Life Lesson #1: The value of self-reliance and cutting costs
My father has always had a somewhat unhealthy obsession with infomercial gadgets. While I grew up with a host of popular products, such as the Ronco Food Dehydrator, nothing was more divisive in our household than the FlowBee Precision Haircutting System.
The Story: I was about 12-years old when this contraption was first welcomed into our home. For those of you unfamiliar with the FlowBee, Wikipedia defines it as “an electrically powered vacuum cleaner attachment made for cutting hair.”
My younger brother, who was too little to fight back nor fully able to comprehend what was about to happen to him, was my father’s first “victim.” What followed were the screams of an 8-year old, intermittently drowned out by the loud whirling and buzzing sounds of the FlowBee and Hoover vacuum cleaner – and one very crappy haircut.
I never rejected something so much in my life as the FlowBee, which is why it was so unexpected when I began using it a few years later.
When we were children, my mother would drive me and my brothers to get our hair cut. Unfortunately, she also needed to get the most value out of everything, which usually meant we went too long between haircuts. Still too young to drive, and with my mane reaching epic proportions, I felt I had no other choice but to experiment on myself.
Like Ben Franklin flying a kite into a storm with a metal key attached, my clammy, anxious hands clenched the awkward, yellow vacuum attachment. As I drew the dreaded contraption toward my head, a major chunk of unkempt hair was sucked up and met by the chomping teeth of the FlowBee.
It was too late to turn back. Over several nervous hours, I methodically maneuvered the FlowBee over my head, slowly changing the cutting spacers; each pass getting closer to my desired hair length.
Afterward, I stared in the mirror in disbelief. My haircut actually looked great – arguably better than what I normally received from the hairstylist.
Now, almost 25 years later, I am still using the FlowBee and have only once been back to a barber. In fact, I introduced the contraption to a new generation recently when I gave my son his first FlowBee haircut.
The Breakdown: Not only has it been incredibly practical to be able to cut my hair whenever I want, without an appointment or a trip in the car; there are material cost savings that will have a meaningful impact to my family’s financial future.
Let’s start out with a few assumptions:
- Proper maintenance necessitates a trip to the hairdresser about every 6-weeks (9-times/year).
- The cost of a haircut with tip in 1990 (when I first began using a FlowBee) was $10.
- Haircut inflation has climbed steadily at an even 3% clip (no pun intended).
- The average return on investment (ROI) on invested savings is 8%.
It doesn’t take long for the savings to multiply. Over the last 25 years, I saved about $3,281 in services. Those savings continually invested in low-cost mutual funds yield an $8,558 return, ignoring taxes and fees. That’s almost $12,000 in savings and investment growth!
Assuming I don’t lose my hair, which I am less optimistic about these days; the gains extrapolated out over the next 25 years total a whopping $86,000 ($10,000 in savings and $76,000 in investment growth). Add to that the cost savings from cutting my son’s hair until he is 18, and the number approaches $108,000.
Now if I can only convince my wife to let me use the FlowBee on her and our daughter.
That’s not too shabby for a wacky 1980’s infomercial product that caught my father’s eye.
Small changes really can make a big impact to the bottom line. What small changes can you start to make in your life?
2020 Update: Even George Clooney revealed to the world that he’s been using the Flowbee for the past 25 years – George Clooney! Now I can say that we share more than just our rugged good looks.
I can relate. Have you heard of the “bowl cut”? Coming from a family of 6 kids, we too were forced to cut expenses whenever possible. Purchasing a FlowBee wasn’t economically feasible. In our case a hair cut meant sitting on a stool while dad put a bowl on our heads and the cut around the rim with scissors. This method of cutting hair results in a hairstyle resembling a mushroom. If we would have invested the money we saved by not buying a FlowBee, added to the money we saved by not paying for haircuts, we be even more wealthy than we are now!! Love the blog!!!
Ron, maybe this is why my dad married a hair stylist??? Lol
Well if you do lose your hair, you’ll be able to afford a transplant with your savings.
Hilarious, but I expect the cost of a transplant is rather high. More importantly, as my ‘welcome’ page states, “making changes, but saving money only to pursue other consumer endeavors, will have no lasting or meaningful effect on your financial independence.” It’s about getting people to change their mindset. It’s not about affording more by cutting back, but being able to fund things like a child’s 529 plan, 401K account, paying off the mortgage, etc. Katie might just have to learn to love the cue ball look.
lol… My husband was spending $15 or so at a barber every two weeks (he’s balding so it stays short and not maintained looks very obvious) so we spent $25 on clippers and now I cut his hair. Depending on how in depth he wants (Beard, head, back & chest) it can take 45 minutes but we’ve saved!
1x week beard trimming
2-3x month hair cuts
1x month “grooming”
Just on the hair cuts alone we’ve saved $1,500! Ideally we should just $15 in a savings and add it to our retirement quarterly or something.
Exactly – adding the savings to additional mortgage payments or funding a retirement account is the critical step a lot of people miss. Typically, saving in one area is viewed as freeing up money to fund some other luxury or convenience. It’s often a short-term experience, however. My family’s goal is financial independence, which will have a much more enduring impact. It will be an important and underlying theme touched upon in many future posts.
My dogs love treats, but often they are expensive and full of questionable ingredients. I started making them treats about a year ago and I haven’t looked back! The pups love them even more than the store bought goodies. I keep them frozen so they last longer, both in terms of expiration and effort in consumption. Great lesson reminder. I usually don’t reflect on the small stuff that adds up.
Seems there were a number of these type of cut your own hair at home gadgets. The worst that came out in the 70’s was the dreaded trim comb. My mom bought one and used it on my brother. Well that razor thing cut a chunk out of his hair on the top of his head and the short hairs were sticking up. Thankfully she chucked that piece of junk in the trash. I’m glad that the FlowBee worked for you. The thought of using it on your wife and daughter? Well they would have to have quite short hair for that thing to work. I do agree that at home haircuts are a money saver. You need the right tools and do a little learning of techniques first. There are many great tutorials on YouTube. My guy cuts my hair for me every other month. He has been doing since we first started dating. Pretty brave on my part I would say. He uses the good hair shears, he capes me, uses the clips to section and pin up my hair and follows a very detailed technique like you see in the videos. I always get a great haircut from him and it saves me a lot of money. He colors my hair with henna every three months as well. I figure at $55 per haircut, plus $15 transportation cost per visit, that saves me over $400, with the cost of getting hair color at the salon, I save about the same, plus the henna makes my hair soft and shiny versus destroying it like the regular box dyes and what they use at the salon. For my two children, I tried doing their haircuts, they came out good, but they prefer my guy to give them their haircuts. Even going to the cheap barber at Walmart, I am saving over $500 a year on their haircuts. And he doesn’t leave their hair looking chewed like the barber did. It also saves a lot of time driving, waiting your turn as well as the time to get the haircut. If your wife and daughter do decide they are willing to do their fair share in saving money on hair care, I suggest you look at a number of YouTube tutorials first. Buy the proper hair shears, get a good quality nylon cape and the hair clips. Do a minimal trim of 1/2″ or less rather than decide to try a drastic style change on your first victim. I do suggest you do a minimal trim on your daughter’s hair first so your wife can see your technique and feel safer letting you wield the shears on her locks. And take your time, don’t rush it. Follow the steps and put on a video for your daughter to watch so she will not get fidgety and moving around too much. Good luck.
Thank you for the detailed advice. The FlowBee actually has a series of attachments that would allow me to cut longer hair, but I don’t really see it in my wife or daughter’s future. It might just be for me and the boy. I am sure my wife and I will be tackling our daughter’s hair, at least until she is old enough to realize the alternative. Hopefully we become proficient by then and earn her “business.”
We will being doing the children’s hair at home for a few years yet I am sure. When they get older and decide they do not want their free home haircut, I am fine with that, when they are willing to pay for their own. As for my guy has already earned my loyalty as a customer, he had it after the first haircut he gave me. I never liked going to the salon or paying their prices, so one great haircut for free had me smiling, and my purse happier as well.
Great Blog! One of the ways we saved $$$ was to make baby food instead of buying. We’d freeze them in ice-cube trays for easy portion-sizing.
The benefits are huge:
1. High nutritional values from fresh organic produce
2. Financial savings from buying mass-produced brown stuff
3. Saves my back from having to lug the extra weight
4. Saves gas from extra weight in the car
Excellent tip! We did that with our first too. Great minds think alike. The jars were handy for road trips and what not, but we tried to stick with our ice-cube tray meals.
We even saved on having to buy baby bottles by recycling the disposable “snappies” from the hospital. The nurses were kind to give us entire bags of the 4 oz snappies which were super convenient to use/wash.
Not to revive an old post, but I was just on a music cruise where one of the musicians revealed he uses a flowbee! If rockstars do it, can’t be wrong!