I found that creating the rules was easy, but trying to capture every possible situation to be difficult, so I keep adding things. Since this is my own project, I want to stuck to my rules as closely as I can, but understand that situations may arise that I didn't think of when I created the rules. I want to follow the rules I’ve created so I tried to think of everything, but I don’t want to be too hard on myself so i I’ve missed something, I will just add it later.
My overall goal is to limit shopping in general, so the main rule is that I've limited myself to a $150 "allowance" per month for the categories of items listed below. So, this is more of a “shopping allowance” than a limit for all spending entirely. Things like food and entertainment aren’t included. The allowance can rollover if not spent, but cannot be borrowed from future months. If I want to buy a $200 necklace, for example, I have to save up for it.
The categories that are included in the $150 per month allowance are:
Beauty products (Replacements only)
Homewares/decor (that are purely for me and not my husband)
Replacements Only for Beauty Products
In addition to the shopping allowance, another way to significantly cut down on spending is if I limit what I allow myself to buy, and beauty products are one of the biggest areas I spend on. I want to stop accumulating products faster than I use them, so I’ve created a long list of items that I can purchase once I only have one left and it’s about to run out. For example, I currently have 4 bottles of body wash in the shower and another 2 unopened ones. So, until I’m down to my last bottle and actually need more, I have to use up what I have first. I’ve decided that the replacement-only rule does not include free sample sizes or travel sizes of products if I actually do need them for travel.
I wanted to consider how I would handle both giving and receiving gifts.
For giving gifts: I decided that the $150 shopping allowance does not include birthday or Christmas gifts for people I regularly buy such gifts for (ie: my immediate family and a small group of friends). However, any other gifts would still be included in the monthly $150. Since my goal is to limit shopping in general, I don’t want there to be a loophole where I just shop for other people instead, so other than the close friends/family I already plan to buy gifts for throughout the year, any other “just because” gifts will still come out of my budget.
For receiving gifts: I decided that gifts I receive should still truly be gifts. I receive gifts for my birthday (in April) from a small group of people and Christmas as well. I don’t think it’s going to ruin what I am trying to do here if I ask my parents for an eyeshadow palette I’ve had my eye on, or ask my husband for some Lush bubble bars. So, since I think gifts are meant to be something happy and extra (and don’t actually play into my budgeting whatsoever), I didn’t want to create any rules in regard to receiving gifts.
However, if I receive a gift card, it is in addition to the $150/month allowance, but I still can’t use it to buy beauty products unless it’s a replacement.
If I receive a cash gift, I must save half, and half can be spending money in addition to $150 allowance (with same rules as gift cards).
So these are my rules! In my next post, I will go over some of the things I’m apprehensive about in regard to the rules and sticking to them!
EDIT 1 - February 14, 2019:
While doing some online banking today, I realized that I haven't accounted for my credit card's "Payback with Points" feature. So, I decided to add that to the rules. I will treat it the same as a gift card, which means if I cash in $50 worth of points to pay off my credit card, it will add $50 to the monthly shopping allowance.
Tax return: Save at least 50% in Long-Term savings, 25% in Short-Term savings, and the remaining 25% can be added to spending allowance
