No Buy Ban

Ever since I came to Japan about 8 months ago, I've mostly been a stay at home wife. I learned to cook, did housekeeping, familiarized my self with the neighborhood and mostly, enjoyed not having to wake up at insane hours for work and function on 40 hour days.

Unfortunately, the one thing that I didn't enjoy was not having an income. Before, I was making some decent money and ate out often (partly no time to cook, partly not really knowing how to cook). I could shop whenever I want and I didn't need to think twice when I saw something that I liked.

In the first few months of being here, I spent on the things that I couldn't bring along with me. I guess when you move to someplace new, you have to eventually build up your stash. 

I got bored of buying the needs, and I began making a mental list of wants. All of a sudden, cosmetic and skincare products became all kinds of interesting to me. I started watching Youtube videos. There was a day when I even devoted 3 hours of my time to researching "How to Make the Perfect Hair Bun" and tried it out on myself.

I have never been on such a vain roll in my life. Should you be someone who knew me in real life, you would know that I hardly wear makeup and I don't comb my hair. I may even be called a little boyish.

But here I am, all of 29 years old and learning beauty tricks from people far younger. I thought, hey, if I'm gonna be a stay at home wife, I wanna be an attractive one at that.

So I started buying.

It started with browsing at the ELF website. They had a great deal of stuff at dirt cheap prices. I saw the 100 color eyeshadow palette on sale so I bought it. The more I browsed, the more I bought.

In just 2 weeks, I bought about $100 worth of products from ELF. Now, they didn't ship to Japan, so I got myself a US address and had my stuff shipped there. I had then paid another $250 to have my stuff shipped to my apartment here.

And with that, I spent the first $350 from my Malaysian bank account. Of course, who would feel the pinch when you're not physically paying in cash, right?

I discovered the wonders that is Rakuten after the husband mentioned it. More buying ensued.

In 8 months, I had spent a lot of money on zero income. Sure, I use all of the stuff that I bought. But who could really finish using up a 100 color eyeshadow palette anyway? Why did I need that extra lipgloss when I always get hair stuck on my lips? And 5 foundations? Really?

My bank account balance was beginning to look like the way it had been in my early 20s. Miserable. I'm sure the husband would be really disappointed if he had known about my secret spending.

I needed to put a stop to my shopaholic ways.

Hence, the No Buy Ban.

The rules are simple:

1. I'm not going to buy anything that I don't absolutely need, like, say, another pressed powder to add to my collection of 8 others.
2. I can only replenish what I've used up (eg. shampoo, conditioner, face moisturizer etc.)
3. The ban will last for a minimum of 30 days starting November 9 2012.

I've been cutting down on waste in my life for what seems like forever, so I can't even begin to describe how ashamed I am right now to be surrounded by all the things that I had bought on impulse and possibly may not have a chance to use.

Let's see how this goes.