Now that we’re midway through August, it seems like an appropriate time to finally share my July no buy year update. I know, I know – call me the Queen of Procrastination. I flew back to the U.K. at the end of June and spent half of July serving time in yet another quarantine situation, but at least being locked indoors makes it easier to stick to my no buy year. So here’s an overview of how another no buy month went…
No Buy Year Successes
I learned an important (albeit pretty obvious) lesson in July. Before you go out and buy something, try to borrow it or get it for free first. I don’t know why this never occurred to me before!
I’m starting to run out of certain cosmetics at this point. I can’t really complain as I’ve been living off my stockpile for the last seven months, but things like day cream, concealer and primer are running low now. In fact, I started mentally preparing myself to have to part with some money.
But then I had an idea. I asked my mum if she had any products in her stockpile (I definitely inherited the over-shopping trait from her) and lo and behold! She had an assortment of unwanted cosmetics to hand over to me. Now I think I’ll be able to make it to the end of 2020 without purchasing a single day cream. It really is the small victories in life that brighten up my day!
No Buy Year Struggles
Running out of things. Yes, I fell in lucky with some of my mum’s unwanted day creams and hair masks, but watching some of my other cosmetics dwindle down to nothing feels strange. On the one hand it’s great because one of my biggest no buy year goals was to use up the cosmetics I have, but on the other, it’s difficult spending money on beauty products after so many months of using up whatever was in the stockpile. Now it just feels weird!
What I Spent
It’s easy to keep spending to a minimum when you’re not allowed to go outside. In fact, I attribute a lot of this year’s no buy success to the various lockdowns and quarantines I’ve experienced. If I hadn’t set myself this no buy year challenge for 2020, I’d probably have ordered several hundred pounds worth of pointless junk from Amazon by now, just to keep myself entertained.
I made a couple of unusual purchases this month though. I bought some really useful photo corners from Amazon that I’ve been using to help me organise the family photos. Also, I finally got around to ordering some new glasses. My favourite online glasses shop, Firmoo, kindly gave me a coupon towards some new frames so I ordered myself a pair of blue-light blocking glasses. They’re perfect for all the online work (and Netflix-binging) I’ve been doing recently.
While we’re on the topic, I’ve saved hundreds of pounds over the last few years by ordering my glasses from Firmoo instead of buying them from my optician. Hundreds! Try them out for yourself and get free frames when you order your own blue-list blocking glasses. Check out the sale here!
But, even with those purchases, I came in way under budget this month. My new GBP budget is £500 and I smashed it…if I do say so myself.
Total = £129.33 ($167, 144EUR, 225CAD)
So I can happily confirm that my July no buy update was a much greater success than my June no buy update. I’ve been able to add a big chunk of change to my savings this month as a result and I’m feeling pretty darn good about it. And to top it all off, I finally have glasses I can see out of. I’d call that a success all round!
