My watery purple nightmare

Times are tough right now; that's no surprise to anyone. And if you're anything like me, you're trying to find new ways to save some money. Personally, I have been cutting corners all over the place. I make my coffee at home and take it with me most days. I buy generic brand products as much as possible. I've completely cut the term mani/pedi from my vocabulary. I even (*gasp*) have cut down on the wine consumption. Notice I said "cut down" and not "cut out." Times are tough, yes, but a girl's still gotta live.

There are some corners that, quite simply, should not be cut, however. Or at least not to the extent that I have cut them.

Case in point: I have been dealt an unfortunate genetic hand and am forced to color my hair about every 6 weeks or so, lest my prematurely gray hair begins to run rampant. This can be a huge drain on our cash flow, so I stopped having it done professionally and started doing it myself. Just like the good old days. And by "good old days," I mean "college." I realized how much money this was saving us and decided that I could afford to cut back even more. This time when I went to the grocery store, I bought the cheapest bottle I could possibly find. Let's just say, I don't think the whole thing cost me more than $3. And that's after tax.

There can't be that big of a difference, right?

After applying the foul-smelling stuff to my hair and waiting the obligatory amount of time, I decided to just wash it out in the shower. Kill two birds with one stone.

I had my eyes closed so that nothing would accidentally drip in my eyes. Then I opened them.

Purple everywhere. PURPLE. Not medium ash brown. Purple with a capital "P".

I panicked. I was trying frantically to wash the stuff off the walls of the shower, when all of the sudden, I felt a draft and heard the shower door open. I turned around just in time to see Bella climbing into my watery purple nightmare in her diaper and socks.

Perfect.

I'm scrambling to get her out without getting any of the toxic sledge on her. She was mostly spared. Her poor socks were not. A small price to pay, I suppose.

In the meantime, the inky purple water is dripping down my face and it's BURNING.

So, yes, the economy is a mess and we sometimes need to cut corners here and there. A word of caution: you get what you pay for.
And sometimes that can be a little more than you bargained for.