The girls' guide to cheap but cheerful living, including a tasty dinner party for six for under ten pounds.
Here are five money-saving tips that could help ease the financial burden of being female.
1. Hair styling
The last time I visited my usual London salon for a cut and colour, I paid £119 (£75 for the cut and £44 for the colour.) Compare this with £5 for a short back and sides and life may seem too unfair to live. But before you head for the nearest cliff, bear in mind that you can buy hair scissors in any major department store. I've often toyed with the idea of reproducing an expensive cut every three months by isolating small strands of hair and simply cutting two inches off each one.
If this seems too scary, and I have to admit I've never quite had the guts to do it -- or ask a friend to do it -- look out for `models needed' ads in salons everywhere for a trainee cut. Admittedly, they could take up to three hours but will cost only a fraction of the salon price.
2. Hair colour
This, too, is often offered for free or for a small fee by salons training new staff. But I would not be the eco-freak I am unless I mentioned the range of natural semi-permanent hair dyes (using only plant colourants) by Lagona which I test drove at home for this article. They produced excellent results.
I bought my box of walnut red-brown for £7.99 from Planet Organic but Lagona is also available at www.bewellstaywell.com/natural_hair_colors.htm. I'd never dyed at home before and I learned the following by trial and error: use an old toothbrush if you don't have a special brush for applying the dye; use a mirror to help you apply the dye to hair in small sections; stand on a dustbin liner and put a towel round your shoulders which you don't mind getting badly stained.
3. Beauty treatments
Facials, manicures, pedicures, massages, body wraps and various forms of epilation (including electrolysis for only £2) are available at low prices from trainees at the London College of Fashion, (020 7514 7449) principally in November, April and May, and it is well worth contacting any local college offering courses in fashion or beauty to ask about treatments which are cheap or even free.
4. Food -- Tip #1
At the risk of being blamed for making a sexist world even more sexist, I'm assuming here that women more often than not bear the brunt of food purchasing responsibilities. If I am wrong, forgive me.
All I want to do is pass on the advice of reliable (female) friends who tell me that if you go to a street market just as it is starting to close down, you can get fruit, veg and bread for a fraction of the (already cheap) advertised price because stall holders are keen to shift their remaining goods before they pack up for the day.
5. Food -- Tip #2 - a quick dinner party for under a tenner (with minimal washing up)
For all you girls out there who relate to Bridget Jones' state of mind when she spends a fortune on ingredients, gets in a terrible state and ends up producing blue soup and marmalade, here is, by my reckoning, the best dinner party yet devised for those whose time, energy and cooking abilities are as severely limited as their finances.
Course one - slice of honeydew melon with ginger and sugar.
Course two - brown rice with sardines, goat's cheese, dried apricots and lemon juice. Once the rice is cooked, add the other ingredients (remembering to chop up the goat's cheese and apricots first) and stir. This dish has an exotic taste and you needn't tell your guests it's a detox special.
Course three - chocolate mousse (or is it?). Add three pots of plain yoghurt to two pots of hazelnut spread and stir vigorously. This takes about one minute to make, can be served in the same dish you prepare it in and there's no messing around with gelatine or whatever previously unheard of ingredient Delia thinks we have time to grapple with. Garnish with crumbled Flake so that there's actually some chocolate involved.
Cost of entire dinner party for six people: £9.58.
We'll publish five more money-saving tips for women tomorrow!
More: 76 Foolish Ways To Save Money | Money Talk Podcast: Be A Savvier Supermarket Shopper!