January 2014 - No/Low-Buy Thread

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Im kinda bummed  I had to make budgets cuts, off with the cable tv, off  with Ipsy. Looking  back  I did use a lot of my Ipsy products and I will be sad, if Feb is the month you  guys get  unicorns or  fairy dust in your bags  lol   I did get to keep the  internet woo hoo
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Us too. No more cable. Now to be more productive with our time. Plan is to also pick up some more hours at work. I really want to grow my savings. It is satisfying seeing the numbers get bigger!
 
Us too. No more cable. Now to be more productive with our time. Plan is to also pick up some more hours at work. I really want to grow my savings. It is satisfying seeing the numbers get bigger!
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I got rid of my tv in 2008. I didn't work for a very unfortunate amount of time. Productivity? Oh, look, the internet has lolcats.
 
Quote: Originally Posted by loftmane /img/forum/go_quote.gif
@Rebecca34 Teach me your ways of powder product purging!! I think because they don't go bad as quickly, I tend to be more lenient with them. But I have 52 blushes! Fifty. Two. I don't need more than a handful or so! So I really need to get rid of the ones I don't like. Problem is that whenever I start to cull items that I don't like, I suddenly remember that I use it in a certain look or I always pair it with a certain lipstick so I "need" it and then they remain collecting dust :( /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" /> Any advice would be lovely!! 

I'm not as good at purging blushes and eyeshadows as I am lip products.  The ones I'm most likely to get rid of (besides any that totally don't work) are the ones that when I wear them, I wish I was wearing one I loved more instead.  When I feel that way, I make myself keep using that less-loved blush or eyeshadow for a few days.  When I start resenting it even more after a few days, it's way easier to get rid of then when I wear it once and then put it away because "maybe I'll like it again the next time I try it."  I do still have a significant amount of things I love but I rotate them regularly and enjoy them all.  

 
Well, I completely fell off the wagon about halfway through the month.

I bought the narsissist palette and some sedona lace brushes, as well as a few random trips to ulta and the drugstore.

But February is a new month!! Plus, I'm starting to want to save more money for my future travel goals and I'm determined to spend more money on experiences instead of things. Although my wallet may not agree, I think that I have made progress in terms of curbing my shopping addiction over the last two months.

Although I've had slip ups, my mindset is changing. Today I went to walgreens for:

- Contact lens solution, and

- False eyelashes

And that's all I bought! And believe me, I looked at every makeup product in that store.. I just didn't want anything! (Well, except for those maybelline color elixir glosses, but I wan't about to pay $9 for one).

I'm beginning to look at my money differently in general. I think the new year hit me hard, realizing that I've been out of college for over 6 months, I have barely any savings, and I don't know how to spend responsibly. The icing on top of the cake was the fact that I'm unable to visit my sister while she's studying abroad in Spain (money wasn't the only factor; not having enough vacation time also stopped the trip). I made a bucket list today, and I have a lot of places I want to travel to, and that costs money!! I'm even planning to dedicate my entire tax refund to my savings account. Off limits for spending.

Congrats to everyone that stuck to their no/low buy goals this January! May we all do well in February!

 
How did everyone do? I feel like I did fine. No new beauty buys from drug stores. I did swap on Instagram and I did buy a couple of lip tars with money I made from selling things on Instagram. Even though I was generally good this month food wise and make up wise, there's definitely been more money going out than going in. Last weekends $200 spendy fun weekend is not a common occurrence so don't worry. Various members of my family have been asking for money and it's hard to say no but hey that's for another forum right? On to February! Oh also, just got an invite for another BB account. I am getting a second one for the month of Feb but with tonight's 210 point glitch, I'm having a hard time not signing up for a 3rd when an invite just randomly showed up in my other email address! Anyone have any thoughts??

 
January was a great month for me!  I only bought the makeup remover I'd allowed on the no buy.  I didn't get around to buying the Pixie Epoxy, so I'll keep that as my OK to buy in Feb, if I get desperate.  I also didn't find any reasonably priced perfumeI wanted (although I started lemming something SOOOOOO unaffordable, i did not buy it.)

I also used up all my hand/foot lotion.  I was going to buy some, but then remembered that I had some unloved body oil at the back of the closet, so I took that out and started using it as hand/foot lotion for before I go to sleep (which is the only time I put that stuff on anyway), so now I'm working on using up another thing AND not buying something.  Hooray!  Feeling very good about February.

 
I did great! Bought nothing new/unnecessary. Replaced 5 things I was completely out of: day moisturizer with SPF, hand soap, detangling hairbrush, np remover, and brow gel. Total cost: $10.25 P.S. I've been using Dickinson's witch hazel which runs $8 a bottle. Did you know Target's house brand is $1.77??? It's in the antiseptic section with rubbing alcohol and bactine. It even says "Compare to Dickinson's" on it.

 
So, I did good AND bad this month.  I did an excellent job at resisting impulse control at retail stores, I returned a duplicate palette at Ulta and now have a little "cushion" of money there on a gift card for next month.  I think I was able to do resist retail temptation because I've been reorganizing my stash, and everytime I pick something up at a store, my mind flashes to the 18 other items in that category I have at home.  

But my weakness.... subscription boxes!  I have been wanting a PSMH box for AGES, and the half off sale for Feb. sucked me in.  I justified that one by telling myself it's my hubby's V-day present to me (he just doesn't know it yet).  I was doing well on resisting a second Birchbox for the US Weekly sub and extra points until... last night someone posted a glitch that it was awarding 200 points.  So.... I signed up (SIGH).  But I figure a $20 store credit AND a box AND a magazine sub for $10 was just too awesome!  (Also, I checked the account, and I WON'T be getting a leftover January box, and I promise I will cancel after I get my Feb box!)

So I did go over my monthly splurge budget.  $25 budget, spent $30, went over by $5.  I need to convince myself that the items in a mystery box are NOT any different than what I can find in stores.  Even though I'll be "saving" money compared to the retail cost of the items, money is STILL COMING OUT OF MY BANK ACCOUNT.  I have more skincare than I need for the next year, and makeup than I could ever use.

So this is my mea culpa, my confession, and my promise to do better for February.  

 
I did really really well except for that:

-I ate out a BIT more than I wanted (still not so bad though considering)

-I subscribed to a new subscription service. I shouldn't have, but oh well.  Maybe I will finally drop Graze.

 
I think I did well. I didn't get any essence other than the Metal Glam collection stuff even though they had new stuff after that. I decided to not get any BPAL Lupercalia decants. I didn't get the GCC Sherlock collection (this may de delayed, and it might be changed to samples). I think the only unplanned purchase was shower caps from Sephora, and that was PayPal money which doesn't count as far as the budget is concerned! I'm going to chalk this up as a successful month -- and try for a February repeat.

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

So, I did good AND bad this month.  I did an excellent job at resisting impulse control at retail stores, I returned a duplicate palette at Ulta and now have a little "cushion" of money there on a gift card for next month.  I think I was able to do resist retail temptation because I've been reorganizing my stash, and everytime I pick something up at a store, my mind flashes to the 18 other items in that category I have at home.  

But my weakness.... subscription boxes!  I have been wanting a PSMH box for AGES, and the half off sale for Feb. sucked me in.  I justified that one by telling myself it's my hubby's V-day present to me (he just doesn't know it yet).  I was doing well on resisting a second Birchbox for the US Weekly sub and extra points until... last night someone posted a glitch that it was awarding 200 points.  So.... I signed up (SIGH).  But I figure a $20 store credit AND a box AND a magazine sub for $10 was just too awesome!  (Also, I checked the account, and I WON'T be getting a leftover January box, and I promise I will cancel after I get my Feb box!)

So I did go over my monthly splurge budget.  $25 budget, spent $30, went over by $5.  I need to convince myself that the items in a mystery box are NOT any different than what I can find in stores.  Even though I'll be "saving" money compared to the retail cost of the items, money is STILL COMING OUT OF MY BANK ACCOUNT.  I have more skincare than I need for the next year, and makeup than I could ever use.

So this is my mea culpa, my confession, and my promise to do better for February.  


I'm kind of in the same boat as you. I didn't make any impulse buys at the drugstore and resisted all of the post-holiday sales emails (I did unsubscribe from a bunch of email lists though to help reduce temptation). BUT I did take my Julep February box. That's OK because part of my no-buy/low-buy plan was to keep birchbox and Julep. And it's pretty rare that I actually take the monthly box from Julep...I've been in the maven program since 5/13 and this is only the 3rd box I have taken...and I have never bought a mystery box...so I'm not too worried about getting the box this month, as I skip most months and this was the first time in a while that I have actually been interested in the polishes (I got the all-polish box, I'm not very interested in their beauty products either). I also got sucked into the 50% off popsugar must have box a few days ago. At the time, I justified it by telling myself that I can probably use some of the items as gifts for my sister (whose birthday is coming up soon) or my mom's birthday in a couple of months, or even sell what I don't want to recoup some of the cost, but the next day after I ordered it I started feeling a little buyers remorse. I think it was just because I made it until 1/28 with no "random" purchases so I was feeling a little upset with myself for giving in to this. But I'm not going to beat myself up over $20 and hopefully it will be worth it. I have every intention of cancelling after I receive the February box. $40/month for a box of random items is just not in my budget or my no-buy/low-buy plans. I subscribed to PS for 3 months last year (using a coupon code, and this was before they jacked up the monthly price) and it was very hit or miss. For me, personally, it wasn't worth the cost to renew the subscription. I think the last box I got was in August or September. So although it wasn't a perfect no-buy month for me, I'm pretty proud of myself and I feel like my willpower muscles are getting stronger (despite my recent "slip-up"). :) /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" /> I made some other positive steps this month, including paying off the balance on one of my cards, setting up an auto-transfer so that a certain amount of each paycheck is automatically sent to my savings account, and I also sold a few unused/unwanted beauty products on eBay and made almost $50 with very little effort involved. That gave me the inspiration to go through my scrapbooking/stamping supplies, which I don't have the time or space to use right now, and put some of that stuff up for sale on craigslist and/or ebay...so that is my goal for February, as well as continuing on my no-buy (with the only exceptions being the subs I mentioned above).
 
I did pretty well in January. Did not stray outside of my allowance money, except for some necessity items which well... they were necessity. So I'm really proud of myself for that! Definitely had impulsive "wants' but never got any of them. yay for flexing the "low-buy" muscle. Onto february! 

 
Quote: Originally Posted by hindsighting /img/forum/go_quote.gif
  I didn't buy anything other than refills of empty products I use every day this month!
Yay! Way to go! Hopefully we can all get to that level of success with our no and low buys.

 
Ooops, I forgot, I did buy some hair product, but that was because I used up my jar.  I don't hoard hair stuff, so I don't feel bad about it.

 
I was good this month till today. I did renew my second Birchbox box. But they did give us 210 points so is basically paid for itself. My only other beauty purchase was hair dye, primer, and tweezers. And that all came down to less than $20.00. I still need to look at my grocery shopping. I'm not really happy with my numbers in that category.

 
I did pretty good this month. Canceled some subs, only bought a few things for kids. Skipped Julep even though I wanted it. I did get a Pop Sugar box for my sister (used code to make it $20 and my mom is paying for 1/2), and my mom offered to get me a birchbox using US Weekly code. Over all I feel good, passed up a lot of sales for things. Next month is my husband's bday month so I don't think a low buy is happening.

 
I did well this month too.  I was going to allow myself one high end purchase and one drugstore purchase but I just didn't find anything more I wanted after all of the stuff I bought around the holidays.  So my low-buy month turned out to be a no buy month.  I plan to roll-over the money I would have used for those purchases for later in the year.  I may continue to try for no buys and continue to roll-over my make-up money throughout this time.  This way, if I do end up buying several things at the end of the year, I won't feel guilty for the amount of money I spend.

I also did not buy any bath / body products which is even more important.  That stuff expires more quickly than most makeup and I have a decent amount to use up first, esp soaps and shower gels!

I'm also happy to say I did not buy clothes.  I don't have a specific restriction on this but I'm trying to buy fewer items and make them things that I really love and will want to wear over and over.

I'm definitely going to try for a no or very low buy February.

 

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