My aspiration to only buy what I love has led me a bit astray lately: I’ve loved every bead that I’ve bought, but my bank account hasn’t been as enthralled with the balance of money in/money out as I have with the beads in (considering that there have been few beads out).
With that in mind, I’m going to try a bit of an experiment. Not quite a resolution, just a realization that sometimes I love too many beads ;) In the past I’ve tried limiting myself to a set number of beads a month or a set amount of money per month, but usually end up using up my allotment in the first week. I then spend the rest of the month hoping that something great doesn’t come up, and kicking myself if it does. For the next few months I’m going to try an approach allowing for a smaller number of planned beads (for the bracelet designs that I’m working on), so that I am free to indulge in the unplanned beads as well (as long as I love them, of course!). Hopefully this should strike a nice balance between what I already know I want, and those lovelies that pop up unexpectedly. And since most of my planned beads are silvers, and unplanned beads are often glass beads, it should also give a balance in that regard.
The biggest challenges will be 1) not allowing myself to use the unplanned beads allotment towards planned beads as I get closer to the end of the month, and 2) still making sure that I give each bead its due diligence. The latter is a bit easier as I don’t often make completely spontaneous purchases, so even an “unplanned” bead usually gets quite a bit of scrutiny. My spontaneity tends to come out more in silver beads that I’ve had on my list for a while that I finally break down and buy, which leads to the first challenge since I can see myself trying to justify a planned bead as an unplanned bead at some point! To try and counter this, I’m going to prioritize my wish list a bit more by identifying the monthly “planned” bead(s) for the next few months. Anything else on the list could fall into the unplanned category, but only if it’s at a great sale price. I don’t expect it will happen too often, but since I would kick myself if I missed a great bead at a great price, it still satisfies the reason for doing this in the first place, so I don’t consider it “cheating”. Of course, there’s still the risk that a must-have glass bead will come up after that and I will still be kicking myself, but no plan is fool-proof. ;)
Wish me luck! :D
Wishing you lots of luck. Ever since April when I got sucked into getting a TB bracelet, I haven’t been very good about pacing myself. :)
Are you going to share which beads are on your wishlist? If I spot a bargain, I can always let you know.
Thanks :)
I was sooo horrible about pacing myself when I started collecting. Previously I collected Swarovski crystal figurines and I sold a chunk of them when I started collecting beads. The figurines had been packed up in a box since we moved the display case a few years ago, so it was actually a good idea from that perspective, but I wasn’t at all focused about what I was buying and so I ended up selling a bunch of the beads (at a loss, of course) once I started getting a better idea of what I really wanted.
I’m not sure yet if I will share my wish list of beads. I did consider that (partly because it would hold me accountable so that I couldn’t change my mind to slip in a different bead :D) but the first three beads are for one of my new designs, so I want to keep it a bit secret until it gets to a point where I can properly share it. ;) I will probably share after I get the first bead in September since at that point the design of the bracelet will be pretty clear.
Best of luck with this! I’ve gone nuts in August after being quite good for a while, I too may need a Plan B… although in reality I may just be working my way through the alphabet a 2nd time!
Will be cheering you on from the sidelines and keeping an eye on how this works out, always open to new ideas :D
Mars xx
Thank you, I need all the cheering on that I can get – I’m already worried that I won’t stick to it and September hasn’t even started! July was my worst month recently, but August was very tempting with the Ohm bangle offer. When I started contemplating my “medium” priority beads over my “high” priority beads because they bumped me closer to getting the bangle, I knew that I needed to change my approach. So I looked back at the last few months and realized that my “bad” purchases weren’t bad at all, just unplanned. So, it seemed to make sense to plan for the unplanned :D We’ll see how it pans out in reality. I’m itching to get a proper start on my one design!
I resonate strongly with what you said about unplanned purchases, I’ve been berating myself for my glass purchases especially this month, then 4 arrived at once and looking at them they are fab beads, just unplanned and no set idea for use straight away… ironically similar to the 2 bangles I’ve just blogged; I bought the LE bead back in March and have only just used it!!
The preloved choices I’ve made I’ve not given myself a hard time over because with preloved “opportunities” for really wanted stuff, especially that that isn’t readily available it’s just a case of dealing with it when it happens, I’ve been so pleased with all my preloved purchases.
But either way, I need to work out what Sept will bring, as I’ve splurged my original pot for the new collections so it’s back to the drawing board for me!
Mars xx
actually I like this plan, and shall use it for myself. Great idea, thanks for sharing!
I hope it works out for you! So far, I’ve been sticking to it, but it is hard sometimes to figure out if a bead is really unplanned or not :D