I’m ready for spring/summer clothes, and my action plan
I hope everyone is having a great day. I just checked weather.com, and it’s getting colder here, and it’s supposed to stay cold. It’s also supposed to snow today and tomorrow. Nooooo, it’s like I jinxed myself. It was also 60 degrees yesterday. I’m ready for the summer, or at least spring. At least tomorrow is Friday, which is one thing to look forward to.
Everyone’s going to want to kill me for all of the spring/summer related posts lately, oh well sorry guys. I’m just ready for it to be hot!
I’ve been looking at a lot of websites lately for clothes that I want. I’m not sure how much I want to spend on clothes for the spring and summer time, but I’ll probably set a budget for that soon. It won’t be crazy high (or low), I know I am mainly a personal finance blogger (who is supposed to be paying off debt), but I do enjoy clothes and clothes make me happy, so I will definitely be spending money on things that make me happy. How much would you say that you spend monthly?
I tend to only wear dresses and skirts in the spring and summer. My friends always make fun of me because I can go a whole 6 months “pants-less” (as they say). So buying only dresses and skirts and no pants definitely creates some ways for me to save on clothes/outfits. I can buy a lot of layering basics, I don’t need to buy expensive jeans, and a lot of my things will work together more easily since they’ll have the same shape and length for the most part. And I just think it’s more comfortable that pants, so it’s a win-win.
Also, I keep telling you guys that I will go through my closet and sell the things on eBay that I don’t need.
But nope, haven’t done that.
Maybe today? Yes, I think it’ll be today. This week I have done lots of cleaning. Cleaned the kitchen, dining room, and took down the Christmas tree. We still have a couple more Christmas decorations that we need to put away, but today I am resolving that I WILL posts things on eBay. I will do that tonight.
I will also take a picture of my scary closet for you so that you can really see the abundance of clothes that I already have. I have a decent sized walk in closet, guest room closet and table in another room full of my clothes. Working in clothing retail for 5 years definitely makes your closet crowded. I quit that job almost 2 years ago, and it’s still just as bad.
My sister has already started selling some of my stuff on Craigslist. Of course she started doing this without my knowledge and with stuff that I lent her, but obviously I have not noticed. She’s coming over one of these days to sell more stuff on Craigslist. I have never bought or sold anything on there (maybe because I’m terrified of Craigslist killers), but I told her I’d give her around 30% (she wanted 100%, HA!) of everything she sells.
She’s already sold a Guess purse for $50 (bought this a super long time ago, I can’t believe it sold for that), and a couple other things for a little bit of money also. I have so many things that I can get rid of in my closet, probably over 100 pieces (I know I won’t get rid of that much though). Glad my sister will work as a helper for me.
I’m not sure how much I’ll make, but I know it’ll be at least a couple hundred. I’ve sold on ebay before, and it’s always worked out pretty well.
There are many things that I want to buy before my vacations and this summer. Here’s some inspiration (of course I want a lot more, but I thought I wouldn’t make this post any longer than it already is):
What have you been wanting lately?
Do you sell your clothes that you no longer want?
Update: It took me 2.5 hours to get to work today because of the snow and black ice, usually it takes 10 minutes. Here are pictures from weather.com. There wasn’t a ton of snow, but it was suuuuuuper slick because of black ice. Oh yeah and it was 60 degrees yesterday, so no one was ready.
What habits keep you in debt?
Most of us engage in habits that are keeping us in debt. I know this, because I do this. The little things (and of course the big things) add up very quickly, and if you don’t keep track, then that could be a debt payment right before your eyes.
Here’s a list of what might be keeping you in debt:
1. Banking fees. – We’re not Guilty.
- Do you keep track of your daily balances? Going under by just a cent can drastically affect you. I read an article the other day about a teenager who was around $1 under (if any of this info is wrong, sorry I read the article and can’t seem to find it again). He was only under because his account was sitting at around $9 or $10, so the bank then charged him a $10 maintenance fee. He was then charged around $30 a day for being under and in less than 10 days, he owed around $230. He barely ever checked his account and didn’t notice.
- Interest and late payment charges can also add up very quickly. We’re trying to pay off our debt so that we can get rid of all of this crazy interest that’s building up. It just builds up so fast.
2. Eating out. – Guilty. We’ve been bad with this lately and reverted to our old habits. I’m blaming it on the holidays and pure laziness.
- Eating out can add up quickly. The other day we went to McDonalds for smoothies, the casino for dinner and McDonalds again for a snack. And we did something like this a lot of days this past week. Sometimes eating out can cost almost the same amount as a weeks worth of groceries. That’s where the savings of eating at home really come in.
3. Being house poor. – Not guilty. We bought a house that was much under what we were approved for. This has helped a lot, especially since when we bought the house, we made around half as much as we make now.
- Definition of ‘House Poor‘ – A situation that describes a person who spends a large proportion of his or her total income on home ownership, including mortgage payments, property taxes, maintenance and utilities. House poor individuals are short of cash for discretionary items and tend to have trouble meeting other financial obligations like vehicle payments. via Investopedia
- A lot of people are guilty of this. Just because you are pre-approved for a certain amount, definitely does not mean that you should buy a house at that amount.
4. Impulse shopping. Mostly Not Guilty. I definitely research most of my purchases, just to make sure that I don’t have any second thoughts after I get something (which I usually do).
- Groupon is a major for most people. You see something that you kind of like, and it seems like a good deal, so you buy it instantly. Lots of people don’t use these. I am guilty of this, I have some Groupons that are expired. I can use these for the face value still though, but haven’t. Most of these places are too far away for me to willingly use.
5. Spending to make you happier. Mostly Not Guilty. I’m saying I’m mostly not guilty because usually shopping and spending money does not make me happier, but of course I have done this before.
- Do you often go to the mall, Target, grocery store, wherever when you’re not feeling 100% yourself and buy stuff?
- These things can add up quickly. And sometimes, maybe most of the time, you won’t even like these things after a couple of days. This adds up quickly, especially if you’re always not feeling 100%.
6. Spending because you say to yourself “I deserve it.” Guilty. I am busy a lot, so I always make myself feel better with my spending by telling myself that I deserve it for all of my hard work.
- These purchases can add up very quickly. Just because I think I deserve it, doesn’t mean I should buy it. Don’t I deserve to pay off my debt as well?
What’s keeping you in debt?
Black Friday Shopping
Yes, another shopping post.
We tried Black Friday shopping last year, but the lines were so bad that we ended up just leaving and not buying anything. The line wrapped around Target twice (they had tape on the ground to mark where you were supposed to stand, and the line was literally over 6 hours long (they announced it on the intercom). So we decided that it wasn’t worth it.
However this year we decided that we are going to try again. There are a lot of things that we are getting for ourselves and others. I don’t want to go, and I’ve actually begged the BF to not make me go, but we’ll see.
A camera, laptop, Xbox360, Playstation 3, Blurays and other things. So there’s a lot of potential savings, as long as we get in line early enough and can run fast enough.
However, I doubt this will actually happen, but here’s to hoping. Me and the BF went to Target and drove past Walmart last Thursday, and there were ALREADY people camping out. And I’m not talking just 1 or 2 people, we saw around 10 to 15 at each store.
Have you noticed any lines outside your stores?
