• Many of my favorite hair, skin, and hygiene products are from Trader Joe's and cost less than $10.
• I use Trader Joe's fluoride-free toothpaste and lemongrass-coconut body oil every day.
• The best Trader Joe's beauty products include Enrich moisturizing face lotion and hair oil.

I used to think I had to spend a lot on beauty products if I wanted quality, but Trader Joe's has completely changed my mind.

Typically, I stick to food when I shop at the grocery chain, but on one trip, a $6 hair oil caught my eye. Although I follow a tight budget, it felt like a great price, and I decided to try it.

I couldn't believe how much it seemed to improve the health of my hair after just one use.

After that, I became hooked on trying Trader Joe's hair, skin, and hygiene products. Fortunately, many of them are under $10.

There have been a few misses, but here are the ones I've loved enough to make part of my daily and weekly routines.

Trader Joe's hair oil is a key part of my morning routine.

Each morning, I massage a drop of this oil throughout my hair. It makes it look so shiny in between washes, rather than greasy.

The moisturizing mix of ingredients, including argan oil, moringa seed oil, chia seed oil, and vitamin E, has also been helping my hair recover from when I ironed it daily while I was teaching.

Speaking of ironing, the oil is also designed to help protect hair against heat damage up to 450°F.

Some beauty fans even say this is comparable to the popular Ouai hair oil that costs about $30 for 1.5 ounces. Meanwhile, a 1-ounce bottle of Trader Joe's costs $6.

The Enrich moisturizing face lotion doesn't break me out.

At just $4 for a 4-ounce bottle, I was skeptical about Trader Joe's Enrich face lotion.

However, I've lived in Florida my entire life and have never found a facial moisturizer with SPF that doesn't break me out — until this one.

In addition to SPF 15, the fragrance-free lotion also contains vitamins A, C, and E.

I've been using Enrich under my makeup in the morning, and since it's so inexpensive, I don't feel bad applying it to my arms as well for some extra TLC.

Trader Joe's lemongrass-coconut body oil doesn't leave me feeling greasy.

I've been on the hunt for the perfect body oil to apply after the shower when my skin is damp. This is the first one I've tried that leaves me feeling moisturized, not like a layer of grease is sitting on top of my skin.

It's made with lemongrass oil, virgin coconut oil, sweet almond oil, jojoba oil, and olive oil, and I appreciate the natural ingredients.

The scent feels cheery and uplifting, and many consider lemongrass oil to be a natural mosquito repellent. With summer around the corner, that's a real perk.

Best of all, Trader Joe's body oil feels super affordable at $4 for a 4.8-ounce bottle.

I use Trader Joe's bonding shampoo and conditioners for a salon-level wash.

This shampoo and conditioner duo from Trader Joe's leaves my hair feeling utterly healed from that aforementioned heat damage.

I wash my scalp first with a gentle dandruff shampoo, then shampoo and condition with Trader Joe's bonding set. This is a strategy my dermatologist told me to try — the medicated shampoo cleans my scalp, while the regular shampoo nourishes my hair.

This routine makes my hair feel and look like I got a salon wash and blowout when it's dry. It may be because these products contain ingredients like hydrolyzed keratin and silk, which can help strengthen hair and make it shine.

At $8 per 12-ounce bottle, this duo cost me $16 total, but the quality reminds me of the expensive salon sets I've bought from my hairdresser in the past.

Some shoppers even swear these are dupes for more expensive bonding shampoos, which can cost twice (or even three times) as much.

I've been using this $1 find as a luxurious hand soap.

I couldn't believe how luxurious Trader Joe's Next to Godliness oatmeal-and-honey vegetable soap feels when I wash my hands with it. After all, I paid only $1 for a 4-ounce bar.

Since I've started using this as a hand soap, I haven't had to use as much hand lotion — it's that moisturizing. I love the lather, too, but it's the scent that stole my heart. This soap smells like oatmeal-spiced cookies right from the oven.

If I ever see this on shelves again, I'm stocking up.

This Trader Joe's fluoride-free toothpaste feels like a treat that's good for my teeth.

I've been looking for an affordable fluoride-free toothpaste that leaves my mouth feeling just as clean as its fluoride counterparts for some time — and this one from Trader Joe's has been a winner for me.

The 6-ounce bottle of peppermint toothpaste costs $4, and I appreciate that it has calcium hydroxyapatite, which some studies suggest can help protect teeth from erosion, cavities, and decay.

My favorite part is that it tastes like York Peppermint Pattie filling, but leaves my teeth feeling clean all day long.

Keep reading Trader Joe's diaries to see what other must-haves shoppers have in their carts.

• When my son was young, I let myself dream one day and made a list of what I'd do with endless money.
• Those things seemed impossible when swirling around in my head, but on paper, they didn't.
• The list became a vision board, and then, it helped me plan and build my future.

By the time my son was almost 1, I had a small amount of savings and a part-time job, but I wasn't exactly flush with cash. Still, I was slowly emerging from the financial survival mode I had been in for most of my 20s, focusing solely on caring for my first baby.

Finances began to dominate my concerns as I became serious about building a stable future for us. I didn't want to be so worried about money forever. But first, I wanted to fantasize — just for a moment — about what I'd do with my life if money were a non-issue.

Just for a moment, I wanted to pretend I didn't have to worry about money

I sat down at the kitchen table while my son took his afternoon nap. He was about 10 months old then. With a cup of coffee, I allowed myself to dream. I wrote "Wishlist" at the top of a blank spiral notebook sheet, and then started listing bullet items. It took less than five minutes.

When I was done, I started examining each item on its own: Go to Paris, Buy my own house, Finish my degree, Become a teacher, Get us whatever we need without worrying, Get a dog, Start a business. When they'd been stirring around in my mind all together, these things seemed outlandish. Own my own home as a single person? It didn't seem possible — until I saw it written down on that paper, and started truly thinking about what it would take to make it happen.

Broken down individually, these things suddenly looked much more attainable. Yes, it'd still take a lot of time and effort to achieve, and I may not get them all — or all at the same time — but it wasn't impossible for me to build the life I wanted for myself and my son. For example, finishing my degree wasn't really that crazy when I started thinking about it. By applying for financial aid or loans and saving up for tuition, I knew it wouldn't be impossible to complete just two years of college to finish my Bachelor's degree.

My wishlist started looking more like a blueprint for our future

I saw that college was really one of the first steps to getting the rest of the things that I had written down. With a degree, I knew I could earn more money. With the possibility of a dependable income in mind, I could now visualize us in our own house — with that dog! I foresaw less worry about expenses, like clothes, groceries, and even extras, such as more travel and eating out.

My son is 12 now. Since I wrote that list over a decade ago, I have started a couple of businesses while finishing my degree. And yes, I even bought my own house, and we got a dog. It was by no means easy or fast. After I sat down at my kitchen table, it took a total of five years — and very little rest — to achieve all of that.

We haven't yet made it to Paris, but I was so proud to take us on a "real" vacation — with airplanes, rental cars, and hotels — to Vermont one summer. While I was able to work for some of the things that I once thought were far-fetched, the financial concern never went away. I still worry about paying for things we need sometimes, but I also try to alleviate the anxiety by reassuring myself that I always figure it out.

Without realizing it, I was designing our future that day

After I finished my degree, I taught English for six years. I now know that what I did that day with my wishlist was backward planning, a strategy in which you start with the final goal or assessment and work backward to determine the steps needed to get there. All of my bullet list items were final goals. Once the goals were clear, it was easier to determine the steps to get there.

Or maybe when I allowed myself to dream that day and wrote down my desires on that piece of paper, part of me was manifesting my future. By taking that small step, I could see that the things I wanted weren't really that out of reach — with the right amount of foresight and planning, of course. For the next several years, that list was basically my vision board.

Money makes things easier sometimes, but I no longer view it as a barrier

I thought money stood in the way of everything I dreamed of, but it didn't. Once I saw that there was a way to get to where I wanted to go, with the right plan, the world opened up a little more for me. My wishlist was powerful, because I saw that with enough drive, nothing should really stop me from going after my dreams.