November 2014 No/Low buy Support Thread (and cookies!)

[annatomical]

- Be nice to myself if I mess up.  It's not the end of the world!

Forgiving yourself if you mess up is really important - I am so glad you said it!!! /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" /> 

 

[annatomical]

Count me in! I have three rules this month:

1. I can keep all existing subs.

2. I can purchase true replacements.

3. I can buy holiday gifts for others.

That's it! This will be a tough month for sure but I feel good about my plan. I've been successfully doing this plan since about mid-October and I think I've shaked off a lot of my old impulses.

I like your list of rules.  Which beauty subs do you get? /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

 

[3Babydolls]

So my update is that I have cheated a couple times. I am not even going to talk about it because this will do me no good. However I am really needing some support right now. Am I the only one freaking out over the

Spoiler

sephora 20% off sale?

 I am like a junkie, dreaming about it at night. Dreaming that I win the lottery and can get whatever I want. I have shopped my stash so to speak every day this week reminding myself that I need NOTHING. But still I drool a tiny bit each time I think of it. How am I going to get through the next week girls??  Going to go back and peek and all your posts now...really hope I'm not the only crazy person having serious issues this week.

 

[3Babydolls]

Also wanted to mention one more thing. Last month I mentioned that I subbed to

Spoiler

Wantable makeup box. PURE INSANITY! Why!? One good thing about this sub is that every month you have the option to skip the box entirely and you won't be charged. I am happy to report that I have hit the SKIP button on my November box.

That $$ could buy my kids a small holiday gift so I cannot justify it this month. So one good thing I did! 

 

[recklesslysober]

I just went over all of my non-essential spending last month and it was around $200 including eating out, cosmetics, and various other things. None of the categories seemed too high but it all adds up! I also managed to have 18 days where I spent $0. My goal this month is to beat both of those numbers!

As for the Sephora sale.. I really don't need anything. Thinking about buying a Wen cleansing conditioner after I finish what I'm currently using. Maybe some cotton pads. But that's it. I thought it was ridiculous to have to choose between a sample bag and the 20% off coupon. They should just add those on to orders over a certain amount anyway.. it's not like people don't spend enough there.. More motivation to not throw money at them.

 

[Simplyalyssaa]

The Sephora sale, I had no idea about. But, I'm not too worried. I know that BF or Cyber monday I'm allowing myself to get the two palettes I've been wanting so I'm not going to go crazy.

Now,once December rolls around. I know It'll be nuts for myself.

 

[Oshare-girl]

The beauty.com 20% off sale is on now but I can't find a thing that I need. Because I need nothing! I'm not a Sephora VIB so I thought I would take advantage of the beauty.com sale. But no....couldn't find anything that I could say was a necessary purchase and would make me happy. I'd just feel guilty. I have an inventory of my stash and I'm obsessed with seeing those numbers decrease.

What also reinforced this is that I bought a kit from BareMinerals earlier this year cause it was such a "good value". Now that I'm using the eyeshadow quad, I'm having a really hard time making the colors work. It's the Happy Place quad and they look so pretty in the compact but the rose gold and plum shades make me look like I have pink eye. I have to be very careful where I place those colors. In fact, I had to go over all those colors with shades from the original Naked palette to make it work. I should have never purchased this set in the first place so I'm frustrated with myself that it's not working out. I may give this away to one of my sisters-in-law if I can't make it work this week. I hope I have learned my lesson this time!

 

[goldendarter]

That $$ could buy my kids a small holiday gift so I cannot justify it this month. So one good thing I did! 

That's the perfect way to keep yourself from getting anything during the Sephora sale! Just imagine using whatever amount of $$ you are thinking of spending there as a gift for your kids, or someone else. Mind over matter!

I also have a confession... I slipped up a tiny bit today on another PetBox. Lesson I learned: I need to unsub to the MSA blog emails.

 

[CurlyTails]

I like your list of rules.  Which beauty subs do you get? /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

Thanks! Subs are posted under the spoiler:

Spoiler

I have one Birchbox and three indie subs (Glamour Doll Eyes OTM, Notoriously Morbid Vanishing Cabinet, and Hello Waffle Visage). I also have Julep but I've skipped every month since June I think.

 

[annatomical]

Posting my truthful, detailed summary yesterday felt really good - definitely glad I did it.

 

[jaylilee]

 I think I am always going to have a somewhat generous beauty stash.  I would feel better if my beauty product stash is roughly one third to one half as big as it is today.  

This is something that has been on my mind! I am aware that I'll probably always have a moderately bigger collection than say, my mother's 2 eyeshadows, 1 powder, 1 lipstick. but I want to make it smaller...I think having anything over 5-10 blushes is overkill, and I currently have 39 =/ eyeshadows I love but I'd like to keep it contained to 20-50 in one or two large z palettes versus the hundreds I now have. The goal will be to make my stash a lot smaller this year and truly get my money's worth instead of buying more and more stuff I probably won't ever use. 

 

[eastofthesun]

Didn't see a thread made and wow did we wait, so we're starting one! I know there's a holiday planning thread, but holidays only happen once or twice for a day or two... a month is a month!

Plans for november: 

spend no monies on ANYTHING. I am on a no-buy until the end of the year, and in a way have been on some form of no-buy/low-buy this whole year up until now. I have spent far, far, far less in 2014 than I did in 2013, so that is a giant accomplishment for me (think 200-300 dollars combined across all months versus the near 2k in 2013). So November is aimed at closing out the year strong and keeping with a no-buy.

What are you guys doing for Nov?? 

also, *hands out cookies* 

*NOM NOMs on cookies* Thanks for starting this thread!

Ok so for my goals this month:

• November/Holiday spending = Allowance with purchase cap. I'm going to allow myself to spend a maximum of
  Spoiler

  $250
  this month for the holiday deals that are coming out, such as
  
  
  Spoiler

  the VIB 20% off sale
  . However, I have to then do no buy in December.
  
• (Also, with the stipulation that I think very hard about my purchases before pulling the trigger. I've had all the items on my list since early October so I'm feeling good about them not just being impulse purchases. In fact I weeded out a bunch of other stuff on my list.)

• Online Deals= One small chance. I will allow myself to make one order during either the
  Spoiler

  Sephora $ off coupons, the deluxe sample bags, advent stuff, and black friday stuff
  and if I don't see anything I like will actually use, then tough. I will make this separate from my regular November allowance because I will be a VIB Rouge by then and want to give myself a free shipping small order a shot before cutting all spending in December. (It's just that it would test me all of December if I didn't. )
  

• December = No Buy. I won't buy anything for myself in December. I'll try to concentrate on looking over all my finances, catching up on anything savings/investings-wise, and creating my spending restrictions/finance goals for 2015.

• January birthday= low buy allowance. When January comes around (my birthday month) I'll be able to make two small orders
  Spoiler

  to obtain my birthday gifts at Sephora and Ulta.

Count me in! I have three rules this month:

1. I can keep all existing subs.

2. I can purchase true replacements.

3. I can buy holiday gifts for others.

That's it! This will be a tough month for sure but I feel good about my plan. I've been successfully doing this plan since about mid-October and I think I've shaked off a lot of my old impulses.

Your simple rules are really good, especially the replacements, only true replacements, and holiday gifts. I struggle with trying to be really basic or really detailed. I think I'll try really detailed this next year because I tend to cheat myself when I'm too basic. Hehehe.

November!  I am so proud of the progress I've made this year.  It's gone from pretty much completely out of control to "haven't bought anything for two months straight". 

I am so proud of you. I hope that I can do this next year when I go on a super strict and detailed low buy, that I'm only just beginning to plan in my head now.

I'm trying to resist the Sephora GWP bags since they would just add more items to my stash.  

I did not use my Ulta coupon and it expires in a few hours.  

I'm proud of you for ignoring your Ulta coupon. That takes guts!

And let me help you with the Sephora GWP- it's kind of worthless because if you're not Rouge you have to spend $50 to get free shipping, and you can't use the 20% off code because you can only use one code at a time, plus, take a look at each sample and think about which one you'll really use... hope this helps! It helped me. I'm resisting the gwp bags even though I really wanted them earlier this year!

 Sadly, I went wild the last two weeks of October /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" /> . So I'm geetting back on the horse that threw me, and really committing myself to total no-buy for November.

November Goals

1. Keep my subs

2. Can only buy beauty type stuff for my lady in Secret Santa

3. For groceries : only milk, eggs, bread, fresh produce, and catfood as needed, I need to use up what we have on hand and in freezer

4. Shop my stash!

5. Wear makeup every day whether I am going anywhere or just staying home.

6. Count my  Blessings daily.

I love your rules! Especially your detailed grocery list, reminding yourself to actually wear the makeup (I have this problem where I don't wear it, eugh!) and the counting your blessings daily. So important.

And Apparently I need to spend $120 to renew VIB for 2015.... (I know this is a terrible way to think!!!!!! VIB really doesn't do anything special for me, regular BI would probably be just as good. I think. ) 

There is one thing from Sephora that I actually need to get, so I'm going to force myself to wait until November 6, so I can use my 20% off VIB gift on it.

Can you guys convince me on why I should NOT get any of these right now?? PLEASE AND THANK YOU SO MUCH!

-Do all of my school work

-Make lunch instead of buying. (I still have $24 on my College ID card, so I'll save that for days I don't have time to/forget to prepare lunch.) 

-No impulse purchases. In fact, no going out to the mall or stores or anything at all. (It's way easier for me to not spend money by not going to problem areas!) If I want to socialise, I live near the beach and a park, so I'll just invite a friend over and walk around in the nice chilly weather. And then cook together because I'm not eating out. 

Hey, just wanted to say I love your plan. I especially love your plan for avoiding impulse purchases, it sounds lovely! And I need to make my lunches too. And do my schoolwork, hehe! 

I want to help you with what you're struggling with- first of all, regarding requalifying for Rouge- do you really think it's worth it? I don't have it, but from what I hear the only real perk compared to VIB is that you get free shipping, however, there is a new option in store that allows a cast member to place an online order for you if they don't carry it in store, and it's delivered to your door but you don't have to pay shipping. I'm not sure if you can use the codes or not, but I'll try to find out.

Regarding your 3 gift sets- I am assuming you haven't tried them yet. Here's the problem with that- they may not be the miracles you're hoping for, so you might see if you can try some of them in store first, or ask the companies for samples. However, gift sets and 20% off is a good time to try something.... so on the other hand, there's that.

I hope I've helped more than I've enabled. 

 

[eastofthesun]

 Continued from above (because it won't let me quote that many people at once).

I love everyone's goals this month!  Just reading through them makes me more committed to my own no/low buy plans /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

I want to say I agree with you! Just reading them is helping me think through my thought process and my goals.

Lessons learned:  

1. Adopt a new mantra:  "Online 'shopping' leads to online 'spending.'"
2. Keep the stash organized so everything is easy to see and easy to find.  This will make it so I don't buy a replacement for an item because its lost or missing.
3. If the opportunity presents itself - "gift" pristine/unused items from the beauty stash - of course when its appropriate.
4. Keeping a mini-stash at work is causing me to use more of the products that I have - especially lip products and hand cream - I consider this a win.
5. I don't need anymore makeup brushes.  It would be best for me to wait at least a year before buying any more brushes.
6. I put a desk drawer organizer in my bathroom vanity drawer to keep small odds and ends organized and this worked out very well.
7. Visit this forum more often.  It helps!
8. Tossing expired items and open items I didn't like felt good afterwards.
9. Donating pristine items I don't intend to use to a women's shelter felt good afterwards.

• Spend more time studying or completing school work and less time online shopping.
• Continue to keep track of empty containers as a sign of progress.
• Avoid the temptation of holiday palettes, collections, etc. and focus on using what I already have!  There are still unused makeup products from last year's holidays - I shall focus on using these items rather than acquiring more.

Your lists are great! I'm making the ones I like the most bold. I hope I can take a look at these and keep track of them!

Forgiving yourself if you mess up is really important - I am so glad you said it!!! /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

Good point! I will work on forgiving myself for my splurges this year!

So my update is that I have cheated a couple times. I am not even going to talk about it because this will do me no good. However I am really needing some support right now. Am I the only one freaking out over the

Spoiler

sephora 20% off sale?

 I am like a junkie, dreaming about it at night. Dreaming that I win the lottery and can get whatever I want. I have shopped my stash so to speak every day this week reminding myself that I need NOTHING. But still I drool a tiny bit each time I think of it. How am I going to get through the next week girls??  Going to go back and peek and all your posts now...really hope I'm not the only crazy person having serious issues this week.

You're not the only one..... I've been spending most of my free time drafting out what I want to buy with the

Spoiler

VIB 20% off code

and I've even considered dumpster diving to get freebies. I'm at a point where I'm sick of thinking about makeup and deals and codes all the time. I want to just love and use what I own and not let sales and gwp drive my mind. It's hard! I'm letting myself spend during the sale, but after that I'm going to take a serious look at this habit.

I just went over all of my non-essential spending last month and it was around $200 including eating out, cosmetics, and various other things. None of the categories seemed too high but it all adds up! I also managed to have 18 days where I spent $0. My goal this month is to beat both of those numbers!

As for the Sephora sale.. I really don't need anything. Thinking about buying a Wen cleansing conditioner after I finish what I'm currently using. Maybe some cotton pads. But that's it. I thought it was ridiculous to have to choose between a sample bag and the 20% off coupon. They should just add those on to orders over a certain amount anyway.. it's not like people don't spend enough there.. More motivation to not throw money at them.

I really need to start looking at my overspending as 'all non-essentials' rather than just makeup. Because I've noticed when I'm doing a low buy or a no buy, I allow myself to spend in other categories as a cheat. I should really buckle down on this!

I feel like I want to take a psychology crash course on shopaholics. Eugh!

Good luck this November, everyone!

More cookies for everyone:

 

[annatomical]

annatomical, on 03 Nov 2014 - 9:41 PM, said:   Lessons learned:   Adopt a new mantra:  "Online 'shopping' leads to online 'spending.'" Keep the stash organized so everything is easy to see and easy to find.  This will make it so I don't buy a replacement for an item because its lost or missing. If the opportunity presents itself - "gift" pristine/unused items from the beauty stash - of course when its appropriate. Keeping a mini-stash at work is causing me to use more of the products that I have - especially lip products and hand cream - I consider this a win. I don't need anymore makeup brushes.  It would be best for me to wait at least a year before buying any more brushes. I put a desk drawer organizer in my bathroom vanity drawer to keep small odds and ends organized and this worked out very well. Visit this forum more often.  It helps! Tossing expired items and open items I didn't like felt good afterwards. Donating pristine items I don't intend to use to a women's shelter felt good afterwards.   Spend more time studying or completing school work and less time online shopping. Continue to keep track of empty containers as a sign of progress. Avoid the temptation of holiday palettes, collections, etc. and focus on using what I already have!  There are still unused makeup products from last year's holidays - I shall focus on using these items rather than acquiring more.   Your lists are great! I'm making the ones I like the most bold. I hope I can take a look at these and keep track of them!   annatomical, on 03 Nov 2014 - 9:44 PM, said: Forgiving yourself if you mess up is really important - I am so glad you said it!!! Good point! I will work on forgiving myself for my splurges this year!

Thanks for your kind words.   :flowers:   

 

[tulosai]

Signing on.  I am on a no buy entirely.

 

[Chelsea DeFrates]

I need to join in on this but I'm afraid I won't be able to go a whole month with no beauty spending. Especially with BF, which is a huge trigger for me!  But my spending has been out of control lately and I need to stop and enjoy everything I have.  Wish me luck!

 

[kawaiihoots]

All right, I've done my damage with the holiday sets/sale, now I'm on a low buy till 2015. I'm allowing small purchases in December if

Spoiler

Sephora does the 100 pt perfume minis again, and also a purchase with the $20 coupon that I held off on during this sale

and Secret Santa, (although I've got quite a few things tucked away, depending on what it turns out my Santee would like) and other than that it's time to use all this stuff that I obsessed for months about buying, lol.

 

[3Babydolls]

*NOM NOMs on cookies* Thanks for starting this thread!

Ok so for my goals this month:

• November/Holiday spending = Allowance with purchase cap. I'm going to allow myself to spend a maximum of
  Spoiler

  $250
  this month for the holiday deals that are coming out, such as
  
  
  Spoiler

  the VIB 20% off sale
  . However, I have to then do no buy in December.
  
• (Also, with the stipulation that I think very hard about my purchases before pulling the trigger. I've had all the items on my list since early October so I'm feeling good about them not just being impulse purchases. In fact I weeded out a bunch of other stuff on my list.)

• Online Deals= One small chance. I will allow myself to make one order during either the
  Spoiler

  Sephora $ off coupons, the deluxe sample bags, advent stuff, and black friday stuff
  and if I don't see anything I like will actually use, then tough. I will make this separate from my regular November allowance because I will be a VIB Rouge by then and want to give myself a free shipping small order a shot before cutting all spending in December. (It's just that it would test me all of December if I didn't. )
  

• December = No Buy. I won't buy anything for myself in December. I'll try to concentrate on looking over all my finances, catching up on anything savings/investings-wise, and creating my spending restrictions/finance goals for 2015.

• January birthday= low buy allowance. When January comes around (my birthday month) I'll be able to make two small orders
  Spoiler

  to obtain my birthday gifts at Sephora and Ulta.

Your simple rules are really good, especially the replacements, only true replacements, and holiday gifts. I struggle with trying to be really basic or really detailed. I think I'll try really detailed this next year because I tend to cheat myself when I'm too basic. Hehehe.

I am so proud of you. I hope that I can do this next year when I go on a super strict and detailed low buy, that I'm only just beginning to plan in my head now.

I'm proud of you for ignoring your Ulta coupon. That takes guts!

And let me help you with the Sephora GWP- it's kind of worthless because if you're not Rouge you have to spend $50 to get free shipping, and you can't use the 20% off code because you can only use one code at a time, plus, take a look at each sample and think about which one you'll really use... hope this helps! It helped me. I'm resisting the gwp bags even though I really wanted them earlier this year!

I love your rules! Especially your detailed grocery list, reminding yourself to actually wear the makeup (I have this problem where I don't wear it, eugh!) and the counting your blessings daily. So important.

Hey, just wanted to say I love your plan. I especially love your plan for avoiding impulse purchases, it sounds lovely! And I need to make my lunches too. And do my schoolwork, hehe! 

I want to help you with what you're struggling with- first of all, regarding requalifying for Rouge- do you really think it's worth it? I don't have it, but from what I hear the only real perk compared to VIB is that you get free shipping, however, there is a new option in store that allows a cast member to place an online order for you if they don't carry it in store, and it's delivered to your door but you don't have to pay shipping. I'm not sure if you can use the codes or not, but I'll try to find out.

Regarding your 3 gift sets- I am assuming you haven't tried them yet. Here's the problem with that- they may not be the miracles you're hoping for, so you might see if you can try some of them in store first, or ask the companies for samples. However, gift sets and 20% off is a good time to try something.... so on the other hand, there's that.

I hope I've helped more than I've enabled. 

My Birthday is in January too /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />  I am planning to ask for only gift cards at christmas and spend them a couple weeks later so my Birthday can include a haul and I can feel like I didn't spend "real" money.

 

[3Babydolls]

and P.S. - I am out of the no buy. VIB sucked me in and I loved every second. Now I must say LOW BUY instead and do my best to start over again. MAN this is hard. 

 

[3Babydolls]

But I still ate the cookies /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />