Monday, November 9, 2015

Innocent and Twisted Alchemy Subscription - July 2015

A tea party! And made with love <3


Ah, shabby-chic. That's a thing now, I guess. Purdy.


July was a special month with 4 guest indies! A lip tint from Kiss My Sass, Lip sample from Kae Q, and eye shadow samples from Chirp Cosmetics and Wonderland Beauty. Two of those had been on my must-try list for some time. I think I&T is always delivering a great value.








A side view . I love how nice these look together.











And.. on my face:







Friday, November 6, 2015

My first Hello Waffle Visage - August 2015


Hello Waffle is a Canadian cosmetics company that offers a well-sought out monthly subscription. A tiered pricing plan was just put into place to include shipping costs. At the time this was purchased, I paid $25 US (including shipping). Based on my geographical region, I would now be paying $36.50 US (including shipping) per month. 


I love that kitty tape! I've actually peeled it off and used it to tape up photos in my daughter's room.

Oh, Hello Waffle. 



Opening the box.


I love the thought and design in the themed cards.


Two guests this month - Corvus Cosmetics and Darling Clandestine.


The goods!


Detailed insert including a lovely story based on the month's theme, a suggested look and product details. 


Look at how pretty that is!


Two eyeshadows, one mini-blush, one lip product and one full size perfume.




So pretty!



Immortal soul, blush, corvus, eye shadow.




Check out that sparkle!


Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Even when I want to forget, they try to get me...


Just to follow up my last post with another challenge.



Be strong! Ignore it!


And for good measure, try not to be this:


Thanks to Sarah's Scribbles. 

Two weeks into my no-buy/low-buy shopping pause

Temptations
Shortly after I declared to the world I was going to pause my shopping, be more mindful and try to cut extraneous expenses out of my life for a year a bunch of life happened. Good life (insert big smile here) but life. I was on track to be debt-free, at zero, net worth positive on my birthday. The bills have settled, and for now I think I can recalculate my debt payment plan. I'm still going to do the 365 days of shopping pause.
Not surprisingly, the spending gremlins snuck into my brain. Yesterday was a great example of what I hope the shopping pause can help correct. I knew I couldn't buy anything yet I still spend over three hours looking at and tempted to get various things. Oh, the shopping ban has just started, this is okay. It's only x dollars, and you're going to get it sometime soon anyway; why not get it now? If you really want to stick to a whole year, just buy this thing now. etc, etc. I'm pretty sure I spent so much time looking because 1) I was tired and 2) I suspect my subconscious knows that will-power can only last so long and eventually I'll give it.

Success
Good news! I actually didn't buy anything yesterday despite all the temptations! I am also very proud of myself for not giving in on any of the 12+ halloween day only sales and products. That was ... unexpected and hard.
Some of the things I did was to
-Calculate the exchange rate and how many hours of work the item would be
-Close the browser windows after emptying my shopping card
-Look in the stores for what I want without any money/cards telling myself I can come back
-Put the phone to charge and go to another room in the house
-Whine to someone about how I want to buy things
-Think of something I would want more that I already paused on
-Look at how much stuff I have now; think if I have something that already fills that role
-Decide when I might be able to buy that item without any guilt (ie I'll get a new cover when it's time to replace my planner or if it breaks; I'll get a sample of that make-up item when it's time to order an essential item, I think I can make it this year without replacing my x clothing item, wait until you've lost the weight and then replace with something nice you love that will last)


A Plan
I've decided that to really stick to my shopping pause I need a good start. I want a goal to get me focused to aid in preventing slip ups. I know it's going to happen, I know life is going to happen. But... I have a goal I've wanted for several years now. Debt-free.
If I trim all the excess (which is going to be really hard with the holidays upon us) I think I can be debt free on my last pay day in February. Four months from now. 117 days. I only have to stick to only essentials (no make-up, stickers, outside coffee, clothes, non-essential kid stuff, etc) for another 117 days and I'll be at the start again. Only 117.

So that's my mantra this week. 117 days. I can do this.

Saturday, October 17, 2015

My one year low-buy

Because I heart my birthday, I'm going to start it now.

I have allowed a bit of wiggle room. I think I'll continue my Hello Waffle and Glamour Doll Eyes subscription until December before cancelling, and I will be keeping one of my subscription boxes (either Birchbox or Topbox and they both renew in December). I may try to get another Glamour Doll Eyes OTM, but I'm not sure about this.

What I will stop buying as of Today (October 17th) for the next year is:
-Make-up (except for replacements of unique categories like foundation, primer, mascara)
-Nail Polish
-Clothes
-Shoes
-Kitchen items
-Books
-Any of the other millions of temptations I have

I will not intentionally stop buying planner stickers for the entire year, but I do intend on waiting until march before I select more. I am writing this in advance and assuming a certain shop I follow sticks to the release schedule posted I will make one more planner sticker purchase today, and if the Femme Fatale goosebumps part II collection is out, that will make its way to me. I am going to continue to spend the next couple of months monitoring my spending before establishing a formal budget. I also expect there will be slip-ups but I hope not for a while. I think if I reduce my exposure to social media and when I do use it to come with a feeling on contentment with what I have that I can change my feeling of "gimmie!" to one of appreciation without brain altering desire lust.


What is allowed?
-a new planner or two for the next year
-replacement make-up listed above
-reasonably timed haircuts as I forgot how nice this feels
-reasonable replacements for things like shampoo and soap
-savings for a vacation next year
-currently coffee and takeout food but this may change after my couple months of monitoring. I'm currently quite good a limiting my intake and use of these sources
-Two race entries
-Activities for the kids, presents for the kids, and reasonable clothes for the kids


Why?
I want to realign my finances with my values, build an emergency fund, set a good example for my children and force myself to see some areas where I might lean towards hoarding *cough cough indie eyeshadows cough cough*. I also want to be better to the earth, more mindful with my shopping and consumption and build myself back up from the start. I also want to enjoy what I have, and I think that might come from having less. I want gain control of my spending. I want to get my old habits back of exercise, eating healthy, work/life balance and financial responsibility. I want to be the mom my kids are proud of. I am hitting restart. I want to me.

If this sounds nuts to you, and to me it sounds a bit crazy to be internet posting it (doesn't everyone do this sometime?) here's a recent article on how to choose your own financial adventure. In the context f that post this could be my re-declaration of option one as I hope to out of debt by the end. Assuming I get out of debt I'll essentially be renaming my debt repayment plan budgets to low-buy in order to start the saving train. I'm looking forward to it.

Saturday, October 3, 2015

Low Buy, No Buy Starting Points

Some of the advice I've read is to stock up before you start. So bad! This causes me to waaaay over spend and over need to no buy. It also opens up the "gimmie now" monster to all the new things you might be missing. If you're browsing stores opens your eyes to things you never knew you could want (or perhaps had forgotten about). For me, even going to a consignment shop to drop off excess or listing things online can catch my eye.

What has worked?
1. Keeping busy. Try to distract yourself.
2. Inventory all your stuff. Holy crap batman! I never knew I was so lucky.
3. Think about how long those items are actually going to last. I've been rambling about make-up on the blog for a while so let's use an eyeshadow as an example. It takes me 1-2 weeks to use up a sample baggie, full sizes are so much larger! It frightens me that I may have committed to this makeup for the rest. of. my. life (if I chose to use it all up before buying something new). If I buy another 1, 2 or 15... that's almost another year!
4. Budget, or more recording each item I buy. September was just a month to try to be frugal (knowing I had some stress triggers and I didn't want to make it worse by restricting myself to a breaking point).
5. A goal. You need a reason to change. If you have decided to no buy or low buy, you (or someone else or your credit cards) has said "Enough! This is not working.". Without a good motivational thought it's going to be very easy to fall back into older patterns.
6. Positivity!



For a personal touch here's my September story: I can haul like oates when I want. I had an upcoming birthday and a situation which leads to stress shopping. Even with my goal of being frugal, sticking to my debt repayment plan and getting my life back the way I want I apparently think spoiling myself is more important. I'm disappointed with myself, my hoarding, and my lack of discipline. But I need to be kind. Move on. Refocus.

I'm going to do a very long shopping ban as I want to start panning items, and overall continue getting the amount stuff in my house lower. I need to evaluate which subscriptions I will keep (because goodness, I love them! and I think they do help keep me from shopping and I love the satisfaction of using up a mini product). I think I'll keep the yearly (Topbox, BirchBox and Ipsy) and sadly drop the indies (Hello Waffle, Innocent and Twisted, Food boxes) to streamline my budgeting.

Aromaleigh subscription August 2015






















Friday, September 25, 2015

Femme Fatale



The goodies!!!




The order:



The loot:



The samples:




Loving the heavy breathing cat! meer-ow!

Let me know if you want to see these guys swatched :)