My Latest Grocery Outlet Haul

Hey y'all!

Celebrating Kalmo's return (woot woot!) to the blogosphere, I figured I might as well get my butt into gear with regards to posting again.

I ventured out to Grocery Outlet again to stock up on my usual fiber bars and also to spy what new beauty goodies had been stocked.

Here's what I picked up.

Spent more money on cosmetics than food this time. Rational spending fail.

I bought:

Physicians Formula Multi-Colored Pressed Powder Powder Palette in Peach Nude ($2.99)

I couldn't find any reviews of this shade, but Muse seems to be a big fan of the product! I hope it'll be similar to N.Y.C. Color Wheel Mosaic Powder in Peach Glow, as that's discontinued. :/

Burt's Bees Lip Stash Pack ($3.99)

I was soo excited to find this! Four Burt's Bees lip balms for four bucks is a really good deal. The kit retails for $10! It has a Beeswax Lip Balm tin and three tubes of Honey, Replenishing (pomegranate), and the minty Beeswax one. Besides this, I also saw a bunch of other Burt's Bees products at Grocery Outlet: a travel bag of mini-sized products, their Rosemary Shampoo Bar etc.  

L'oreal HiP Studio Secrets Professional Eye Shadow in Luna Noir, Darkwave, and Enchantress ($1.99 each)

It was a complete surprise to find these as these duos came out last fall in the limited edition Midnight Muse collection. And the prices are to die for! There are two other duos. I'm sure they were there, but I wasn't just looking hard enough. It was getting close to dinner time!

Beyond my haul, I saw some cheapie face masks and nose strip packs for $.99 apiece. I also saw Revlon Colorstay Mineral Finishing Powder in Suntan Matte. People were going gaga over this during the last CVS clearance sale. Lol, and now it's $.50 less at $2.99. So if you're ever frantic about missing out on a discontinued product, you're bound to see it at Grocery Outlet sooner or later. 

Happy July 4th! My partner's back in Canada and celebrated Canada day on July 1st. Guess we're not so different after all. :)

As for me, I'm going on a group hike tomorrow afternoon with a potluck afterwards. Made onion dip and spinach chickpea curry and a cantaloupe bundt cake for tomorrow night. I know, weird combo, but I'm just clearing out some leftover produce!

How are y'all spending July 4th weekend? :D

Black Friday, Cyber Monday Hauls and Disappointments

I'm back again! Thanksgiving was hectic, as I was cooking all Thursday. I got to break my meat fast for a bit by nomming on some turkey. I hope everyone got to spend some time with other loved ones! :)

I didn't think I spent that much money until I tallied it all up just now, lol. 

Here goes: 
I didn't buy much on Black Friday. I am super scared of big crowds and the cold. Black Friday's for the true fanatics! I stayed warm all day and ventured out to my local stores just to browse around. I picked up the N.Y.C. limited edition rose glosses Rite-Aid. Learn more about the collection here. The collection never showed up in the East Bay, but they found their way to my hometown. I was so excited to find them, because it's been a while since they've been released. And there was still one of each! I felt soo excited... until I got them home and realized that someone broke the safety seal on one of them and swatched it. Gah, but I decided to keep it and sanitize it with rubbing alcohol on the surface. Check the safety seal, it should be on all unopened rose glosses!

After dinner, I check out the local Ulta. They stocked some new Freeman products, so I, of course, helped myself to a new clay facial mask. I glanced over the ingredients for this one and I see no parabens, woot! (EDIT: I didn't looked closely enough, it does. :/) I'll get a new review up for this one soon. 

When I got back to school, I proceeded to haul some L'oreal products that have been heavily discounted. Thanks Gianna and Lisa for the tips! Another thanks to Gianna for alerting me that the new Sally Hansen Nailgrowth Miracle nail colors were available at CVS.

CVS Haul

Here's the breakdown (yes, I made a chart)



I saved tons of money on the L'oreal sale, though I'm not a fan of L'oreal skincare or cosmetics. I've looked through the labels: way too much mineral oil/petrolatum and alcohol. But I'm pretty happy with my purchases nonetheless. Save even more money by printing out some L'oreal coupons. I found mine here. 

I kicked off Cyber Monday with e.l.f.'s 55% off sale on Sunday. It bugs me that it doesn't include free shipping, but $6.95 is manageable. Here's my forthcoming haul. 

The sale has been extended, so you still have a chance to get your haul on! Another way to save money is to spend over $30 on e.l.f., not including tax and not counting coupon savings. You'll then be eligible for a magazine. But if you forgo the magazine, you'll receive $12 rebate back. That's like super savings! Click here for more deets. 

Rants follow

Mega Haul / is there an item limit on addiction?

I swear I didn't mean for it to end up like this. I've been school-free for the past six weeks. Not of my own volition, of course. I dropped a class (though I managed to learn P(finding an upper division probability course too hard to take during the summer) ~ 1). The first few days were heaven, no school to be late for, no homework to toil and weep over. It was absolute freedom.

Which meant I got sick of it after two days.

I was so bored. As the saying goes, the devil finds work for idle hands. Well, my idle hands shopped! It was way too easy to shop with all the available time. Now I know what they mean by "retail therapy."
Bad mood? -> Wonder what sales are at Rite Aid?
Miss bf? -> I think I need more blushes.
I'm bored -> I really should get into painting nails.
And on and on. And blogs and vlogs only gave me more new products to try. This added up really quickly.

Here's what it looked like after hitting countless CVS's, Rite Aid's, Target's, and Walmart's.

Can you tell it took 20 minutes to arrange it so it would all fit in one frame?

Pretty scary, right? It looks like I emptied a drugstore shelf into my shopping cart (which wouldn't be too far from the truth). It's actually worse than it looks, because some products are hidden by others. If I expanded it, it would look insane.

It's weird. I'm more interested in skincare, but I have an absolute weakness for cosmetics. If I love a cosmetic blogger's taste, I will develop a lemming for her raved products like no other until I have them in my hands. I have absolute trust in other bloggers' take on cosmetics, because I'm so unfamiliar with it myself (not wearing any on most days).

In contrast, I will be more skeptical with skincare. I won't invest in a skincare product until I know its ingredients, no matter how many raves I see.

What are y'all's buying habits like? :)

I'll break this down by store I purchased it from:




Haha, I realize that making a spreadsheet is pretty neurotic, but that's how I am when I have nothing else to do. I love being detailed and crediting sources. :)

I didn't just buy beauty products either. After I read Elle's rave over Poketo for Target's collection, I went the very next day to get my hands on some. They were available in Target and online way before the August 10 release date.

My Poketo Haul
Further evidence of my inability to resist temptation. :P

I bought a laptop sleeve (which fits a bit snug for my HP TX2500, but would be perfect for small, super thin laptops), a pack of three bags (big one for my make-up, medium one for pencils, and wee one for camera/phone), and an umbrella (couldn't deny myself cute green bears = fail). The entire collection was all so cute that I applaud myself for not walking out of the store with it all (baby steps).

My out-of-control spending habits will hopefully diminish with the new school year starting in late August. I'll be too focused on school, clubs, etc. to buy things or go to stores. You won't see hauls like this anymore!

Well,

we'll see. ;)