New Year, New Start, No Buy

New Year, New Start, No Buy

Well hello everyone! Obligatory “Happy New Year” – I hope you had a lovely break over the festive season and welcomed in the New Year well. Ours was very low-key spent at home with the dogs and a Chinese takeaway. We saw in the year playing against each other in a stalemate game of Monopoly where we had to declare ourselves joint winners otherwise we may still have been playing three days later. We then at 1am began watching an episode of Gordon Ramsays Kitchen Nightmares whilst we unwound from the tense game of Monopoly!

New Start

I’m seeing the new year as a breath of fresh air for my blog in 2019 – having almost been in the game for five years now last year towards the end I felt like I was struggling to keep up amongst the house move which took virtually a whole year. When I did have a bit more free time I felt like my head wasn’t in it so I decided to let myself take a back seat through the month of December with only a few posts going up and gave myself some breathing space.

As a result I now feel ready to take on 2019 and see what I want to do. I’ve talked about a change of content a few times bringing in interiors and now we’ve been in our house for two months, and Christmas Chaos is over we’re ready to get the paint rollers out and start decorating, so hopefully that will help kickstart my interiors posts and keep me feeling inspired.

Don’t worry – beauty will still make up the bulk of my content, I don’t see that changing any time soon. But I’m hoping to bring in the other areas which will inevitably be keeping me busy for most of 2019.

No Buy

As a result of all the decorating that needs to be done and the fact that I’ve been pretty slack at blogging has meant that I’ve amassed quite the pile of stuff which needs testing, photographing and blogging. I was pretty good with my clear out in 2018 with so many of my Ten Empties posts meaning I finished up £2500 of product and around 250 items. But there’s things which I’ve been behind with – mainly palette reviews. I was good at not buying any in the first half of 2018, but step into the last half and I was buying them like they wasn’t going to be made any more. (Okay, so I’ve maybe bought eight or so!).

I’m not embarking on a year long no buy – but I’m planning at least for the whole of January to help kickstart me in to getting through what I have waiting to review before I add to the pile any more! There are things which I’ve depleted my “stock pile” of already such as shampoos and conditioners – so I won’t be completely out of stock.

I did treat myself to a couple of things in the Sales with by Boots points – a Spectrum Mean Girls brush set, and a Violet Voss set (who knew that was in Boots, not me!) as well as a Drunk Elephant set I was given for Christmas which will help me feel like I’ve got plenty of new to play with.

I’m also planning on this weekend sitting down and going through a new list of “Products I’m Trying To Use Up” through the rest of winter and into Spring as I’ve finished up so many from my last posts now, it will be good to isolate some products to get finished up and gone.


Wishing you all a Happy, Healthy and Successful New Year.

2019, let’s do this.

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Email: helplesswhilstdrying@gmail.com

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20 Comments

  1. January 2, 2019 / 10:01 am

    Happy New Year!!! Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares to unwind made me laugh, that normally gets me pumped!
    Really excited to see some DIY and decor posts actually, already envisioning how you’ll do your pictures and can’t wait to see!! We are hoping to buy this year so any posts to give tips and ideas is much appreciated!!
    Here’s to 2019!!
    xxxx

    • January 2, 2019 / 1:21 pm

      That tells you how stressful the game of Monopoly was becoming!
      Ooh that sounds good – getting on the ladder is the difficult part!
      xxx

      • January 3, 2019 / 10:36 pm

        Oh I can imagine! In our house it’s barred ๐Ÿ™‚
        We are nearly there so your insta stories have been amazing to get a little insight on life after ๐Ÿ™‚ Looking forward to seeing whats to come from your lovely home!
        xx

  2. January 2, 2019 / 10:04 am

    I’m getting on the ‘kind of no buy’ train too, I’m going to try not buy any lipstick this year (as it’s my biggest weakness) and only buy makeup products if I run out or something needs replacing. It sounds like you’re settling in to your new place well and I’m looking forward to your interiors posts alongside the beauty. Happy New Year!

    • January 2, 2019 / 1:22 pm

      Happy New Year Chanelle!
      Lip products I have a weakness for too – I only finished up one last year and that was the worst! I have a whole drawer of ones I’ve not touched since we moved in and I’m thinking of donating them all!

      • January 2, 2019 / 5:34 pm

        To be fair lip products arenโ€™t easy to use up! Itโ€™s good to think there are places you can donate lipsticks to so they get some love x

  3. January 2, 2019 / 10:42 am

    This is a great post! Im also putting myself on a ‘no buy’ for this year as i have soooo much! Im only buying replacements for things i run out of!

    • January 2, 2019 / 1:25 pm

      I think I might do every other month as a no buy so I can treat myself but I will be a lot more considerate about what I am adding to my collection on “buy” months – Especially when it comes to eyeshadow palettes!

  4. January 2, 2019 / 7:55 pm

    Happy New Year! Iโ€™m continuing my low buy again this year.
    Canโ€™t wait to see your decorating posts! We need to paint our living room and maybe change a few light fixtures.

  5. January 2, 2019 / 8:16 pm

    Okay, that “no buy” got me. I was like, what?!?!? year long no buy? What will Rachael do wahahaha.
    Happy New Year, my love xox. Look forward to your new content.

    • January 2, 2019 / 9:16 pm

      haha, no I’m not doing a full year – I’m contemplating doing one every few months – maybe every other month!

  6. January 2, 2019 / 10:41 pm

    Happy new year Rachael! <3
    Good luck with your January No Buy! I'm attempting once again at No Buy for a FULL YEAR… well, maybe for the first 6 months. My aim this year is to NOT make Sephora Rouge level. ๐Ÿ˜ณ
    At the very least, I need to purge a lot of items that I do not use. I don't even think panning products is going to make any significant dent in my collection – I just need to get rid of things that I hoard and never use. I have fantasies of owning a curated makeup collection! Imagine only having ONE MLBB lipstick, or just ONE taupe eye shadow… ๐Ÿ˜ฎ

    • January 3, 2019 / 2:58 pm

      Happy New Year Stashy!
      Oh Another year of no buy – will it be total no-buy or will you have items you need to replenish?
      I did a big purge before we moved and I’m thinking of doing another – since we moved in I’ve got a whole drawer of lip products I’ve not touched and if I’ve not touched them by the end of February I’m going to get rid of the whole lot – there’s probably over 100 liquid lipsticks in there! ๐Ÿ˜ณ
      Oh I can’t imagine you with just one taupe eyeshadow! Do you think your spending has changed since stopping blogging?

      • January 4, 2019 / 1:07 am

        Yikes, 100 liquid lipsticks in the bin. What a crying shame. But I bet it would be so liberating… and hopefully a lesson learned to curb future impulse to buy!
        I’m planning to cut my nail polish collection by half. That means I have to toss out – at minimum – 400 bottles of nail polish! ๐Ÿ˜ฎ
        I definitely noticed that I’ve spent less especially during the holidays, Black Friday, and Boxing Day sales. I’m not sure if it’s directly attributed to not blogging or feeling overwhelmed with the constant barrage of new releases and “sales”. I’m so sick of it! I just want to enjoy what I own.

        • January 4, 2019 / 10:20 am

          I started working on a weeks worth of posts which was liquid lipstick formulas but completely ran out of steam with it! Luckily friends were given me ones they’d tried and the colour wasn’t for them/didn’t like formula etc so they’re not all purchased. I’ll probably try and find somewhere to donate the ones which have only been used once or swatched!
          We did a car boot sale pre-move where I tried to cut down my nail varnishes by about two thirds – not one bottle sold and I was selling them for 20p by the end – 20p for OPI! I’ve now got them all sat in boxes and no idea what to do with them!

  7. January 3, 2019 / 3:01 pm

    I have also planned out a 6-month makeup no-buy this year starting from january because of all the reasons you stated above and that I don’t get to use makeup often. Hopefully we achieve our goals together ๐Ÿ™‚

  8. January 5, 2019 / 11:08 am

    Happy New Year! You did so well in your empties for the whole of last year!!
    I think going on a No Buy every now and again is a really good idea because I swear there are times when we just buy for the sake of buying. I bought two new face bases the other day (a foundation and a CC cream) which I didn’t technically need (to be fair, do we ever need anything we buy?!) and have only opened the foundation. I don’t know how big your collection is but I trust that you have reason to do a No Buy ๐Ÿ™‚ I think after Christmas especially is the best time to start since makeup lovers tend to get a lot of beauty gifts.

    • January 6, 2019 / 2:13 pm

      I think doing a no buy every other month or something will make me think about items more – if I’m still thinking about it by the time the next month rolls around then it’s probably a legitimate purchase rather than an impulse buy.
      My collection isn’t huge compared to others – but I definitely have some older products lingering which could do with finishing up. I’m also finding that due to me receiving PR now (not huge amounts!) what I buy is doubled by what I receive, so I just need to be more considerate of what I buy and try to use up too!

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