My closet last year.
Hey everyone! Today's post is all about spending less money on clothes.
And there's a giveaway too. I'm glad to be a part of another giveaway. I really am enjoying taking part in these, and I hope you guys still love winning stuff! If you're anything like me, then you probably enter tons of giveaways every week.
I made a post early last year titled A peak into my insanity (AKA my closet). At that time, I talked about how I had TONS of clothes. My closet is actually the old laundry room (we have the washer, dryer, etc. in the basement), so this is a decent sized closet that I have. And it's COMPLETELY packed. You can hardly walk into it now.
I don't wear a ton of it because a lot of my daily outfits are business clothes for my job. I had over 50 dresses, over 20 skirts, over 70 shirts, and so on. And this is with me selling my clothes every month. If I never sold clothes or got rid of them every month, I can't even imagine what my closet would look like.
While I would love to save that my shopping problem is under control, it most likely is not. Yes, I'm not spending as much money as I used to, but I really need to start selling things in my closet in order to make things more efficient. Spending an hour each time I'm looking for a specific clothing item is just a little excessive.
Jordann, on my blog, recently talked about Maintaining a Minimalist Wardrobe. This is something that I definitely want to work on.
My plan
Now, I don't plan on just not buying anything ever again. I do love clothes and dressing nice. Instead, my plan will be to focus more on quality and not just quantity. Yes, I will buy the occasional “trendy” dress from Forever 21 or Express, but for the most part I want to be saving my money and spending it on better quality items that will last longer. I will also be following a lot of the tips that are listed on J's site How to Save Money on Clothes. I love her website and how she's able to come up with so many different ideas.
I also plan on not buying items until I clear out items out of my closet. For every 1 item that I buy, I want to put TWO items from my closet into a bag that will be either sent to be donated or sold.
How much do I want to spend?
I do want to start spending less on clothes as well of course. I want to spend the least amount of money out of my own pocket on clothes that I can. My goal is to spend less than $100 out of my own pocket on clothes per month. So this does not include whatever I spend on gift cards or the money I get from selling clothes.
This is not exactly a “no spend” year, but it is a start. I know many people who spend much more than this amount every week on clothes.
This doesn't seem like too hard of a task for me to complete, but it's also about me cleaning out my closet. I have a couple hundred in clothing gift cards already, and will make a couple hundred more from credit card rewards. Also, I already have a ton of clothes in my closet that will work for the next year and still look great, so it's not like I'll be going naked everywhere.
I have a decent amount of clothing gift cards that I have received lately. Some I received for Christmas from my sister, and some I have won from giveaways. I plan on trying to use gift cards to fund my clothing spending. This won't be super difficult, as I also plan on using the gift cards and cash that I earn from my credit card rewards towards this as well.
I also plan on selling a lot of my clothes that are currently in my closet and using this money towards buying new clothes as well. Wish me luck! At the end of 2013 I will make an update post on how much I spent on clothes throughout the year, and how much I spent out of my own pocket on clothes.
Are you trying to spend less on clothes?
What do you do to save money on clothes?
Last question, how much do you spend on clothes in a month and in a year?
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A no spend challenge is very difficult to do. I have learned there are many ways to get your needed items without spending a dime. I picked up a used sofa from the furnture store. No cost either. They have a back storage lot where old furniture is stored . When they sell the family new furniture part of the store policy is picking up the old. It's free to anyone. Dining room tables, andything you want or need is there.
Clothing is the same. I watch for clothing giveaways and then get some really great litle used dresses and blouses.
On Electric bills I save by unpluging everything that isn't being used at the moment and that ges for the TV too. It totally inhales the electricity, even when off.
It is very difficult to not spend any money on clothing for even a month. I've done it, but not by choice. One thing, it makes you appreciate what you have more when you have less. It's also better to have money in the bank than clothes in the closet. I spend way too much on clothing. I want to change that this upcoming year. I hope that you received all of my entries. I've had some computer problems, so if I did not enter something, please let me know. Also, the one RSS Feed, I was not able to subscribe to. Thank you.
As it turns out, I'm on my own 'No Spend Challenge' right now. I have far too many clothes and shoes, so I am making a bit of extra money by taking a lot of them to a local consignment shop. I don't need to buy clothes on a monthly basis, so I can save there too. I have also entered many giveaways in hopes of snagging some giftcards. I should be able to go without buying clothes for several months. Fingers crossed!
I did a no spend challenge about 10 yrs ago the year after my divorce and managed to pay off 10k in debts i had so i know i can do it when i need to or want to.
If I do a no spend challenge I would probably be forced to create new outfits from the clothes I already own so I would have to get out of my comfort zone and try new things which could be kinda fun. It would be like being your own stylist. Plus since I'm not shopping so much I would have more time for other things. 🙂
As a conscious person, I am also looking forward affordable cloths. After reading out this post, I have got enough ideas on it. Immediately, I'll visit your shop for more purchasing cloths. thanks for good head up 😆