little white truths

As you may know, I recently announced my 2018 skincare no buy, which I've been doing for 1.5 months now and I'm going pretty well so far.

The thing is, though, that I've made three larger makeup purchases over the last couple of weeks - and while they were all purchases I'd planned to make anyway (they all involved discounts), I made them on top of each other so I already knew that it was time for a dry-patch for a while. And then I thought, why not throw a makeup spending ban into the mix?

I've got some big life changes coming up, so I mightn't need to rely on beauty as my only outlet anymore. More on that in a tick.

I did a year-long spending ban for makeup/skincare a couple of years ago, and it was tough. I lasted ten months before caving, and I learned that it wasn't necessarily 'healthy' for me to cut off the one outlet I had at the time.

I don't buy clothes, restaurant meals, accessories, real coffee etc for the simple reason that I'm mostly a minimalist/thrifty kind of person anyway - I can't tolerate too much junk in the house and I'm not someone who enjoys spending money on non-essentials - and for years we haven't been in great shape financially because we have two toddlers and a mortgage, and there's only so much 'money work' I can do to bring more funds into the house. I'm self-employed, I'm a primary carer and I just don't have the time.

However. There's a silver lining to all this. And it's a good one.

As of Monday next week, my daughter is starting 3yo kindergarten so she'll be there on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, from 8am until whenever I feel is a good time to pick her up (they're open until 6pm if we need).

And also as of next week, my son will be going from two half-days to three half-days in childcare (also Mon, Wed and Fri), so I'll have three mornings a week where I'm free as a bird for the first time in almost four years.

And when I say 'free as a bird', I really mean that. I'm not pregnant and I've almost finished weaning my son - so my baby brain is on the way out. I can already feel it lifting. My memory is getting better. I've started thinking about my next story. The words are starting to flow more easily for the first time in years.

Yes, that's right. I'll finally, finally, be able to start writing again.

Why is this relevant to my no buys?

Because it means I'll be able to experience the writing 'drug' again. Beauty products and blogging about beauty products have kept me going through the brain-fog years, but gosh I miss writing novels and short stories. Fellow artists will know the call of the trade - whether it's painting, photography, music, words or whatever your poison may be - and christ that call is strong. It's consuming. I miss it.

Don't get me wrong, I'll absolutely keep blogging and doing my makeup and skincare daily (which have become meditation for me), but I shouldn't feel the need to buy something special each month just to have something for myself to carry me through the challenges of raising young kids.

Because I'll be writing again.

And yes I'll be building more 'money work' into my day as the year progresses, but for now? I'll do my usual work and write in every space that I get. Can't wait.

So! Here are my no buy rules:

• I'm doing it for 4.5 months, until the beginning of June - so it will end when the skincare no buy does. 
• I can buy anything essential that I run out of during that time (eg I can see this happening with concealer and tinted moisturiser), but nothing else.
• Gift cards don't count, and if I need to spend a couple of extra dollars to buy something I need/want with a gift card or Priceline voucher (we get those quarterly in Australia), that's ok. Better to spend a few extra bucks to buy something I need/want, as opposed to buying something just because it's the same price as the gift card or voucher!
• I'm not going to shoot myself in the foot with this. Eg I've been desperate to buy the NYX Banana Powder (I don't own a banana powder and I've wanted one for a while) and Sephora usually has a 20 per cent off sale in May, so if I'm almost out of something by then or if NYX happens to be half-price at any point, then I'll take advantage of those sales.
• Tools and storage (eg, makeup brushes or an acrylic lipstick holder) don't count: I don't have many brushes so I may buy a few here and there if there's a decent sale on; and I don't own a proper lipstick holder because I bought one of those in the many cheap 'have almost everything' shops. Mine's plastic and has a lid, and I suspect it would normally be used for beads, paints or even pills for those among us who need to take various pills on the same/different days.