Beauty

[rnmom]

@just bee- I've lived in Michigan my entire life and you'd think I'd be used to winter, but I find myself disliking it more every year. And this winter has been especially bad. We just got over a stretch where the temperature barely made it out of the single digits for almost 2 weeks, wind chills down to -20, so we couldn't even get outside at all. Even the dogs would go out and hold up their paws because it was so cold and they are Chesapeake Bay Retrievers, bred for cold water! Then we get a few days where it warms up, rains, so we still can't get outside, then yesterday the temp plummets, turns everything to ice and we get 5 inches of snow on top of it. Now temp is back to the teens, wind chill around 0. I'm pretty sick of it. I would love to live where you live, it sounds wonderful to me. I wouldn't care if I never saw another snowflake in my life. 

[Skyegirl21]

Good day, fellow Compacters!  I need support on this... I am trying to figure out my triggers for spending, but can’t quite figure it out.  So I set a monthly budget of $50, but have exceeded it already.  My birthday is coming up, so I’m forgiving self now... but I want to do better!  

Yesterday , I almost bought TSV x2, but controlled myself.  

I am best starting a project to keep busy today I’ll work on my attic cleaning and I’m gonna faux paint my laundry bifold doors in a French county motif...  trying anyway. 

So my strategy is stay busy with projects!  

Whats your triggers?

Whats your strategy to control unnecessary spending? 

Thanks and have a fabulous weekend! 🎉👍🏼💝

[rnmom]

@aprilskies- good luck today on your organization journey! I can so relate to your posts about how you are so tired of trying to use products up, I feel exactly the same way. I feel like I have been "trying to use things up" for years now and it is definitely a drag. Why do we buy all this stuff and waste all our hard earned money just to torture ourselves even more forcing ourselves to use this stuff that we don't like? Isn't it crazy? I finally gave myself permission to just toss the items that I REALLY didn't like, wasteful or not, it just wasn't worth making myself even more miserable over. I do still have some products that I've purchased that I'm trying to use up, but I don't hate them, they're just not my favorites so I won't repurchase them. You guys are motivating me go get something done this weekend, thanks for the encouraging posts! I'll keep you updated if I actually get anything done! Keep us updated how you're doing!

[rnmom]

@Skyegirl21- you ask some hard questions! For me, I do much better not spending if I don't even see it in the first place. Makes sense huh? If I don't watch QVC, don't surf the web, don't look in catalogs, my urge to shop is much less. When I start seeing things then of course I want them. So first thing to do is stay away from all those media sources.

A second thing that I think justbee has mentioned, is when a trigger to spend/shop hits, go thru your current inventory. If you already have 15 bottles of shower gel staring you in the face it's a lot easier to not purchase any more.

Coupons and discounts are another trigger for me. I'm always on the lookout for a great deal, especially for necessities, so if I can get a discount or a sale, then I want to buy, even if I don't need the items right now. So I end up with a stash or stockpile. I just got a coupon for 15% off Vitacost and as soon as I got it I immediately hopped on the website because I'm on my last tube of my morning SPF, no backup, so I'll need another one (even if it's not for 2 months). My first instinct was to immediately order more (plus some other things that I felt I just had to have). But I looked and the coupon is good thru the end of March so I'm forcing myself to wait until I'm lower on my tube of SPF. Sometimes when the urge hits, if I can resist, it will pass within a day or two, so I just have to wait it out.

Hope this helps at least a little!

[aprilskies]

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@just bee wrote:

We create the problem. 

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For sure. For sure.  For sure.  This, and a problem that appears on its own and it is off to the races to solve, where if I waited would have corrected in its own.  

My latest example is the cerave cream.  I should have waited.......I probably had something that would have worked. Was it an excuse just to buy?  The mind is powerful. 

[just bee]

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@aprilskies wrote:

Today is the day I am going to pull out all of my products and really see what is going on. Yesterday I was looking for a deluxe size sample of a skincare item I have, I didn’t find it, but instead found several hair products I forgot about. Oh.my.gosh.  I now have a ton of hair products.  So it is time to face this head on.  I will rearrange my stuff with everything in one place and just do the best I can working through products or simply just enjoying them, tossing what is no longer good and giving some  away.  I am not looking forward to this. 

@Beauty$Junkie, @just bee, , I agree.  when you are trying to work through products they seem to last forever. I have serums that never look that they go down.  That would be a good thing any other time, just not when I am trying to use up things.

Today is shaping up to be a cleaning day.  First on the list is organization. Then, a whole bunch of laundry. 

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@aprilskies

"Oh.my.gosh.  I now have a ton of hair products.  So it is time to face this head on."

Pun intended?  For some reason, this made me guffaw.

I think this is one reason I've been so hesitant to tackle my closets.  On one hand, I'm eager to discover a hidden stash of something that I can use.

On the other, I'm worried about finding something unpleasant in there.

Cue the theme from Jaws.

[just bee]

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@aprilskies wrote:

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@just bee wrote:

We create the problem. 

---

For sure. For sure.  For sure.  This, and a problem that appears on its own and it is off to the races to solve, where if I waited would have corrected in its own.  

My latest example is the cerave cream.  I should have waited.......I probably had something that would have worked. Was it an excuse just to buy?  The mind is powerful. 

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@aprilskies

Didn't I just read on one of the threads that Cerave has changed their formula?

[just bee]

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@rnmom wrote:

@just bee- I've lived in Michigan my entire life and you'd think I'd be used to winter, but I find myself disliking it more every year. And this winter has been especially bad. We just got over a stretch where the temperature barely made it out of the single digits for almost 2 weeks, wind chills down to -20, so we couldn't even get outside at all. Even the dogs would go out and hold up their paws because it was so cold and they are Chesapeake Bay Retrievers, bred for cold water! Then we get a few days where it warms up, rains, so we still can't get outside, then yesterday the temp plummets, turns everything to ice and we get 5 inches of snow on top of it. Now temp is back to the teens, wind chill around 0. I'm pretty sick of it. I would love to live where you live, it sounds wonderful to me. I wouldn't care if I never saw another snowflake in my life. 

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@rnmom

I remember the winters of my childhood in Chicago.  The Big Snow of '67 when the snowdrifts were taller than me.  The cold wind off the lake that felt like razor blades.  The muddy, oily slush.

I love four distinct seasons.  Better-half, born and bred in the San Francisco Bay Area, has a romantic fantasy about winter.  He grumbles non-stop about our NM climate.  I've learned to appreciate it.

When we decided to flee California, we narrowed our choices to Pittsburgh and Albuquerque.  (My romantic fantasy is living where there's great Italian food.)  ABQ was practical because it meant a job transfer.  Pittsburgh was more of a gamble.

And we might have gone for it except that the area was having a particularly brutal winter.  Ice covered all those bridges.  It was just too daunting.

Albuquerque felt familiar because I'd known Prescott, AZ.

BH doesn't fully understand the downside of a harsh winter.  We had a heavy snowfall one year and he had to shovel it off the roof.  If he had to do that every day for months he might not be as smitten with the season.

[aprilskies]

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@rnmom wrote:

@aprilskies- good luck today on your organization journey! I can so relate to your posts about how you are so tired of trying to use products up, I feel exactly the same way. I feel like I have been "trying to use things up" for years now and it is definitely a drag. Why do we buy all this stuff and waste all our hard earned money just to torture ourselves even more forcing ourselves to use this stuff that we don't like? Isn't it crazy? I finally gave myself permission to just toss the items that I REALLY didn't like, wasteful or not, it just wasn't worth making myself even more miserable over. I do still have some products that I've purchased that I'm trying to use up, but I don't hate them, they're just not my favorites so I won't repurchase them. You guys are motivating me go get something done this weekend, thanks for the encouraging posts! I'll keep you updated if I actually get anything done! Keep us updated how you're doing!

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@You know, @rnmom, isnt that the funniest thing. In the moment we are buying, it may be retail therapy, or whatever, but then that very thing that felt good is the very thing causing you stress.  Well, lmbo.  While I have felt it and mumbled never again, I have never verbalized it this way, even internally, and I think this is a great way to think through all future purchases. Awesome.  Yes, it is time to thin things out to a reasonable level. 

[aprilskies]

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@just bee wrote:

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@aprilskies wrote:

Today is the day I am going to pull out all of my products and really see what is going on. Yesterday I was looking for a deluxe size sample of a skincare item I have, I didn’t find it, but instead found several hair products I forgot about. Oh.my.gosh.  I now have a ton of hair products.  So it is time to face this head on.  I will rearrange my stuff with everything in one place and just do the best I can working through products or simply just enjoying them, tossing what is no longer good and giving some  away.  I am not looking forward to this. 

@Beauty$Junkie, @just bee, , I agree.  when you are trying to work through products they seem to last forever. I have serums that never look that they go down.  That would be a good thing any other time, just not when I am trying to use up things.

Today is shaping up to be a cleaning day.  First on the list is organization. Then, a whole bunch of laundry. 

---

@aprilskies

"Oh.my.gosh.  I now have a ton of hair products.  So it is time to face this head on."

Pun intended?  For some reason, this made me guffaw.

I think this is one reason I've been so hesitant to tackle my closets.  On one hand, I'm eager to discover a hidden stash of something that I can use.

On the other, I'm worried about finding something unpleasant in there.

Cue the theme from Jaws.

---

@just bee, hahaha, no pun intended, it didn't even click. Lol. That’s too funny.  

Yes, we just never know what we will find.  Sometimes nice surprises, sometimes dread.