No buying until I’ve used up ALL my stashes

Me_v_The_Mortgage_Mountain

Hi All

Well I made a little start last night.  Had a relaxing bath and instead of bubble bath used some of my huge handcream stash in the water, made my skin really soft.  This only works with some creams though, not all will dissolve in the water, some are more oily and stay in big blobs

I'm on call next week so home based, will see if I can tackle my books and clothes then, donating or selling the excess.

snowbird20 said:

jackieblack said:

Welcome, Caramac (I used to love Caramac bars as a teenager 😁)

I’m the same, I bought this stuff because I liked it and wanted to use it - I plan to declutter it by using it for the purpose it was purchased for! 

just had my first Caramac when I visited the grands in Germany in December.  Yum.

I love Caramac but I'm sure I read somewhere they are being discontinued, may need to stash some in that case

MvTMM

Wednesday2000

I had forgotten that Caramacs existed!

I am using up a stash of toiletries as I have this problem where the skin on my face and neck gets easily irritated so I can use a product for a while and then suddenly get a reaction to it. I have to use it on my body instead as I don't get any reaction there, just on my face. Not sure why!

I have a mango body lotion, an Alba moisturiser and three serums on the go to use up at the moment. I was going to put the serum on my feet, but I remembered my chiropodist in London saying that serum dries out the skin on your feet. I'm about to have a bath and then use the B Superdrug serum as body lotion instead. One is half full so that will probably be used up today.

I have three tubes of hand cream on the go too. I keep them downstairs in a box so I can remember to put it on my hands before I leave the house.

I have a lot of books on my kindle as I read a list of the best psychological thrillers of 2023 and I bought some before Christmas. There are avid readers on the other forum I'm on and I get recommendations from them too. I have a hardcover book to read today, but then I'm going to look through my kindle at what I have there. I do borrow some books from Prime reading, but they are not always that good so I might return some of them.

Cherryfudge

Wednesday2000 said:

I am using up a stash of toiletries as I have this problem where the skin on my face and neck gets easily irritated so I can use a product for a while and then suddenly get a reaction to it. I have to use it on my body instead as I don't get any reaction there, just on my face. Not sure why!

I have a mango body lotion, an Alba moisturiser and three serums on the go to use up at the moment. I was going to put the serum on my feet, but I remembered my chiropodist in London saying that serum dries out the skin on your feet. I'm about to have a bath and then use the B Superdrug serum as body lotion instead. One is half full so that will probably be used up today.

I have three tubes of hand cream on the go too. I keep them downstairs in a box so I can remember to put it on my hands before I leave the house.

Another who loved Caramacs... (sigh)

We've had a few ideas on using up toiletries here, I'd not thought of putting hand cream in the bath but it makes sense so long as it's soluble.

I've heard that the pump part of, say, a hand cream bottle is not recyclable, so I try to reuse those rather than replace. That works for hand cream as I can top up from part-used containers and I keep one by the door to treat my hands on the way out of the house (it's also near the sink so I can use it after housework).

I also topped up hand cream with ends of bottles of sun cream (not a brilliant solution, and I can't find a way to use up old sun cream) or with a self-tanning lotion. At least my hands stay looking a bit tanned for longer!

I've used hair conditioner that didn't suit my hair as a lubricant for shaving my legs, and that works. Being someone else who has patches of sensitive skin I have to be a bit careful and sometimes shampoos irritate my skin despite masses of rinsing. So I found ways to use them up, such as for washing hair brushes. In fact anything like shampoo or soap that's designed to wash something, can be used for general cleaning.

Some antibac soaps leave my hands rough so now I'm using one up for cleaning. Because it's basically soap, it's pretty good - and the antibac element is handy in some areas, like bathroom surfaces.

The other using-up solution that works for me is out of date coconut oil: I put a tiny bit in bath water and it's working really well as a light moisturiser. Don't overdo that one, though, as the bath gets slippery!

I'm still struggling with the presence of various bits of makeup that I'm realistically not going to use. My daughter took one lot of eyeshadow but the others will probably be binned unless a charity shop will take them. Guilty feelings abound but I've had them hanging round at least a couple of years while I've been trying to use things up.

Me_v_The_Mortgage_Mountain

Cherryfudge said:

I've used hair conditioner that didn't suit my hair as a lubricant for shaving my legs, and that works. Being someone else who has patches of sensitive skin I have to be a bit careful and sometimes shampoos irritate my skin despite masses of rinsing. So I found ways to use them up, such as for washing hair brushes. In fact anything like shampoo or soap that's designed to wash something, can be used for general cleaning.


I'm still struggling with the presence of various bits of makeup that I'm realistically not going to use. My daughter took one lot of eyeshadow but the others will probably be binned unless a charity shop will take them. Guilty feelings abound but I've had them hanging round at least a couple of years while I've been trying to use things up.

A good way of using up shampoo is to use it to hand wash woollen items, particularly cashmere if you are lucky enough to have any.

To use unwanted makeup, I have heard of people using eye shadow palettes as watercolours if you have an artistic side?  Or melt bits of lipstick with some vaseline to make a tinted lip gloss.

Cherryfudge

Those are good ideas, thanks @Me_v_The_Mortgage_Mountain. The cashmere would smell really nice, too. In fact it would probably work for acrylic jumpers, woolly gloves etc... save on handwashing liquid  

_Dolly_Rocker_

I would love to join in here - finally a place where I can admit to the stash and not be judged!

My main things are;

• Toiletries
• Books
• Candles
• Stationary
• Clothes
• Bags
• Shoes

I think the first one I'm going to take a tally of is the toiletries - will dig them all out and see what's there and make a start on using up the stash and not buying anymore!

Dug out 2 notebooks today, 1 to use to scribble down monthly bills and another to keep a track of debt, savings and financial goals I have.

Wednesday2000

Those three hand lotions I'm trying to use up are not cutting it in this cold weather as my hands are still very dry. I am going to use Weleda skin food body lotion as a hand cream instead as that is very rich. I got that in my Holland & Barrett advent calendar which is very good value for money. I put it on the console table by the front door so I remember it.

_Dolly_Rocker_

I'm going to attempt more scheduled self care time. My ADHD brain needs it to be scheduled like an appointment so I'm going to half 30 minutes in the morning and an hour in the evening. 

Looking forward to using up the stash this way!

I find a lot of hand creams aren't that great - I still try to use them up though can't bring myself to waste them. 

-taff

You used to be able to get caramacs in poundland, or at least you did last year....

jackieblack

Spotted in Tesco this morning - might be of interest to Caramac fans