No Spend Update

So, time for the almost monthly review of the no spend challenge. I need to stop filling online baskets up as the temptation is starting to get to me.

I’ve gone a bit mad on the nail crystals and I’ve been picking ones I want from BlueStreak, Crystal Parade, Temu, AliExpress and Shein. I pick them, fill a basket and then walk away.

Temu got me this week with an email offer. Spend £11 and receive £100 cash in PayPal. I should have known better. I spent the £11 – got free shipping and didn’t have to spend the usual minimum order of £15, but unsurprisingly, I just needed to spend a bit more to get the right number of points to get the cash.

I fall for it every time! Then they offered to drop the price on 2 £7.00 items to £3.00 – so I spent another £24. Guess what – still didn’t get my £100 cash. OK, so lesson learned. No more.

I’ve hammered the overtime last month, so this month’s pay packet is decent. If I hadn’t completely obliterated my overdraft, I’d be minted this month. When I say minted, what I mean is that I would have some spare. But that’s all now been swallowed up by the overdraft.

What have I learned? Temu lies. I need to stay on track this month and not spend any extra money and not use my overdraft this month, or ever again.

I’ve paid all but one of my pay in 3 deals. I have a large bill to settle. I have until June to pay for the dryer and it still be interest free. I can’t pay it this month as the overdraft is more important. That means I can pay 3 lots of £100 in March, April and May and not pay interest.

I need to save £100 a month to cover Christmas and a bit more to cover birthdays as the kids are getting older and it costs more. If I could save another £100 per month, that would cover their clothes, trips, birthday’s and other little expenses that pop up.

I really need to do the Dave Ramsey thing of having some cash saved for emergency expenses.

I need to do a bit more on the house. G’s bedroom is now tidy and I have one more wash of hers to do – bringing the total to 9 (including bedding) to clear all the stuff that was on her bedroom floor. If she (with a bit of help from me) can stay on top of her room, that will be a massive improvement.

I’m going to bulk buy the cat food this month, and I’ve ordered the rabbit food so that should all be fine – no issues. I can afford food and petrol, but if I could start home cooking, that might save us a bit on food. We still spend way too much on junk food.

It is 4 weeks to my next payday. I have plenty of stuff for G’s birthday, so I should be ok with that. Another tough month but then things should start improving. I need to do around 40 hours per month overtime to give myself breathing room every month. Time and a half overtime is always going to be better that single time.

Just in case I forget what I have ordered from Temu, I have ordered the following:

Crystals:
4000 mixed colour, mixed size crystals (ss6 – ss28)
2000 mixed size Violet crystals (ss6 – ss28)
5000 2mm size rose red crystals (ss6)
300 6mm mixed colour centre piece crystals (SS28)
500 6mm dark pink centre piece crystals (ss28)
1440 purple/red iridescent glass crystals (ss6)
1 large 24 grid crystal set in Aurora Borealis
1 large 21 grid crystal set in Rose Pink
1 large 24 grid crystal set in champagne
1 large 24 grid crystal set in light blue
10 x trays for sorting crystals
1 x pack of silver and gold mixed size caviar beads
12 grid rounds – golden, coffee, light pink, deep purple, light violet, rose red, light blue, light green, purple, yellow, red, green
Grids – shapes and rounds – crystal
Crystal rounds – ss3 – 1440 / ss4 – 1440 / ss5 – 1440 / ss6 – 1440 / ss8 – 1440 / ss10 – 1440 / ss16 – 1440
Silver / crystal gems in claws – 200 3mm
Mini mixed colour, mixed shapes – 1000
50 x melon seed gems in rose
50 dan shaped glass round stones – clear
0.4mm caviar beads – golden, silvery
10,000 golden shadow crystals in 2mm, 3mm, 4mm and 5mm size (2,500 each size)

Storage:
1 x 28 grid storage box
2 x 12 grid storage box
3 x 18 grid storage box

Household:
Air fryer sheets

I still would like some black crystals. But hopefully, there will be some in the mixed size packs to see me through. I’m probably going to need more storage, especially if I plan to separate them out for easy use. But, I’m pretty sure I can manage for now.

Update: 23/02/2025
OMG and then I totally fucked up. I found a site selling off their Swarovski crystal stock and went nuts. I spent £105. I entered a new PayPal pay in 3 agreement. And I’m an idiot. So they better be worth it. This is what’s coming:

Antique Pink – ss7 – 200 / ss9 – 100 / ss16 – 100
Aquamarine – ss5 – 50 / ss9 – 50 / ss10 – 100
Citrine – ss20 – 50
Crystal Blue – ss12 – 100
Crystal Lilac – ss5 – 100 / ss7 – 100 / ss9 – 100 / ss12 – 100 / ss16 – 100 / ss20 – 50
Denim Blue – ss16 – 100
Greige – ss7 – 100 / ss12 – 50 / ss16 – 100
Hyacinth – ss20 – 100
Indian Pink – ss9 – 50
Jonquil AB – ss9 – 50
Jonquil – ss7 – 100 / ss10 – 100
Light Amethyst – ss7 – 200 / ss9 – 100 / ss10 – 50
Light Peach – ss5 – 100 / ss7 – 200 / ss9 – 100 / ss12 – 100 / ss16 – 100 / ss20 – 50
Light Siam AB – ss9 – 50
Mocca – ss16 – 100
Padparascha – ss12 – 100 / ss20 – 100
Peridot – ss12 – 100
Provence Lavender – ss5 – 50
Rose Peach – ss5 – 50 / ss7 – 200 / ss9 – 100
Sand Opal – ss16 – 100
Smoky Mauve – ss7 – 200 / ss16 – 100 / ss20 – 50
Tanzanite – ss9 – 100
Topaz – ss10 – 100 / ss16 – 100

Shapes – Crystal leaf 6mm x 4.8mm – 12 / Crystal wing – 6mm x 3.5mm – 10 / Golden Shadow heart – 6mm – 9

4,681 crystals of all sizes and colours for £105. Bit of a bargain, but dear god, will I ever learn? 56 individual packs of crystals coming my way! I can’t wait to play with my own nails when they arrive.

Sorted by size this works out as:
ss5 – 350
ss7 – 1,300
ss9 – 800
ss10 – 350
ss12 – 550
ss16 – 900
ss20 – 400
Leaf – 12
Wing – 10
Heart – 9

Total – 4681

And I’ll need 51 pots to put them in and keep them all separate.

More updates: 26/02/25
My favourite crystal shape is the 2088 rather than the 2058.
And the Swarovski’s arrived. It turns out SS20 is way too big and nothing needs to be any bigger than SS16.

I also don’t like the colour crystal lilac shadow – infact I don’t like any of the crystal colours. I do, however, love Smoky Mauve.

Based on the speed and loveliness of the delivery I went back and bagged the last of the stock in colours I fancied in smaller sizes. I know, I’m a total no spend failure this month. Fuck it. I’ll start again next month. Which, thank god, is just a couple of days away.

So I have added:

Swarovski Graphic shape – 2585 – 24 pieces
Golden Shadow heart – 6mm – 45 pieces
Tanzanite Pave crystal bead x 1

Air Blue Opal – ss5 – 2058 – 50
Burgundy – ss9 – 2058 – 100
Chrysolite Opal – ss5 – 2058 – 100
Chrysolite – ss9 – 2058 – 200
Cosmo Jet – ss9 – 2058 – 100
Crystal Blue – ss5 – 2058 – 50
Crystal Bronze – ss9 – 2058 – 50
Crystal Metallic Light Gold – ss3 – 2000 – 200
Light Amethyst – ss7 – 2058 – 100 / ss9 – 2058 – 400
Light Colorado Topaz – ss5 – 2058 – 300
Light Peach – ss5 – 2058 – 300 / ss7 – 300 / ss9 – 2058 – 200
Rose peach – ss7 – 2058 – 50 / ss9 – 2058 – 200
Sapphire AB – ss9 – 2058 – 100
Sapphire – ss5 – 2058 – 200 / ss9 – 2058 – 100
Silk Shimmer – ss5 – 2058 – 50
Smoky Mauve – ss7 – 2058 – 300
Sun – ss7 – 2058 – 200
Tanzanite – ss9 – 2058 – 200
Topaz AB – ss9 – 2058 – 100