New Year and Stockpiling

 It's a new year and it's already been a shaky start to it. Somehow, an elderly relative got confused when they were supposed to meet someone for lunch and got themselves lost in a familiar area. They have been found and now some hard decisions will be made. Choices that my parents have been dreading and now all of that has come. My mother will be talking to the doctor due to the fact that the next time, the elderly relative won't be so lucky the next time.

Ever since the pandemic has started, the prices of everything has gone up. Groceries, gas, and household items have started to become very expensive.I've had to make some choices with groceries that I didn't quite want to make but had to do it because I am making an effort to have my paychecks stretch a little farther.

I have mostly stuck to a few things so far but it's 3 days into the new year and I already goofed up. My last candle purchase was made on the 29th of last year and I have already finished 2 candles and don't have the desire to add more at this point but will have to see what happens a few months down the road. 

After I stockpiled all of those Ulta rewards points, I had stocked up a quite a few bottles of Chanel perfumes. This first order was made a few days before the new year and the 2nd one was today. I was poking around Ulta's website and saw that the price of every Chanel was raised at least $5 or more and when I cross checked the Chanel website, it was the same deal. Out of curiosity, I was checking out the Les Exlusifs line and holy shit, the price went up at least $50. So after the Sephora spring sale, I guess I won't be getting any more Chanel products for a very long time. But at this point, I've stockpiled enough Chanel perfume. My only plan is to get just another bottle of no 5 extrait. I have enough of the no 5 edp and edt. I don't need anymore Coco Mademoiselle either. I don't wear Coco Mademoiselle as often as I thought I would and I don't need more of it. Yes, perfume prices are a first world problem and perfume is a luxury but it's become harder and harder to justify something that makes me happy.

There aren't too many things that I stockpile but over the past 3 or 4 years, I have amassed a huge collection of candles. I never did those massive Candle Day runs. If anyone else has done the Bath and Body Works Candle Day sales, you will see people loading up on the maximum allowed for the sale and after then turn around a buy more. I've heard snippets from others passing by that they go to at least four or five stores and do this. They are either scalpers or just greedy. Most of the time, I only get a personal maximum of 4 in a single sitting and only once have I bought 10 in a single sitting. Truth be told, I haven't even had the ability to get 20 candles in one sitting and it does seem like pure greed to go out and wipe out a store's entire stock.

Even in the beginning of the pandemic, when states were starting to shut down, I didn't go to any store and buy every last roll of toilet paper and cleaning products. I figured that other people needed that stuff as much as I did and I didn't need to hoard things. I've already hoarded enough candles and perfume already. Now let's get back on track with the using up what I have and not sink more cash into my hobbies.

All Over the Place

For the past few months, I have found myself wrapped up in all sorts of drama that leaves me not wanting to try anything new and found myself wearing the same few scents on top of it. Or the it's so damned hot out, why would I really want to.

I've sort of made a resolution to finish some of my smaller (3ml or less) decants of perfume to make some kind of room in that makeup bag overflowing with decants. It is somewhat working because I've actually managed to finish 10 small decants but had to throw out 6 because of evaporation issues. That's alright though, the evaporated ones were ones that I didn't care for much or hated. It seems like every time that I finish a couple decants, Surrender to Chance has one of those really good sales of take 15% off your order and it's the here we go again, getting a bigger pile of decants. It's funny how I can make a half hearted resolution and mostly stick to it.