Beauty on a Budget?

So, not working for the past few weeks has led me to the realization that I need to be a little more careful where I spend my money. I love getting manicures and pedicures. The $27 for an hour and a half of pleasure and a week and a half of great looking nails is totally worth it to me. That being said, the economy has "fallen off a cliff" according to Warren Buffett, and thus the belt-tightening must start somewhere, right? So I sat down tonight to do some at-home beauty treatments with my Avon nail polish in the hue of "Midnight Plum". The polish was something like $3.50 in the sale catalog so that's more than $20 in my pocket. Quite the deal. Or so I thought.

This was the end result, and I must say that I tried very hard to stay within the confines on my actual nail and avoid my cuticle and finger.

Another angle, and yet further proof that I am horrible at this. It looks like I am trying to paint my nails in the middle of an earthquake.

I think my money and time is best spent paying people who are trained in these sorts of things, because apparently my BA in English didn't qualify me for this deceptively hard beauty treatment.