Today's poll was suggested by Kimberly, who'd like some advice on how to be a perfumista on a budget. Specifically, she asks how you go about weeding out your wish list, and how to avoid impulse buys.
Feel free to offer any helpful advice for saving money while continuing to feed your perfume habit.
Note: image is funny money via thehutch at flickr; some rights reserved.
Back in May, I reported that I had not bought a single bottle of perfume so far in 2007. That didn't hold true for long, but unless I fall prey to a vicious lemming between now and the end of the year, I'll end up with a total bottle intake of 7*. Not too shabby for an addict, and about the same as I did last year. In 2005, I bought 11 bottles, and we're not even going to talk about my shameful, completely out-of-control intake in 2004 (let's just say that most of my perfume collection was purchased in 2004).
A few random factoids about this year's spending: I bought 3 of the 7 bottles at full department store prices, something I haven't done in years (and a practice I wouldn't encourage, although so far, only 1 of the 3 has appeared at the discounters). 1.5* of the 7 bottles were purchased unsniffed. And every single one of the 7 bottles was a mainstream fragrance…
In late 2005, I posted a little lament about my perfume spending:
I first became seriously interested in fragrance in late 2003. I bought one bottle in November, and another in December. A flurry of spending early in 2004 eventually led to a self-imposed limit of 2 bottles per month. I stuck to that (more or less) for the remainder of the year. This year, I have slowed down, but all the same my “to buy” list currently comprises 15 fragrances, only 2 of which are to replace bottles that are nearly empty.
My total perfume intake for 2005 ended up at 11 bottles. Not too bad, and in 2006, I did even better…
Yes, I caved: I bought the new Hermès fragrance, Osmanthe Yunnan (see yesterday). I am still feeling guilty over the price, to say nothing of the fact that I bought it unsniffed. Last night, I consoled myself with the reminder that I have been very conservative in my purchasing this year, and the Osmanthe Yunnan brought my total for 2005 to a mere 5 bottles of perfume. This morning I went to looking for a fragrance to wear, settled on Ormonde Jayne Ta’if, and noticed next to it the Isfahan that I bought last spring. Oops, that wasn’t included in my total, so make that 6. Curiosity got the better of me and I did a quick inventory. The extent of my denial was revealed fairly rapidly; oops again, make that 9 bottles. It could be worse, right? Please, say yes…