October 2014 No/Low Buy: Hugs, Commiseration, and Confessional

[jaylilee]

Successful no buy for me, I dare say. Not a single thing purchased. One trade did occur but zero pennies were spent, plus with a trade in it also meant items out. I am one of those people that the more/harder I get hit with advertisements and offers, the more I have an instinct to turn it down. Kind of that "I will do ABC, the exact opposite since you want me to, because you're asking me to do XYZ." That has gotten me in trouble in life sometimes haha but not around the holiday season lol that's when I want to buy stuff LESS. One thing I will do is go home and depot a few things though...will start concentrating hard core on them this winter. Will show you guys the items! 

 

[TooMuchElectric]

My orders this month are creeping up... I felt like I had to redeem $60 in credit at Hautelook before it expired, so I ended up spending $55 on that for free shipping + tax. It's something I'll wear until it literally falls apart. I don't need it, at all, though, so I still feel like it was a silly purchase.

I spent $170 on high end brushes, which I've been planning for months. And now I'm done buying brushes, like, forever. I don't need anything else, and anything I want can wait for a few years.

$25 on BeautyDNA,

$30 at TJ Maxx for acrylic drawers so my makeup isn't falling all over the place and shattering,

$15 at Ross for a dress,

$15 on a 50% off indie eyeshadow collection from my wish list.

I have been waiting for a basic 20% off code at Ulta so I could redeem 2000 points on a nice flat iron. I got the amazing 20% off entire purchase including prestige coupon, and still stuck to my plan of only buying the single flat iron. No holiday palettes, no more lipsticks, just redeeming points on that one item.

And I have a F&F coupon burning a hole in my pocket at Sephora, but I'm not getting anything with it! Nothing!

And no memeboxes either!

I feel like I'm doing such a good job of resisting purchases, yet I'm still at a whopping $335 this month. SO FAR. /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

I ended up somehow not buying anything else the rest of the month! I built carts at Sephora and Ulta using 20% codes, but kept hemming and hawing and stalling and then ended up being busy all day the last day I could redeem them, so no money spent. I also waited too long to redeem $20 from Nike.com and drugstore dollars from drugstore.com. All of those would have been spending money on things I don't need because of sales/coupons. Success through indecision and procrastination is still success. 

Looking at my upcoming fun purchases and temptations, I can tell I won't spend money on:

Birchbox sub is prepaid for another 9 (ish?) months.

Julep sub is prepaid (and I have points to redeem) for four months.

Memebox is a non-temptation now. I had ordered two memeboxes and made a wishlist along the lines of "I'd like to try this sort of item, an item that has ingredient A, a couple ingredient B items, this specific product C, something from brand D, etc..." The boxes arrived this week, and basically Memebox read my mind and granted all my wishes. Like I don't even know what else I could possibly want from Memebox.*

Ulta/Sephora/Birchbox purchases for myself: I have a small list of things that I eventually want to try, but they're all replacements of things that don't need replacing for at least a few months. If I can wait till next year, it will go towards re-qualifying for platinum/whatever status.

I will spend money on:

BeautyDNA

Julep Black Friday/End-of-year sales: I can't resist $2 polishes, or Julep's tiny perfect golden lipsticks.

Gifts!

*I'm sure I'll find this hilarious in a month or so, but it's a good feeling while it lasts.

 

[CurlyTails]

Overall, I think this ended up being a successful month for me. I had some slips earlier in the month (looking at you, Memebox), but I finished strong. On to November!

 

[kawaiisofoxy]

It's October ALREADY??? Crazy!

September flew by, and the great thing about that is I spent LITERALLY NOTHING on beauty other than my subs!  They've dwindled to 2 Birchboxes and the Notoriously Morbid VC (I have also prepaid for the October & November GDE OTM, and I'm more convinced every day that I'll let that one drop again).

October goals!

- Drop one Birchbox.  I have clicky trucks for both boxes, and they were "born" within about 10 mins of each other, so I'm reasonably certain they're dupe boxes.  Which is the universe saying WOULD YOU PLEASE CANCEL ONE ALREADY NO ONE NEEDS THAT MANY SAMPLE SIZES!!!

- Stay on task with no impulse purchases!  I'm so glad I have (most) of my stuff organized now, because whenever I'm out and tempted by a lipstick/nail polish/eyeshadow palette I can visualize the area of my closet where there are already soooo many others!  And I can tell myself that I do NOT need more!

Allowed purchases:

- Cancel/resub to only ONE Birchbox using a 100-point code (which effectively prepays for my November box)

- Notoriously Morbid VC (I'm actually not a fan of their theme this month, so if I don't like the colors I may hold onto it for a swap and/or to add to my Santee's package)

- Aaaaaaand as a special gift to myself for being good, an indie purchase! (spoilered so as not to tempt)

Spoiler

OH EM GEE THERE IS A NEW HELLO WAFFLE COLLECTION BASED ON CATS AND CLASSIC LITERATURE.  I'm very proud of myself that after perusing the colors, I will be able to keep on living after only getting half of them.  And half of the lip colors, if they end up getting released too.  And a few sample sizes of some other colors.  Here's my tentative order:

Eye colors:

- The Great Catsby

- Purr-ide and Purr-ejudice

- Catticus Finch

- Portrait of Purrian Grey (depending on if it's the color I think it is)

Lip colors:

- Jane Pawsten

- A Tale of Two Kitties

Other stuff:

- Heavy Breathing Cat (I may have a cat obsession) - Full Size just for the artwork!

- Archean Earth (sample)

- Either "23" or "One of Us!" (sample)

Dropped the extra Birchbox, didn't make any impulse purchases, gave away a BUNCH of makeup to my awesome friend (and neighbor!) and her tween daughter... it's been a great month!

I didn't even get the Hello Waffle stuff in the spoiler because I want to wait for the lip stuff to debut and only pay shipping ONCE.  It's a permanent collection so I'm not afraid it'll run out.  Deep breaths.  It will be mine, and (hopefully!) soon.

Will update for November goals in that thread!

 

[lindzebra]

October was a rough month, spending wise. I'm going to do better in November. The only sub I have is my prepaid annual Birchbox. Otherwise, I'm hoping no beauty purchases this month, but I'll allow myself $30 just in case. If the Lorac Pro 2 comes back in stock on HSN, I'm allowed to get that.

ETA: I guess this would make more sense on the November thread. See you guys there!

 

[eastofthesun]

My goal for October was to be on a no-buy so that I could splurge in November on holiday stuff and the 20% off code.

I think I did pretty good on that, except one of my holiday purchases had to be pushed into October because it was going in and out of stock like crazy

Spoiler

Lorac Mega PRO palette

.

I also pulled the trigger way early on the

Spoiler

Tarte blush palette

, because I really wanted to get that this whole year, and didn't want it to sell out. However, when I received it I wasn't a fan of the quality (packed too hard) or the colors. So, I returned it.

Then I was kind of bad and ordered my friend a birthday present, knowing I couldn't wait for the

Spoiler

20% off VIB sale

because her birthday is in early November, so I put a few of those

Spoiler

Sephora mix n match 150 point codes

to use. I also bought an eyelash curler (actually, several different kinds) to test out to see which one worked best with my eye shape, and I just returned the ones that didn't work after sanitizing them.

I also did have a really good code for

Spoiler

dermstore.com

that carried 2 of the things I really wanted for this holiday, and Sephora didn't carry them, and it was like

Spoiler

25%

off, so I went ahead and ordered that in October rather than waiting.

Spoiler

It came with fome freebies- a mini philosophy Purity face wash, and two sunscreen samples.

So I'm not too unhappy with how I did in October, but honestly, I didn't do very good on my low buy this year. I had wanted to kind of swap it up by month... but that didn't happen and I splurged pretty bad in April and July. However.... after what  I allow myself in November, I think I'll be better able to stay away from shopping for a while, because if I keep a list for a long time and only allow myself big purchases when there is 15 or 20% off, I'll feel much better. Also, I was introduced to Ebates this year and I feel like I can do better with shopping only during sales this next year.