'My hair needs help', or 'What have I done?!'

So I bit the bullet and dyed my hair blonde on the first day I had more than 5 minutes to myself since G was born. Looked in the mirror; didn't like it.

I rang the hairdresser for advice and ended up spending 2 hours and £83.00 from our dwindling pot of gold for even blonder half-head highlights. Slightly improved. I think. Not sure.

Honestly I thought it pretty chavtastic but what could I do?

Fast forward about 4 weeks. Oh sh!t. It looks worse as I now have roots to contend with. My hair is three colours. Or tricolore, if you like.

Trouble is, I really want to continue the quest for blonde hair I actually like. But £83.00 every 6 weeks or so? Um, no. Adriano and I have just been having serious conversations about how to cut down our expenditure and live within our means etc. To add to the confusion, he hates it when I do dramatic things to my own hair (he's scared I think) and, let's face it, dying it blonde myself did not work well. I've successfully dyed it other colours and been happy but I can't do that now: red would go orange; brown would go blue-ish. Part of the £83.00 was for the cut, which wouldn't have to be done every visit, but my god it would be nice... usually I only have my hair cut annually if that.

Any suggestions?