Project Low-Buy 2015, Update #2: What I bought and thoughts on "catching up" on products

Affiliate Links Bought It

Month two of my three-month low-buy challenge for 2015 is now over! I have managed to keep on track, so today I thought I'd share what I managed to pick up this month using my meager budget with you.

New to the challenge? Here are the basic rules:

GOAL: Reduce frivolous buying by spending no more than $75 out of pocket over the course of three months.

RULES: Other than basic living and blog or work-related expenses (outlined here), all purchases must be counted towards the budget. The budget can be increased by selling items I already own or if I receive a monetary gift. Purchases made with rewards points, referral credits etc. do not count towards the budget.

Just to quickly recap February, I did receive some cash gifts for my birthday, so my budget/balance at the end of the month was $69.86. I didn't go over budget this month, but I did purchase several things... would you like to see what I got?

Project Low-Buy 2015, Update #1: What I bought, what I didn't buy, and thoughts on careful shopping

Affiliate Links Bought It

It's been about a month since I introduced my three-month low-buy challenge for 2015, so I'd say it's about time I shared my progress so far! Just to quickly recap, here's the basic gist of the challenge:

GOAL: Reduce frivolous buying by spending no more than $75 out of pocket over the course of three months.

RULES: Other than basic living and blog or work-related expenses (outlined here), all purchases must be counted towards the budget. The budget can be increased by selling items I already own or if I receive a monetary gift. Purchases made with rewards points, referral credits etc. do not count towards the budget.

So, have I stayed on track so far? Keep reading to find out!

Project Low-Buy 2015: Introduction

Yep, it's that time again: Time for a little bit of sexy budgeting action. Last year I did a no-buy/spending ban that ended up turning into what could more appropriately be called a "low-buy"—I think I ended up spending about $50 on non-essential items over the course of two months, which isn't totally nuts. One of my New Year's goals/resolutions was to save more in 2015, so it seems logical for me to do an exercise in extreme budgeting again this year. Except I'm kicking it up a notch this time and low-buyin' for three months instead of two. THREE!!! Will I make it this time? Check out the rules I've set up for myself below and make your wagers in the comments.

Piggy bank art via

#HPBScentOfTheDay Challenge Roundup 4/4 - final

May is over so I thought I'd check in for the final roundup of my scent-of-the-day challenge. Many vials were opened, many perfumes worn, many scents were described as "fresh" or "neutral" (my boyfriend's default words to describe things with inoffensive odors). At last, this challenge has come to an end.

#HPBScentOfTheDay Challenge Roundup 3/4

Another week has passed and more perfumes have been chosen. I've noticed that the sweatshirt I sometimes wear to bed is developing a strange odor around the cuffs—this is what happens when the residue of over a dozen different perfumes gets rubbed against it and combined, I guess. Good thing laundry machines exist.

Want to know what's making my shirt smell so peculiar? Read on for this week's fragrant picks!

#HPBScentOfTheDay Challenge Roundup 2/4

Sorry there wasn't an Indie Friday this week - I ended up taking a short-notice journey to a cemetery in New Jersey to visit some long-deceased relatives yesterday instead. My dad was in town and wanted to go. Fun for the whole family?

Anyway, I guess I'll be skipping Indie Friday until next week, but in the meantime here's the latest installment of my #HPBScentOfTheDay challenge, which features many indie fragrances.

#HPBScentOfTheDay Challenge Roundup 1/4

Happy Friday everyone! I hope everyone will get a chance to kick back and relax this weekend. Personally I'll be tweaking my Wordpress site because I want to be done with it already, but I'll save my ranting about that for another post.

Anyway, in case you missed it: I started a "Scent of the Day" challenge last week. You can read all about it here. Want to know how I've been smelling for the past week? Keep reading...

Scent of the Day Challenge - JOIN ME! (One of us, one of us...)

Hey, it's a different month now! How about a brand-new beauty challenge?

If you're anything like me, you have billions dozens of perfume samples tucked away in a drawer somewhere. Or hell, maybe even full bottles. My fragrant hoardpile comes from an unyielding love for testing out indie fragrance oils and signing up for beauty sampler boxes - and thus the vials piled sky-high.

Now of course there are certain fragrances in my collection that I love and wear all the time, but there are plenty of others that I tested maybe once or twice and forgot about. I was organizing my collection when it hit me - why not do a Scent of the Day challenge?


Here are the rules:

• Challenge participants must wear a different fragrance every day in the month of May - no repeats!
• Things like body sprays and heavily scented lotions count.
• The challenge should be documented some way - in a blog post, on social media, whatever. I'll probably write my daily choice on Twitter or something and then write a weekly blog roundup.

I have no idea if a similar challenge already exists, so please excuse me if this idea isn't terribly original. But I'd love it if y'all also wanted to participate - use hashtag #HPBScentOfTheDay so I can stalk your choices on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc. And if I'm the only one who ends up doing this... homeschool high-five.


Will you be participating in the challenge? Am I the only one who has more than 31 individual perfume samples? Maybe I need help.


PS If you're wondering about my final post for the April photo challenge, I'll be putting that up at some point later today.