Blogs we love: Stuff I Put On Myself by Natalie Dee

Welcome to another regular feature of Cheap and Cheerful: Blogs we love. Once a month, we will profile and link to blogs we love that deliver content to help you live better on a budget.

Natalie Dee, the professional web comic artist behind the daily Natalie Dee and also one half of the team responsible for Married to the Sea launched a new project earlier this month called STUFF I PUT ON MYSELF: a makeup blog. In addition to reviews that run the span of cosmetics from higher-end lines carried in department stores and sephora to drugstore brands, STUFF I PUT ON MYSELF also provides makeup tutorials, skincare tips, and fashion articles.

Our favorite feature so far is the The Pig. Offering brutually honest reviews of heavily hyped cosmetic products, The Pig assesses whether or not a product has delivered what it promises on the packaging. When a "special forumla" turns out to be not-so-special after all, STUFF I PUT ON MYSELF feeds the money to "The Pig", and then suggests cheaper alternatives. Feeding money to The Pig helps to visualize how much you could be saving by not spending money on products that don't live up to the hype, and makes it easier to make room in your personal care budget for your favorite small luxuries by helping you to shop smarter! Casual and conversational in tone, STUFF I PUT ON MYSELF brings the smart, unapologetic, and unaffected humour of Dee's webcomic work to the world of cosmetic and style blogging --and we think that world is all the richer for it.

Lifehacker suggests bin-ends for savings on wine

Check out this article in today's Lifehacker to save some money when buying wine. For more budget wine-buying tips, it's worth reading TheKitchn article to which they've linked at the bottom of the blurb.

Ten Sources for Really Free Music That's Really Working For Me

Streaming Services
(1) Pandora
Pandora probably has the least cluttered layout and nicest radio interface of the three streaming services listed here. The sound and connection quality has always been excellent whenever I've used it, but there are ads if you're using the free version, and sometimes they're every three or four songs. This can be annoying, but every ad I've seen so far has been less than 30 seconds. They also only allow free users to skip a certain number of tracks per hour. This aspect, and the lack of a discovery feature, makes Pandora the service I use least frequently to stream, despite its cleanly designed interface. If you aren't looking for new music however, Pandora is a great service for the casual listener. The ads played are brief, and there no annoying radio personalities interrupting your tunaege.

(2) Last.fm
We wrote up Last.fm in detail here last year, but for those who can't be bothered to read the article, last.fm is a free streaming music service (le duh). While it isn't necessary that you sign up and create a profile to use their services, if you want to use their "recommendations" feature to discover new songs, new artists, and new events in your area that are catered to your music tastes, I recommend that you do. In fact, last.fm's "recommendations" feature is the reason I usually recommend last.fm to friends over Pandora. Pandora has a nicer interface, but last.fm has the better discovery algorithm and consistently recommends new artists and songs that I actually want to hear.

(3) Grooveshark
While the streaming radio service on Grooveshark is a little more unwieldy than Pandora or Last.fm, this is service I use daily. Grooveshark is unique to the other two services mentioned in that it allows you to stream any single track in the library, an unlimited number of times at will, whether you've registered for an account or not. Users are able to stream entire albums so long as they've been uploaded to Grooveshark's massive music library. There hasn't been a single track or artist I've searched for so far that doesn't exist in some version in their library. The radio service as it is leaves a little to be desired. Your main options are to either select a genre-based station or to play a track and then turn the radio feature on. The second option creates a radio station of music similar to the initial track selected. This system can be tweaked a little, if users select a few songs manually, before turning on the radio feature. If you want to create a station with more genre variety, selecting a few songs from across a few different genres is the most effective way to accomplish this.


Free Mp3 Downloads

(4) Artist Direct
The online digital media company that acquired Media Defender and Media Sentry in the last decade also offers free downloads! Who knew? Surprisingly, the downloads offered are not limited to the new bands pushed desperately by their labels nor to the obscurities that never made back the cost of their advances. One of my favorite finds so far is this track from the Bloody Beetroots. Be aware though, that in order to save files from Artist Direct to your computer you must right click (Mac users hold control and click) and select "save link as".

(5) Amazon.com
Monster online-retailer Amazon.com offers free Mp3 downloads in addition to regular purchased tracks. Weeding through all the purchase tracks when searching bestsellers, or the obscure tracks when searching the list of the free tracks can be tedious, but browsing these vast collections usually proves worthwhile. Don't over look their huge selection of free Mp3 sampler albums! The catch here is you have to either make an Amazon account or already have one and then go to the trouble of logging in. You then have to install the Amazon Mp3 down-loader. Still, it's all free and the total processes combined take only a few minutes.

(6) Paste Magazine Free Mp3s
Oh Paste Magazine, you never let me down. Updated frequently, across a wide variety of genres, Paste Magazine's free Mp3 blog has a huge collection of free downloads. This has been totally hassle free so far. Visitors to the blog simply click the hyperlinked text that says something like "click here to download Vampire Weekend's cover of Cheryl Cole's Fight for this Love" and the download begins. There have been a few songs (like those on the Saddle Creek label) that require users to submit their email address to receive a link that allows them to complete the download. This being a blog run by Paste Magazine, most offerings come from independent labels. However, with selections ranging from Bright Eyes, Cut/Copy, The Pixies, Elvis Costello and the Tings Tings, there should be at least one track to please everyone.

Mp3 Blogs

(7) Dopplebanger
Dopplebanger features remixes and mash-ups from the Parsian electronic artist Dopplebanger. Tracks featured are mostly Club, Electronic, Hip-Hop and R&B mash-ups, but there are some original compositions posted as well. Currently content is a little sparse, but if mash-ups are your thing, this blog offers some fun, free downloads of remixed hits like Rude Boy and Got It Twisted Sister. Many of the downloads offered are available directly, but a few come through mediafire (but they're still free).

(8) Aquarium Drunkard
Aquarium Drunkard is "an eclectic independent audio blog, featuring daily music, reviews, features, Mp3s, sessions, interviews, and more". One of the great things about Aquarium Drunkard is that they've been around since 2005, and post new content nearly every day, so there's loads of material to sift through. On the other hand, mining the blog for Mp3 downloads can be a little daunting at first, because there's loads of material to sift through. HINT: most of the Mp3s on offer are at the end of each Aquarium Drunkard article. So scroll down. Most of the articles and interviews posted, however, are very readable, comfortably concise, and thankfully for-go the meaningless ratings systems and taste-maker posturing that plagues a lot of writing about independent music.

Recommended Podcasts
(9) Coverville
Coverville is a podcast featuring noteworthy... you guessed it, cover versions of songs performed by both new and well-established artists. Having debuted in 2004, with new episodes released roughly three times per week, there is a huge back catalog of material, with iTunes podcast archive going as far back as late 2009. If you dig deep, like more than fifty pages deep, you can go back even further than that in the archives on their website. This is easier than it sounds though. Enter the archives by clicking the "older entries" button at the bottom of the main page. The URL at the top of the page should now read "coverville.com/page/2/". Simply change that low number to a much higher one, say "60", and you're all the way back in September of 2009, listening to covers of every track from Abbey Road Remember to right click and "save link as" when cruising that deep in the back pages.


(10) Mad Decent Worldwide Radio
Hosted by both the label's team and the label's founder, Diplo, the Mad Decent Worldwide Radio podcast, features artists on the Mad Decent record label, as well as ones that they haven't signed but have taken note. A self-described "NPR for the streets", Mad Decent Worldwide Radio features DJ mixes, videos, interviews, radio-casts and mixtapes highlighting emerging and obscure sub-genres of club and electronic music. These guys also put on a free block party every summer in select cities. Watch the space at maddecentblockparty.com for details.

Moar Music! From Black Tambourine!

Courtesy of bread n' butter and bandcamp.com...

A FREE DOWNLOAD of earlier mixes transferred from the original Black Tambourine cassette. While the mixes are from the same performances and recordings as the remixed versions, there are some differences between the vocals, reverb and guitar effects. As fans of both free downloads and dreamy, noise-pop from the early 1990's, we suggest you check it out.

Original post at bread n' butter
Black Tambourine cassette download at bandcamp.com

Thriftspiration from the wide, wide world of livejournal

While for many people the idea of keeping a public journal is understandably a paradox, a livejournal account can be used to other ends. The livejournal online service boasts a wealth of public journals that users may join and gain posting access to called "communities". Communities are themed groups, and much like other online forums allow users to post questions regarding the subject, advice and experiences, or projects they've completed relating to the topic of the group.

Many of the groups are fan-oriented, catering to those with an interest in popular book, film and television series, or for famous actors and musicians. However, many of the groups are themed around certain life-styles or how to's.

One great community for thrift-spiration is thriftwhore, a community where users post photos and details of their latest shopping hauls from their local thrift shop or flea market. Whenever I find myself disappointed by my local Family Thrift Centre or Goodwill, I have a look at thriftwhore for a reminder that there's still treasure out there.

Those with a taste for interior design may enjoy saucydwellings. Though the community does not focus exclusively on thrifty design, there is an emphasis on creativity and style, both of which often go with decorating and furnishing on a budget. This user furnished and decorated a basement apartment on a "a side-of-the-road-or-Goodwill budget" and did quite well for themselves.

Though Dumpster-diving or Skipping, is becoming an increasingly dangerous (and depending on the laws in your area, possible illegal) pastime with more and more businesses outfitting their collection bins with compactors, the dumpsterdiving community on livejournal offers posts accompanied by photos of what users have found digging through other people's garbage. In addition to posts detailing hauls, dumpsterdiving also features posts regarding tips and tricks for finding and getting into receptacles, and sometimes offers information regarding the legality of the activity by region.

The communities featured in this post are but a tiny sample of all the offerings available for public viewing at one of the most popular journaling sites on all of the internet. If you find yourself with a little time and little inspiration for your budget living, consider checking out what people have been doing on "teh livejournal".

A cheerful wedding can come cheap (well, cheap-ish)

The months May and June may herald holidays and vacations for some, but for others sunny afternoons and warmer evenings announce the arrival of the wedding season. Spring and summer are no longer the only time to tie the knot these days, but many people still hope to hold spring or summer nuptials. In fact, I had the priviledge of being an attendent in a close friend's wedding just this past weekend.

--Which brings me to today's link: Off Beat Bride . While the site may not have an exclusively "cheap and cheerful" focus, many of the weddings featured highlight couples who were on a budget, stuck to it, and hosted a lovely occasion through creativity, doing some things themselves, and the help of their supportive personal circles (check the wedding-porn section and you'll see that "budget wedding" is a very popular tag).

I'm not due to be wed anytime soon that I can see, but I've always really enjoyed browsing this site. Like many others, I find the level of consumption encouraged by the wedding industrial complex to be flippin' outrageous these days. Still, I don't see why anyone should be begrudged a special day and I think it's extra lovely how the couples come together with the other important people in their lives to plan a ceremony and reception that suits them. Off Beat Bride well demonstrates that a "budget wedding" does not have to mean a depressingly "cheap" wedding. Regardless of what the bridge and groom's (or groom and groom's or bride and bride's) budget may be, every couple featured emphasizes quality and uniqueness through creativity, community and the D.I.Y. ethos.

So if you're planning a wedding some day, check it out. They do wonderful pictorials of real weddings, with commentary from the brides on how they put their one-of-a-kind matrimony-ceremony together. Additionally, the site offers articles that range from tutorials on making your own centerpieces and bouquets, to the ethical condrumn on where to draw the lines with do-(or duplicate)-it-yourself.