I ran out of shampoo this week & then forgot about it until last night when I went to wash my hair and had one of those ‘oh crap!’ moments. And then I remembered all the samples I’ve been accumulating. Many of which are hair products. Most of which I tell myself are just perfect for packing away in my overnight bag – but I never quite get around to doing & basically never use all the little stockpiled sachets of hair stuff waiting to be unleashed.
That was until last night! That’s right – I refuse to buy any new shampoo until ALL the sachets are GONE!
Which then led me to thinking, how much other ‘stuff’ is lurking in my abode, just waiting to be used but consistently pushed aside or hidden away to be forgotten about?! I know I’ve got loads to samples to use, but there’s also full size beauty products, cupboards of food & a freezer full of.......who knows what lurks in there!
It came to my attention a short while ago that the Salvation Army is currently advertising for upcoming October to be the Buy Nothing New Month.
I had a quick read over it and then scoffed – thinking to myself ‘well I’m screwed then! Although I technically won’t be making the purchases – I am sending my boyfriend off to the US with a big ol shopping list jam packed full of my beauty lust haves! And I’m paying for it too – so technically October is gonna be a major splurge month......’
But an annoying little voice deep inside my head just won’t shut up. It keeps asking me ‘Really? Do you actually need any of that crap or can you logically just start making a dent in the stockpiles of stuff you’ve already hoarded!?’
And honestly – the answer is – I don’t need any of it. I just want them so I can finally tick them off the beauty lust list. And I’m reasoning that the Australian dollar right now is almost reaching parity with the US$ - so now is the time to strike whilst I have the chance!
So now I’m in the middle of doing a deal with the devil voice inside my brain. I’ve decided that a lot of the stuff is just excessive wanton consumption – I don’t need to be going overboard at this stage, as I already have too many products to use up. I don't want to continually spend money on more & more products to hoard - I don't earn enough to afford to for starters! I’ll now redraft the list to very specific items, calculate the approximate costs and only hand over that amount of money to be spent (I plan on buying US$ this week).
Guess I’ll hang off the splurging until I get to enjoy it in the flesh over there someday. Now to do some online product researching & get that list finalised!
Anyone else reigning in their spending for October? Or would you splurge on USA beauty products if you had the chance right now!?
My partner and I separated early this year and now that I am a single income household I just don't have the same level of disposable income I did before, so I've been reigning in the spending without choice the past few months! I think aside from a couple of perfume sample orders from Etsy and an order of sample eyeshadows I did from Sassy Minerals the other day I really haven't bought anything since about May.
ReplyDeleteI ran out of shampoo a couple of weeks ago and thought I'd wait until I ran out of cleanser as well then order both from Strawberrynet, and in the meantime use whatever was around - I also assumed I had a million shampoo samples. Turns out I had none! My samples all seem to be things like masks, scrubs, moisturisers and primers. At the moment I'm washing my hair with the baby shampoo I use to clean my makeup brushes, lol.
I like the idea of a No Buy month in October. I think I'll do that. I do have a friend going to the States and she will be bringing back some stuff for me (everything is SO much cheaper - damn you, Australia!), but that's in November, so I can get away with it. :-)
I like the idea of having a no buy month, however if I had the chance to get things from the US I wouldn't hesitate! They have so many amazing products that we can't get here and the products are so much cheaper.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you could make November your no buy month instead?
I think it's an awesome idea. I think I'll do just that too. I had no buy months beginning of the year, and the feeling of overcoming that strong temptation to shop was exhilarating.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about your situation Dee - it sucks - I went through a similar thing a number of years ago. Living within your means after having a double income takes quite a bit of adjusting, but well done on the closed wallet since May!
ReplyDeleteI bought $360US yesterday...then remembered that I wanted a clarisonic brush thing.....maybe....so yes, more of a spluge than is probably advisable, but if it means no shopping for the last 3 months of the year - then so be it! The Aussie dollar is at it's historical best right now ;P