My Wild Catrice Photo Finish 18 Hour Liquid Foundation Chase!

After weeks of looking at and visiting the Catrice foundations in Guardian, and reading as well as watching reviews on their two foundations online, I finally decided to give it a go. So last Saturday, I went to Mid Valley Mega Mall with one thing in mind --- to purchase the Catrice Photo Finish 18 Hour Liquid Foundation from Guardian's.

Once there, I decided look around the mall and to purchase the foundation only on my way out of the mall as I didn't want to be loaded with stuff as I walked around the mall. As luck would have it, when I finally went up to the cashier after a long wait in the queue, I was asked by the sulky cashier if I had another card on me other than the Amex that I had given her because  apparently, she said that it takes a long time to get an approval code on Amex. Tired and turned off by her less than polite tone and non-customer oriented attitude, I asked for my card back, told her to cancel the purchase and walked out. Yes, it was something that I would have liked to have but not something that I had to have as I still have about another half bottle worth of my Bourjois 123 Perfect Foundation left (even though I wear it to work everyday!).

The following day, on Sunday, I was in KLCC and once again, I visited the Catrice stand there but decided not to purchase the foundation then as there was a long queue at the check out counters. Then Monday rolled around and lo and behold, what did I see on my FB feed --- Guardian announced that some selected makeup brands were going for 30% less and one of the brands was Catrice!!! WooHoo!!!

So yeah, I made my way to the Guardian in IPC after work and finally purchased a bottle of the Catrice Photo Finish 18 Hour Liquid Foundation. I guess, I was lucky that I didn't purchase the foundation just two days earlier as it on only a 10% discount then instead of the 30% discount when I purchased it yesterday. Mmmm.... can't wait to try it out!

Oh, btw, all the Catrice products were going at a 30% discount and I was going gaga just looking at the prices. I had to keep reminding myself that I still had A LOT of fairly recently purchased makeup to use up before I can reward myself with more.

Baskin Robbins 31% Off

It's the 31st of the month and as always Baskin Robbins are having their 31% off promo today.

I was down at the local Baskin Robbins and picked up just a pint of Black Forest Cake Ice Cream. There wasn't too many people there when I got there around 6 pm. I went home after purchasing my pint of ice cream to put it in the freezer and later went out again and passed by the Baskin Robbins outlet and it was full of people at around 6:45 pm!

Phew! I was lucky that I was there just a tad earlier and missed the mad crowd (yes, it can get pretty mad in there on the 31st). There was once, a few months ago, I went there thinking that I was going to purchase ice cream on the 31st but gave up after seeing that there was just waaayyy too many people in there.

I got lucky today and I'm not complaining! :) I've now got my ice cream treat in the freezer!!! :)

Budgeting: The Envelope System

Here's something that I used to do many, many years ago. I learned this from a friend who I saw practised it (that was how I learned --- by watching).

In the beginning of every month, I would label a few recycled envelopes (earth friendly!) the categories of money in my budget such as travel, fuel, food, clothes, etc. Then, in each envelope, I would put in the amount of money that I had budgeted for each category for the month.

Each time I wanted to buy or had to pay for something, I would take out the required amount from the envelope. When I had extras in the envelope at the end of the month, I would take that money out and save it.

It's a wonderful simple system that puts you in touch with reality if you want to keep track of your spending because when the money's gone in the envelope, it's gone. It gives you an honest reality check about your spending habits.

Dealing out cash makes it more intimate as opposed using credit cards which tend to feel like nothing much when you're paying at the point of sales and not only that, you tend to overspend with credit cards because there isn't a reminder of what the limit for your spending is for the month unlike the cash in envelope where you can see your depleting money levels.

Try it, and you'll be surprised at how much more careful you are with your cash.