Over the past three or four years, I gradually became a goo goblin.

What I mean by that is that I somehow went from someone who had one moisturizer-with-spf that they replaced only when it was used up, to someone who had a ten-step routine. I went from someone who rarely used makeup except for special occasions, so needing to make sure her brows looked perfect before she left the house to run errands.

Part of it was the realization that I was, indeed, getting older (hello, crow’s feet!). Part of it was soothing the depression goblin by smothering it with all the shiny new things that promised to make my life perfect if I slathered it on my face everyday.

So it grew and grew until I had a huge stockpile and realized that there was no way I could possibly use everything up before they went bad. I made a spreadsheet and started to organize everything, forcing myself to use up old forgotten items and declutter as needed.

I still have way too much stuff, which is why I’m determined to not buy any “goo” for at least six months (when I will likely run out of shampoo and conditioner, if my previous spreadsheet tracking is correct). July is my birthday month, so I will use that Ulta coupon and buy more shampoo and conditioner.

But! I did manage to use up 185 products last year. I know I actually used up more, but there were a couple of months I didn’t track because of everything that was going on, and it was during that time that the stash of sheet masks saved my skin because it was the only skincare I could do during the grief and depression.

I didn’t pay retail for most (if not all) of my items, but if I did, I would have used up $1,403.37 worth of items.

That’s not counting the 56 items I destashed for various reasons (mostly because they were expired) that were worth a retail price of $710.10.

All in all, I got rid of 241 items for a retail cost of $2,113.47. Yikes. That’s embarrassing.

Embarrassing because I shouldn’t have had all those products in the first place. That I shouldn’t have spend money on something I didn’t need when it could have been put to better use. That I still have at least twice that much to still go through.

So I’m on a determined “no buy” for as long as possible. At least until July. But hopefully I will rediscover my frugal, minimal instincts and continue on after that.