Tag: buy less

My 2022 No-Buy is Almost Over – What’s the Most Important Thing I Learned?

by liftbakelove8 Comments on My 2022 No-Buy is Almost Over – What’s the Most Important Thing I Learned?

If you’re a long-time reader here (and if you’re not, welcome!), you’ll know that I decided to go on a no-buy for most of 2022, until Black Friday. Because of that, I haven’t had as many new products to review and had a ton of trouble thinking about new content. The good news is we’ll be back to regularly scheduled programming soon! The even better news is I stumbled upon an awesome way to stop myself from buying things I don’t need during my no-buy, and I’d love to share with all of you.

Before you buy something, ask yourself: “Would I rather use this over what I already have”? I used to just imagine using the new thing, like how pretty a new blush or lipstick would look. Now, I think about if I’m willing to use that new blush or lipstick instead of the blushes or lipsticks I already own. There’s only 365 days in a year, and we each only have one face. If I own 20 blushes and wear them all evenly, I get to wear each of them about 18 times a year. One more, and now I only get to wear each 17 times. I know this sounds very obvious, but it’s saved me from being tempted so many times this year. Especially because it’s wild to me to to buy something that’s over $20 to wear it less than 20 times in an entire year.

To illustrate this, I really wanted to buy one of the Kaja Eye Bento Bouncy Eyeshadow Trios during the Sephora Sale. My no-buy is almost over anyway, and it’s 20% off what’s already a pretty inexpensive products. Then I thought about all the eyeshadow I already own that I wouldn’t be able to wear because I was wearing the new Kaja shadows. Would I really give up using my Divine Rose or Bronze Seduction Palette? My Roen quads? The Lisa Eldridge liquid shadows? I’d have to wear all of my other eyeshadows less because of getting the Kaja shadows. And this made the decision super easy – obviously, I don’t need new eyeshadow.

I’ve been doing this for every beauty purchase I might make recently, and it’s made my no-buy a breeze since I started thinking this way. I’ve even been able to avoid buying a ton of nail polish (a huge weakness of mine). Even though I had an exception for limited edition products, which many nail polish launches are, I’ve been able to pass them up because I’d rather get to enjoy what I already own. And this means I’ve missed out less on wearing my favorite shades just to wear the newest ones.

I hope this is helpful – it’s made a huge difference for me! I’ll be posting a ton of empties content coming up and some favorites content, but as always, please let me know if you have requests or suggestions for posts you want to see – I’d love to continue to make this a useful place for you to visit! As always, thank you so much for being here and supporting me.

I’m going on a no-buy for most of 2022 – what that means for me and for LiftBakeLove

by liftbakelove8 Comments on I’m going on a no-buy for most of 2022 – what that means for me and for LiftBakeLove

If you’re a long-time reader here (and if you’re not, welcome!), you’ll know that I have a fairly large collection of makeup, skincare, body care, haircare, and nail polish. And honestly, I just have everything I need and want to get to know and love my collection more. I can’t think of anything I need and don’t want to continue piling up products just to have them. So, heavily inspired by the amazing Hannah Louise Poston, I’m embarking on a no-buy experiment for 2022.

Here’s my list of rules:

  1. Anything I want to purchase in the makeup, skincare, body care, haircare, and nail polish categories goes on a wishlist for purchase during Black Friday sales. Based on my experience, by the time it’s been almost 11 months, I won’t even want or remember most of the things I put on the list and anything I do want will be heavily discounted. I’ve already started doing this and it’s actually been easier than I expected to just say “I can wait to get this until November 2022 and it’ll probably be at least 30% off – I’ll use what I have in the meantime.”
  2. I can buy replacements if I finish every single thing in a category (e.g., no brow products left at all so I need to get one) but I have a big enough collection I doubt that will happen.
  3. I’m setting a strict budget for all beauty related products, including the Black Friday sales purchases so I don’t go overboard when the time comes. I also have a small separate budget for limited edition items I know are coming in 2022 but I want to make sure I don’t buy them just because they’re limited edition so I’m really keeping it small.
  4. No buying products “for review” – I bought a bunch of products over 2021 to review for the blog, and while those reviews did well in terms of views, I didn’t need those products. I don’t actually make any money yet from this blog (thanks for your support if you use my affiliate links – it’s not enough to make a profit after just paying for the WordPress membership!), so it just doesn’t make sense to get products just to review on here.

What that means for the blog:

You won’t see as many new product reviews unless I get something as a present or in PR. I still have a bunch of products I got in the last few months that I haven’t reviewed yet, so there will be a bunch in early 2022 and then taper off. Instead, I’ll be doing (hopefully) more empties posts and shopping my stash posts. I’m planning on posting a no-buy update every month and would love to know if there’s anything you’d like to hear about in the comments! I’ll also likely post more fitness related content as I gear up for my next big competition in April 2022 and focus more attention on building up my squat, bench, and deadlift instead of shopping for makeup.

Please let me know if you have requests or suggestions for post you want to see – I’d love to continue to make this a useful place for you to visit! As always, thank you so much for being here – I love having this blog and can’t wait to see what happens with it in 2022!