No Buy: Week One Update

So I'm officially one week into my Spending Ban and I'm pretty pleased with how it's gone. 

I mentioned in my first post that I've got a lot of events coming up, two weddings and a hen party so I knew a strict no buy was out for me, but I've made some good progress that I thought I'd share!

On the first day of the No Buy, I deleted all my shopping apps on my phone. That was a tough one. Bye bye eBay, QVC, and Amazon. You knew me so well. I'm always on my phone and always browsing something. Parcels are forever popping through my door. There's been loads of occasions where I've went to my phone to check one of those apps only to be crushingly reminded, honey, you're on a no buy. Ugh, the struggle is real.

Anyway I've hit my stride this week and it's actually not as hard as I thought. I've spent money on food only, stuck to my hen party budget and even had some left to spare so I could go for lunch with friends. Instead of buying a new outfit for the hen party, I borrowed a top from my sister and a skirt I've had for ages that I never wear! And I loved it!

I did however buy a dress in the Monsoon sale, hello 70% off! I felt like that was kind of allowed because I knew I was going to have to get something for one of the weddings coming up, and since is came in at £23.50, I'm still calling this week a win. 

OPI Cajun Shrimp

This picture really does not do this colour justice.

Seriously, you need to see this.

My gorgeous sister let me borrow this about 6 months ago. The chances of her getting it back are slim to none. 

It's a red/orange that I honestly think would like great on any skin tone. 

It's £6.55 here 

6 Week No Buy - Starting today!

On Instagram, I saw a post which really made me think. It said:

"Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work, driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for, in order to get a job that you need so you can pay for the clothes, car and house that you leave empty all day so you can afford to live in it."

Right?

I have a confession to make. I'm pretty irresponsible with money, and I have been for most of my adult life. I'm more of a short-term thinker, and by that I mean, I'd like to have that (insert random item here) now and I'll save next month. In the last 12 months my personal circumstances changed which allowed me to save a lot more money, but I've been spending more money too. 

Here's a good example. I decided to clear out my wardrobe the other day. I managed to downsize my wardrobe by one whole supermarket sized carrier bag of clothes, a pretty small percentage of what I actually own. But every day I think I have nothing to wear. 

I have a trunk full of make up, but I'm always buying more. I have 8 bottles of perfume, totally unnecessary. I have a fuck tonne of work out clothes, and I keep lusting over nike's latest offerings. I have more kindle books than I could hope to read in a lifetime, yet I keep buying more. 

I have an obsession with more, more, more. And yes, buying things can perk you up on a shitty day, but I want to stop buying so many things I don't actually need, and get a bit of financial perspective. Also, I want to invest in the future, not satisfying the here and now. 

So I've set myself a challenge of a 6 week no buy. A no-buy, if you haven't heard, is a self-imposed spending ban, where you don't spend money on items you consider unnecessary. I've given myself a 6 week time line because in 6 weeks I go on holiday and I know I'll be doing some shopping (it's the states y'all, you know it's on!) but I want to start now, and I feel 6 weeks is a good way to start getting a bit of perspective on my insatiable mindset of want want want. 

So here are my rules. In the next 6 weeks I have quite a few social engagements coming up. A hen do, two weddings, and a quick trip to London. I know, this is going to be hard. So I'm setting a strict scrimpy budget for each of those events which I won't go over. The only items I will spend money on is food (being thrifty there too!) petrol and the one area I'm allowing myself a little bit of money to splurge is my dance classes. At £5 a pop I'm going to limit myself to one a week. I already have an inclusive gym membership but unfortunately my gym is closed for another few weeks and I'll be able to start taking advantage of classes there again. 

I'm going to update here as I go to keep me accountable. Let's do this!