As you are probably already used to, I am back with a new post, a new report of my beauty spending. This time, I will be talking about the results for the month of February.
As you probably already know, or I really hope you do, I wanted to try and spend less this year. Well, less than even the previous year when I also embarked on a similar journey with similar rules. I did update some the rules as you might have seen here. Also, it is never too late to join this challenge, so if you haven’t already and you think your beauty spending might just be a tad out of control, then please join me and let’s support each other and learn from each other’s mistakes.
Without further ado here is what February looks like for me.
Purchases
- GlossyBox February – £10
- Barnangen Oil Intense Shower Cream – £3.75
- Barnangen Oil Intense Shower Cream – £4.73
- Woo Woo Intimate Hair Removal Cream x 2 – £4.5 each so £9 in total
- Beauty Laundrette Cotton Smooth Body Wash – £6
- Yadah Cactus Toner Pads – £9.35
- Sephora Almond Milk Face Sleeping Mask 50ml – £7.11
- Sephora Prickly Pear Face Sleeping Mask 50ml – £7.11
- Sephora Strawberry Lip Sleeping Mask – £4.45
- Sephora Vanilla Lip Sleeping Mask – £4.45
- Fenty Skin Fat Water Pore Refining Toner Serum 150ml – £21.87
- Sinsay Makeup Sponger + Storage Set – £2.84
- Sinsay Makeup Sponger Set (2 pieces) – £3.2
Total spending: £93.86
Empties
- Algenist Elevate Advanced Retinol Serum – worth £13.5
- Ziaja Hand Cleansing Gel – one I got for £3.65 and one I got for £3.18
- Dr Levy Switzerland Booster Serum 4ml – worth £37.3
- Olaplex No3 Hair Perfector – worth £24.89
- Noble Isle Rhubard Rhubard Bath & Shower Gel 75ml – worth £6.3
- Christophe Robin Regenerating Mask with Rare Prickly Pear Oil 50ml – worth £10.8
- Spacemask Spacemask x 1 – worth £3
- Pixi Clarity Tonic 250ml – worth £18
- Beauty Pie Super Healthy Hair™ Intensive Nourishing Shampoo – worth £6.91
- Environ Focus Care Youth+ Avance Moisturiser 5ml – worth £13.83
- Sephora Hand Cleansing Gel with Almond 30ml – worth £2.67
I used up a total of £144.03 worth of beauty products. In order to get this value, I calculated the worth of some of the products based on their sizes if the products do not normally retail in those sizes. In addition, I used “historic prices” (yeah, I am totally aware I used that accounting terminology in a less than desirable way, let’s say) for some other products. Now seriously, what I mean to say is that I used the prices I paid for the products rather than what they retail for in making the calculation above. Since I started tracking these purchases, I have them written down in a spreadsheet so I take the prices from there if I have them. As you can see for Ziaja for example, I did not consider both items of the same products to be wroth the same as I paid different prices for them because of a sale. Boy, do I like to complicate thing. Yes, I do. I totally do. Plus, it keeps me busy and as such, I am more likely to spend less as I am preoccupied with something other than analysing the latest releases 😀
This means that my allowance from empties, based on the stipulated rules is half the amount aka £72.01
Allowance from Posts
- Instagram -> £2
Allowance from reviews
Dr Jart+ Dermaclear™ Micro Foaming Cleanser
Huxley Moroccan Garden Body Wash
GlossyBox Sing Dance Love Repeat February Edition
Avant Skincare Velvet Perfecting Rose Sugar Lip Scrub
Allowance from reviews: 5 x £5 =£25
Total allowance from posts: £27
Well, the second month of 2021 went okay-ish. This month started out great, despite having gotten a few British parcels forwarded for once I did not spend a fortune. Okay, I admit that I was worried about how everything would go and whether I would have to pay any customs. I did not, but then again, the value of my items was significantly below the threshold for VAT (not that I did not pay UK tax (aka old EU VAT rate) which is embedded in the price of the items and which as far as I know is still equal to EU VAT – one we should not be paying as EU customers ( as frat as I know but I am not a tax consultant)…way too complicated. It might work if you purchase directly form a store but I have yet to see any such facilities being offered for EU customers). Don’t mind me. It will take a while until things get sorted, but I wanted a few things and an opportunity to see what the process looks like before getting a super major gift with purchase I cannot live without :).
The Barnangen products are some that I have been curious to try for a while. Okay, not necessary the two that I did end up purchasing, but I got them so that I could get free delivery on my grocery shop ( well for my shop before they started offering free delivery for Valentine’s and then for some vegan groceries). The delivery fee is around £4 so I spent around £8 not to pay the fee and rather get some beauty products instead, ones I will use at some point. One I hate paying for delivery in general, but when I do, things go wrong and I usually never end up getting my products but I also do not recover the fee. The same thing happens with tips. Now I only tip if I can do it after the fact rather than before, which never made any sense to begin with, but that is how some apps work.
And half of my purchases for February, well I made those today. Somehow, unintentionally this time (you might wonder how it can happen, but I assure you it can), I stayed inside for around four weeks. I was starting to go a bit crazy and maybe a water bottle “fell” a bit too hard and hit the floor a couple of times. In addition, I started losing patience for writing and for everything really. I also had a couple of incredibly stressful weeks at works and most of all exhausting so I needed to go out. I can survive staying in, I really can. During the first lockdown I stayed in for around 10+ weeks, without going outside once. However, this time I needed a change of scenery, but I had been so busy during the past month that I did not have time. The only free time I had was spent writing, cleaning aaaaand watching YouTube or HGTV because I am becoming a cliche (I look at houses I will never be able to afford). Had I woken up earlier on weekends (aka before 10 AM), I might have gone out, but that also takes way too much effort nowadays (I am becoming super lazy which is so not okay). Why does it have to be before 10 AM? Well, I usually go shopping (it relaxes me *shrug) and I go to the supermarket before everyone else (*it opens at 7 or 8 AM even on weekends – it used to drive me crazy during the first 2-3 years I spent in the UK. I was usually so bored by 11 or 12 on Sundays. It is different if you live alone as you cannot even spend time with your household) and by the time I finish doing the groceries people usually wake up and come the supermarket, but also the mall next door opens and I go to the few stores I am interested in and then I am out before the whole city shows up. If I wake up at 10AM or I am not ready in time, I usually postpone my trip in order to avoid being surrounded by too many people. Before you ask, I found walking in London relaxing and interesting, but in my home country not so much (not anymore and not for a very long time now 🙁 ). It is what it is. My point in this whole chuck of text I no idea where it came from was that I did not even realise I had not gone out in so long and two, when I finally did, I went to Sephora and Sinsay (I call it the Polish Primark) and spent a small fortune on colourful and pretty things – most of them beauty related, but also some stationary. So that is how I got half of the products from the list above. I cannot even bring myself to feel guilty about them even though I wish the amounts spent were a bit lower.
And now…. the dreaded calculations. Let’s see where I stand after 14 months of taking part in this challenge.
£72.01 (ALLOWANCE FROM EMPTIES) + £27 (ALLOWANCE FROM POSTS) – £93.86 (February’s SPENDING) – £2,236.5 (Previous CLOSING BALANCE) = -£2,231.35
Whew. When I saw my spending, I was a bit worried. Before today, I was in the clear, but after my haul at Sephora I was a bit worried that I ended up spending more than what I used this month and the allowance from posts combined. However that is not the case. I did have a bit left over which made my closing balance a bit smaller than the one from January. There is not a lot of progress, but at least it is way better than nothing at all. There is still place for improvement. And yay me! At least I did not get the many goodie bags and beauty kits I was tempted by. I filled my Cult Beauty basket at least four time this month in order to take advantage of their gift with purchase offer, but I never actually clicked “buy”. I was close, but in the end I changed my mind.
How do your February results look Like?
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I love this idea!
Thank you! You are more than welcomed to join the challenge 😉