Beauty and the Budget

If you have been with me since the beginning, you know that until August I had excusively been using mark products; part of the reason I started my blog to was to follow my reintroduction into the wonderful world of cosmetics.

I have to admit, and I'm sure you know, I went a bit wild. All the new products were just too alluring and I couldn't stop whipping out the plastic. Having my first real job, and an income that allowed me to go crazy, didn't help matters either.

But I've come to realize that I need discipline (something I'm not very good at), so at the suggestion of Shannon, I am giving myself a budget. This is only for products, my salon expenses are the same every month so I don't feel the need to include them since I don't get erratic and overzealous with those. I'll also allow myself special purchases outside the budget on a case by case basis: first exception, the super-powerful blow dryer my step-mom has that cut my drying time by 75% and made my hair look shiny and new.

To determine my budget, I averaged my spending over my last three pay periods, which was $190. I'm giving myself $150 a pay period. My point isn't really that I need to save a ton of money, but that I need to control what I buy, and think about how much I would really use the product or if it just looks pretty. Because that 20th pink lipgloss is getting a bit redundent.