A budget? What?

Glib Gurl asks:

I'm wondering how much you spend on clothes and accessories? Do you regularly budget for it? Also, do you plan most of your shopping or do you buy stuff when the mood strikes?

First, Ms. Glib has been reading and commenting for years so I want to thank her for that :)

So the short answer is "Heck no!" I'm pretty impulsive and I don't really budget beyond "Gee, I should cut back a little on the spending." I don't give myself a real clothing spending allowance or anything like that.

The longer answer is that I do have some decent shopping habits. Each season, I take stock and decide what I need specifically. For instance, right now I know I need some new sweaters so I'm keeping an eye out for sales. I go through my bras and panties every few months to make sure those are in good shape and then stock up on what I need during a sale or use a coupon. There are staple items that I buy over and over so again, I wait for a sale and stock up. I comparison shop as much as possible and try to get the best value.

Most of what I buy is on an impulse, especially shoes and accessories. I'll have a general idea that I need a pair of shoes or a bag but I don't plan what I want exactly. That's how I end up with a million things and none of them are exactly what I needed to begin with.

I very rarely buy anything at full price but I don't buy investment pieces either and that really hurts in the long run. I'm saving money on that item at the time but if it's not a good, quality piece or something I'll use for a while, the "cost per wear" goes up dramatically.

I am making an effort to be more careful and less impulsive lately. I have tons and tons of clothes but I only really like a small percentage of what I own. I like everything I buy when I first buy it but then I get bored with it or realize that it's not really me, etc.

This is something I've been thinking about a lot because I'm starting to think about (ohmygosh) the future. I'd like to own a condo someday and that means I can't keep spending so much on impulse purchases. I do realize that there will sometimes be impulses buys and I think that's okay. I just know I need to be smarter about how I'm spending my money.

I want to track what I'm buying, just to see how much I'm spending, on what, and where. I'm going to start doing this and maybe I'll even post it here. Maybe.

Comments

[Glib Gurl]

Whoa - Colleen gave me a cyber shoutout! Dude, I'm famous!

I feel ya completely on the shopping on impulse vs. planning for the future. I am at that phase myself . . . why can't we all just be independently wealthy? *sigh*

[MsMo]

This reminds me of the Sex and the City episode where Carrie realized she could have had the downpayment for her apartment if she hadn't spent $400 each on about 400 pairs of Manolo Blahniks. Well, priorities . . . I'm still learning to budget and I'm 52 . . . I think it's a great idea to just start writing down what you are spending. A fun way to do it might be with a plug-in "Quickbooks" for your PDA so it's handy wherever you are.

[Carrie]

A suggestion-- if you have a lot of clothes/accessories/shoes that you don't like or no longer wear but are in very good/excellent/like new condition, consider selling them on Ebay and turn them into cash. You probably won't become a millionaire doing it, but rather than have them collect dust/mites/etc. you can get a few dollars. Do your research first, see what sells the most and the ballpark ranges that items sell for. Lane Bryant is a great brand, their items, esp recent/trendy pieces sell well. Torrid is also a good sell. It doesn't require a lot of work... there are free sites that offer auction templates for Ebay, auctiva.com is one that I'd recommend. Having a paypal account, www.paypal.com, is a must. Their fees are low and it's super convenient to collect $$ for your items.

[Shannon]

I am a serious budgeter for clothes etc. That's mostly come from being poor and having expensive tastes in clothing. I usually save about 10-20 dollars out of each check and will either save up for a big spend or go thrifting online or off.

I call it my mad money and love it. I also do some clothes recycling and occasional selling.