I'm saving up to live in a very expensive area and want to return to school, but I also really enjoy clothes and makeup. (I recently revamped my makeup collection by getting rid of things I didn't use or were actual garbage and am doing the same with my clothes)

So, specifically to save money on things like beauty and clothes, Nice Things of which aren't "omg NEEDED" but nice to have if you're into them, I:

• have signed up for Ulta rewards and get daily necessities there, like shampoo, conditioner, body wash etc. The points add up really quickly and unlike Sephora, you can trade the points to get a discount on your stuff. I have 600 pts/$20 in rewards right now, but I usually like to wait until I have 2000 pts because that's $125 off. Brands go on sale a lot and you can get a ton of points very quickly.
• I find inexpensive dupes of more expensive products. I really wanted an expensive eyeshadow palette, but I didn't want to spend $65 on it. I found a legitimate $14 dupe (not an off-brand fake version, it was made by a different brand entirely). It's like getting the generic version of makeup lol. Anyway, it's just as nice as the expensive palette!
• I thrift a lot of my clothes. I don't live in an area with good thrift stores, so I can't go to like a Goodwill and get anything, so I go online. It's more like I pay Target prices for brands I normally couldn't afford/don't have access to. I like to give my friends my code for thredup because they get $10 to spend and then I get $10 too! It is mutually beneficial and we live in such a rural area you have to drive 45 minutes to find a mall, so most of us shop online anyway.

Also for flights, I have a really specific system I use where I go on incognito mode on Tuesdays and it does save a little money hahaha. SO lives a 5-hour flight away so we fly a lot to see each other.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk :)