My No Buy Plan

[Mia56]

Well after posting about the new me and beauty, I have sorted out the lotions and potions. Enough for 6 months and thanks to your replies to my post I've made a list of new sites, brands to look at in the future. thanks everyone!

I resisted the Liz Earle TSV yesterday although was very tempted. Today I put £50 in an old savings account and every time I resist a TSV I'm putting the money aside. I want to know in 6 months how much I've saved, also want to see what I've used up. I could bet there will be some stuff left in my stash.

Oh what a weekend I've had. So glad I found this forum I call it my reality check.

Next task? Sell the clothes in the wardrobe that don't fit/like but still have the tickets on.

 

[Miss Grumpy]

We are all cheering you on, Mia56.

 

[Turandot]

I think a lot of us have been there and had help from reading the forum.You will be better off financially im sure . I didnt know how much I was spending ,it creeps up on you. I'm much more in control now.It feels good.

 

[Vienna]

When I worked full time and was living alone, I always viewed my shopping habits as being well deserved and told myself that other people smoked, drank, socialised a lot and I did none of those so my shopping sprees were my pleasure.
Fast forward several years and I remarried, was made redundant and had to move from my house to my new husband`s house. Boy did it teach me just how much "stuff" I`d bought and I gave up trying to add up the total. I also had to sort through lots of old paperwork for shredding, including lots of bank statements and was horrified to see all the debits to online stores including QVC. I had bags full of toiletries, perfumes, makeup and clothes, far too much and lots of it still unopened and many clothing items still with the price tags on them.
That was my kicking myself up the backside moment and I`ve been good ever since. I hardly spend anything these days with QVC, I always do an online check before I buy anything and search out the best deals and voucher codes and most importantly I`ve given up stockpiling or buying on a whim. I wait for sales and rarely ever watch a tsv let alone buy one. What made me buy so much in the first place ? I really don`t know the answer to that. Perhaps loneliness, greed, boredom, or maybe just because I could !

 

[Mia56]

Vienna you sound a lot like me! Well done bet you found it hard at the start.

 

[Vienna]

Vienna you sound a lot like me! Well done bet you found it hard at the start.

I sure did but after a while it gets easier and one trick I used whenever I was tempted by a tsv or some other website offer, Id take the actual cash out of my purse, lay it on the table in font of me and ask myself did I really want to spend it ? If I didn`t have the cash in the my purse, only my debit or credit cards, I`d look at whatever was tempting me and ask myself was it any better than something similar I already owned and usually the answer was no. Nowadays I look back at my former spending habits and cringe but thankfully I never got into debt and was earning more than enough to pay for things. These days I don`t work so I don`t have the same disposable income, only a small private pension but whenever I do buy something then I appreciate it all the more.

 

[cheetycat]

I'm with you there Vienna. I was on holiday from work last week and spent several days giving my bedroom a well overdue clear out. I ended up with about 7 bin liners full of clothes and shoes, all in perfectly good condition and many of them still with the tags or labels on. I also have around 3 bin liners full of handbags/purses/make up bags that I no longer use and I couldn't even tell you the amount of cosmetics/toiletries/skincare etc that I have all still in the packaging.

Similar to what you mention, I have just have a pretty bad time over the past couple of years and justified much of this as treats to myself and presents to cheer me up. I am now going to try very hard to curb this habit and buy things which I will definitely use and that I will get a lot of use out of.

Fortunately I have always been brought up to think that you only buy something if you have the money to pay for it, and as such have never got myself in to any debt. In that respect I don't even have a credit card. I have a good job and the income in which to buy the things I like, but even so, buying things which I am never going to use is really just crazy. I can sympathise with people who are not so fortunate and who cannot resist the temptation to buy, and then end up getting themselves in a mess trying to pay for it all. I can imagine that would be all too easy.

In the meantime a charity can benefit from all of my unused & unwanted items. I actually dread to think how much value is in that massive pile sitting in the bedroom and that is what I will keep in mind to use as a reminder in the future not to be so frivolous and impulsive.

 

[Tinkerbelle]

I totally understand the shopping as a feel good hobby. After my marriage went phut I definitely bought more "things". But having been the main bread winner I actually ended up with a higher disposable income!! I bought mainly jewellery (when it was cheaper than it is these days), handbags and scarves. I didn't go bonkers and I couldn't really blame QVC, particularly, for my spending.

I rarely buy the TSV. Lola Rose usually gets my vote but I didn't buy the last one. And I know that if I don't buy from QVC I will probably buy elsewhere.

 

[Silver Fox]

I think lots of us have been here to varying degrees.I have cut back on my QVC spending and even if I have lapsed have come to my senses and returned items, even spending the P&P is better than keeping something that is not going to be used or needed.It is so easy to see something and in a split second think it is something you can't live without.Now I can say it is much better to have the cash in the bank & consider where it is going to be spent.

 

[Marina]

In the meantime a charity can benefit from all of my unused & unwanted items. I actually dread to think how much value is in that massive pile sitting in the bedroom and that is what I will keep in mind to use as a reminder in the future not to be so frivolous and impulsive.

I'm waiting for the right moment when I'm ready to put my things on eBay but keep procrastinating.

 

[cheetycat]

I'm kind of the same Marina. I've just went and moved all of "the pile" from my bedroom in to the study. No doubt it will sit there for another few weeks whilst I decide if I really DO want to get rid of it all. I do, but maybe I'm just not quite ready yet :grin:

 

[stratobuddy]

It's when you have to move "the pile" from the study into all the other bedrooms and the lounge, kitchen and dining room that you have to worry

 

[Akimbo]

In hoarding speak it's called churning. I'm a committed churner!

 

[loveallthingsitalian]

I'm kind of the same Marina. I've just went and moved all of "the pile" from my bedroom in to the study. No doubt it will sit there for another few weeks whilst I decide if I really DO want to get rid of it all. I do, but maybe I'm just not quite ready yet :grin:

Let it go, let it go, let it go, la la la

 

[Weathergirl]

I can't hoard! I am an obsessive compulsive de-clutterer. If I won't use it (every last drop) it either gets returned, "gifted" or sold on eBay. I wish that translated to tidying and cleaning but we can't have it all! Working full time and 2 kids = "lived-in" look!

 

[Miss Grumpy]

I can't hoard! I am an obsessive compulsive de-clutterer. If I won't use it (every last drop) it either gets returned, "gifted" or sold on eBay. I wish that translated to tidying and cleaning but we can't have it all! Working full time and 2 kids = "lived-in" look!

You could make a fortune by running classes, writing books, guesting on QVC to sell your branded merchandise,with your system, Weathergirl's Weeding Out Workshop. I see it all now, Chuntley, Jill F, DF, tearfully saying how you changed their lives by de-cluttering their houses of all the accumulated QVC tat they used to buy.

Sign me up!

 

[thatu]

Can I get in on the act, too, because I'm also a compulsive de-clutterer? To the extent that I used to throw out OH's newspapers before he'd read them just after we got married (we still are). My only small obsession was with Kipling, long gone as have the bags to ebay. Looking around me now, the growing pile of computer magazines in the bookcase will need a bit of my TLC shortly.

 

[boffy]

think of all the wasted money. selly telly started in the states i suspect that where the hoarding skincare stash and other rubbish started.

 

[iloveshopping]

Moving house was challenging recently. I did get rid of some stuff. Just been speaking to someone who said that after she'd moved 2 years previously she still had some unopened boxes so she just took them all down to the tip without even opening them and has not regretted it

 

[Mia56]

Think I would have a nose bleed if I dumped my unopened boxes, my stash is all tidy and out of sight but all opened. I gave a little away at the weekend. Not a lot but a start