Using More, Spending Less Challenge Results – December 2022

And now for the last time for 2022 (even though we are already in 2023), I am posting the spending summary for the month. Calling it a summary is a bit of a stretch, but you know what I mean.

Are you ready? I have the feeling that this is the worst one in terms of number of lines even if not in terms of values moved left and right.

December was a month when I stopped giving a damm, especially after the fiasco that was November and given how much I went off the rails.

Anyway, let’s go. Let’s dive in.

December’ Purchases

• Cult Beauty Recovery Edit Set – £19 (used £20 credit I got from the advent calendar)
• Peter Thomas Roth Instant FirmX Eye Cream – £22.20
• CeraVe Resurfacing Retinol Serum with Ceramides and Niacinamide for Blemish-Prone Skin 30ml – £12.99
• Bioderma Hydrabio Moisturising Serum Dehydrated Skin 40ml – £13.17
• Bioderma Hydrabio Gel-Creme 40ml – £11.57
• REVUELE Ampoules Keratin+ Hair, 8x5ml – £3.48
• REVUELE Anti-Age Remodelling Serum 25ml – £4.14
• REVUELE Eye Contour Gel with Hyaluroni Acid 25ml – £2.58
• REVUELE CYS Collagen Serum 30ml – £3.86
• REVUELE Hydralift Hyaluron Intensive Serum-Concentrate, 7x2ml – £3.58
• Bioderma Sebum Hydra Ultra Moisturing Compensating Care 40ml – £9.51
• REVUELE Day Time Hydrating Cream with Hyaluronic Acid 50ml – £2.93
• REVUELE Night Time Hydrating Cream with Hyaluronic Acid 50ml – £2.94
• Bioderma Antoderm Intensive Eye 3-in-1 anti-irritation cream 100ml – £12.07
• L’Oreal Paris Hyaluron Specialist Smoothing Replumping Concentrated Jelly 50ml – £5.82
• Revox Eye Contour Cream with Retinol 30ml – £4.72
• Mixa Hyalurogel Rich Cream with Hyaluronic Acid for Dry Skin 50 ml – £5.01
• I Dew Care, Glow-Key Brightening Vitamin C Eye Cream, 0.50 fl oz (15 ml) – £11.88
• SNP Halloasis, Moisture Hill Beauty Sheet Mask, 10 Sheet Masks – £9.47
• Elizavecca Witch Piggy, Hell-Pore, Marine Collagen Ample, 1.69 fl oz (50 ml) – £6.60
• Esfolio Milk Jelly Pack, 3.53 oz (100 g) – £4.02
• I Dew Care Plush Party, Buttery Vitamin C Lip Mask, 0.42 oz (12 g) – £9.52
• Idealove The Balancing Act, Aloe Propolis BHA Toner, Trial Size, 0.67 fl oz (20 ml) – £0.9
• Elizavecca Hell-Pore Clean Up, AHA Fruit Toner, 6.76 fl oz (200 ml) – £6.61
• SNP, LAB+ Triple Water Peel Soothing Pad, 60 Pads, 4.56 fl oz (135 ml) – £7.84
• Crazy Skin Beers Yeast Hair Shampoo, 3.38 fl oz (100 g) – £1.8
• Pyunkang Yul Highly Moisturizing Essence Beauty Mask Pack, 10 Sheets – £9.68
• Huxley Secret of Sahara Toner, Extract IT, 4.06 fl oz (120 ml) – £11.69
• Idea love Superfood Skin Savior, Lime All Yours, 1 Beauty Sheet Mask, 0.68 fl oz (20 ml) – £1.07 x 2
• Elizavecca Gold CF-Nest Collagen Jella Pack Beauty Mask, 2.71 fl oz (80 ml) – £7.42
• SNP Jeju Green Tea Beauty Mask, 10 Sheets – £8.23
• Jumiso Have A Good Cream, Snail & Centella, 1.7 oz (50 g) – £6.54
• G9skin, Self Aesthetic, Soft Foot Mask, 5 Masks, 0.40 fl oz (12 ml) – £8.04
• Jumiso Chewy-Elasticity Beauty Sheet Mask, 5 Masks, 0.88 fl oz (26 ml) Each – £4.21
• Frudia Green Grape Pore Peeling Pad, 1 Pad – £1.07 x 2
• Jumiso Super Soothing Facial Serum, Cica & Aloe, 1.01 fl oz (30 ml) – £6.49
• Bath and Body Works Winter Cherry Blossom Shower Gel – £3.28
• Bath and Body Works Winter Candy Apple Moisturising Hand Sanitiser – £3.12
• Bath and Body Works Vanilla Bean Noel Moisturising Hand Sanitiser – £3.12
• Bath and Body Works Holiday Traditions PocketBac Hand Sanitizers 5 pack – £3.33
• Bath and Body Works Christmas Morning PocketBac Hand Sanitizers 5 pack – £3.33
• Bath and Body Works Vanilla Bean Noel Shower Gel – £3.28
• Bath and Body Works Snowflakes & Cashmere Shower Gel – £3.28
• Bath and Body Works Bright Christmas Morning Shower Gel – £3.28
• Bath and Body Works Christmas Cookies Shower Gel – £3.28
• Bath and Body Works Vanilla Bean Noel Moisturising Body Wash – £3.28
• Bath and Body Works Mad About You Shower Gel – £3.28
• Bath and Body Works Fresh Cut Lollies Gel Hand Soap – £4.12
• Bath and Body Works Kitchen Mandarin Gentle Foaming Hand Soap – £4.12
• Bath and Body Works Summer Melody Mini Fragrance  – £3.58
• Bath and Body Works Rose Water and Ivy Hand Sanitizer Spray – £3.51 x 3
• Belissim December Beauty Box – £7.49

In November I ended up spending a total of £338.54 on beauty products which is definitely not ok, but what can I do now?

December’s’ Empties

• Then I Met You Calming Tide Gel Cream – £32.8
• Ziaja Herbal Shampoo 200ml – £2.98
• Garancia In Two Shakes of a Wand Rose Facial Cleanser 150ml – £17.42
• Gisou Propolis Infused Polishing Primer – £27.95
• Omorovicza Daily Vitamin C Serum 5ml – £17
• Bath ad Body Works In The Stars Shower Gel – £10.17
• Bath and Body Works Endless Weekend Gentle Foaming Hand Soap – £4.24
• Bath and Body Works Gentle Foaming Hand Soap in Marshmallow Flurries – £3.06
• Bath and Body Works Gentle Foaming Hand Soap in Sweet Sugar Sprinkles  – £3.06
• Bath and Body Works Sweater Weather Gentle Foaming Hand Soap – £4.24
• Medik8 Intelligent Retinol 3TR 15ml – £37
• Jumiso All Day Vitamin Brightening & Balancing Facial Serum 5ml – £2.65
• Innisfree Dewy Glow Emulsion with Jeju Cherry Blossom 30ml – £4.35
• REVUELE Ampoules Keratin+ Hair, 1 ampoule – £.0435
• REVUELE Hydralift Hyaluron Intensive Serum-Concentrate, 1 ampoule – £0.51 x 2
• PAKage Melt Me Softly Nose Strip – £0.66
• Patchology Chill Mode Calming Hydrogel Mask x 1 pair – £2
• Dr. Oracle 21 Stay A-Thera Peeling Stick – £2.17
• Pyunkang Yul Highly Moisturizing Essence Beauty Sheet Mask – £0.968

In December I ended up emptying £174.17 worth of products. This resulted in an allowance of £87.08.

Allowance from posts

Allowance from Reviews – £15

• My Little Box December 2022 – read the review here
• Glow Recipe Watermelon Glow Niacinamide Dew Drops – the review is available here
• Truly Beauty Unicron Fruit Whipped Body Butter – read the review here

Allowance from Social Media – £18

• Instagram reels – £3 x 3
• TikTok Videos – £3 x 3

Total allowance from posts: £32

£87.08 (allowance from emtpies) + £32 (allowance from posts) – £338.54 (December’ Spending) – £2,964.72 (previous closing balance) = – £3,184.18

I am at that level where I am sort of fascinated with myself. I am kidding, but seriously, how can one person do so much damage in just a short time while intending on doing the exact opposite?

Okay, I do admit that after my plan went out the window after the fiasco that was November; I went even more off the rails than I intended. December was no better really. However, I believe that I just had one of those moments when I stopped caring. It was bad enough so… you know.

I can honestly say that I have no regrets whatsoever though. In true shopaholic fashion, picking up the items I did made me happy.

The reason or rather reasons I did not baldy in December as well is on one hand – iHerb and on the other Bath and Body Works.

I found quite a few goodies at iHerb, including some old favourites at incredible prices. I feel like this end of the year, iHerb had much better deals than ever before and it was worth browsing their website often. I did not do a great job posting about each of my findings even though I intended to but will do better in 2023. You will definitely be seeing a huge lot of iHerb posts. Maybe I can convince you to give them a try!

No, you do what you wish, I am not here to convince anyone of anything. I am just sharing my experiences so that each one of us can enjoy great beauty products at the best prices possible.

Another reason is obviously Bath and Body Works. Ever since the brand become more easily accessible to me this past spring, I ended up purchasing somewhere in the vicinity of one hundred products from them. You won’t be finding all of them on my Beauty Spending Challenge list as some are home fragrances, but I did go crazy both in the brick-and-mortar stores as well as online. Too bad that I did not contain my shopping to one country when it comes to the online store, but then again the local website just launched over a month ago and the US website has the most incredible sales plus the largest variety of products that I cannot really get here. I am terrified to even think of the forwarding service costs…

Seriously now, BBW is mush but much better than its sister brand – Victoria’s Secret. Due to this affiliation, I get that many of you may be reluctant to shop there, but their products are so nice and actually way better in quality than those at VS. It is a fragrance lover’s paradise.

In addition, I did spend quite a nice chunk of money on French pharmacy brands. I found the products are very affordable prices and I missed having some Bioderma in my stash so I had to go for them. I just had to! The truth is that I haven’t tried nearly enough from Bioderma and co and this was a great opportunity to explore more products. No regrets here either. It was the perfect decision especially given the coldish weather outside.

I guess the main reason why I allowed myself to shop so much in December was that I knew I had no chance of obtaining better overall results as compared to 2021. It was rather clear after the whole BF haul in November. This is something I am a bit disappointed about but luckily it is fixable. This year, I am planning on expanding on this topic further – for real this time.

In the meantime though, I want to remind you guys or those of you who may not know as you are new here that the idea behind this challenge was to limit my spending and consequently my stash as well. I am not counting actual products that leave and come in, but there were times when I did have more space in my storage area since embarking on this journey. However, the main aspect of the challenge is monetary in nature. Also, I am using this challenge to motivate myself and share more reviews. It is a shame to buy so many products and not share experiences with you guys who love beauty just as much as I do.

What I was trying to get to is that, okay, I may be a bit disappointed that overall I did not do as well in 2022 as compared to 2021. However, like I said above – this is something that can be fixed moving forward.

I may be spending a whole lot on beauty, like a very large chuck on my monthly paycheck goes on beauty as opposed to an investment account and yes, I may hate the look of my balance every now and then, but I never spent more than I could afford to spend on beauty nor went into debt over beauty products. I just wanted to make this clear and also, encourage you to be careful as well. I know that this is probably not the case for any one of you, but it is easy to fall into this trap due to social pressure or whatnot.

One of the reasons why I do not steer away from negative reviews is exactly this. Many people will tell you that this or that product is the most incredible one on the market or that it is so cool that you must have it in your stash. but the reality is that you do not need it nor that it will make your life better. It is okay to be curious and to want to try various products that you may see online or otherwise, but (and it may seem a bit ironical or cynical of me) do not go overboard aka spend what you can afford to spend, skip a deal regardless of how great it is if you need to/ if you have other priorities to tend to etc.

I am incredibly grateful that I have the possibility to try the products I am curious about but more so that I can share my reviews with you so that you know what products to avoid and which ones may just be worth a shot. Hope this never changes, but I will be careful to adjust things as I go along if need be and continue with this challenge that truly made a huge difference for me as you shall see soon.

Since we just entered a new year, it’s important to remember that while the world may be changing, our hopes and dreams can remain strong. No matter what hurdles come our way in 2023, we should strive to stay positive, celebrate the small joys, and keep our minds focused on achieving new goals. Even during difficult times, we should never forget that love, hope and passion still exist.

Here’s wishing you all a beautiful 2023 full of peace, health and happiness!

How did you do in December?

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