little white truths

I went to write a review post this morning and didn't feel like it, so I thought it might be useful to instead post on beauty spending bans and note anything I've learned over the years.

As you may know, I did a year-long ban a while ago and I found it to be very difficult, but I've been on no buys again for the last few months and I'm barely noticing that I'm on them this time around - so what's the difference?

That's what we're going to find out.

Make sure you have a real incentive

This is a big one, and it may well be the most important thing. Indeed, this could be the difference between why I struggled so much with my no buy last time and why I'm barely noticing it now.

Let me explain. Last time I went on a spending ban, I did it because I had too much stuff. And although I was thinking about the financial side of things too, we didn't have kids then and we had two full incomes, so the incentive wasn't as strong as it is now that we have five mouths to feed (including the dog) and only one full income plus a smaller, secondary income.

So the need for my ban this time is very real and I think this has helped me forget about all the new products coming out that I would like to try. While last time I got annoyed with my ban quite a lot and often questioned why I was doing it, this time there's no question in my mind that it needs to be done. This has definitely made things easier.

More on making it about more than just makeup and/or skincare

So we've talked about spreading the focus so it includes better overall financial management and the general reduction of clutter in your living space, but what else might be a good incentive? The environment is a big one for me, so the idea that I'm buying less stuff and thereby reducing my use of packaging and materials has been a big incentive for me.

What I'm saying here is, if I know that I'm achieving more than just preventing myself from buying makeup/skincare that I don't need, this helps me stick to my goals. There's a lot of packaging that goes into beauty products - from the box to the tubes, bottles and compacts - let alone the extra packaging that goes into having things shipped, which is my preferred method of delivery because I have two young kids and it's a lot easier to have things sent out. So the environmental benefit of curbing unnecessary spending is something that matters to me.

Is there something like this that matters to you too? Even if you would just like to have more money so you can travel or eat out more, that's still a benefit that's outside the beauty products themselves.

Plan for it

If you haven't tried a no buy before, there are certainly better times of year for starting one. For example, if you get really excited about festive releases, then don't start your no buy before Christmas - wait until afterwards so you won't feel sad that you can't buy any seasonal releases. 

And if you're going for a full year, it's easier to face festive releases if you've already successfully been on a no buy for a long time, because by then you'll have seen the tangible benefits of your no buy and you'll be more experienced in avoiding purchases, plus you'll be in the habit of avoiding purchases by then so it will feel easier down the track. So start your no buy in January and you can deal with the festive releases later on.

There's a reason why I started my no buys after I'd already bought the few festive releases I was interested in. I didn't want to make things harder on myself than they needed to be.

Focus your energies elsewhere

If you're anything like me, you probably spend a lot of time plugged into the beauty community. Watching YouTube videos on anything beauty related, being part of Facebook beauty groups, keeping an eye on particular websites or pages for new releases etc.

If you can, now's the time to stop doing this. What other interests do you have; how else can you spend your time; where else can you focus your energies?

Funnily enough I hadn't planned on doing this during my no buy but it's happened naturally. While before I was spending my evenings watching beauty videos on YouTube, for the last two months I appear to have fallen into a YouTube hole and now all I'm watching is Game of Thrones theory videos. Believe it or not, entire channels are completely dedicated to Game of Thrones, and I've enjoyed learning more about the story and also the things that have been left out of the books.

Who knows how long my GOT hole will last, but for now, I'm more than happy to avoid reviews of the latest makeup products. It's given me something else to think about.

In sum

That's enough for today but I may well do another one of these posts down the track.

I reckon you learn more about no buys every time you do them, and also the longer you do them - so I would like to come back later on and let you know if I've discovered anything new.

Do let me know in the comments if you have any tips for going about a no buy: I'd love to hear.

Hope all's well with you, and speak soon x