2021 - THE NO-BUY, LOW-BUY, BUDGET-BUY ACCOUNTABILITY AND SUPPORT THREAD

[ElleElleG]

Hello, hello! Welcome to Year 7 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 https://community.sephora.com/t5/VIB-ROUGE/2015-The-No-Buy-Low-Buy-Budget-Buy-Accountability-and-Sup...

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

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...

2020 https://community.sephora.com/t5/Beauty-Confidential/2020-THE-NO-BUY-LOW-BUY-BUDGET-BUY-ACCOUNTABILI...

Challenges to Help You Use Your Stash:

Spoiler

* Coming Soon *

[eshoe]

What a great reminder, @Nickelliebear1. Makes me want to create one of those quizzes where each question has a yes/no and takes you down a different path. Great way to motivate yourself!

[danielledanielle]

That image, it's like a little beauty algorithm, 😂 @Nickelliebear1 

[eshoe]

I LOVE this, @danielledanielle! 😂

[ShortErica]

Here starts by inventory low/replacement/no buy! I've got some other categories (haircare, masks, body care) to tally but let's start with skincare. I'm excited to purchase some moisturizers and know I will use them.

Table reads as "full / mini / sample" counts

Category        2021 Start Goal    Buy Type             Notes

Gentle Cleanser	3 / 0 / 0	2-3/ 0 / 0	Replacement
Foaming Cleanser	2 / 1 / 0	1 / 0 / 0	No	I'd like to have 0, foaming cleansers just don't tend to work for my skin (too much) but I doubt I will go through it all
Daily Sunscreen - Face	2 / 1 / 0	2-3 / 0 / 0	Replacement
Daily Sunscreen - Body	3 / 0 / 0	2 / 0 / 0	Replacement
Eye	2 / 1 / 0	2 / 0 / 0	Replacement	One morning, one night, if I am close to the end and have a backup, I wouldn't be upset about that
Eye Remover	1 / 1 / 0	1 / 1 / 0	No	I'd like to only have 1 but at the rate I'm using eye remover, I doubt I'll empty any
Lip Care - Lip Masks	1 / 2  / 0	1 / 1 / 0	No	I'm confident I can get through one of the Laneige minis and hopefully will finish the full but then can get some other lip mask to replace it
Lip Care - Lip Scrubs	4 / 0 / 1	2 / 0 / 0	No	This might happen with a declutter, we'll see
Mist	2 / 1 / 0	2 / 0 / 0	Replacement	One and one backup seems okay, it isn't necessary but does make me feel fancy and makes serums apply smoothly
Moisturizer/Face Cream	3 / 0 / 1	3 / 0 / 0	Low/Replacement	One morning, one night, one backup, if I have more I'll let it slide only because I know I will use it
Peel/Exfoliator	3 / 1 / 1	1 / 0 / 0	No	I'd like to add this as a habit like I did with a weekly pore mask; definitely need to finish the Holika Holika egg; counting the Glamglow toner from gratis here to hopefully use
Remover - Cleasing Oil	4 / 0 / 0	2 / 0 / 0	No
Remover - Wipes	1 / 2 / 6?	0 / 2 / 0	No	Got some single use wipes for Christmas 2019, good for a sports tournament to get off tinted spf after a long day, maybe I'll get to do sports again soon, would like to use the full pack that I have open and keep the minis for future travel though in general I'm staying away from wipes and using cleansing oils or micellar water with reusable cotton rounds
Serum/Essence	5 / 7 / 10	3 / 0 / 0	Very Low	Hopefully going to tackle some samples and minis this year and learn what I like (excluding knowing an HA or snail serum is a staple)
Soothing (aloe)	2 / 0 / 1	1 / 0 / 0	No	Again, hope to get back to activities and use some aloe post sun
Toner	0 / 0 / 0	1-2 / 0 / 0	Low	I'm counting the Glamglow toner in the exfoliator/peel category, would like to look into hydrating toners

[hersheykisseslv]

@ShortErica I also have a spreadsheet for makeup and skincare. I like the style of your spreadsheet. I think I might add minis and samples to mine. I will eventually add the "buy type" column to mine. Right now, I don't need to buy anything and won't for a long time.

[ShortErica]

Thanks @hersheykisseslv! I'm trying to stay organized and motivated. Some product categories I love can get out of hand really quickly and I don't want things to go to waste.

[heartsmyface]

Oh my gosh you’re so organized!  Here’s hoping you get closer to your goals as the year progresses.  @ShortErica 

[ShortErica]

Thank you @heartsmyface! I think getting through most of my samples will then help motivate me to use others as they come in vs. hoarding them.

[newcarlee]

@ShortErica - I love your spreadsheet! Last year, I’d written down per category all the items I had and that helped me some but because it was in a notebook and covered many pages, somewhat hard to use. I love the idea of simplifying to Full/Deluxe/Samples and tracking them that way. Here’s to a better 2021 lower-buy for me. Although I’d VIPed again by ~October, I’d done well not to purchase some Sephora sale items (that extra 20% off was so tempting!) but then today went and stocked up on cleansers (have enough now for all of 2021) to get an Ulta GWP. 

[ShortErica]

Oh yeah, I can see how a notebook would be harder to use @newcarlee. I'm sure you'll do great this year. This group is great about discussing the pros and cons of purchases you may want to make so definitely post and everyone will hold you accountable while also understanding sometimes you gotta treat yourself.

[faeriegirl]

I love how organized you are @ShortErica!

[ShortErica]

Thanks @faeriegirl!

[ShortErica]

Took a pic of the table in Excel since the table formatted oddly on BIC

[ather]

@ShortErica  This is such a great idea!!

[ShortErica]

Thanks @ather!

[eshoe]

Love your spreadsheet, @ShortErica! I just finished mine for tracking empties/purchases today. Makes me look forward to finishing more products!

[ShortErica]

Exciting @eshoe! I'm ready to get through some "fine" products too so I can focus on ones I love or want to try.

[V21988]

That statement warrants meditation because it is deep. Awesome! I like pleasure in my thoughts too. 🛀🛀🛀

The ones you love versus what you want to try or ones you don't know yet - there is a complexity here.

This is thrilling to me!

[LuxFlora]

Wow, this is spreadsheet goals @ShortErica I love this spreadsheet and it's very helpful. Thank you for sharing! 😁

Edit: changed "chart" to "spreadsheet" I am not great with excel lol.

[ShortErica]

Thanks @LuxFlora! I love my spreadsheets 💗

[SAlyFitz]

Hey all, I haven’t been active here probably since 2019 but I keep reading your posts for encouragement and this year I’m ready to commit to a plan for myself.  I am expecting my first child in February and just found out at 30 weeks to expect health concerns due to an anomaly. We should gain more info this week.  As soon as I received this information I wanted all of my stash and clutter gone as I love my things but they cause me stress and anxiety over organization, storage, finances, etc.  I had already planned to resume a budget in 2021 as I want to be able to tell my daughter yes, so I figure I will need to tell myself no more.  I spent some time the past 2 days going through almost all inventory of skin, hair, body, nails, makeup products.  I just have makeup to finish up identifying what I’ll likely go through in 2021 and creating my goals to pan.  I was shocked to find so many products from 2019 and 2020 pan projects still live on...and they must go lol! In considering what I’ll go through this year, I’m also listing items I could use to pick up (should I have the money on hand for a purchase).  So I’m planning for a low low buy with mostly purpose, exceptions would be for rouge sales and birthday shopping (but with clear financial budget).  My goal financially is to only spend when I have the money in hand, I'm a habitual “I can buy this now and pay it off by...” fill in the unrealistic goal that I always get away from causing me to go off the rails and inquire way too much debt.  Then needing to pay down debt start with a clean slate and somehow after some amount of time be in the same place... I’m trying to focus more on gratitude and a balance of enjoyment from things acquired not just acquiring.  I want my hobby to be self care not shopping, more self reliant - less instant temporary gratification.  Hoping to post some panning projects, empties, masks, support, looks and nails a bit more regularly to enjoy this community and our love of beauty a bit more❤️ Good luck all and happy 2021!