Thread moved from S&B **No Spend 2018, and this time I mean it!** Title edited by MNHQ

[MartinRohdesBellybuttonFluff]

For financial reasons (I'm broke and have to save) I have made a deal with myself to stop my frivolous style and beauty spending for 2018.

I will only be purchasing necessities as they run out (like cleanser) or replacements for laddered tights etc. I will take myself off mailing lists so I'll have no idea when there are any offers or discounts.

I will use my imagination and pinterest to create looks and outfits without accumulating more stuff to clutter my room and my mind!

Is anyone inteseted in joining in?

Here's to a style and beauty debt free 2018

I have been doing well (helps that I'm laid up recovering from surgery). I wanted to buy some castor oil to try to help my eyebrows grow. I have bought the expensive product from Boots before (the name escapes me but it's around £35!). Yesterday I bought a bottle of castor oil and a nifty pack of empty mascara bottles/funnels and I've decanted some of the oil into them. For about a quarter of the price of £11.68 and I bet this will last a lot longer too. Now to see if it works!

Also bought this for my dressing table.

www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01JLNFB32/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?psc=1&tag=mumsnetforum-21&ie=UTF8

But that's it! And I have an unworn Mint Velvet leather jacket on eBay which I hope will bring in £100 quid.

Oh dear pastures.

Is your mum an enabler?! (lighthearted)

Some of the stuff you bought is charity, so could have been worse.

Start afresh today?! Don't know what else to suggest.

If anyone (not saying you) is into Podcasts I wholly recommend The Life Coach School. Really good for sorting out one's emotions and getting to the bottom of why we do stuff. I started listening as part of my health and fitness overhaul but I see now they are useful for so much more than that.

Can you take back the brogues and unwanted earrings pastures?

Doing ok - I'd ordered a ring from a friend that makes jewellery pre xmas and paid for that this month. Purchased some photo frames to start in a gallery wall in a room we've redecorated. NO clothes though which is my main issue.

I am wearing some clothes in my wardrobe I haven't worn before at all or only once. Definitely NOT decluttering yet!

I'm afraid she is, Pupsiecola.

Anyway, as you say, better to draw a line under it and start afresh.

The earrings are pierced so unfortunately non returnable. I have a friend who might appreciate them though, so will see if she'd like them. Shoes I bought in Rome, so again not possible to return. Jeez

I reckon shopping in Rome doesn't count anyway!

Thanks Underpar! Trouble is, I go for work about 4 or 5 times a year, so I might want to stop looking for excuses

I've done rather well lately. 2015 I only bought from charity shops - best buy was a quality all wool and lined navy suit for work, very classy. 2016 I didn't buy any new clothes OR from charity shops. All went a bit to pot last year as I needed new shoes. Hotter last me 3+ years so only bought when on offer, spent just over £100 on 3 pairs so should do me for 8 or 9 years, and new jeans x 3 (£15 M&S) might last me 2 years, plus I treated my cousin and myself to silk scarves when we met up for the first time in yonks, and I did spend on half a dozen items from charity shops (all good quality brands, should last, best buy was a lovely Laura Ashley cardigan with a very easily repairable moth hole for £1) and bought a couple of new tops. Overall spend less than £250.
My aim this year is to convert some of my fabric stash into clothing, thereby killing 2 birds with one stone : reducing clutter and not buying clothes. I learned last night I will need an evening dress as there is a fundraising ball later this year I will have to go to. I know I won't fit the 3 or 4 long dresses I have (classic style, so won't be dated) so I will endeavour to spend less on food by eating less so one or the other fits.
Count me in!

Wow Ariela. Are you able to say how all this saving this benefited you? I guess it's impossible to say how much you saved as you don't know what you'd have bought otherwise. But, without wishing to pry, did you have a plan in mind such as paying off debt or saving for sth? Well done. Very inspiring.

You’re an inspiration. Ariela!

I’m amazing myself by being nearly three weeks down and not spent a bean on style and beauty. I haven’t spent much on anything, to be honest. Except wine and DH&I did buy the expansion pack for a board game we like so we can play with a group of friends who are coming for the weekend. Without the expansion it only plays 4.

Lisa Eldridge just put a ‘Buy Nothing’ makeup tutorial on her YouTube channel which I thought was quite good timing for us!

m.youtube.com/watch?v=Nsg6ZDd4NfQ

Can I join?

This year is my no spending year. I spent an awful lot of makeup when I first got into at the age of 24 two years ago as I was never allowed to wear it when I was a teenager and I went all out with MAC. My rules are no new clothing items full stop. So far I've been good- the last item I bought was a £5.99 belt from H&M in october and honestly nothing else since that. Walking past Calzedonia today with their 50% sign was hard as tights have always been my weakness.

I’ve filled a basket on feelunique...I don’t actually need any of it, I just want it. Eek!

Why is this so hard?! I honestly think I’m addicted to beauty products, can’t I be addicted to celery and exercise instead?!

Did you buy anything in the end Mission?

I’m wobbling this afternoon. My night cream isn’t moisturising enough for the current weather. I’ve got out a facial oil which is too heavy by itself and I’m mixing a couple of drops in with the cream, but the call of my beloved and breathtakingly expensive Dr Zelens is strong!

Can I jump on board?

Shopping has become my escape the last few years - especially clothes (I have so many dresses and skirts and cardigans and tops, it's ridiculous). Things have been tough at home the last year and I've been treating myself when I've had a hard time, or got through a hard time. Enough is enough!

I've unsubscribed from all fashion/beauty newsletters and unlike pages on fb.

The only style/beauty purchases I've made this year so far have been:

-a liebeskind bag (for my birthday! Have never owned a bag this size or this expensive before).
-The Estée Lauder Blockbuster kit which is waiting for me in the UK (I live abroad and JL don't deliver here) so will be a nice treat when I pick it up next time I'm over.
-pair of footner socks

It makes me sick to think of how much money I've spent over the last 4-5 years on clothes. There are a few things I anticipate having to get this year (everyday converse as mine are now splitting/fabric tears, lace up black boots as mine are 7 year old Clarks and heel is going/very scuffed on toes/think leather will come away form soles soon!) but I have everything I could need and more atm.

I really have to go through my wardrobe this year and sell/give away the thingsI don't wear or don't suit me. I have a tonne of retro vintage - it's so easy to get carried away on fb groups when people are showing stuff off (that's how I got sucked in the EL set - link from Mrs Gloss!).

Thank you for the link, Tooth, that made for very interesting viewing! I know I could do with rediscovering some older products, so I've been inspired to do just that this coming week and do my work makeup using makeup that's been lurking at the bottom of my drawer and feeling unloved - should be fun!

Have been browsing Amazon with a view to buy some new books because, well, I've nothing to read...except of course I do In fact, I've plenty of unread books in my bedside pile, and I really don't need any more just now, so have resisted temptation. There's some bizarre part of me that wants to buy stuff "just in case"...just in case they run out, just in case I can't find it...That's a cycle I need to break: the books I looked at today on Amazon are not going anywhere, they'll still be there in 3 months time when I've made a bit of a dent in my existing to-read pile.

Also had a look on Vestiaire Collective, which was definitely a dreadful idea, although I've managed to not buy anything. Small things to be proud of, but you do what you can, I suppose.

tooth step away from the Zelens! I have a very rich moisturiser from Bioderma for much less.

Welcome calling. Defo sell your unwanted stuff. Which country are you in? What are your options?

Ooh pupsie what’s it called? I shall persevere with the oil mix but will need to buy one when this used up. For some reason my stash is devoid of face cream.

Pastures I am a shocker for buying books when my to-read pile is enormous. I know what you mean about that sort of panicky feeling. That if you don’t get it now, you might never be able to! Nonsense of course.

It's this one Tooth. I did a lot of research on skincare of the last year; basically I started a thread on MN about "never mind the marketing bollox, what actual ingedients should I be looking for". We're on about our 9th thread! It's been amazing. Nowadays I don't spend much on moisturisers. I want them to just moisturise. I make sure my active ingredients come in the form of serums (which can obviously be a bit more pricey!). FWIW I have sensitive skin with early (but very well managed and not visible now) rosacea.

Hydrabio [[www.boots.com/bioderma-hydrabio-cream-50ml-10222926]]

Epic link fail!

www.boots.com/bioderma-hydrabio-cream-50ml-10222926

That’s great Pupsie thank you so much!

I'm in the Netherlands pupsie . I may have to delve into marktplaats (Dutch version of eBay) though managed to sell a coat on a mainly UK vintage page (only really worth it for high volume or higher value items as postage here is ridiculous). Am looking for a Dutch/Belgian vintage selling group on fb but no joy so far.

pastures I am the same with books - have so many on my kindle and a pile of paperbacks. Borrowing Jack Reacher books from my dad whenever I come over is helping me alternate easy reads with some of the stuff I have to get through (which can sometimes send me to sleep). Currently reading a book someone gave me as a thank you present well over a year ago!

Calling are there any newly new shops near you? We have quite a lot in the UK. Usually they charge about 50% though which is much higher than eBay (about 14% with eBay and Paypal fees).

They don't really do that over here as far as I know pupsie. They barely have charity shops (they have kringloopwinkels which are the same principle as charity shops - that they exist and donations - but they're not to make money/benefit specific charities, just to cover their costs and off low cost second hand goods). I can definitely give things away, but to make any peony will have to be marktplaats/ebay/fb groups. I do know a book shop that buys second hand books, though I normally donate my books either to my school library or to a colleague who runs a 2nd hand book stall at events raising money for charity.

I'm not too fussed about making money - I just need to declutter and stop buying stuff really! I really need to have a go on selling pages again when I can find the energy, or start with my higher price items (have a few lovely handbags that are barely used).

I have managed 2 no spend days in a row and looking forward to trying new things from my beauty stash/long forgotten outfits!

I've bought some kit to start making kefir which cost about £20 (2 x 1 litre glass bottles with swing stop toppers, and sachets of the actual cultures).

Yesterday we bought DS1 a pair of Timberland boots. It's his 15th birthday tomorrow. They were £138 so it's all he's getting apart from a book on weight training (we have a garage gym and he's really quite into it) and some chocolate.

Otherwise spending all good. We tend to put everything on our credit cards to get airmiles, and then mostly pay them off each month. I've been recording purchases in a spreadsheet. I have five columns:-

Food
Fuel
Essential
Non-essential
Expenses (DH funds expenses then claims them back but I need to track them to take them off the total amount).

CC bill way lower than usual at this point in the month (by half I'd say). Our biggest spend by far is food. I'm too embarrassed to say how much we do spend (when I say food I mean anything household too, as in from a supermarket). But I want to reduce it by a fifth; that's my goal for next month.

Where do others buy food, and how much do you reckon you can save by getting some bits at Lidl/Aldi (over Waitrose/Ocado ). My feeling is that branded stuff is similar price as W/O do price match with Tesco, and I don't often veer off-list which I think is a huge temptation when shopping somewhere upmarket. Am I deluding myself though?

I kind of need a new dress for a work event. Kind of. Have been looking at eBay.

What I really need is the time to try on all of my dresses properly I fear.

No spending is making me understand my spending motivations a bit. I think I throw cash at things as a time saving solution to issues.

pusiecola - agree on supermarket shop. Big issue here. Again though, I fear the issue is time to go to the non deliver-ing discounters.