After realising how much stuff I have already and bought this month....I am challenging myself not to buy anything new for as long as possible. I have a goal that I want to meet financially and without serious sacrifice its not going to happen.....I can't restart my next course at university in March because I haven't saved enough money to pay for it so for the next 5 months basically I have to save a total of just under $900. I refuse to ask for financial help for the whole paper from family since I failed it and have to retake it. My only bad habit spending wise is scrappy so thats my challenge....when I've tried previously I've lasted til the next SOSN basically but this time as I need to do it so I'm sharing it in the hope I actually make it a decent way through to my goal. NSD might prove to be a challenge but hopefully by then I'll have a big enough buffer that a small splurge might be ok.
There are always store sales & things later on! Sending you all the positive vibes that you reach your goal for your class!
@littlekiwi We all have budgets! I know all too well the lure of the digital product, especially if it's on a good sale. I've never been successful with a no-spend challenge. I tend to give myself $5 per week if I'm limiting digital purchases. That way I can still purchase something and don't end up feeling like I'm missing out. If I don't spend it in the week, it carries over to the next week. I can save up all 4 weeks and spend $20 at once or I can parcel out the purchases to $5 per week. Honestly, I purchased fast food breakfast yesterday and it was over $6. I will often go without fast food or drink purchases in order to have money for my digi scrapping fund. Having said all that, I am in a group of paper scrappers that have no-spend challenges. I love to see how creative and inventive those scrappers can get when they are trying to use what they've already purchased. Wishing you best of luck and maybe if you are successful at not spending, you could reward yourself at NSD? Just a thought!
Good luck, Jennifer! I hope you're able to meet your goals quickly. Having been a scrapper for so long you probably have a good amount of scrap stuff already that you can use in the meantime--it's amazing how creative we can be with supplies when we need to! When I need to limit spending (but not stop it entirely), one of my favorite tricks is to buy myself a store gift card or a pre-paid Visa gift card. I decide how much I can spend over the next few months, and that's how much I put on the card. Then I don't buy a new one until the deadline I set for myself, no matter how quickly or slowly I use it up. I have a lot more FOMO when I can't spend at all--having that card and knowing I can if I truly want something makes it easier for me to say no to most things.
@rach3975 yes I have a tonne of supplies....nearly 300gb to be exact so I’m not short on supplies....more short on willpower to not buy anything! By mid June I need to have saved up just under $900 which is about $50 a week from now. Last year I spent on average about $20 a week on scrappy supplies when I convert it to NZ dollars, even if I could get it down by 50% that would help and using my stash would be a good first step.
So, what I do to minimize spending, is I keep kits in a "need to use" folder for approximately 1 month. I keep going to those kits instead of buying new. Of course, designers are CONSTANTLY coming out with FABULOUS, GORGEOUS products. But, if you have to be thrifty...help yourself by organizing your kits. Also, I started saving a compressed layout in the kits folder....lets me see how much I actually used the kit. I have a goal to use a kit at least two times...this goes for my CT duties too.
@ArmyGrl I do have to be thrifty if I don’t want to owe a tonne more money to family and keep going with my studies (they’re ok with me asking for money by the way, I’d just rather not owe them more than I need to). I have more than enough stuff (nearly 300gb), it’s just I’m tempted by “new” and “on sale” far too often.
I knew my no spend challenge was going to be hard work....already tempted with SOSN. Everything I’ve got in my cart has been in my wishlist so it’s not a matter of whether I’d want it but more that all of these $5-10 purchases all add up.
It sounds like you know your triggers; now you need to learn how to avoid them. One way to stop yourself is to unsubscribe from newsletters and to delete any DS bookmarks you may have on any of your devices. Log out from all DS forums and stores. Clear your cache and delete any saved passwords. Unsubscribe from all notifications from all DS sites. Then, just don't visit DS stores/forums. If you don't go to the store, then you can't spend the money. If you find yourself wanting to visit the shop, work on some school work instead (whether that means looking at classes you need to take or re-working this paper you mentioned, if possible?). Or call/text a friend. Take a nap. Read a book. Take a walk. Clean. (Ew, don't clean. Do something more fun!) Whatever option you just read and said "No, I'd rather do _____," then do that. I turn my phone on airplane mode sometimes simply to stop myself from being distracted. Perhaps you could turn off your computer's/iPad's/phone's wifi and simply shop your stash and make a page--or unzip/organize your stash. You could start an Excel spreadsheet. That'll take some time and keep you distracted! Don't go onto DS sites on Weds or the weekends. If that sounds extreme, then start slowly and, no matter what, give yourself grace.
Do you know your stash? It might be fun to think of it as a shop for a bit. When you want to create a page, go shop in your stash. Or if you feel tempted to spend, go shop in your stash instead. Fall in love with what you've already bought all over again.
I haven't actually unsubscribed, but I do have them dump to a TLPnews folder so I don't see them each time I check my mail, forces me to go look at that email folder instead of tempting me in my inbox.
The course doesn’t start til March (and I won’t know if I’m in for another few weeks). I’m not sure I could unsubscribe from all newsletters.....I know it would probably help though.
Think this is what I will have to do. I am great at buying and much less awesome at the using bit of the equation
I do as many slow scraps & chats to get those coupons.....I’m a sale girl through and through, I kind of have to be as exchange whacks on an extra 40% roughly
I don't know what email provider you use, but if the newsletters are too tempting, perhaps you can just filter them? I use gmail and have it filter out clothing emails. That way when I want/need clothes, I can start watching them for promos, but they aren't always tempting me.
@bestcee the newsletters don’t tend to tempt me as I’m usually hovering in the store before they arrive but for email I do use Gmail. Think I might need to spend February sorting my stash. I’m sure I’ve got a heap of similar supplies which I hardly use. I know for a fact I’ve hardly touched a lot of my newer storyteller kits apart from the odd element or alpha for a page.
I use Gmail's filters. Maybe sorting your stash will make it feel like shopping? I know it's always fun to me to find things I haven't used.
It’s such an overwhelming task that I only last a few mins doing it, hence why I think I shop for new stuff over digging into my stash. I feel like I’d need months to get to the bottom of this stash. I will say everything is downloaded and unzipped but that’s as far as I get.