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Hello, hello! Welcome to Years 8and 9 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):
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!
Curious about the past threads? Check Here:
2019 https://community.sephora.com/t5/Beauty-Confidential/2019-THE-NO-BUY-LOW-BUY-BUDGET-BUY-ACCOUNTABILI...
Community Challenges (These Can Help You Use Your Stash):
@Margalee @Mellmars1185 UOMA released an electric blue version of their Drama Bomb Mascara last year; it was part of their limited edition Salute to the Sun collection. It’s my favorite blue mascara in terms of color. Also last year, Pat McGrath released an electric blue version of PAT McGRATH LABS Dark Star Volumizing Mascara 0.43 fl oz / 13 mL . It was one of the limited edition “Colour Blitz” mascara shades, along with pink and turquoise.
Trying to think of blue mascaras that are still available… In addition to YSL’s, there’s an electric blue version of DIOR Diorshow Iconic Overcurl Mascara 090 Black ; Sephora doesn’t carry it but Nordstrom does, and I’m sure Dior direct still has it in stock. Pat McGrath released another Colour Blitz trio of Dark Star Mascara this year with her holiday collection, but it has a completely different shade of blue. (I bought the red and green shades instead.) Someone told me there’s a new blue version of HUDA BEAUTY LEGIT LASHES Double-Ended Volumizing and Lengthening Mascara 2 x 0.28 oz/ 8.5 ml available at the brand’s site; I’ve never used that mascara so I can’t speak to the color or performance.
After this months spending, especially since I've only worn makeup once in a month because, summer we're usually swimming, I'm hoping to not buy anything other than restocking products I run out of for at least the month of August and September 🤞
*updated the OP to include 2023.
My low-buy goals are chugging along into another year. I managed to not renew my VIB status with Sephora and barely re-Platinum'd with Ulta. I could've avoided hitting Platinum again but needed enough at the end of the year to tip me over.
I'm very proud of how much I've saved as a result of minimizing my makeup spending and hoping to repeat this year.
How are you all doing? Any low or no buy goals for this year?
August No-Buy Week Four Update: Well, I've almost made it the full month (kind-of). I figured since the August is wrapping up I should use this to update some of my main focuses this month. Granted, August still has a few days left but I'm dedicated/motivated to be good for the rest of the month so I doubt anything will change. 🙂 Fingers crossed.
Well, this week I bought Mens Biore strips (they’re larger and stickier i swear!) cause I used the last of them up.
My FFF box arrived though that doesn’t count cause it’s prepaid right?
I’ve been filling my Sephora shopping cart and not completing orders. Ha, shopping without guilt- though the upcoming sale is going to be 😬🫣. 😁😎.
@heartsmyface Great job! Prepaids don't count and apparently neither does using giftcards in my case, lol 😜 I'm going to start filling up my cart very soon. Going to make it my mission to not make a Sephora order under the VIB Sale. ~wish me luck~
August No-Buy Week Three Update: This week went a little left field because I forgot ULTA holds their annual 10x the points perk day in August. Although I worked my way around this quite a bit because I've been hoarding ULTA gift cards for the past year or so and somehow continue to acquire more (it's almost like my loved ones know where I like to shop, lol). Despite this, I really did not want to go overboard since the main point of my no-buy was to acquire less and shop less. I set my mind to only replenishing items I needed or getting items I knew were going to get used up. With the 10x the points, the used gift cards things were already looking not too shabby but rakuten blessed us all by giving us 9% cash back on ULTA during the 10x points multiplier day. I figured I would share what I bought, how many points I received on the order and the amount of money I actually paid out of pocket vs. gift card.
Order #1:
Out of Pocket Cost: $24.00 ($100 gift card used)
Rakuten Cash Back (9%): $11.16
Total (Minus Cash Back): $12.84
Points Earned: 1,181 (approx. $53 in ULTA pts)
Order #2:
Out of Pocket Cost: $4.77 ($50 gift card used)
Rakuten Cash Back (9%): $4.93
Total (Minus Cash Back): -$0.16 🌟
Points Earned: 413 (approx. $17.50)
Overall, I'm very proud of myself for keeping things minimal and getting to use up some gift cards in order to maximize my returns on both cash back and in ULTA pts. even though I technically did break my no buy (even though @Loretta55 claims it doesn't count haha!) Next year, I'd actually like to flip my schedule and go on a no buy for multiple months before August and then create a very large cart thats ready to be ordered during the 10x the points multiplier. 🙂 See y'all in August 2023 😛
You did an awesome job with your spending on your haul @QueenMarceline. Believe me no way I came as close to out of pocket spend as you did. I also need to start a no/low buy in the near future. If you have any wants perhaps a trade can help.
@Loretta55 Thank you, I don't feel too guilty about it haha!
My "no buy" (weekly update coming sometime in the future) has inspired me to take a peak into other spending areas of my life since I'm not currently actively shopping (just for the sake of shopping) at all. I'm honestly quite shocked at where my research led me: Starbucks. I'm almost embarrassed to share the amount of money that I spend on Starbucks weekly. I usually get my very over-priced and very over-sized coffee (with a couple of modifications/customizations which adds a few bucks on to the order, yikes) as well as a little breakfast to nibble on before I head into work. I usually get this order 3-5 times per week so if we called it an average "4x per week" my weekly Starbucks total would stand at around $60/week. Big major yikes. I value my morning "me-time" far too much so I know I can't cold turkey my way into this one but I thought it was fair to limit myself to half of my current weekly spending amount. I'm setting a strict budget for Starbucks to $30 per week or less going forward, which means if I order my oversized coffee and breakfast sandwich 2x per week my budget will be pretty much maxed out for that week. Wish me luck, y'all. 👀🤣
@QueenMarceline good luck!!! Are there any iced coffees from the store you like? You could have your own iced coffee and just get the breakfast food from Starbucks, trying to help 🥰
@lmaster That's honestly what I think I'll end up doing 🙂 I'm excited for it to cool down because I make hot coffee in my keurig after I finally found some k-cups that actually taste like something 🤣 but when I've tried to ice those they just taste... icky, lol. Today I started out the week strong by skipping the Starbucks in the morning and settling for drinking hot coffee inside of my house before work and making a light little breakfast.
@QueenMarceline hahaha, I can’t drink coffee hot. It needs to be on ice with heavy cream.
@heartsmyface That's the best way so I really don't blame ya one bit lol!
@QueenMarceline that's a HUGE step!! 🙌
@lmaster Thank you. I did it again today, so far this week... no Starbucks 🙂
@QueenMarceline wow!!! I'm impressed
August No-Buy Week Two Update: Last week was filled with random temptations and this week was too but a weird phenomenon happened, lol. I keep forgetting that I'm on a no buy and have to remind myself. So many websites I've visited and started building a cart until it hit me "oh... wait... you're on a no buy, duh!". I personally found this to be a bit comical. Furthermore, this week my rat decided to chew through a cement mixing tub on the bottom of her cage (I've owned 11 total rats in the almost 3-ish years of rats ownership and I've never seen anything like it). So I had to drop around $200 on replacing the pans with stainless steel ones to avoid that to be a possibility in the future and also around $50 on random necessities/accessories I needed to move them in the upstairs portion of their cage, all in one day. Now, we patiently wait for our pans to show up but that definitely threw me for a loop especially in the month I'm not supposed to be buying anything at all. At the same time, I'm glad it worked out like this because I know for the next 2 weeks (at least) I won't be purchasing anything and can still call this a successful no-buy. Although I also figured out it's a lot more fun to spend $250 on things you want vs. the things you need. 🤣
@QueenMarceline Well that’s good news and bad at the same time.
I’m doing okay-ish. I accidentally unplugged my timer today doing split training against the wall so I’m mildly disappointed I’m back at 0 and haven’t restarted it yet, but at the same time I’ve had a successful week. I did make some beauty purchases but I did them with Sephora $100
points redemptions so ended up spending under $20. Not too bad. Hahah, I’m still starting from zero so maybe the universe considered that cheating😂🤷♀️
@heartsmyface Aww, so sad about your timer 😞 we all love her. Restart her, it's not cheating it's simply the right thing to do haha!
I know I don’t have a great track record in the no buy/low buy thread but I think I’ve found the perfect hack to keep me honest and enthused about practicing self control. A count up timer and a personal cheerleader!!! What’s more motivating than watching numbers go up cause I earned them???? So far it has been almost 36 minutes since my no buy officially commenced and I’m feeling good!😆😆😆