I've determined that the first month of Breaking the Spending Habit has to be the hardest. You probably have your credit cards set up to pay the previous statement's amounts, so you still have the credit card payments from when you were spending freely. This means you don't get any of the excitement from buying new stuff, but you also don't have the satisfaction that comes from putting money into your savings account.
But we did it! It was another successful week in my personal shopping intervention to break my own spending habit. And now we have one of my favorite parts of the week: I get to tell you all the awesome/tempting things I passed up! I had some deals I posted earlier that were too good not to show you all immediately, but I saved most things for this post.
My personal favorite item from this week is Brixo.
You may have seen a video similar to this one making the rounds of the internet this week:
This week, I realized that there is no way all of my makeup is going to last through the end of the year. I mean, I have several tubes of mascara from when there was a really good sale, and enough blush and eye shadow to last me until the end of time. Unfortunately, there is no way my foundation will last; I'm on the last drops of my acne-fighting makeup primer; I already ran out of my favorite eyeliner (which is what prompted this realization).
Fortunately, a friend taught me in college how to use a good angled brush to apply eye shadow as eyeliner.
As for the primer, I'm in the process of figuring exactly what DIY primer recipe online is the best. I'll add a link here when I figure out which one it is and make you a tutorial! The foundation...I suppose I'm going to have to be careful about how much I use for awhile. I don't really have a solution there yet. It's certainly not spending $30 on another container of the only foundation I've found that has my skin tone (I'm super, duper white) and doesn't make me break out.
Recently, it appears that several of my friends have started selling Lipsense, which is a lip stain. Nothing unusual about it, except that I love lip stains. Love, love, love them. So of course I want to try one, and why not be helping out a friend who's trying to make money for her family while I feed my addiction? Except I obviously am trying to curb my spending tendencies, so I'm fighting a doubly hard battle here. I realize this particular temptation isn't as relatable as many of my others.
One thing that my husband and I discussed this week is the fact that I may run out of moisturizer before the end of the year, which is when this spending moratorium will end. If I run out halfway through December, I can probably get away with using coconut oil for a few months. Unfortunately, I am extremely acne-prone. I was bullied for my acne in high school, so taking care of my skin is something I take pretty seriously now. And there's only really one moisturizer I've found that actively fights my acne (though I've found many that claimed to do so). So I thought that I may need to buy some more moisturizer...except I've just discovered that the small business that made and sold that moisturizer has closed. So I may actually be trying to figure out how to make my own! I'll post a link here if that ever happens.
We did have to pay for the rest of our car repairs. This is never fun. We had to replace the water pump, fuel pump, and timing belt on our family car. It was pricey. But like most doctors' offices, auto repair shops, and other purveyors of expense-but-necessary services, they worked with us and let us split up the cost over time. Most places like that are willing to get you on some sort of payment plan. They'd much rather do that than send you to collections or pass on your business, usually.
And now it's onto another week! Just a couple more until I can actually start putting money into savings, which is the really rewarding part of all this.
But we did it! It was another successful week in my personal shopping intervention to break my own spending habit. And now we have one of my favorite parts of the week: I get to tell you all the awesome/tempting things I passed up! I had some deals I posted earlier that were too good not to show you all immediately, but I saved most things for this post.
My personal favorite item from this week is Brixo.
You may have seen a video similar to this one making the rounds of the internet this week:
Basically, Brixo blocks are chrome-plated legos that act as circuits without the wires. According to the site, they can "bring your designs to life with electronic sensors, motors, and connected apps." They're a contained, safe way for your children to experiment and create with electricity. The concept is similar to the ever-popular Snap Circuits (which I buy *every* time they're on sale; they make fantastic gifts), but they work with your existing lego sets.
This would have been one of those presents I could give my husband at Christmas and he would be *very* excited to receive. If I had older kids (my only child is 18 months currently), they would have loved them too.
This week, I realized that there is no way all of my makeup is going to last through the end of the year. I mean, I have several tubes of mascara from when there was a really good sale, and enough blush and eye shadow to last me until the end of time. Unfortunately, there is no way my foundation will last; I'm on the last drops of my acne-fighting makeup primer; I already ran out of my favorite eyeliner (which is what prompted this realization).
Fortunately, a friend taught me in college how to use a good angled brush to apply eye shadow as eyeliner.
As for the primer, I'm in the process of figuring exactly what DIY primer recipe online is the best. I'll add a link here when I figure out which one it is and make you a tutorial! The foundation...I suppose I'm going to have to be careful about how much I use for awhile. I don't really have a solution there yet. It's certainly not spending $30 on another container of the only foundation I've found that has my skin tone (I'm super, duper white) and doesn't make me break out.
Recently, it appears that several of my friends have started selling Lipsense, which is a lip stain. Nothing unusual about it, except that I love lip stains. Love, love, love them. So of course I want to try one, and why not be helping out a friend who's trying to make money for her family while I feed my addiction? Except I obviously am trying to curb my spending tendencies, so I'm fighting a doubly hard battle here. I realize this particular temptation isn't as relatable as many of my others.
One thing that my husband and I discussed this week is the fact that I may run out of moisturizer before the end of the year, which is when this spending moratorium will end. If I run out halfway through December, I can probably get away with using coconut oil for a few months. Unfortunately, I am extremely acne-prone. I was bullied for my acne in high school, so taking care of my skin is something I take pretty seriously now. And there's only really one moisturizer I've found that actively fights my acne (though I've found many that claimed to do so). So I thought that I may need to buy some more moisturizer...except I've just discovered that the small business that made and sold that moisturizer has closed. So I may actually be trying to figure out how to make my own! I'll post a link here if that ever happens.
We did have to pay for the rest of our car repairs. This is never fun. We had to replace the water pump, fuel pump, and timing belt on our family car. It was pricey. But like most doctors' offices, auto repair shops, and other purveyors of expense-but-necessary services, they worked with us and let us split up the cost over time. Most places like that are willing to get you on some sort of payment plan. They'd much rather do that than send you to collections or pass on your business, usually.
And now it's onto another week! Just a couple more until I can actually start putting money into savings, which is the really rewarding part of all this.
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