It took me a bit longer than usual, but here is the report for June of my Using More, Spending Less challenge. I know that some of you really like these do I won’t keep you waiting any longer. Before moving onto the empties and purchases, I have to say that this month did not turn out the way I was expecting it to. Sometimes, it can be a good thing, not often, but sometimes. Is this one of those rare occurrences?
Purchases
Zara Home Absolute Linen Liquid Hand Soap – £3.97
Zara Home Poetic Mind Liquid Hand Soap – £3.97
Zara Home No Rinse Hand Gel 100ml – £3.97
Pull & Bear LA Eau de Toilette 20ml – £3.47
Sinsay Peach Makeup Sponge – £1.74
Strangely enough, without too much effort I managed to spend just £17.12 on beauty during the month of June. I know it is a pretty weird thing to say, for various reasons. One, aka the most obvious one is that I rarely spend such a small amount during one month. However, the expression itself – usually when someone says it they are referring at just how easy it is to spend £20 or so on beauty products. What I really meant is that I did not have to force myself to stay away from beauty goodies or launches. I even took a trip across the country and had more stores at my disposal, well physical stores as I do have access to the their online version but it is not the same thing. It is harder to make purchases online especially when some of the best shops have the worst websites. The shop I went nuts in last year ( not literally – just made a lot of purchases in after doing so well) has the worst website ever. You need to know exactly what you are searching and still might get a lot of results for products that are out of stock. The store is a local pharmacy chain (small one) and they have the smallest prices I have seen for some brands – for any RO readers, I am referring to Farmacia Tei (Linden Pharmacy if I were to translate the name). Last year I knew what I was searching for so I ended up getting a lot of stuff, but on a day to day basis it is a bit inconvenient unless you go to the shop itself. The biggest deterrent other than their annoying website is their delivery fees. Anyway, the point is that you have less chances of stumbling upon other products you have no idea even existed and now decided you want them if you cannot browse the website. How did we even end up here? Let’s get back to the empties now, shall we?
Empties
Lucia Magnani Refreshing Energizing Tonic 150ml – worth £90
MDO by Simon Ourian MD Intense Hyaluronic Filler Ampoule x 1 – worth £7
Pull&Bear Vanilla Pineapple Hand Sanitiser Spray – worth £4.57
Fresh Rosé Deep Hydration Face Cream 7ml – worth £5.18
MDO by Simon Ourian MD Powerful EGF Ampoule – worth £8.28
Dr Barbara Strum Balancing Toner 30ml – worth £9
L’Occitane Purifying Shampoo – worth £20
Dr. Barbara Sturm Eye Cream 5ml – worth £36.7
Suzanne Kaufman Nutrient Concentrate Skin Smoothing 5ml – worth £17.83
Sol de Janeiro Brazilian 4Play 385ml – worth £21
NassifMD Detox Pads x 60 pads – worth £40
BeautyBlender by BeautyBlender x2 – worth £17 each
Sunday Rain Watermelon and Mint Bath Salts 120g – worth £1.32
Mario Badescu Witch Hazel and Rosewater Toner 50ml – worth £3.38
Nivea Volume Styling Primer 150ml – worth £4.9
Hair by Sam McKnight Lazy Girl Dry Shampoo 50ml – worth £10
Murad Retinol Youth Renewal Serum 5ml – worth £13
Irene Forte Forte Regenerate Helichrysum Toner 30ml – worth £11.85
In June, I ended up using up £338.01 worth of product (wow!) and as such, my allowance from empties for the month is of £169.
Allowance from posts
Coola Classic Sunscreen Spray – review is available here.
Fresh Rose & Hyaluronic Acid Deep Hydration Moisturiser – review can be read here.
Oskia City Life Cleansing Concentrate – review is available here.
NCLA Beauty Hey Sugar Body Scrub – read the review here.
Pixi by Petra Clarity Toner – review here.
MDO by Simon Ourian Discovery Set – in case you missed it, the review is here.
Lucia Magnani Refreshing Energizing Toner – read the review here.
L’Oreal Revitalift Filler Concentrate – you can find the review here.
Juliette Has a Gun Lipstick Fever Fragrance – review here.
Gisou Honey Infused Hair Wash – read the review here.
Allowance from blog posts: £50
Allowance from social media
Instagram: 2 posts – > £2
Allowance from social media: £2
At first glance, I have to say that these results are pretty fantastic. I am bragging, I know so I will stop. No need to get annoyed! Kidding. You do whatever you want and don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise. I am genuinely surprised to have spent so less on beauty during June, particularly because it was my birthday month. I could have pushed a bit and would have received no push back. Maybe that is exactly why I did not do it. Let’s see what the actual math looks like now.
£169(Allowance from Empties) + £52(Allowance from posts) – £17.12 (June’s Spending) – £2367.49 (Previous Closing Balance) =-£2163.61
Better, no? I am nowhere near where I should be in terms of spending, however I am pretty sure my closing balance has not looked better at any point this year. I refuse to check so I am basing my comment on recollection alone. I will check at the end of the year haha. I definitely cleared some space in my stash, but as always more is needed. Seriously though, space is not something I have too much of and it would be amazing if I could clear up more, especially as I might need to move some furniture around for reno (hopefully not!). I love home improvement, but not the kind I might have to do. Anyway, less stuff would make things easier especially since it is a huge chuck of my beauty stash that is the way. Also, advent calendar season is right around the corner. Advent calendars means lots of new products and if there is anything I learnt on my short trip is that some products I am not willing to use again if they’ve stayed open for too long. A post on this will follow so I won’t go into details here, but yes, some products just feel gross after a while even if they might still be in the interval of time they are supposedly still good in.
June was great. That is my conclusion. I wish I would have made no purchases and maybe I could have gone without any had it not been for my trip. The last two items I got as I knew that there were more on the list already as otherwise I would have waited till July. No problem though. It would have been different for me, but at least the damage was minimal. Here is hoping for an even better July (sincerely don’t believe it will be as I have a feeling the first calendar might be released at the end of the month, but there is hoping…).
How did you do in June?
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In June I had no beauty purchases, the first month in years. I’m excluding a shampoo replacement since I don’t stash more than just 1 product.
My birthday gift was not beauty so June for me like for you was a paragon of discipline :))
Congrats, Nana!
And I sincerely hope that the first calendars will be released at least in late August, although for me from September onwards is decent. Who do you think will release their calendar in July?
They always do. At least they open the pre-order list even if the calendar itself is not delivered then. Plus, every year is sooner than the previous. There is already a calendar that allows you to get on their waitlist and has been for the past month if not more. It is crazy!
Also, congrats! 🎉🍾 that is amazing!
I think this year I might be very picky about calendars and limit my purchases because I have soooo much stuff. Which won’t be bad because I’d spend way less than in the past. I still have unopened stuff from 2019 calendars…
That is a great idea. I will try as well. I was quite proud of myself last year for getting 3x less calendars than the previous year. We’ll see 🙂 you got the Fortum’s calendar delivered to your home country or through third parties? I used third parties the last time, but with Brexit things are just so complicated right now.
So far it’s been delivered directly but indeed this year might be different. On the other hand if it’s too much hassle then it’s easier to decide against the purchase.
Yeah, this is one of the reasons why I stayed away from so many offers. Not only do I not want to end up paying custom taxes or whatever, but filling out all the forms can be painful depending on the courier. Third party shippers also make most the offers not worth it with the extra costs which have gone up considerably since Brexit. It is a long story, but the point is that there is too much hassle and it ruins the experience. Hopefully Fortums will continue to deliver as I really regretted not getting their calendar last year.
who knows? maybe they will realise that it is worth exporting. the beauty one might be easier though. the confectionary/food one might not be as easy. As far as I know there are many regulations against importing food in the EU from outside, but I do not know exactly whether this is restricted to meat or more