2020 - THE NO-BUY, LOW-BUY, BUDGET-BUY ACCOUNTABILITY AND SUPPORT THREAD

[ElleElleG]

Hello, hello! Welcome to Year 6 of the No/Low Buy Thread.  

        *Many thanks to all who have participated over the last few years.  While I don't

         post often I do read the notifications sent to my email and I cannot say it enough,

         You all are truly amazing!  Thank you for your dedication and support!!

For reference here's the purpose of this thread (from Thread Originator, @lnum😞

This thread is a support system for all of us who are trying to maintain a budget and keep our beauty spending limited. Post here when you have a weak moment, post here to hold yourself accountable, post here when you just need someone to talk to, post here when you have advice for all of us, and post here when you make mistakes but also make gains! Many of us post here to keep track of our monthly purchases. Anything you need to say, we are all here for each other. There's no judgement here.

Feel free to share your goals, items that tempt you, missteps (we don't believe in failures), and any successes.  Above all else, encourage and support one another.

A note from lnum (2016):

Spoiler

Welcome to Year 3!

My motto for this thread is that I strongly believe, even on a budget, you can have the things you want that make you happy without feeling like you're limiting yourself. 

This thread is a support system for all of us who are trying to maintain a budget and keep our beauty spending limited. Post here when you have a weak moment, post here to hold yourself accountable, post here when you just need someone to talk to, post here when you have advice for all of us, and post here when you make mistakes but also make gains! Many of us post here to keep track of our monthly purchases. Anything you need to say, we are all here for each other. There's no judgement here.

I am so excited to spend another year with you all. If it wasn't for the first two years of this thread, I would never have been able to cut down my beauty spending. My goal for this year is to maintain low spending on beauty, and cut down my clothing purchases. I will be funneling that money into traveling, which is what I have done in the past and it's a great goal that truly motivates me. 

I'm still so proud of everyone for making it through 2015 and 2016, limiting ourselves in the beauty product area in order to improve our lives in other areas. We all did great and here's to another year of learning and saving!

Interested in past threads?  Check Here:

Spoiler

Past Threads:

2015 http://community.sephora.com/t5/VIB-ROUGE/2015-The-No-Buy-Low-Buy-Budget-Buy-Accountability-and-Supp...

2016 http://community.sephora.com/t5/VIB/2016-The-NO-BUY-LOW-BUY-BUDGET-BUY-ACCOUNTABILITY-AND-SUPPORT/td...

2017 https://community.sephora.com/t5/VIB/2017-THE-NO-BUY-LOW-BUY-BUDGET-BUY-ACCOUNTABILITY-AND-SUPPORT/m...

2018 https://community.sephora.com/t5/Beauty-Confidential/2018-THE-NO-BUY-LOW-BUY-BUDGET-BUY-ACCOUNTABILI...

2019 https://community.sephora.com/t5/Beauty-Confidential/2019-THE-NO-BUY-LOW-BUY-BUDGET-BUY-ACCOUNTABILI...

Challenges to Help You Use Your Stash:

Spoiler

Pan It! 2020 Challenge:https://community.sephora.com/t5/Beauty-Confidential/Pan-It-2020-Challenge/td-p/5095576

Use Your Foil Samples Challenge: https://community.sephora.com/t5/Beauty-Confidential/Use-Your-Foil-Samples-Challenge-January-2018/m-...

The Perfume Challenge: https://community.sephora.com/t5/Perfume-Posse/The-Perfume-Challenge/m-p/2633976#M18939

Mask of the Week Challenge: https://community.sephora.com/t5/Skincare-Aware/Mask-of-the-Week-Challenge/m-p/3615125#M44343

**are you participating in a challenge that I failed to mention?  if so please let me know I can link it here**

[ather]

@lmaster  we live on the west coast ish and my family and his family are all on the east coast so we don’t have people around to help us. So it’s very rare we get time alone without the little man 

[lmaster]

I 💯 feel you there!! @ather I hate asking my fil to watch the boys, bc my house will be trashed,, and my family lives too far also, so thankfully my daughter is finally of age to watch them so I can go to the grocery store... She knows how to be a boss 😉

[ather]

@lmaster  That sounds awesome!!! 

[Samtian]

@lmaster That's a scary store, good for you!

[lmaster]

@Samtian that's no joke!

[WhereYouStand]

week 1 check in:

this first week was hard. I had a few weak moments.

heres the ups and downs.

ups: I canceled three subscriptions and put one on hold. freeing up 100.00 a month I can funnel into savings.  

i started with 50.00 in savings. I put 200.00 in so I'm at 250.00  so 1,450.00 left to go towards that goal. 

downs:

Beauty products Spending: $50.00

(I had dyed my hair purple a little over a week ago before my  low buy no buy and the dye came out in one wash. the salon fixed it "hopefully it stays" a couple washes will  tell. but they told me to buy a different shampoo & conditioner in addition to a purple shampoo so although these are necessities. I still didn't intend on buying them. because i already own shampoo and conditioner. just not the kind i need now.

i also ate out a couple times this week . ( i really need to work on this)  I am choosing not to put the cost down for this though. Ugh LOL i am a bit embarrassed about how much that added up to. especially since it was a delivery service and that adds additional costs. 

[lnum]

It’s crazy how much those subscriptions add up to @WhereYouStand ! Since we have been in quarantine in NYC I switched to cooking way more often and realized how much I spent on eating out, let me tell you you have nothing to be embarrassed about. I’ve saved a lot of money by only allowing myself to order in 1-2x a week and getting creative with leftovers. 

[ather]

@lnum  That’s so awesome!! Before we got posted to this tiny city we lived in a big city and I didn’t realize how much we ate out till we moved and we literally have McDonald’s, Dairy Queen, A&W and a few pizza places. There’s a local bar food place and a fancy restaurant and that’s all we have 😭 so we hardly ever eat out unless we go to the city!

[lnum]

@ather Moving to a new place certainly forces you to adapt, I bet you save a lot by not going out to eat as much though. 

[ather]

@lnum  I totally did but I was on mat leave when we moved and when I got a job here I took a huge pay cut. Then I went part time but got a better raise which evened out since I was making as much part time as I was full time. So it’s all around the same now. I’ve been working extra lately so those paydays will be nice!! 

[lnum]

@ather Woohoo! But don’t spend it all on workout gear or lip balms! 😅

[ather]

@lnum  I have enough workout gear and lip balms to last me 10 years!! Literally no joke! We are getting a new deck on our house hopefully tomorrow so that’s a pretty penny and the rest I’m going to save to either go home for Christmas or go south!! 

[lnum]

@ather Living in an apartment I forget how much home ownership costs with all the odds and ends that need attending to! Oh my gosh, we’re only 6 months away from Christmas. 😱

[ather]

@lnum  Omg!!! Christmas 😱

[lmaster]

@lnum eating out has always been a huge issue for me,, as a young child, (my grandparents basically raised me) they were at the age where all their children were grown and they are out regularly..I didn't really have anyone teaching me how to cook, so I'm still learning,,, and I admit,,,I like to take the easy way out if I can 😞

[lnum]

@lmaster It is such a process because there’s no way to get better at it without failing in the beginning which stinks! I can honestly say it wasn’t until quarantine that I had to cook so frequently and remember what my mother taught me. In NYC there is such a culture of eating out that I probably only cooked twice a week on the weekends. Now I’m sort of liking how much money I save but I’m definitely ready to stop doing so much work, cooking is tiring! 

[lmaster]

I feel like if I didn't have the 3 kids,,, two of which are boys and 5&6 years old 😬 I would have the energy to plan better,, @lnum the whole cooking, planning, shopping is so exhausting 🤣

[eshoe]

That’s why I love Instacart, @lmaster. I order once a week and as I run out of things, just add it to my cart right away. I don’t forget items anymore since I’m not writing lists.

[ather]

@eshoe  That would be amazing to have!!! 

[eshoe]

There are so many good things about it, @ather - some not so good, but I am sure grateful for it right now!

[lmaster]

Wish I had that by me 😆 @eshoe I live too far out