Buying beauty products and bills going up

[citygirl1961]

Just wondering if anyone here is deciding to cut down on what they spend on beauty products and toiletries and even clothes with bills looking to rocket sky high. I like a mix of high end and budget stuff but more high end I do admit, you do get what you pay for and the more higher end stuff lasts longer. I like Clinique make up, Liz Earle skin care and Wella hair care. What do you think?

I was thinking about this the other day. My disposable income will be going down due to essentials going up. I'm going to cut down on / put a longer time between beauty appointments. So for me, hair cut and colour, pedicures, brows and lashes.

I'm cutting out my natural toothpaste and switching back to the standard £1 stuff. It's just unjustifiable at £8 a pot. Deodorant too. Keeping my shampoo and conditioner bars as they last ages.

I have enough clothes so I don't need to buy anything this year for myself.

Yes I’m cutting back.

I shall maintain my hair but it doesn’t cost me a great deal, nails are going for definite. I may buy some clothes but it will be very limited as I own enough and buying more cannot be justified at the moment

I cut back to almost nothing during mat leave but it will have to stay that way. My latest fuel bill was scary!

Honestly, the fancy stuff and frills aren't always what they're cracked up to be.
I occasionally have a little foray into more expensive stuff and it always reminds me that cheap stuff can be just as good.
Find what works at a budget price and stop listening to what that adverts tell us!

Once you go cold turkey and strip it back to basics you find there's not that much difference honest

I'm trying a year of no spend on clothes and beauty. It will be interesting to see if I can last the year, but I don't think I'll need anything.

I sometimes buy mini sizes of Clinique on ebay to keep me going and then also use Nivea Q10 as that suits my skin.

Thankfully I probably have enough in my hoard to last me a couple of years, thanks to all the GWPs, advent calendars and special offer buys. I have enough makeup to go on for ages too.

The only things I'll possibly need to buy are shampoo and conditioner and I'm sure I have more of those than I realise at the moment, so I'm really going to dig in and make an effort to get it used .

There's a Low Spend/No Spend 2022 thread which is good for tips and resolve !

I have decided this year to Low Spend ( only buying essentials and some clothes for my holiday - cancelled from 2020 ) I have most of the clothes I bought back then so I don't need much . (It's a belated 25th Anniversary)

I have come to the realisation that my Holy Grails are worth the money
So Aveda shampure ( 1 litre will last me a year)
Body Shop Ginger s/c (got the refillable aluminium bottles ) we all use this
Molton Brown showergel - I bought a really nice set from QVC and working my way through some that I haven't tried before .

If I have these as my "basics" though they cost more as an outlay , I;m not going to be tempted by other things

What I’ve decided is to cut right back but that doesn’t necessarily mean lower end or high street (although of course there are some amazing affordable products out there)…
But I’ve decided that I’m going to streamline the amount of products I buy and use.

So rather than all the different serums and lotions and potions I am going to have one bottle of retinol (does everything), one great day moisturiser with SPF (50) built in and one night cream.

Same with hair, decent shampoo and conditioner but only one product for heat defence, frizz control etc.

At the moment I’ve got boxes full of products and make up that all do the same things. 10 different hair oils ffs! Its just unnecessary.

So I’m cutting back but quantity over anything else

I'm on the low buy/ low spend thead on here too, I have only brought three items of clothing this month mainly knitwear all in the sales, I don't need any new makeup or creams as I too have a collection from advent calendars, and I brought too much last year. I don't need anymore clothing, but will find it hard to buy no new clothes , so will just buy less.

We just got our first energy bill which has more than doubled after our supplier went bust and it's genuinely scared us!

I'm a total beauty addict but now starting to try out lower end products as I know I can't justify my current spend. So far I'm really impressed with some of them.
I'm converted to the Superdrug hot cloth cleanser, Vitamin E and Revolution skincare products which are all excellent (replacement for Liz Earle and Body Shop)

I'm not going to compromise on my concealer (Dior) or loose powder (Laura Mercier) as it's taken me years to find products that work for me. They do last for ages so will cut costs elsewhere instead!

@Ohpulltheotherone

What I’ve decided is to cut right back but that doesn’t necessarily mean lower end or high street (although of course there are some amazing affordable products out there)… But I’ve decided that I’m going to streamline the amount of products I buy and use.

So rather than all the different serums and lotions and potions I am going to have one bottle of retinol (does everything), one great day moisturiser with SPF (50) built in and one night cream.

Same with hair, decent shampoo and conditioner but only one product for heat defence, frizz control etc.

At the moment I’ve got boxes full of products and make up that all do the same things. 10 different hair oils ffs! Its just unnecessary.

So I’m cutting back but quantity over anything else

Is the Body Shop ginger shampoo and conditioner good?

I've been on a lemonade budget since quitting my well paid job and retraining as a teaching assistant after having children. I use a combination of Aldi and Clinique for skincare and Clinique, Aldi and cheaper brands (collection, maybelline etc) for makeup. Aldi's dupes are amazing and definitely worth checking out. Home bargains is also fab for haircare.

If you sign up to the Clinique newsletter they've constantly got offers on and I find some of their products last for ages so I can justify the cost - the largest bottle of clarifying lotion lasts me at least a year, same with the largest pot of moisture surge and their even better glow foundation is hands down my favourite foundation and lasts me around 6 months. If you've got a high end product that you love and the alternatives don't match up to it, you could always ask for it for birthdays or Christmas?

When we tighten our belts I do a “use up all the testers and half used bits and bobs before buying new stuff” and then I make myself “earn” extra money for treats - so I eBay stuff and use the cash I get from that to pay for beauty luxuries.

I've invested in a UV lamp and I'm doing my own gel nails. It was a £100 initial expense but having them done has gone up so much now that I'll recoup that in no time!

I'm watching what I spend.

I'm using up all testers, minis and freebies. I've switched my Pixi mist that was £16/£18 to Boots own Glow mist at £4. I'll still buy Chanel powder because nothing else looks the same but I'll be scraping all of it out with a brush.

I'll continue with hair appointments but stretch them to 4 months rather than 3. My expensive shampoo and conditioner stays because it's cost effective.

I'll replace clothes as needed, I bought jeans to replace the ones that fell apart and I'll replace underwear when that becomes frayed, I'm not buying more unless necessary whereas before if they looked a bit worn I'd replace. No one else sees it.

Is the Body Shop ginger shampoo and conditioner good?

I use it if my scalp is irritated (hereditary psoriasis) maybe once every 2-3 weeks . If I use the shampoo alone it leaves my hair a bit dry , but with the conditioner it is smooth. (The conditioner came out years after the shampoo)
My DS and DH use it regularly though .

DS wafts into the kitchen smelling of my Aveda Shampure because he just uses "what;s in the bathroom" , I leave the 1 litre pump bottle at the side of the bath but even with his sticky paws it lasts a year .

In the past when I've been trying to save money, I tend to use double up products e.g baby lotion for cream cleanser and also use as body lotion, baby shampoo for all the family, Nivea or Astral as a moisturiser, ditch the toner, look out for magazines with free beauty gifts and stock up if they have multiple gifts (buy a few editions to get different gifts). Another good thing is to use a beauty towel/make up eraser thing instead of buying cotton pads, not beauty but using half the amount of clothes wash doesn't effect its cleaning ability and obviously saves quite a lot of money over time.

I also used to dye old jeans to give them a new lease of life. It worked quite well.

I like high end but love a lot of Aldi stuff-they so many dupes.

I have so many bits to use I should be able to get through a year without buying anything. I know I won't though. I mostly hit in the charity shops, but it does lead me to buy things that maybe aren't exactly what I want

I haven’t changed what I use (a combo of high-end and cheap-ish) but I try to be really good about taking advantage of offers. Most of my make-up is expensive and I’m not in the camp where I think cheap stuff is equal but I got a few things (that I didn’t yet need) in the Black Friday offers at a significant discount. I also take advantage of discounts on Cult Beauty, Look Fantastic, etc. when i get their emails rather than waiting until I need something and paying full price.

I haven’t paid full price for shampoo, conditioner, deodorant and toothpaste in as long as I can remember. They’re always on offer somewhere.

@ShirleyBadass

I've invested in a UV lamp and I'm doing my own gel nails. It was a £100 initial expense but having them done has gone up so much now that I'll recoup that in no time!

Which one did you get, Shirley? I do my own nails but they’re not gel and I’d love to do them less often (such a chore).