Desiree Gets Creative

About 12 or 13 years ago I bought my first high end eye shadow palette. It was the Urban Decay Smoked palette and I loved it. It came with an eyeliner, ten eye shadows, and a little booklet that showed you where to put them on your eyelid to create different looks. Photo Credit: Temptalia Up until then my small makeup collection was populated entirely by drug store products. I hadn't known what I was missing. Eventually I stumbled upon makeup tutorials on YouTube, all these years later, my burgeoning makeup stash has demonstrated why falling down the beauty guru rabbit hole was a huge mistake. Seriously dude, how much crap does one face need? So, makeup is definitely an important category on my no buy. I am not going to buy any new makeup until my birthday next year unless I run out of something necessary, like foundation, eyeliner, or mascara. In order to buy a new one I have to use all that I have unless something goes bad in which case then, of course, I can trash it...

This week has been somewhat difficult. A couple of fabric companies I like came out with some really cute fabric that I wanted to get. There was a gnome print that would've been too cute to make the kiddos some pajamas with and some sweater knit that I could've made something for myself with. A couple of sewing patterns went on sale that I liked too. I managed to not buy any of it and because I've been doing so well I'll actually have the  money to pay for my hair appointment this weekend instead of putting it on the family credit card and paying it back later. That card is supposed to be for household expenses only and sometimes things that I want that I don't have the money for yet but will have the money for with my next pay end up on there. As I mentioned before I'm trying to break the habit of buying things I don't have the money for at the time of purchase. I want to stop impulse buying and living paycheck to paycheck because I can't tell mysel...

Looking back at my spending problems, a lot of it started when I got my first credit card. I think it was a Sears card.  It was like having free money, albeit money I could only spend at Sears and would eventually have to pay back one day.  I wasn't thinking about the paying back part at the time though, this was money in my pocket to young, not particularly prepared to have a credit card me. By the time my husband and I were preparing to get married, probably about seven or eight years after that first credit card, I had five store credit cards (JC Penny, Express, Macy's (which was a Hecht's card when I first got it, helloooo old age. Do people even know what Hecht's stores were anymore?) Victoria's Secret, and the aforementioned Sears card), as well as a Visa and a MasterCard. I was under the mistaken belief that as long as I was paying the minimum payments every month that I was find, nevermind the fact that they would literally never get paid off that way. It ...

And I'm back! This week I'm going to talk about how I plan to tackle my hobby spending. As I mentioned in my previous post I have a lot of unfinished projects and projects that I have supplies for that I would like to work on. I also have a lot of sewing and knitting patterns I've bought and never used that I'd like to get some use out of. I also have a MASSIVE stash of yarn and fabrics that I've been hoarding over the years. BEHOLD! My craft room closet in all it's, er, glory? Please not that that's not even all of it. I have yarn stashed all around the house as well as fabric that I've washed but haven't boarded and stored in the closet yet. In order to attempt to organize this madness I've created a couple of different means of tracking my projects. For my sewing I have made myself a spreadsheet with tabs for each pattern maker that I've purchased patterns from. I've made a row for each pattern with columns for a picture of the ...