Days 1- 10 of 100 day No Buy Challenge

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I did really well today. I went to the mall. Didn't go in Victoria's Secret. Had to hold myself back. I have plenty of bras and underwear, but they are on sale! Went to Gap to use my 10.00 Birchbox coupon. Spent exactly 10.00. Got a workout shirt and some socks. They had 60% off sale stuff,so satisfied my urge to get a really good deal. Free is good! This is the best part went in Bath & Body Works and bought nothing! I had been in there the day after Christmas and bought a lot, so I didn't need anything else. Still resisting the urge to go to Ulta. I want to see what is in their clearance bins. I will resist.

 
      Today I learned an expensive lesson about saving things for a special occasion. I went into my Keep stash of foundations and concealers to finally use my the Balm cream foundation and concealer. They had only been swatched once, then put back into their boxes to keep them perfect. When I bought them two years ago, they were miraculously perfect matches to my pasty white self.

     So did I do the smart thing and use them when I bought them? Noooooo, I did not. I was going to save them.

  When I took them from their boxes today, they had turned a lovely shade of Tropicana Pure Premium, Tang, freaking orange! I do not blame the product at all. I blame myself, and my mentality of saving things for an occasion that never happens, instead of using and enjoying my things everyday.     

    Lesson learned. Use it, don't save it for someday. 

 
Kristine Walker said:
      Today I learned an expensive lesson about saving things for a special occasion. I went into my Keep stash of foundations and concealers to finally use my the Balm cream foundation and concealer. They had only been swatched once, then put back into their boxes to keep them perfect. When I bought them two years ago, they were miraculously perfect matches to my pasty white self.

     So did I do the smart thing and use them when I bought them? Noooooo, I did not. I was going to save them.

  When I took them from their boxes today, they had turned a lovely shade of Tropicana Pure Premium, Tang, freaking orange! I do not blame the product at all. I blame myself, and my mentality of saving things for an occasion that never happens, instead of using and enjoying my things everyday.     

    Lesson learned. Use it, don't save it for someday. 
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You aren't alone... something similar happened to me recently.  For some silly reason I saved the last little bit of Glam Glow in the black container (I can't remember what its called).  It was there for a few weeks.  When I went to use it, it was dried out and firmly stuck to the bottom of the container.  Lesson learned.

 
Same here went to use one of mmy massage bars from lush today, I wasn't so much saving it as I got distracted. It's really dry now. It still (kinda) works but is not anywhere near as nice as when I bought it. Totally my issue but I'm still sad :( /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

 
Not sure where this belongs (it's not project pan, it's not Monday club), so I'm going to put it here. I decided that for the month of January I am going to try to use (at least) one cream eyeshadow and one lip gloss every time I do my makeup. I chose these because I have a bunch of them and yet I usually reach for other things (powder shadow, lip crayons, etc.) instead of using them. Also because they are both products that will go bad sooner than other things, either by drying up or going weird in some way. Powders will last forever, so it's not so urgent that I make a dent in them. It's also a way to switch things up for the next little while, since these things aren't what I would normally use (so I won't get bored using what I already have, I hope!).

 
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I haven't had the urge to buy anything yet. My goals for the first ten days are:

1. Stick to the no buy.

2. Come up with a makeup budget for the year.

3. Come up with project pan items that I want to finish this year. I'm going to go through my stash and pick out all of my older items that really need to get used up, and make a plan to use them.

 
I did some more organizing today! Cleared off the bookshelf that was in my make up room & moved all the books into a shelf in my office, so I have more room for make up/products. I'm working on moving all of my hair styling products from the bathroom into the other room because I usually do my hair in there anyway. 

Realizing I have a LOT of hair products and I never really do anything with my hair! Need to fix that, so I'm adding another rule: Style hair at least twice per week. 

 
Did my makeup today and as per my rules, used at least 2 new products today! Actually ended up using 3, an eyeshadow, a blush, and a lipstick. Then promptly went to play with puppies, so no urge to shop! I did buy one item last night that was something limited I meant to get in an order in December but it was unavailable then. And I got 1 of my 3 games I'm allowed. On track!

 
Success!!!!!

I am back from the mall. I bought NO makeup, skincare, Haircare, etc. I managed to stay out of B&BW, Bare Minerals and all of my other top temptations. Even better, I only spent my $50 gift card on clothes, going over only due to taxes. I spent $35 on a jacket that was originally $140 and three clearanced $5 t-shirts. I am so proud of myself.

Congrats to everyone else as well! We are off to a great start. Just think of how much money we will be saving as a group!!

 
Oooh, oooh, can I join too?

I've been on a pretty extreme low-buy for months now.  It's been going well, but I'd love to do the no buy for 100 days, just to try to make some progress instead of just plateauing.  

So far since the 1st, I've also picked out 8-10 products to do a project pan.  I want to use these things up!  My first mini-goal will be to photograph the things I plan to use.  I've already taken them out/set them aside in a place I can see them/stocked my makeup bag with them as appropriate.

Thanks for the good ideas and support, everyone!

 
Had to go to the mall to get a few things and ended up taking in all of my B2M empties. It's nice to not have them sitting around just taking up space. I also did an exchange but didn't purchase anything additional. I got a few carefully selected clothing items that filled in the remaining gaps in my wardrobe too. Shouldn't have to go shopping now for a while.

 
Natasha01 said:
Success!!!!!

I am back from the mall. I bought NO makeup, skincare, Haircare, etc. I managed to stay out of B&BW, Bare Minerals and all of my other top temptations. Even better, I only spent my $50 gift card on clothes, going over only due to taxes. I spent $35 on a jacket that was originally $140 and three clearanced $5 t-shirts. I am so proud of myself.

Congrats to everyone else as well! We are off to a great start. Just think of how much money we will be saving as a group!!
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YAY! I love this success!  

I just realized I read a bunch of success stories and commented on the last one but this includes everyone else who has been strong too!

 
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Lots of good ideas on short term goals here; they've helped me a lot.  Here are my goals for the first 10 days.  

  • Paint my nails at least once.  Why have a bunch of nail polish if it's not being used?
  • Use a facial mask twice.
  • Use up 5 products, foils are okay.  I finished off a face wash deluxe sample yesterday so only 4 more to go.
  • Read one book.  I also signed up on goodreads for their book challenge.  My goal for the year is 52 books.  It's a lot for me but I'll go through at least a dozen when I go on vacation later this year.
  • Read and trash one magazine.  They're starting to stack up.
  • Watch at least one youtube tutorial video to learn how to use the stuff I already have better.
 
Day 2 and no makeup. Woo. 

I was doing some thinking about my stash today though and about the plans a few of you guys had to use every single one of your blushes or lipsticks or what have you in this month. I thought about doing something similar but I'm finding that a portion of my stash goes untouched based on the season. I'm don't necessarily buy into the idea that one can only wear a particular color during X season but I won't lie and say that I'm busting out the corals and peaches in the middle of winter. Likewise I'm not wearing my berries in the middle of summer either.

Despite fairly religious use of sunscreen my skin tone and undertone fluctuate through the year making certain shades in my collection look a little strange on me--the berry-pinks I love in the winter look a little sallow against my summer tan. It also doesn't help that the jewel-tone shades of my winter wardrobe don't exactly look spectacular with the warm, peachy-bronze shades I favor come the warmer months. I know that once the weather changes, I'll brush off the dust on the parts of my stash that haven't been used in a while but I can't help feeling guilty that I'm not constantly rotating through every part of my stash. 

Does anyone have similar issues with some colors looking off depending on the season? How do you guys account for that? Or do you all mostly have very neutral/subdued shades in your stash that go with everything regardless of seasonal skin tone/undertone/clothing options?

Thanks in advance and I just want to say how much I support and appreciate everyone on undertaking this challenge. We're all in this together!  :hugs3:

 
I was just watching a youtube video with Lisa Eldridge ( my favorite makeuo guru) and she was talking about how much she loves to use face masks in the morning before her makeup. She said a lot of the labels say to use once or twice a week but she rotates and uses almost daily. She said after the shower, pop one on as your are picking out your clothes for the day, etc. Its only 10 minutes or so. I did this the last couple of mornings and loved it! Let's use up those face masks sitting in the drawer for a rainy day.

 
@@shoppergirl what a great idea!  I honestly avoid using masks sometimes because they're such a PITA to get entirely off my face when I wash it off, but the shower would be awesome!

Did all the reverse hanging yesterday (and I love that some ladies are joining me!  Yay us!).  Today, went through my closet and reorganized accessories:  Scarves, belts, shoes, and my GIANT jewelry collection.  I actually threw away some (worthless, I promise) stuff I must have bought over 10 years ago and haven't worn in over 5 years.  My closet is starting to look like a closet, and not a dumping ground!  Tomorrow will be hats, nail polish/remover/stickers/etc, and that giant bag of unsorted makeup/skincare.  Also, I'm putting the shower/bath stuff into my bathroom and moving perfumes to my closet.  I want to make getting ready in the mornings a "one stop shop" for picking out my outfit, shoes, accessories, and perfume.  

 
I'm wearing my boscia black mask as we speak, err, type.  I always feel like I'm going on some covert mission with the people from NCIS when I wear this.

I have made a discovery.  I lack masks.  I'm positively twitching over this fact.  I've inventoried what I have:

  • almost full origins full size
  • mini origins
  • about 2 more uses in the boscia
  • Dr Jart pore one
  • a Sesha one (should be two, but one is missing)
  • two samples

Must ration -- or use my points/a gift card to get one. Cannot.  Spend.  Money. 

Trying to talk myself down from ledge here...  I can always ask for one for my birthday. ..

Deep breaths.

 
So my first 10 days will be focusing on looking at all of my beauty products and organizing them. I have two gift cards for Marshals and TJ Maxx that I'm hoping to use on storage containers.

I'm also focusing on making healthier meals for the family, so I've been planning on my meals for the week, which has taken the focus off of wanting to shop! :) /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

 

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