbook page ;)

[doingitonabudget]

Look Book: Summer Swag

Cookout attire. All items purchased this summer.

Crop top - TJ Maxx - $7

Patterned shorts - TJ Maxx - $13

Sandals - Rainbow - $20

Total Look: $40

Future posts to come about tips and tricks to bargain shopping.

[doingitonabudget]

A Four-in-One

My hair and I have been riding the struggle bus these last few weeks -hence the lack of posts. It's been dry and getting these intense tangles that I have coined as, "dread knots." They are thick tangled pieces of hair that tend to knot close to the root of the hair. It's terrible - I can't just cut it out (which is what I usually do after a few minutes of valiant effort) because it's at least 7 to 12 strands of hair AND I'd be cutting off a ton of length. (FYI: I am NOT one of those naturals who will bust out a needle to undo single strand knots. Bless your heart if you have that patience.) Because of their location and intensity, these knots were causing my wash routine to drag into the 2.5 hour range. Unacceptable.

The Culprit?

I've pinned it to a lack of moisture. I was detangling my hair thoroughly on wash day and not manipulating my hair during the week but still plagued with these knots. However, I was skipping out on thoroughly moisturizing my hair every day.  At night I would just tie my hair with a satin scarf... lightly misting with water every other day. Using coconot oil every other day as well...

The Solution? 

On wash day, I sectioned my hair into 6 instead of 4 (key because my hair has been growing) to make sure all strands were coated with conditioner. That significantly cut back on wash routine time because better, quicker coverage with conditioner made detangling go a lot faster.

Before going to bed, I sectioned hair into 4 sections, misting my hair with a water/conditioner mix (nature's gate henna + water. also made sure to mist closer to the root) and then braiding. 

In the morning, I moisturized each section with coconut oil (making sure to get strands closer to the root since I typically focus on my ends) as I unbraided each section. My hair has been so much happier.

The Takeaway?

I've been thinking about cutting my hair A LOT lately because of how onerous the maintenance process was becoming but I realized that (**natural-hair-lesson-that-translates-to-real-life-lesson alert**) you can't do the same ol' thing and expect different results. As my hair got longer, there was more hair to deal with which means I had to change up the routine. Smaller sections on wash day became crucial. Also since my hair is longer, it's been on my head longer so keeping in moisture is more difficult, thus I have to make sure to moisturize (every strand, and every part of the strand) more often. 

The Style(s)?

1. On stretched hair (mine is a braid out), split your hair in two, creating two pony tails on top of one another. It's important that the first pony tail is a very high pony tail. The second pony tail should sit about three inches below it.

2. Grab the pony tail on top and split it into 2 again. Pull the top half of hair to the front, creating a faux bang and pin. Create similar bump with the other half the hair, however pulling it towards the back of the head.

3. Now comes the versatility of this style. Manipulating the second pony tail:

A) Repeat step 2 with the other pony tail and you have a great faux hawk.

B) OR leave as is (pony tail out)..and you have a funky edgy rocker style.

C) OR create a bun!

D) OR create 2 twists and pin a twist to each side of the "bumps" you created with the first pony tail. It kind of frames the style. Can be funky or for a formal event depending on what you're wearing/how you accessorize it.

There you have it, 4 styles-in-1!

Questions, comments love? Leave it on the facebook page!