Beauty

[Favorite Son]

On 2/3/2014 Eager2Learn said:

On 2/3/2014 Favorite Son said:

Ugh. Slow going this past weekend with the one-room project. I selected the room with the boxes of papers, and only managed to get through three of them. I have to stop and look at everything, figure out whether to keep it or not, crawl around on the floor and put it on the correct pile if keeping it. If not keeping it, then I have to examine it and remove all personally identifiable information - those darned bar codes at the bottom of the credit card offers, name and address, etc. On the bright side, though, I am not accumulating those items anymore. I put all the mail in a basket and deal with it weekly, got onto the direct marketing preferences website and stopped all solicitations (I hope), and turned off paper statements for everything else.

Don't beat yourself up, you're doing great. I've only managed to clear one box so far. I'm dedicating the whole month to decluttering the papers in this room. It does take long to search through every item!

I've never thought about the bar codes. Do you know what information they show?

My understanding of the bar codes is that if one of those offers falls into the wrong hands, is fraudulently completed and returned to the offeror, they simply use the bar code to process the pre-approved application without much verification. So I shred anything that has my name and address on it, and any portion of a page with a bar code on it.

In order to stop unsolicited catalog, life insurance, and magazine offerings, you need to go to dmachoice.org, establish an account, activate the account via a link sent to your email, and then sign on to the service again to opt out of the different methods of marketing communication.

For opting out of those annoying credit card offers, there is a link that takes you to a website jointly operated by TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax (the three major credit reporting agencies, who sell your credit information to others!).

And for email, you just click on the link that says something about email on the home page of dmachoice.org.

I opted out of all catalogs and all credit offers once before, and it seemed to help.

[KonaKat]

Bee--hang in there and do what you can with what you can control. I am with you on the ""no buy' again.

[just bee]

On 2/3/2014 KonaKat said:

Bee--hang in there and do what you can with what you can control. I am with you on the ""no buy' again.

Sage advice.

[aprilskies]

Just bee, best wishes for whatever it is you are facing.

I am close to declaring a no buy for February myself for beauty items. Already I went off discovering and almost bought a few hair are items. One item I did order but then 10 minutes later cancelled and the only reason I did that was because I found it cheaper elsewhere. Good thing that one was only in store and I am not going anywhere with this snow. I couldn't believe it. Old habits die hard.

today was beautiful though. It's snowing pretty hard and the snow is just sitting on the trees. Just beautiful. I even went for a short walk to take it all in. Loved it.

[Squirrel Lover]

I still cannot purchase anything in February. I must finish this stash. It is very hard. I used to like to buy Judith Ripka's jewelry when she had a TSV, but her jewelry has gone up so much in price these days that I have not bought anything from her QVC collection in two years. I am wearing one of her old JR2 necklace, enhancer, and earrings today to make me feel good. I like her old JR2 stuff, but it gets harder and harder to find on ebay and I have not had extra money in a long time so that really curbs that spending! I have to keep my self from getting tempted for all things, but boy it is hard.

[IrishNicky]

Cleaned out one linen closet, the floor was stuffed, most was tossed( old beauty products). count over 25, also gave to our church store all current small bottles of beauty, lotions and shampoo. Now I really know what I have to use up, and next is my cedar chest and a linen closet upstairs. Maybe I'll get another snow day to stay home and clean. Hard to do when DH is home. Found 2 old Perricone jars under sheets, May have to do a sniff test.

[Oshare-girl]

I'll be working on my project 10 pan for awhile so I guess I am doing an informal no buy in Feb. I am constantly amazed how long it takes to finish a product. I guess this will be a good thing once I pare down my stash to all HG products. So far I have finished 3 items from P10P but I have the really hard ones left. I have a nail polish that is half gone. Each manicure uses an eighth of an inch from the bottle. It's going to take at least 5 more manis to "hit pan". One of my rules is that I cannot buy an item from the category that is part of P10P. I had to do this to restrict myself from buying polishes. Last year even though I put myself on a low buy with a designated number of products to buy, I mainly bought nail polish. Wail! It takes forever to use one bottle up. On the bright side, I am using my favorite polish so I'll be enjoying my mani for the next 3 months.

[Favorite Son]

After I get done with the room I am working on I am going to inventory nail polishes. That number will be pretty high, too, I fear.

[KonaKat]

On 2/3/2014 dperry said:

I still cannot purchase anything in February. I must finish this stash. It is very hard. I used to like to buy Judith Ripka's jewelry when she had a TSV, but her jewelry has gone up so much in price these days that I have not bought anything from her QVC collection in two years. I am wearing one of her old JR2 necklace, enhancer, and earrings today to make me feel good. I like her old JR2 stuff, but it gets harder and harder to find on ebay and I have not had extra money in a long time so that really curbs that spending! I have to keep my self from getting tempted for all things, but boy it is hard.

Resisting the temptation to buy is difficult. Sometimes the "all or none" approach can backfire so that when you actually buy something, the high from it keeps you buying. This depends much upon the personality of the individual. Some people permit them a token amount that they spend a month on "fun" things to keep them on track. I satisfy my urge to buy by downloading free books to my Kindle from Amazon. You are so correct about the designer sterling prices. I love Michael Dawkins but the prices there are also getting too high.

[willdob3]

Good Morning, ComPactors!

Is it Friday yet??? lol... Gonna be a long week...

Bee, that was very good advice from KonaKat. I hope this passes quickly.

KonaKat, I also indulge in free ebooks for my Kindle. I think I have paid for only 3 books on my Kindle, all reference type health books. I usually buy real paper books instead of ebooks when getting reference books that I know I will be flipping around in.

I finally got the clothing donations out the door (also took a few other things including an old coffee maker) so I will be working on my living room for the ORC starting this evening. I am excited about getting it done. I'm hoping to get done with the living room quickly because next on my list is the dining room & that is where I plan to set up my makeup area. I live alone in a small apartment & the dining room goes mostly unused. Reorganizing it will make it a combo office/makeup area.

It is early in the month but I thought I'd be buying clothes on the 1st! Instead, I find myself wondering if I can make it until March! Probably not, but I am happy to find that my No-Buy January seems to have left me feeling like I don't need to buy all the time.

I'm better at avoiding situations that will tempt me these days. I'm not looking at the emails and completely skipping online presentations about makeup & skincare. There will be plenty of good deals later, when I actually need more products. When I do decide to watch, I know it is time to stop when I start to talk myself into getting it. I just close the browser!