Please welcome my friend and neighbor, Makeup Artist Extraordinaire Amy Lynn Larwig! You might recall this fabulous lady fancified my face on my own big day. She’s absolutely fantastic at what she does and is one of the sweetest, most down-to-earth people I know. She’s also a fellow Dave Ramsey follower so she knows how it is to be on a budget and is sharing with us today some great tips for maximizing your makeup spread on the cheap. Take it away ALL!

Makeup can be really expensive and it is hard to determine what is worth spending money on. There are some key points to remember when standing at the cosmetics counter to help you avoid bringing home that hot pink lipstick you’ll never wear that the sales lady talked you in to.

-       Spend money on your everyday staple items. Your foundation goes on in the morning and stays there all day long. The rest of your face won’t matter if your foundation doesn’t look nice. Bad foundation due to color mismatch, being too heavy, or having an ugly finish is distracting from that gorgeous eye/lip/cheek color. Go ahead and suck up the $30, since it is something you wear consistently.

-       Want to try that vibrant purple eyeshadow? By all means, go ahead! But buy the cheap version first. Don’t spend $20 on a fabulous new Urban Decay color that you may end up hating. Buy the cheapy CoverGirl version first, and if you feel like it’s going to work for you, then invest in the pricier one. ELF at Target has eyeshadows for $1 that are great for trying out new colors.

-       Mascara isn’t worth the money. I love DiorShow Mascara. It’s $24 and it makes my lashes look oh so lovely. But mascara should be thrown out every 3 months to avoid bacterial eye infections. Pink eye = disgusting. So at $24 a pop, that’s $96 a year on mascara! You can purchase great performing mascaras at your local drugstore for less than $8. Try Maybelline The Colossal or CoverGirl LashBlast.

-       Brushes are going to save you money. Sponges seem cheaper initially. But sponges soak up the product, wasting it, and they don’t leave a very natural finish. Brushes allow more control over your application and they don’t waste your product.  A good brush, when washed weekly and taken care of, will last your entire life. Besides, those little spongy applicators that come with the eyeshadow are equivalent to finger painting.

-       Spend money on your skin care. You only get one set of skin. It is easily damaged and not so easy to repair. So take good care of it. The world of skin care can be overwhelming with products making endless claims. You want a quality product that is going to nourish your skin, not a drugstore brand that is comparable to hand soap. Take the time to research what products best fit your needs. Try different items and if they don’t fit your standards, take them back! Origins and Aveda are good places to start and they will accept returns of any product that doesn’t satisfy you. Sephora also has many lines to choose from and  offers the same return policy.

You know what I love most about holiday weekends? SALES! I love shopping online and finding ways to save money, so of course I love ShopatHome.com. They combine online shopping with Cash Back and Coupon Codes to give you lots of ways to save money at one site! To take advantage of the cash back offers, you sign up and search for the store of your choice. You must click on the store’s site from the ShopatHome.com site so it can make record of your purchases and then they will credit your account with your cash back! Once a month, they cut checks for your cash back– only after you reach $20 in your account. Pretty sweet if you do alot of online shopping anyway like me! You also earn $5 for any qualified referral, so tell your friends to earn extra cash back!

The folks at ShopatHome.com gave me a $50 Macy’s Gift Card to see how far I could stretch it using their site. I figured, Macy’s- they have everything- this will be easy! It just so happened that Macy’s was offering Free Shipping on orders over $100 this weekend for the Labor Day holiday, so I decided to take advantage of those savings by getting $100 worth of stuff and using the free shipping coupon code. Paired along with the cash back from ShopatHome.com I ended up getting some great stuff for only $60 with tax! I’m not sure if my cash back will be applied to the $100 for the order I placed or to the $60 that I actually spent, so I’ll have to wait and see once my shopathome.com account is credited. Here’s the loot I got:

Martha Stewart 3-set of Towels for $11.99
These had great reviews and I loved the color.

Wilton Armetale dip bowl for $12.99
We have a platter and a large bowl in this pattern and just love them so for the price I had to have this matching dip bowl!

Home Essentials Metro Clear Highball Glasses, Set of 10, on sale for $12.99
Recently a few of our everyday drinking glasses broke, so we decided to pick up this set because they had good reviews and the price was awesome for a set of ten!

Zyliss Mandoline $49.98
E has been wanting one of these for a while, so I decided to pick it up for him- getting some Xmas shopping done early! I know he will love it!

So for all that, I basically spent $54 of my own money- I’m pretty happy with my finds today. Anyone take advantage of any fab Labor Day sales?

*Sponsored Review

I was given a $50 gift card to use in order to review the features of this site.

I recently found out about Paperless Post through a friend and I am just in love with this idea! Paperless Post is a company that lets you send online invitations, save the dates, cards and more in a customizable, efficient and fun way! This isn’t your standard e-vite: Paperless Post invitations look like real paper and are animated so it’s like opening a card in your hands. Best of all, it not only keeps track of  your RSVPs but you can even track who has opened the invitation but has yet to reply– so you know which of your guests just doesn’t respect the necessity of a RSVP.  (One of my biggest pet peeves by FAR) When it comes to digital wedding invitations, Paperless Post really has some snazzy options!

The possibilities are nearly endless with their software. You can customize the colors, fonts, paper, etc. You can even add pretty envelope liners to your design for additional credits. They even have some designs where you can upload your logo or photo to customize it even more. You can manually update RSVPs from the back-end for the older folks who aren’t too computer savvy. You can buy credits as you go, but you can pay $15 to get 300 stamps– which equals out to be 5 cents per invite. Totally worth it in my opinion to save on real postage and real paper! Can you imagine how much you could reduce not only your budget but your paper waste when it comes to invites if you used this program for your showers, parties and announcements? I am loving the idea and can’t wait to send one out for a party this month! You can even earn free ‘stamps’ by referring your friends! Have any of you used Paperless Post before? What are your thoughts?

This is not a sponsored post but I’d love if you’d sign up to help me earn some free stamps and to try it out for yourself!

Did you know that the number one cause of divorce in America is money fights and money problems? So many of us come to the altar with our own debts from college, and when combined we have to face how to deal with these debts. One of the best ways to ensure that you are on the same page financially is to attend Financial Peace University- a program by Dave Ramsey that will help you get right with your money and pay off your debts.

If you’ve never heard of Dave Ramsey, allow me to introduce you! My hubby and I are currently going through FPU- I’ve talked about this a little over on the Life section of the blog. Here’s a little background on Dave from his website:

“Starting from nothing, by the time I was 26 I had a net worth of a little over a million dollars. I was making $250,000 a year—that’s more than $20,000 a month net taxable income. I was really having fun. But 98% truth is a lie, and that 2% can cause big problems, especially with $4 million in real estate. I had a lot of debt—a lot of short-term debt—and I’m the idiot who signed up for the trip.

The short version of the story is that debt caused us, over the course of two and a half years of fighting it, to lose everything. We didn’t tell anyone what was going on, but if we had to do it again, we would learn from the wisdom of others who have been through it. We soon learned that we were not the only ones at the bottom. Barbie and Ken (you know, the couple who appear to be perfect—perfect clothes, perfect car, perfect house) are broke, and I don’t take financial advice from broke people anymore.”

You can listen to Dave’s show everyday from 1 to 4 on Nashville’s local station 99.7 or go here to find where to listen in your area. Dave has helped people all across the country get rid of all their debt! It takes discipline, but can you imagine how amazing it would be to pocket every penny of your salary except what you spend on utilities and insurance? E and I plan to be debt free (besides our house) by early next year, and if all goes according to plan, completely debt free in 5 years with a paid-off house. Can you imagine? Completely debt free at 30?

For you Nashvillians, Ryan Sweeney of Ryan Sweeney Photography will be teaching the Financial Peace University at Wedding 101 beginning September 9th. The class will run for 13 weeks and teach you everything you need to know how to pay down your debt.

On average, people who attend FPU pay off $5,300 in debt and save $2,700 in just 90 days. Isn’t that incredible? Obviously this will all depend on your individual situation but I cannot think of a better way to start off a marriage then to be united when it comes to money.

If you are not sure that this is for you, then come out and meet Ryan on August 26th or September 2nd for a quick informational meeting.

The price for the FPU 13 week program is $99 plus tax per couple.

If you’re not in Nashville, you can find a class in your area or attend online! (you can even take a preview course online) Or you can just get the kit and take the course in the comfort of your home. I seriously recommend this program, I have NOT been paid or compensated in any way to post about this, I just truly believe in this program and what it can do for your finances, your marriage, and your life!

Reader Elaine sent me over a link to a quite entertaining blog, A Fanciful Twist. The author Vanessa was inspired by this paper flower chandelier from the Spring 2009 Anthropologie catalog. She created her own whimsical paper flower chandelier using patterned papers. I could see this used in a wedding setting or even for a shower. You could use all the same color paper for a cleaner look! Check out the tutorial over at A Fanciful Twist.

{images via A Fanciful Twist.}