April 2014 No/Low-Buy Support, Advice, Free Hugs, and Commiseration

[MIKAGlam]

Thank you all. It is hard, I know I'll get through it though. Im just trying to find good, permanent ways of dealing with it.

 

[jaylilee]

My condolences, Mika! /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" /> It's so sad when pets pass away. They're part of the family after all.

--

I resisted! I resisted pulling the trigger on HSN, since they have their $20 off code. Instead I am now going to go sign on my house and feel good about myself that I didn't bite.

How's that for restraint!

(or the fact that i have no $$$ hahaha).

 

[meaganola]

My kitties are bewildered and annoyed at all of the hugs they have been getting over the past couple of days. [hippie dippy ramble about pet reincarnation and sort of messenger/guardian pets deleted] I do not believe pets are ever *gone*. They're just... Kind of *waiting* and watching until the right time to either re-enter your life or send another critter buddy -- who they have picked out for you -- your way.

 

[Spazkatt]

I need to limit my spending, from trying to pay off credit cards, going back to school and now my cat coming down with asthma, I need to stop buying things I don't absolutely NEED!  I was couponing, but with school I just don't have the time anymore.

 

[saku]

sooo.... i paid off everything, including my plane ticket to the philippines for december AND all of my credit cards!! everything's paid in full..and i got my clothes shopping done too (YAY!!). i'm still buying stuff occasionally, but i buy so much lesser beauty products now that i have money to spend in other stuff. i feel like i don't need to make rules anymore, as I think i've calmed down my beauty spending, and it's ingrained in me. maybe for this month, the only purchase i could've resisted is the urban decay lip glosses, but even with that, it's all good. after paying off everything, i still have a few hundred dollars left (i don't earn much, i'm just a poor graduate student), and i hope to put most of these into savings.. there's a few things we need though, like a chair mat. probably most of our expense comes from eating out -- but that is our indulgence, and i don't really want to restrain ourselves much. my boyfriend and i live together and we're both graduate students - constantly stressed out, so eating out is always a nice break!

april 'miscellaneous' expense:

clinique acne clearing gel $25

beauty.com order to get the origins GWP $6 (used my $5 drugstore.com dollars)

urban decay lip glosses and bronzer $65

MAC small brush canister $19

sephora cotton rounds (i bought 10, then 5, whenever the $1 sale cotton rounds come back in stock. score!) $15

crabtree & evelyn tube squeezer from ebay $6

birchbox tea press/tea/brush guards $11 (out of pocket)

kate spade tote $175

clothes at gap ~$200

not bad at all! the tote and the clothes are totally justified, and most of the beauty expenses i had also are. again, the only one i can't really justify is the UD (i was shopping 'in the moment' but i could've thought about it a little bit more. worst case, i'll sell some of them on ebay), so that would be my 'oops' purchase of the month. i also have ~$200 deposit from ebay sales. 

 

it feels so good to have 0 debt. now, i just have to save up for my 4-week trip in december. my mom wants to go to several beaches while we're there! it's gonna be a little expensive!

 

[chibimorph]

So... I caved and bought some Geek Chic eyeshadows because of their 20% off Easter Sale. After I ordered I realized they've had 30% off sales for Black Friday in the past, but I feel like that time period will be extremely crazy so I'm okay with placing an order now. The complete sets weren't on sale (which is a good thing for me because then I would've felt compelled to get the whole sets), so I ended up picking shades/names that I really liked from the Fellowship, The Game is On, and The Witchcraft and Wizardry collections. Since each collection has the same packaging, there's nothing left that I want to buy from them now.

I know that Shiro Cosmetics is going to have their anniversary sale around 4/30... and I really want The Hobbit Collection. A precursory search of their past sales seems to suggest that their anniversary sale is a good one as far as %off goes, so we'll see. There are lots of warm-toned colors in the collection and the more colorful shades lean blue and green (and one orange-red shade), all of which I think I'll be okay with wearing. I called my mom yesterday and told her my struggles - and she told me to buy The Hobbit Collection since I was so obsessed with LotR when I was younger (i.e. I reread the trilogy + The Hobbit + The Silmarillion every year since I was in 6th grade). I'm also tempted to get some shades from The Super Effective Collection, because despite being in my mid-20s, I still wear Pokemon T-shirts (in public too when I can).

For full disclosure, I also bought a 4-pack of Clarisonic brush heads because my $25 off code (for the Clarisonic website) from registering my Clarisonic was going to expire. This was a purchase I knew was coming and I can justify it as a "necessity" since I have only have 1 extra brush head right now.

That said, I'm really glad that I resisted buying more palettes during the Sephora/Ulta sales because the urge to buy them has passed. The Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette that I ordered from hsn in late March is supposed to arrive today (or maybe Monday depending on the post office) so hopefully this palette and the loose shadows will appease my eyeshadow cravings (most likely not, though

)

 

[JuliaGhostx3]

So I work in the mall & get paid weekly in cash. I got paid extra today for the week because I worked some extra hours. It's really hard to not walk down to Sephora or over to Yankee Candle, especially with the extra cash after putting away my 'Save for London' money. But, I didn't even walk in the direction of the stores & went straight home. xD

 

[PeridotCricket]

So I work in the mall & get paid weekly in cash. I got paid extra today for the week because I worked some extra hours. It's really hard to not walk down to Sephora or over to Yankee Candle, especially with the extra cash after putting away my 'Save for London' money. But, I didn't even walk in the direction of the stores & went straight home. xD

That is awesome willpower. You can do it.

 

[BSquared]

So I work in the mall & get paid weekly in cash. I got paid extra today for the week because I worked some extra hours. It's really hard to not walk down to Sephora or over to Yankee Candle, especially with the extra cash after putting away my 'Save for London' money. But, I didn't even walk in the direction of the stores & went straight home. xD

Yay go you!!

sooo.... i paid off everything, including my plane ticket to the philippines for december AND all of my credit cards!! everything's paid in full..and i got my clothes shopping done too (YAY!!). i'm still buying stuff occasionally, but i buy so much lesser beauty products now that i have money to spend in other stuff. i feel like i don't need to make rules anymore, as I think i've calmed down my beauty spending, and it's ingrained in me. maybe for this month, the only purchase i could've resisted is the urban decay lip glosses, but even with that, it's all good. after paying off everything, i still have a few hundred dollars left (i don't earn much, i'm just a poor graduate student), and i hope to put most of these into savings.. there's a few things we need though, like a chair mat. probably most of our expense comes from eating out -- but that is our indulgence, and i don't really want to restrain ourselves much. my boyfriend and i live together and we're both graduate students - constantly stressed out, so eating out is always a nice break! april 'miscellaneous' expense: clinique acne clearing gel $25 beauty.com order to get the origins GWP $6 (used my $5 drugstore.com dollars) urban decay lip glosses and bronzer $65 MAC small brush canister $19 sephora cotton rounds (i bought 10, then 5, whenever the $1 sale cotton rounds come back in stock. score!) $15 crabtree & evelyn tube squeezer from ebay $6 birchbox tea press/tea/brush guards $11 (out of pocket) kate spade tote $175 clothes at gap ~$200 not bad at all! the tote and the clothes are totally justified, and most of the beauty expenses i had also are. again, the only one i can't really justify is the UD (i was shopping 'in the moment' but i could've thought about it a little bit more. worst case, i'll sell some of them on ebay), so that would be my 'oops' purchase of the month. i also have ~$200 deposit from ebay sales. :clap   it feels so good to have 0 debt. now, i just have to save up for my 4-week trip in december. my mom wants to go to several beaches while we're there! it's gonna be a little expensive!

Congrats!! Having zero debt must feel amazing!! I was down to 3 digits finally (including student loans)...but then we bought a car. I am very jealous!! Well after the first week of the months epic meltdown I've been holding strong so far! Bought a hair dryer but that's a necessity so I'm not counting it. Hopefully I can keep it going into May. I did don't a gift card I forgot I had so that's going to be my "fun" money for the next month!

 

[meaganola]

*cough*  I'm seriously thinking about picking up the UD Ocho Loco 2 set since it's marked down.  I would use all of those colors except the turquoise (since I already have one) and the black (because I do not use black eyeliner), and it breaks down to about $4.50 each.  I'll try to hold off until the weekend, though.  If it's still in stock, I'll get it.  If not, it was not meant to be.  I'll definitely be picking up the UD lip pencil in Lovechild and a 24/7 eyeliner pencil in Corrupt.  I have a belated birthday code to use, and I've been wanting both of these pencils (although I have boatloads of eyeliner pencils, I only have a couple of browns, one of which is about to run out, and one of which is too warm to use with certain spring pastels that have landed themselves in heavy rotation this season), so I can accept using the code and paying shipping in this instance. 

And I'll place another GDE order tonight because Control Freak *and* Foil Me are in stock, and those are staple items for me that aren't always available when I run out of my current supplies.  I've been out of CF for a while because it went out of stock pretty much as soon as I got my sample and tried it, and I really miss it, so that is a no-brainer.  I'm halfway through my bottle of Foil Me, and I've had it since December, but I wasn't using it every day when I initially received it like I am now, so I don't know how quickly I will go through it.  I'll go ahead and get two now during the Easter sale, and then I'll just get another one every time it's restocked since it seems like it's out of stock for a few months at a time, so I might as well go ahead and keep a backup or two of this one just in case it goes out of stock for six to eight months since it's something I use with *everything*. 

ETA:  Well, nevermind.  Foil Me went out of stock as I was checking out!  Since that was the main thing I wanted, I'm not ordering anything.  I'll just have to go back to careful usage until it comes back in stock. 

 

[saycrackagain]

You guys.... Since the last time I posted here (what, 3 days ago?) I have used up ELEVEN MORE products.

 

[chibimorph]

Quote: Originally Posted by JuliaGhostx3 /img/forum/go_quote.gif
  So I work in the mall & get paid weekly in cash. I got paid extra today for the week because I worked some extra hours. It's really hard to not walk down to Sephora or over to Yankee Candle, especially with the extra cash after putting away my 'Save for London' money. But, I didn't even walk in the direction of the stores & went straight home. xD

Good job!

Quote: Originally Posted by saycrackagain /img/forum/go_quote.gif

You guys.... Since the last time I posted here (what, 3 days ago?) I have used up ELEVEN MORE products.

Yay! Using stuff up is so exciting

 

[chibimorph]

So I just took a full inventory of what I have (in my apartment and at home)... and after the Shiro Cosmetics sale (late April/May), I'll be on an official makeup no-buy until November/December (my birthday month), in which case I would try to limit myself to only buying foundation, a powder (I only have one right now), and brushes. The inventory I took already assumed that I purchased the Shiro Cosmetics stuff I'm planning on buying.

In addition to taking inventory, I've decided to put some of my cuter palettes (like the Too Faced Chocolate Bar palette) in more visible places. My makeup is stored neatly in a cabinet of my spare bathroom, so the scope of what I have doesn't really hit me - I think some reorganization is called for. Since the loose pigments I'm buying will have cute labels, I've already cleared out an area to store them such that I can look at them every day (it'll be near my computer, so I will actually be constantly admiring them) and I'll remember to use them. I've also created an eyeshadow rotation so that I'll get use out of what I have and I've taken into account that there's a palette that I want to hit pan on (so I'll be using it more frequently than the others).

In summary, I need to start using my brain power to do what I'm supposed to be doing right now (which is learn about the brain) rather than think about makeup organization and rotation

 

[Jen283]

*cough*  I'm seriously thinking about picking up the UD Ocho Loco 2 set since it's marked down.  I would use all of those colors except the turquoise (since I already have one) and the black (because I do not use black eyeliner), and it breaks down to about $4.50 each.  I'll try to hold off until the weekend, though.  If it's still in stock, I'll get it.  If not, it was not meant to be.  I'll definitely be picking up the UD lip pencil in Lovechild and a 24/7 eyeliner pencil in Corrupt.  I have a belated birthday code to use, and I've been wanting both of these pencils (although I have boatloads of eyeliner pencils, I only have a couple of browns, one of which is about to run out, and one of which is too warm to use with certain spring pastels that have landed themselves in heavy rotation this season), so I can accept using the code and paying shipping in this instance. 

Not to be an enabler, but I bought the ocho loco set for the holidays and I really enjoy all 8 of the liners it came with. In other news, my month of fail is getting failer by the day. This weekend I bought clothes, shoes, candles, jewelery, everything! Granted, some of it was planned, but about $100 of it was not. AND this morning I ordered the Jaclyn Hill brush set from Sigma. I'm just waiting for May at this point. It'll be a 3-paycheck month, which means I can give my grandma the last payment for my car and get my finances back to where I want them.

 

[lochnessie]

This month (my first!) has been slightly fail-ish so far, but not too awful. I was allowed my subscriptions (Ipsy and Black Sheep Lacquer), and a Pretty & Polished box or a $25 nail polish budget. 

I spent $21 on an indie order, and then the day after my order, a too good to pass up Fab.com deal came up for Rainbow Honey polishes... so I spent another $20 on polish (for 7 polishes + a top coat + cuticle balm!). So my budget of $25 resulted in $41 being spent - but I'm not going to beat myself up over it. I've resisted a lot of sales!

My mom's been in the hospital this past week (getting much better, though!), so I've started working on cleaning my parents' house - my mom's bedroom was a disaster area, and it really needs to be clean before she gets home. They've had 35 years in that house to accumulate stuff... I spent 10 hours this weekend cleaning, filled up my dad's truck with trash, and filled another 3-4 trash bags of stuff for donation. This is only the beginning - there's SO MUCH more that needs to be sorted/removed. I messaged my husband yesterday and told him, "Please never let us get our house to the state of my parents." This process is definitely giving me incentive to continue a low-buy and get rid of items at my house!

 

[page5]

I feel really good about this month - the only thing I have bought was shampoo and I needed it (I'm using my last sample). I've used up several items too but I still need to do a final de-stash. I was trying to do it last week but didn't find the time. Hopefully this week will be a little less busy. My spring cleaning is not going as well as I hoped. The only things I've done are the refrigerator, one bookcase, and the hall closet. This week I'm tackling the laundry room. 

 

[lioness90]

Throwing lots of good karma sparkles your way for when MUT is down and we don't have access to this thread 

 (pretend this smiley is throwing glitter and sparkles lol)

Wow I am loopy today...lol

 

[BSquared]

Yes, good luck to everyone while this thread is down!!! Im a little nervous butttttttt I should be ok /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

 

[Jen283]

We're back online!! In the past two days I've been good (because I've been busy!). April has been so bad for me and I really need to just restart in May when I'll be a bit more busy on the weekends and I'll be saving my money for going out instead of makeup.

 

[kawaiisofoxy]

Haha I was really good while MUT was down because I couldn't get to the Enablers thread.... 

Hope everyone did well over the past few days!  Missed you!