Steph's Weekly Low Buy Spending Recap #13

Yet another 'thought I spent more than we actually did' week - and THIS is how not avoiding your finances can actually make you feel better about your progress

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Previous recaps: #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 | #6 | #7 | #8 | #9 | #10 | #11 | #12

I’m so excited! I feel like I am just starting to be able to feel the tendrils of Autumn creeping in. Even though Summer technically ends at the end of February here in Australia, the Summer weather doesn’t really tend to leave us until late March… But I can feel Autumn very slowly starting to take back some ground from the hot weather!

Yesterday wasn’t a cold day, but it was quite gloomy and very consistently rain, which is my favourite kind of day! Are you a Summer with person or are you like me, favouring the colder weather? How’s your week been?

My last week was quite good! I’m pretty sure that my iron levels are low and that has been contributing to my really low energy, as well as an uptick in anxiety… But nonetheless I still had a good week last week!

I feel like I repeat myself a lot but I do think this point is important to emphasise, I think one of the best things that you can do to live a life that’s budget friendly but also still one that you love and enjoy, is to invest in your day-to-day life. More often than not that looks like investing time and effort rather than money, which I think also helps us to feel more grounded in our lives. Something I’ve been working on is finishing work a little bit earlier in the day, so that I have a little bit of time to myself, time to read and cause you creative endeavours, before my husband gets home in the evening begins. I feel like this past week I did a lot better with this and I definitely felt the mental benefits of it!

This week looks like a very spendy week based on our total, but that’s mostly just because I finally remembered to actually track rent in our spending recap! It comes out of its own account so I often forget to check it as I’ve got it all automated.

Otherwise, we once again spent a lot less than I thought we spent. That’s a great testament to getting better at spending small amounts. There was definitely more transactions than some weeks, but those transactions were smaller so even all added up the total was still quite respectable! Plus, I feel like they were a lot more mindful and intentional purchases this week which is always a good feeling.

Monday was a very quiet day, so we’ll skip right over that. Tuesday I had an appointment with my hypermobility osteo, Ashton! I share a little bit about her on my Instagram and TikTok… She’s incredible. If you are a fellow hypermobility warrior, I can’t recommend her enough. She operates out of Newport in Melbourne, but she also does online consult and they’re just as good. We’ve been slowly working towards me being able to build some strength in my very weary body, and this week I finally ‘graduated’ to starting some strength exercises! Big day! She actually shared one this morning on her socials that is an exercise I now am doing to build some leg strength, so I’ll pop that below just in case you want a little peek at what working with her looks like.

Wednesday was a very work-heavy day, but one thing I did do was FINALLY organise our linen cupboard!! Like I mentioned earlier, I think investing time and effort into your surroundings helps you feel grounded and helps make life overall that little bit more enjoyable.

it also goes to show you don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars to organise every cupboard in your home! folding and sorting goes a LONG way

Sure, we all have to get out laundry folded and put away… but for me it’s now so much more enjoyable - and easier - now that I’ve sorted this cupboard! And now that it isn’t overwhelming to look at, I know what we have and will make sure we’re using it all (budget friendly life key tip there) but also, I won’t be wondering if I need to go and buy something to make the space more usable!

Was anyone else’s week partially consumed by trying to get Hilary Duff tickets or was that just me?

One of our few low buy year exceptions – someone remind me to make an actual post on our low by year rules – is concert tickets. Something that we really missed in 2024 when we did our first no buy year was a few potentially ‘once in a lifetime’ concerts, or at least concerts that aren’t likely to happen again for a very long time.

So this year when we were deciding on our low buy year rules, we decided to allow ourselves to go to concerts if they were ones that we felt were really special. We aren’t going to every single concert we possibly can, we skipped Good Charlotte for example, but Matt went to Dream Theatre last week like I mentioned, and this week‘s mission has been getting Hilary Duff tickets! I never would’ve thought that Hilary Duff would be doing a world tour again, but here she is!

I spent more time than I care to admit this week in various pre-sale lines constantly getting kicked out of the website… Ticketek really fumbled the ball with the ticketing system I think! I didn’t get any tickets Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday…

BUT MATT DID!!

I had actually given up hope, after getting kicked out of the line for the fifth time on Thursday… But somehow my husband managed to get some tickets so we’re going in October! Absolutely worth it. When Hilary Duff was originally touring back in the early 2000s my parents had absolutely no money, and also not really much care for if I wanted to go to a concert or not. This will be the first time I get to see Hillary live!

This week was budget week so accounts got refreshed, including spending money and our home budget! We decided instead of going to the shops on the weekend that we would go tonight, it’s always a much more peaceful experience in my opinion going in the evening rather than on the weekend.

My main mission with my spending money this fortnight was to get some paint and painting supplies!

I’m hoping to create some artwork for our bedroom… I’m a bit nervous with how it’s going to go, but I think it’ll be cheaper than buying what I wanted (I have something quite specific in mind), it’s also giving me an opportunity to engage with my hobbies! I actually really enjoy painting, I just don’t do it very often because I don’t feel like I’m very good at it… So this is definitely stretching my perfectionism but I think that’s a good thing. I’ll show you how it turns out, just don’t expect greatness okay? 🤣

I’ve also been wanting a more spring/summer themed blanket for our living room. I like to decorate seasonally, but I mostly just have a spring/summer vibe and an autumn/winter vibe, I don’t see the need to decorate more than that.

We went to TK Maxx and finally grabbed a nice bright blanket, that will be our entire house fund for the month though. I succeeded in getting my painting supplies, we also were able to get some new hot water bottles that we needed and I attempted to buy some BB cream.

This is an ongoing issue for me so if you have any recommendations leave them in the comments below! I am very very pale, as you may have noticed. Most BB creams tend to be too dark or two orange. I really got my hopes up with this Nude by Nature one, the colour is absolutely perfect… But the product itself is pretty terrible.

I’m quite glad that I got this half price! It definitely is not worth $30 at full price, it’s barely worth the $16 that I paid for it. It has a very weird texture, it doesn’t blend out well at all, it sticks in places. But, it is the perfect colour! If you have any other recommendations let me know, I tested a few while I was in Big W and they were all too dark/orange, even when trying the palest shades.

I have a bad feeling that if I want something that works I’m gonna have to spend a little bit more money, I’ve been recommended BB creams or CC creams from IT Cosmetics and Hourglass… That may be the way I have to go if I want that kind of product. I just want something that is lighter coverage than a foundation, and that truly feels like a moisturiser in that I can just rub it on my face with my hands without having to worry about a brush or beauty blender. I had a lot of people on Instagram and TikTok recommend Breeze Balm, but to me from the reviews I’ve seen it just looks too much like a foundation.

As usual, we got our groceries delivered today as well! My grocery spend this week was a little bit more than I would like, about $20 over a budget. Hopefully I can make up some ground next week.

I’ll pop the YouTube hole and screenshots of the order below!

We had a very quiet weekend which was nice! Saturday is our free for dinner night, which usually looks like eating something out of the freezer or spending time with friends. We didn’t have anything in the freezer to eat though, so we got some pizza from Domino’s! Someone remind me to add some freezer bits to our grocery shop in the next week or two, because I do find that to be cheaper in the long run than getting takeaway, they’re getting Domino’s Pizza is also pretty affordable… We only spent $17.75, and frankly we didn’t even need to spend that but we sprang for the cheesy garlic bread. It was worth it and delicious.

Sunday was also very quiet, though I had a massive craving for Gami chicken on the way home from church so we stopped in and got that. It really hit the spot! Matt wasn’t feeling very hungry, so he didn’t get anything which definitely helped the budget. 🤣

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A much more mindful week of spending indeed! I am attempting to vlog what I spend this week for YouTube, I’m not sure exactly when I’ll get that all edited and uploaded though so bear with me. I’ll post it here when I do get it completed though!

I have a feeling I’m gonna go over on our grocery budget this week, I forgot to budget in extra money for this weekend when I did the budget, so I’ll have to go back and adjust that. I’m hosting a girls night at our house on Saturday and I’m planning to make a platter! The other girls are bringing bits for it as well, but that will definitely be a small outlay that isn’t part of our normal grocery budget.

I’m really looking forward to having girls tonight though, it’s not something that we do very often so when we do it’s special! One thing I’m trying to work on this year is bringing more regularity to our friend catch ups. It’s easy for everyone to get busy and not catch up for a month or two, so I’m trying to get in the habit of instigating us planning the next catch up at the catch up, so we already have something in the calendar for next time. It’s so much easier to organise things in person rather than via a group chat

I hope you’re having a great week wherever you are, and that you’ve got something fun to look forward to this week! If you do, tell me about it, even if it feels small and silly!

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