My No-Buy Wrap Up

On Sunday, September 15, I started what I called my "semi-no-buy period." Here's how my no-buy was supposed to work and why I referred to it as a "semi-no-buy:"

"In my case, I’m actually going to go on a semi-no buy until the end of the year. The reason why I’m using the term “semi” is because:

• I'm not giving up my monthly Topbox subscription. However, my Luxe Box one might be going. 
• I’m planning on checking out the big L’Oreal private sale in October. While I’ll likely be mostly shopping for other people, I might pick up a couple items for myself. 
• I have a bunch of Shoppers gift cards that I’m planning to use in October when hopefully Shoppers will do what it did last year and run both its beauty bonus promo and a 20 times the Optimum points event over the same weekend. Doing this will get me some new stuff and push me past the 95,000 points mark, which I’ll then redeem during super-redemption weekend in November."

Now, three-and-a-half months later, I'm all done my no-buy period and I have to say, I'm pretty proud of myself. Other than one bottle of conditioner, I haven't bought a single beauty product for myself since early September. I also cancelled my Luxe Box, didn't end up going to the L'Oreal private sale and used those Shoppers gift cards to buy Christmas gifts instead of stuff for myself.

But while I didn't buy any new beauty items (apart from my Topboxes), tons of new products still entered my house thanks to presents, gift bags and freebies from a variety of sources including Revlon, NailPolishCanada.com and Influencer. So I haven't been missing out on new stuff.

I'm going to continue my no-buy period through January and maybe even longer, if I can. I do need to buy some new loose powder soon, as well as soon more shampoo and conditioner, but apart from those items, I'm well stocked on everything I need. Now to use it all up!