£100 Expenditure Per Year Beauty Challenge - Month 3

Another month gone in the £100 per year beauty challenge, where I aim to spend less than £100 per year on toiletries and beauty products and instead try to use up all of the items I have in my stash, instead of buying more products.  This challenge was set by El at A Thrifty Mrs blog and I have been joining in.

I've been a little more careful this month in terms of spending on beauty products and have actually come under budget (just) for a change.  I should be spending less than £8.30 per month to keep on budget and for the first two months I have overspent due to hoarding a few more items when I saw them on offer.  This month, however, I've managed to avoid doing this and have spent only £8.20.  Some of this expenditure was, however, unusual and unavoidable as you will understand as you read on.

Spending included:

New Toothbrushes x 3 £2.50  - This was due to a stand off with a rat in our bathroom, which scrambled around the shelves.  I had to replace our new (as it happens) toothbrushes as I couldn't bear the thought that the rat might have touched them.

Shampoo 250ml x 2 £3.50 - I bought 2 bottles of my favourite Pantene shampoo whilst they were still on offer.  In fairness I was coming close to running out of shampoo so included these in my Approved Food order and they should keep me in shampoo for a month or two.

Nail Varnish Remover Pads x 2 £1 - I bought these from Primark as my nail varnish was so worn off that it needed removing and I thought I had run out.  I then realised I still had some left when I got home.  Silly me.

Nail Varnish x 1 £1 - A slight indulgence in Claire's Accessories.  Bought in the sale to make up five things for £5.

Tesco Firm Hold Hair Spray x 1 70p - I can't manage without my hairspray and it ran out on the last day of the month.

Total Spent - £8.20

Total spent so far this year (3 months) -  £28.75 - Still overspent but hoping to get fully back on track next month.  As you can see from this month's expenditure list, I haven't pared it back as much as I could have, but I'm getting better on this score and hope that as the challenge progresses I get better and better at this.   It takes a while sometimes to properly kick a habit you've had for a while.

I have, however, this month decided to try to stop buying shower gel for the moment, as I have so many soaps to use up.  As a consequence, we are going back to showering and bathing with soap for a while, to get the stash down.  (I've currently got at least 15 or so soaps to use up.  I'm also trying not to replace things as soon as I use the last one from my stash, but wait until I've nearly run out altogether.  It's great to see the places I normally store all the products very slowly getting a little emptier as I'm using things up and not buying more.

I did also get a free 30ml tube of  hand cream from the Body Shop this month, using a voucher I downloaded from a Miss Thrifty's blog, so my stash did grow a little as a consequence, but it didn't cost me anything which is good.  Although small, the hand cream smells divine and a little goes a long way too.