Heeelp! How to Avoid Beauty TSVs?

[Tootie]

I need to save for a big purchase. Have been reviewing my spending and a large chunk goes on beauty TSVs. I like Ojon, Elemis, Bare Minerals, L'Occitane, OPI and on and on. Problem is, I'm a sucker for a beauty TSV (I very rarely buy single items from Q) and I shocked myself by reckoning on an average of two-four TSVs per year for each of the above brands. That's a lot of money! I'm sure my annual beauty spend would be less if I just stuck to buying what I need on the High Street when it runs out. I also usually only need one of the items in the kit at the time of order so the rest goes in the stash. However, if I don't use them they are gifted at Christmas.

So, my question to you lovely guys and gals is this ... do you have any aversion techniques?! How do you all dissuade yourself from buying yet another TSV?

 

[Loveinamist]

I wait for the "dismissive" moment as they move onto another item. Works for me.

 

[BusyLizzie]

Find the willpower to not tune into QVC for the whole day and use the time to sort through the huge stash you already have. You'll then quickly realise that you really don't NEED anything else!

 

[Tinkerbelle]

I made myself use every scrap of every lotion and potion I had ever bought and not used. I could bin it if I had an allergic reaction to it but not just because I didn't like it much. If it left my skin a bit dry I had to use more to counteract it. 15 months on I still haven't bought shampoo, conditioner, shower gel or exfoliator. I used some good stuff, some OK stuff and some right old tosh! I've used Elemis monoi melt as an intensive hair conditioner because that was the other part of the deal, if there was an alternative in my stash that had to used too.

I have used up loads of stuff and spent next to nothing for about six months!!

I now only buy what I know I'll use no matter what. I've learnt what works and what doesn't and it's taught me that expensive isn't always best.

It was tough though at times. I desperate to buy some Tigi shampoo but I suspect it'll be Christmas before I get any!

 

[Princess Pickle]

Find the willpower to not tune into QVC for the whole day and use the time to sort through the huge stash you already have. You'll then quickly realise that you really don't NEED anything else!

I was thinking of suggesting something similar but that's a lot of willpower to find.....in my case anyway!!

 

[Tootie]

I made myself use every scrap of every lotion and potion I had ever bought and not used.
I have used up loads of stuff and spent next to nothing for about six months!!

Yes, I was thinking along those lines too. I've got at least six-twelve months supply of everything! It's really silly - I've convinced myself that I'm saving money with these TSVs when that's not the case at all. I'm usually an otherwise sensible person!

 

[Tinkerbelle]

I'm not sure why I had acquired such a stash and when I started I'd have said I would have lasted six months but it's gone on and on and on! Face cream ran out first and I think shampoo will be last.

For me it was about realising how much I had I'm comparison with the women supported by a charity. These women often leave their homes in fear of their lives or the lives of their children with little more than the clothes they stand up in. I donated "toiletries" and I dug out everything and put it all in a box. I gave the charity everything that was sealed and I knew hadn't been opened but Christ what a stash it left me with. It made me feel very shallow and rather selfish.

It neither shallow nor selfish to have a stash of goodies you've paid for but that's how I felt at the time. I had so much whilst others have so little I suppose.

Anyway ... it's cured my beauty TSV and kit buying habits.

 

[lilian]

No EZ Pay. That does it for me.

 

[Capirossi]

No EZ Pay. That does it for me.

Same here!!

And now and again I 'lower myself' to buy from the dreaded high street! This makes me realise I do *not* need to buy high end stuff. I still do though just not as often and not as much. I no longer have a stash, only a couple of reserves of daily things like cleanser and moisturiser. That said, I will be ordering a couple of the Elemis tsv's - especially if on bl**dy easy pay :banghead: ha ha!

Sent from my Sony Tablet S using Tapatalk 2

 

[minim]

Get yourself an allergy like me!
You will save a fortune :happy:

 

[etoile]

Open a savings account just for the money you would spend on TSV! You need to see it accumulate. I do sympathise and might have to get one of 'them there' allergy thingies. If you crack post the solution.

 

[Anne]

I've eventually realised that apart from Judith Williams stuff it's all vastly overpriced. Had better results with the Aldi wrinkle stop at £4.99 and the serum at £3.49 than any of the other "high end" stuff from QVC. Just started using their £1.49 eye cream as well. Still buy Purity in the big size though and am using up the last JW neck cream I have. Still might rebuy that though as I do like it and it lasts me ages.

 

[Snarly]

Pretend to be poor. You have income of £100 a week and 10%, savings, is stashed in a Lock&Lock in the freezer - ColdHardCash. Freezer's the last place to burn in a fire. See how far £90 stretches. When you listen to MsFlint say BuyOneBuyTwo, shout back at her, YouCrazyWoman, That'sOneThirdOfThisWeek'sMoney - sheeesh! After a month, your mind readjusts to BudgetReality and you can count your blessings that YouAreOnlyPretending.

 

[still18inmyhead]

I was a sucker for beauty TSVs and spent a fortune, ending up giving a lot of stuff away (ebay virgin until very recently). Then I found this site. Thanks to SCW and Sazza mainly, who manage to ferret out the details in advance, it has given me time to look, think, analyse if I really need all the items and check out other sites. Usually, I start off thinking the usual - I must have - but after careful consideration I don't buy. In fact, this year I have only gone for two (both this month) - Revitalash and Judith Williams. So thank you STF, you have saved me hundreds already this year.

 

[Flamenco]

I've been super thrifty since taking voluntary redundancy and undertaking expensive further professional qualifications. I buy my "premium" skincare from car boot sales - I pick up lots of GWP sizes of moisturisers (Clinique, Clarins etc) for no more than a £1 each and the Clinique sizes are often 30ml (same size as Elemis PCMC TSV pots!) and they do the job nicely. All are new and unopened. I've picked up Liz Earle, Decleor, Elemis and Lancôme bits too in the past. I bought a bottle of The Sanctuary Facial Oil half price in a sale and use that underneath. I use the Boots No7 £5 off voucher to either buy their Hot Cloth Cleanser 200ml for a fiver or their eye makeup remover which is just as good as Lancome's Bifacil. I'm lucky if I'm spending a fiver a month on skincare at the moment and my skin looks great.

That said I did blow £22 or so on the Laura Geller Portofino kit last weekend but at least I can mitigate that with my very low skincare spend. I used to buy every Decleor, Elemis and Liz Earle TSV. Not any more.

 

[Weathergirl]

I just have a stash of L'Occitane liquid soap, handcream and shower gel, all of which gets used. I have a couple of spare pots of Emma Hardie, all of which gets used every last drop. The rest of my cosmetics I only have one of, and that too is being used.

After years of buying TSV's that never got used, I have learned what I like and only buy those beauty TSV's. I don't buy Prai, Judith Williams, Perricone, Philosophy, Sarah Chapman, Alpha H and now only buy Liz Earle shampoo.

Occasionally a L'occitane TSV will contain something I won't use. These are in my gift drawer, earmarked for my sister in law for christmas.

The way to stop is to only buy the brand you use all the time in a TSV. Don't be tempted to try a new brand unless you are sure you have uses up your old one and really fancy a change. A TSV is an excellent way to try a new brand. But if you do this you must use it all up or return it.

 

[VALM]

I find it helpful looking on here to find out the cost and content of the beauty TSVs because I can then evaluate whether it's good value for me or not. I've also been working my way through the stash I've accumulated and now try to make it a rule that I only have one certain product on the go and only one in my stash (if at all). It doesn't bother me any more if I don't buy a TSV because they are coming around more regularly and I've noticed that QVC don't really vary their stock. for instance I love PCMC and I've noticed that most of the TSVs contain it so I don't feel compelled to buy each one.

 

[boffy]

i have enough shampoo/l'occitane soaps/shower gels and some alpha h kits to last me at least anather year. i leave the wardrobe open so that i can see my ott spending whenever i am in my room. yankee candles i leave them at the bottom of the wardrobe in full view until i have burned them all. its a waste of money having oodles of stuff stashed away and i notice that the presenters are encoraging beauty stashes and stockpiling...not me!

 

[Snarly]

I agree with Boffy, they are really pushing the gifting|table present|candle cupboard|stash thing. It's out of their warehouse and into ours! I put into effect what I learned on here. 1) bundle-return the packages and 2) return under DSR where applicable. If you took the cash you save on the p&p and put it into a piggybank, you would be amazed! And, ahem, free to spend it on, oh I dunno, more stuff? Holiday?

 

[Catherine]

Well, since you're gifting it might not help, but if you imagine (or actually see) all the items you didn't use from the kits laid out together..
Also, how many of them, if you hadn't have gone for them, would you actually have missed or thought about again?