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

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I'm a bit torn.  I need to save money, but this is my birthday month, and I'm finishing my PhD and interviewing for jobs, so I'm going to want to celebrate a bit.  I keep a spreadsheet with ALL my purchases, except rent and electricity, so I'm going to set my goal as spending less this month than any other month this year (and then beating it again in October).  April was my best month so far.  If I can fit a couple of birthday purchases in there, or a celebration dinner, then great, as long as my total comes to less than April.  The only hard and fast rule, no more clothes or shoes until Black Friday.  I need to stop looking at sale emails from my favorite clothing site!

 
ok... my no-buy starts now. absolutely no-buy anything! i'm now fully stocked up on everything. as in everything, even makeup removers, etc. so absolutely no buy. i hope i can do it!

 
I'm totally ignoring emails from my favorite shops (I swear- my spam filter usually grabs up most of the advertisements, but when I sincerely cannot afford anything, it magically let's through b&bw while they have my FAVORITE candles for fall on sale, and a shoe store with some monstrously gorgeous heels on sale, and a clothing shops with fall stuff on sale. And freakin ebates is encouraging me too. Kill me already.)

Ugh I'm gonna go put on some heels and spray myself with some b&bw pumpkin crap.

 
I'm a bit torn.  I need to save money, but this is my birthday month, and I'm finishing my PhD and interviewing for jobs, so I'm going to want to celebrate a bit.  I keep a spreadsheet with ALL my purchases, except rent and electricity, so I'm going to set my goal as spending less this month than any other month this year (and then beating it again in October).  April was my best month so far.  If I can fit a couple of birthday purchases in there, or a celebration dinner, then great, as long as my total comes to less than April.  The only hard and fast rule, no more clothes or shoes until Black Friday.  I need to stop looking at sale emails from my favorite clothing site!
This is a good idea, I keep a spreadsheet as well so I should see if I can spend less than any other month. It will be hard, but I've cancelled a few subs I wasn't enjoying anymore and I have so many Memeboxes coming already. I mentioned this over in August as well, but I found that when I was able to resist the biggest thing that helped me was "I can get it later". I've read a book about this being a good philosophy when it comes to trying to eat healthy (I can have it later) because you're not telling yourself no, but you know that it will always be there another day. Well, this worked until everything I wanted was limited and I couldn't actually get it later if it was gone. I'll need to work on that for September.

 
So...here we are in September. August was decent. I purchased a couple of needed items when Sephora had 10% ebates, so not too upset by that. The total was $39, so again, that's way better than in the past.

Allowed:

Birchbox x 2 (both annual subs) - cancelled #3 in August

October Julep if I really like it since it's my bday month. I will most likely purchase the October birthstone polish even if I skip the regular box. I'm skeptical since I wasn't overly crazy about what I saw in the spoiler on Polish Jinx's blog.

If there is a $10 Popsugar code, I can gift myself a box for October (I love gifting myself a box since I don't have to worry about going in and cancelling later.

Sample Society. I'll keep this for a couple more months and see how it plays out.

If there is a purchase I want to make, I have to be able to find it in the Birchbox store and use points. 

I really feel like I should be able to do this - August went as well as I could have hoped, so I think that September should be even better! I can't think of anything that I could possibly need this month, but I plan to do an inventory of sorts this afternoon to double check.

 
I've already almost ruined my no-buy! The clock had already ticked over midnight last night and I was feeling terrible, and just browsing site completely willing to make a purchase to make myself feel better. -_- /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" /> Luckily a good friend was still awake and I was able to talk to her instead of giving in to impulse shopping. But that need to shop to fill the void is so scary and it is always right there.

I CAN do this. I WILL do this.

 
So here are my goals for a low buy September

Allowed Purchases:

I have a haircut tomorrow and am allowed to pickup heat protector dry shampoo and makeup brush cleaner.  I have some items to exchange so it should help.

I need a new hair brush so if I find one I can buy that.

Replacement skincare/ haircare is allowed, but I shouldn't need anything except what is listed above.

I can keep the 3 sub boxes I have as they are less than $40 combined.

I am allowed a total of $300 for non essential purchases not listed above.  Clothes are allowed as a part of the $300 because I will need fall clothes for work.

Essential purchases are food, household products (TP, cleaning products etc.) medical expenses, gas and work events.

I will work to use up my stash and try to giveaway or sell items I will never use.

 
Spend thoughtfully.  No hoarding purchasing.  And if I don't have the money in my allowance account for whatever it is that I want, I don't get it.  That's my only goal for this month.

I'm not up to being any stricter on myself than that this month, and feel like setting more rules would backfire.  However if I can even accomplish this much, I'll be pleased.

 
Okay - I'm joining in too!  Trying a low buy.  My goal is to beat my spending for last month as in...to spend less on make up/skin care/ hair care than I did then (August was 161.27 not including my subs)!

Allowed this month:

1.  My glossybox (already prepaid - ends in November and then  I will use my dots till they run out too)

2.  Sample society (already paid for 3 months so I have till November to decide what to do)

3.  Beautydna - monthly sub 

Allowed to buy house stuff for the house we are working on....but necessities only!

ONE clothing item for me IF I adore it and can see myself using it at least once a week.

Clothes to replace the ones my kids have outgrown (school uniform items).

BUT I can only buy one item IF I clean out my wardrobe and get rid of all the clothes that no longer fit...

I must shop my hoard!

But I'm allowed to swap for HG items for myself or for family!

Wishing everyone luck.  I love to shop...but my goal is to be good till black friday so I can splurge on a few things then.

 
I've been on a low buy all year. I've bought a few non-essentials but have stuck with it for the most part. I have reduced my stash but I need to re-commit to tossing/giving away what I'm not using. I did use up seven items last month and tossed four items.  This month I want to go through my single eyeshadows and decide if I like all of them enough to keep them or if I have dupes in my palettes. I also want to sell some of my unopened stuff that I have an excess of. I sold $100 of stuff last month on ebay and I would like to sell that much this month as well. 

Good luck everyone! 

 
Didn't get a chance to read everyone's goals for this month yet, but so far they're looking good. Everyone has some form of plan.

For me? I am still on a no-buy on beauty products (ahem, including fashion magazines) through the end of October. November,

when all the holiday sets and deals are coming out (particularly the 20% off VIB discount at Sephora)
I can start restocking my makeup.

What is helping me right now is keeping track of what is coming out for holiday sets, deciding what I want, and really.... deciding what I'd want before they even started coming out so I don't jump on anything too hard.

What's making it hard is

the drugstore limited edition fall collections. They are so hard to find and only have a few pieces at each store. So, today I caved and bought 2 Wet 'n' Wild 5-pan palettes and some fashion magazines. I swear, in August I bought, like 10 magazines. What's my problem? I don't even get any enjoyment out of reading them. Eugh!!!

So anyway, back on track: I'm on a no-buy this month and through October. No beauty supplies can be purchased- not for skincare, makeup, hair, nails, etc... except for replacements of necessary skincare items when I either find a really good sale or run out.

That's all for now! Let's do this!

 
September! Despite a VERY bad start to August at the Sephora 4x points sale, I finished up the month strong. Hoping to continue that momentum into September! We just bought a new house last month, and with all the little different expenses (nevermind furniture...how do dumb things like towel racks and toilet paper holders add up to so much?!), I really shouldn't be spending on makeup when I already have so much!

Allowed for the month:

-1 Birchbox

-$60 in fun, non-makeup purchases. This includes things like my Hulu plus subscription, movies, and CANDLES/other fall scented things. Eating out isn't included and has a separate budget. 

-A new pair of boots if I can find ones I like are under the amount I've previously set aside for them 

-Replacement purchases for skincare, if I've used up my stash of a given product (unlikely for this month)

Not allowed:

-ANY MAKEUP PURCHASES. Fall scented body/home products are allowed though for this month because...fall. 

-Taking Julep. I took the last two months, and the dark colors don't appeal to me, so it's time for a skip.

-Clothes purchases. I bought a few things in August to round out my fall wardrobe, and besides the aforementioned boots, I think it is in good shape. Time to cool down on clothes purchases.

Other goals:

-Keep my eating out spending within the preset budget

-Track my fun, eating out, and grocery budgets by hand on the go. I always do it in a spreadsheet, but that's retroactive. I think it will be a good mental trigger to write it down and see my budgeted amounts for the month dwindling down.

-Keep up with Project Pan, but allow myself to switch something out if I'm feeling the urge to buy. 

-Switch to my capsule wardrobe for fall and stick with it. I loved doing this over the summer, and it is almost time to switch seasons!

-Focus less on reading/watching makeup reviews and more on home improvement projects!

 
Day 3 and doing fine. I've improved a lot just because my commute no longer takes me past sephora and ulta everyday. Lol but really I've kinda been a cheap-o the past couple weeks judt one example is that my boyfriend suggested going out to eat just once this week and it's annoying me so much because I just don't want to spend that money! A month ago I would have been finding any excuse to go out to eat almost every day. Since we moved out on our own I've noticed on my mint app that I've been spending between $600-$700 on food, dining, and alcohol per month! That is INSANE especially considering I don't have kids or pets or anything! So I've been good at cutting down those costs too. I had a net -$50 spending last month but that's because I was playing catch up with high spending early in the month.

 
Ah, hello! I'm back! Sorry I kinda just fell off the face of the planet, and as a result, this site. August was pretty hectic - lots of vacation, family visits, our internet went down for an entire week, etc. It was busy and a teensy bit exhausting, but having all of this stuff going on meant that I didn't really have many opportunities to think about makeup, much less sit down and browse sites. So, all in all, I ended up spending $20 at Lush in August. Not bad! I can't remember what products I finished, since I accidentally tossed my bad of empties before I had the chance to share them, but from what I can recall, it was a fairly decent month with a few full sizes completed.

Goals for this month:

No more buying. The rest of the month is gonna be a no-buy. I've already spent $100 on beauty stuff this month (!!!) - I hit up the Fond Farewells section of Lush's site yet again and snagged the two blushes from the MAC Simpsons collection. This is my birthday month, so I'm just going to consider those things just early birthday presents to myself. 

Finish 10 full-size products. That's a pretty big goal, I know, but I've got several things that are just kind of floating around my bathroom, lingering in cabinets, and barely have any product left in them. It's time for me to just commit to finishing them up so I can get them out of the way. 

I think I'll cut it off there, just so I don't get too overwhelmed by piling on too many goals. Good luck everyone, September is going to be a great month for us!

 
I kind of have a problem. Well, so... I want to be on a no-buy from now until November. Here's the problem:

A while back there was a limited edition release of OCC's primary pack of lip tars which had white, black, red, yellow, and blue and you could mix any color (theoretically, although matte) with those. I was so stoked about it and tried to wait until the April 20% off chic week sale, but by then it was sold out and both Sephora and OCC responded to my pleas that the would not bring it back. I even considered spending $60 on Ebay after it sold out to get a set.

Then I eventually realized it wasn't going to happen.

Then a few months later I realized I probably wouldn't have used them that much anyway, and let it go.

Enter yesterday: I was playing with makeup at Sephora and saw that they had 6 sets of the primary pack on sale! For the original price of $29. I almost bought it, but I held back. But I feel like I should really get it this time.... but I don't know what to do. I feel like if I miss out on it again I'll be devastated... plus.... it's still listed as sold out online...

So that'll be a hurdle considering I already waited for it to be on sale and lost out and there was no hope of it ever being in stock again. Eugh!!!!!!

Is this a test? Hahahah!

I don't know what to do..............

 
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If you already decided that you won't use it, then don't get it!  It's fun to think you'll play Beauty Scientist, but the number of times I've ACTUALLY done DIY beauty stuff.... I can count them on one hand. 

So, if you DO cave, then you have to set yourself up with a schedule that you WILL use them at least once a (week/month/etc) and stick to it.  Otherwise, if you think AT ALL that this will be a beauty purchase that will sit around in a drawer gathering dust (and I will confess to having many of these!) then don't buy it!

 
I kind of have a problem. Well, so... I want to be on a no-buy from now until November. Here's the problem:

A while back there was a limited edition release of OCC's primary pack of lip tars which had white, black, red, yellow, and blue and you could mix any color (theoretically, although matte) with those. I was so stoked about it and tried to wait until the April 20% off chic week sale, but by then it was sold out and both Sephora and OCC responded to my pleas that the would not bring it back. I even considered spending $60 on Ebay after it sold out to get a set.

Then I eventually realized it wasn't going to happen.

Then a few months later I realized I probably wouldn't have used them that much anyway, and let it go.

Enter yesterday: I was playing with makeup at Sephora and saw that they had 6 sets of the primary pack on sale! For the original price of $29. I almost bought it, but I held back. But I feel like I should really get it this time.... but I don't know what to do. I feel like if I miss out on it again I'll be devastated... plus.... it's still listed as sold out online...

So that'll be a hurdle considering I already waited for it to be on sale and lost out and there was no hope of it ever being in stock again. Eugh!!!!!!

Is this a test? Hahahah!

I don't know what to do..............
PMed you with a mildly enabling suggestion.

 

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