Category Archives: Budgeting and Shopping

Posts about my struggle with sticking to a tight budget, including my Shopping Ban and Shopping Plan of 2010.

Wardrobe Gaps List: Revisited

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My closet, Nov 2011 (this is why I have a limited wardrobe)

To help me focus in my shopping once again, I’ve re-created and updated my Wardrobe Gaps list.  Some of these are repeats from my 2010 list, but many are new.  My focus is always on getting quality key pieces that can really bring my wardrobe up a notch.  This doesn’t always mean spending a ton of money though – I thrift, consign and scour eBay regularly for deals.  For some of the items, I plan on going with particular brands, so I list them there.  Here’s my new list:

Dresses:

  • ¾ sleeve dresses (just bought 2 more of these, but these are such a staple that I could still go for more)
  • Short sleeve dresses
  • Solid color shift dress
  • Casual jersey dress
  • Sweater dress (plan to knit my own)
  • Tunics with sleeves

Pants:

  • Black, brown, pinstripe work slacks (cotton preferred)
  • Skinny ankle jeans (dark wash)
  • Cotton twill Capri (light brown or olive green)
  • Casual khaki or olive green pants

Skirts

  • Colorful pencil skirt
  • Casual Jersey skirt
  • Denim skirt
  • Maxi skirt
  • Swishy printed skirt

Tops:

  • Short sleeved work tops
  • ¾ sleeve tops for work
  • Long sleeve tops for work
  • Cute graphic tees
  • Solid tees
  • Black cashmere sweater – moths got my old one :(

Cardigans/Jackets

  • Cropped cardigans (J Crew)
  • Cashmere cardigans (J Crew)
  • Gray hoodie
  • Track jacket (AA)
  • Wool coat (J. Crew)
  • Casual cotton jacket
  • Cropped blazer

Shoes

Accessories/Other

Jewelry

  • Stone pendant necklace
  • Silver long pendant necklace
  • Medium silver hoops
  • Vintage pencil necklace (like Joan)
  • Dangle-y earrings

 

Wardrobe Inventory: Revisited

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The last time I did a Wardrobe Inventory was back in 2009.  Back then, I was only working part time, and still struggling to figure out exactly what I liked.  I was beginning to experiment a lot.  Some of those experiments were fantastic, others were duds.

My outfits have started to fall into a repetitive rut, so I felt like it was time to take a good look at my wardrobe once again.  I counted and photographed pretty much all my clothes.  The only stuff I skipped out on: summer clothes (swimsuits, shorts, etc), workout clothes, and pajamas.  I didn’t include accessories this time, but I might come back to that later. (Note: Counts are total, some items aren’t pictured)

Casual Tees: 9

Strengths: Several good comfy, interesting tees that are good for weekends.

Weaknesses: Not many solid tees.  Need more interesting graphic tees.

Work Tops: 13

I was surprised to see how many work tops I actually have.  Most mornings, I have trouble figuring out what to wear for work.  This area may need weeding.

Strengths: Lots of great, colorful sleeveless tops

Weaknesses: Need more short sleeve, 3/4 and long sleeve tops.  Weed the ones you don’t wear anymore.

Layering Tees:  10, Tanks: 7

I just recently did a lot of thrifting in this area, so I’m doing really good here.

Strengths: Tees and tanks are long enough to be tucked in.

Weaknesses:  Get more colors and patterns.

Sweaters: 5, Vests: 5

Strengths: Good weights and fabrics for Florida

Weaknesses: More cashmere.  More colors.  More handknits.  More light cotton sweaters.

Cardigans: 13

You can never have too many cardigans, right?  I may need to weed this a bit, but most of these I wear on a regular basis.

Strengths: Lots of lengths, weights and colors

Weakness: More cropped cardis to wear with dresses.  More cashmere.  Need a cropped white cardigan.  More handknits.

Jackets/Coats: 5

Yeah, I’m lacking here.  But bear in mind that I live in Florida, so I don’t need a ton of coats and jackets.

Strengths: My red coat is perfect for most of Florida’s winter.

Weaknesses:  I’d like a pretty wool coat for when I travel (one day).  New hoodie to replace grey one, which has seen better days.  Track jacket. Casual, structured jacket.  A cropped blazer would be nice too.

Jeans: 4

I don’t need a ton of jeans, in my opinion.  I only wear jeans three days a week (Fri, Sat, and Sun).

Strengths: Dark and light washes, good fit (yay for Gap Curvy!)

Weaknesses:  I’d like to have a pair of ankle length skinnies in dark denim again. Need to dye my black skinnies – they’re getting faded.

Slacks: 5

The first thing that hits me: they’re all so dark!  I need some lighter colors, and also better fits (Gap, why did you stop making Curvy slacks?  They were perfect!)

Strengths: Love my grey Gap Curvy slacks.

Weaknesses: Most don’t fit well.  Need some khakis, olive drab.  Need casual chinos.  Another pair of cords would be nice too.

Skirts: 3

This is an area I’ve struggled with in recent years.  I have trouble styling skirts, so I tend to not really look for them when I shop.  I need to get more intentional about this.

Strengths:  Love the print on my green skirt.  My pencil skirt fits like a dream.

Weaknesses: Need a colorful pencil skirt.  Casual jersey skirt.  Denim skirt.  Try a maxi.  Basically more skirts in general.

Dresses/Tunics: 11

Like cardigans, I also believe that you can never have too many dresses.  My collection has improved greatly, but there’s always room for more.

Strengths: Lots of great sleeveless dresses.  My navy blue dress and my LBD fit amazingly.

Weaknesses: Need more dresses with sleeves.  More solids.  Knit a sweater dress.  More Boden :)

How to (hopefully) get out of a style rut

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Over this past year, I’ve grown into a bit of a style rut.  I’ve been focusing very heavily on my job (which I love!), paying off my debt (which I don’t love) and generally trying to be happy.  Unfortunately, this has resulted in frequently repeating the same boring outfits all the time, a serious lack of creativity in getting dressed, reading fewer style blogs, shopping less, etc.

I miss being stylish.  I miss posting outfits regularly.  I miss getting fantastic inspiration from the blog-o-sphere.  This weekend, I’m setting out to do something about that.

Now of course, I know that I can’t expect the same involvement I had when working a part-time job.  I won’t be posting seven days a week.  I don’t have the time to trawl Etsy for hours every day.  I can only fit so many blogs in my Google Reader before missing one day turns into a ridiculously large number of unread posts.  But I can still do something.

Here’s my plan to get out of this funk and into some creativity:

  • Bring back the Wardrobe Gaps list! (I’ve already started writing and updating a new one.)
  • Inventory and Weed my wardrobe
  • Add more style blogs to my Google Reader (already done!)
  • Start a Pinterest account (signed up for my invite already)
  • Start being more focused in my shopping – shop to fill gaps specifically.
  • Put together at least one blog-worthy outfit a week and post it
We’ll see how it goes!

Spring Breakin’

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I’ve had this whole week off for Spring Break, and it’s been glorious!  Here’s what I’ve been up to:

  • Getting my read on:  I’m a librarian, so I’m always in the middle of a book.  Since I had so much free time this week, I read more than usual.  It was awesome.
  • Spring cleaning: I’m horrible at putting off household chores.  My kitchen floor generally looks disgusting.  This week, I swept, vacuumed, and scrubbed to catch up on all those chores. (And my boyfriend cleaned the bathroom and did an amazing job!).  I’ve also taken the opportunity to declutter – cleaning out my file cabinet, getting rid of half-finished craft projects I have no desire to do anymore.  I took three bags of crap we didn’t need anymore to Goodwill – it was so freeing.

  • Awesome thrifting karma: Maybe it was getting rid of all that stuff, but I had awesome thrifting karma this week.  I was desperately needing some new clothes for yoga, since my yoga pants have seen better days.  I went to Goodwill, Revolve and Second Image with the intent of simply getting new yoga pants and tops.  I ended up with: 2 pairs of yoga pants, a pair of running shorts, a short sleeved hoodie, several new tops, and the most kick-a** pair of white glittery Doc Marten boots (seen above).  With my Revolve store credit, the total damage from all three stores: a mere $34.  Heck yes.

  • Line drying laundry: I realize that this totally doesn’t sound exciting to most people, but I love line drying my laundry.  I find it so relaxing to get out in the sunshine and hang clothes up to dry.  When I’m working, I try to hold off on laundry til the weekends, but I often have to run a load or two during the week, and there usually isn’t enough sunshine left to line dry.  I’ve had plenty of sunny warm days this week, so I’ve been catching up on laundry I’ve been neglecting.  I’ve also been washing up all those new thrifting finds.
  • Being a responsible adult: As I mentioned earlier, I cleaned out my files this week.  I also took my computer into the Apple store to have it looked at (which is part of why I haven’t been posting much lately).  If I’m really, really responsible, I’ll spend a couple hours tomorrow working on homework for my teaching certificate.  Maybe.
  • Yoga! Running! Biking!: I love exercising in the morning.  Since I have to be a work by 7:10 during the school year, that never happens normally.  This week, I’ve been able to go running before it gets ridiculously hot.  I’ve been trying out yoga classes that don’t normally work with my schedule.  I’ve hopped on my bike to run errands.  I’m hoping to work in some swimming and hiking, but we’ll have to see.  Now, if I only had a kayak….

Shopping Plan: December

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*December edition of My Great Shopping Plan of 2010, where I attempt to stay on a budget and fill out my wardrobe*

At the end of November, I had $63.50 to add on to my $125 for December.  Here’s what I bought:

Green Cashmere J Crew Sweater, $20 on eBay

Awesome deal? Oh heck yeah.  The sweater’s slightly shorter than what I prefer, but for $20, I’m willing to layer.

Printed Boden Dress, $60 (with shipping)

Striped Boden Cardigan, $38 (with shipping)

When Boden had it’s awesome 50% off winter sale, I finally caved and bought some stuff directly from them.  I’d been drooling over that cardigan since I first saw it in the catalog months ago, and I absolutely love the print on the dress.  I’m planning on getting the dress tailored, since it’s a bit loose in the chest and waist.

Bateau Turquoise Cardigan, Nordstom Rack

White August Silk Cardigan, Nordstrom Rack

Not Pictured: Grey Tank Top, Hue Knee Socks, Nordstrom Rack

$35.86 total for Nordstrom Rack purchases

This purchase was due to the awesomeness of Groupon.  They had a deal going on where you could purchase a Groupon that would allow you to get $50 worth of clothes from Nordstrom Rack for only $25.  I ended up going over the $50 mark, which was why my total came out to $35.86.  Still a pretty insane deal.

That makes $153.86 spent.  So even with some awesome Boden sale purchases, I still didn’t go over budget.

I’m not going to reflect on my Great Shopping Plan of 2010 at this time.  Honestly, the past few months, I just wasn’t feeling it.  I feel like I’ve gotten the hang of keeping to a budget with my clothes shopping, and documenting it just feels boring to me now.  But I have a new project lined up for 2011, which I’ll talk about on Friday.  I’m super excited about this one:  it will be called 11 in 2011.  Stay tuned :)

Shopping Plan: November

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*November edition of My Great Shopping Plan of 2010, where I attempt to stay on a budget and fill out my wardrobe*

Between money left over from October and the $125 I budgeted for November, I had $188.50 to spend this month.  Here’s what I bought:

Tank Tops, Target, $8 each

Terribly exciting, I know, but I needed some new tank tops for layering.

From L to R:

White Tee: Ann Taylor LOFT
Green Long Sleeve: Aeropostale
Red Beret: ?
Black Cardi: NY & Co
Brown Dress: NY & Co
Grey Tunic: French Connection
Goldenrod Sarong: ?

Total: roughly $30 at various garage sales

Neighborhood garage sales where there’s a lot of well-off, young hipsters are the best.  I got some fantastic items, at a really good quality, and there was a minimal amount of digging through nasty old polyester clothes to find them.

Earrings: $3 from local artist at garage sale

They didn’t have a website that I know of, or I would link.  These are fast becoming my new favorite earrings.

Keen Chamonix Boots: $51 on eBay
Keen Barcelonas: $25 on eBay

Once it started getting cold this year, I realized that I had no comfy, flat boots that I could wear all day.  I love my boot collection, but they don’t cut it for eight hours on my feet.  The chamonix boots turned out to look a little more like snow boots than I had expected, but they’re comfy, and they’ll be great for cold weekends.

The Barcelonas I bought because I adore my black nubuck ones, and I decided it made sense to get them in more colors and fabrics.

Denim Capris: Levis
Tunic: Forever 21
Striped Tee: Old Navy

All bought from Revolve with store credit

Oh how I love shopping with store credit.  Revolve Clothing Exchange is the best.

So I spent exactly $125 this month, leaving me with $63.50 to add on to December.  After next month, I’ll go back through my original wardrobe gaps list from the beginning of the year and see how many I filled.

Shopping Plan: October

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*October edition of My Great Shopping Plan of 2010, where I attempt to stay on a budget and fill out my wardrobe*

Green top, Boden, $15 on eBay
White top, Sandra Ingrish, $25? at Nordstom Rack
Magenta Tank, Splendid, $16? at Nordstrom Rack

Yep, this is what happens when you only blog your purchases once a month.  You misplace receipts and then can’t remember how much things cost.  From what I remember, those are the best approximations.

I’m seriously stoked that a Nordstrom Rack finally opened in Tampa.  I love shopping at Nordstrom, but I can’t afford most of their prices.  The items at the Rack have lower prices, but still the same quality (and the customer service is still fantastic as well).  I think I’ll be shopping there a lot.

Read-cycle, Literary Threads, $15

Yes,  I’m a book nerd, who likes recycling.  But how exactly do those two go together?  I’m not exactly sure.  But I was feeling really nerdy, and in need of a t-shirt, and this one was my favorite of the colors they had.  In the future, I would probably go for a different saying, but with the same color.

Dansko Serena, $30 on eBay

Will my obsession with Dansko sandals ever end?  I don’t think so.  I love these, and I’ve already worn them a ton.  Of course, soon it might be too cold to wear them regularly, but hey, this is Florida.  They can wait in my closet til March, when it starts to get regularly warm again.  And of course, it can easily be in the 70s in December, so I might get to wear them sooner.

I had $164.50 left in my budget, and I spent $101, so I have $63.50 left, plus the November budget money of $125.  I have to confess, I’m really not into this anymore.  I feel like the shopping plan has served it’s purpose of helping me to be more conscientious about how much I spend on clothing.  I filled a good portion of my original gaps list.  I’m not sure what will be next for me after December.  We’ll have to wait and see.

Shopping Plan update

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Because of my schedule, writing weekly shopping plan posts is starting to turn into a chore rather than something that I enjoy.  Because of this, I’m going to only post about my shopping plan once a month for the remainder of 2010.  As always, I want blogging to be something that I enjoy, not something that gives me anxiety or stresses me out.  Look for the next shopping plan post on October 24.

Shopping Plan: Week 36

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*Week 36 of My Great Shopping Plan of 2010, where I attempt to stay on a budget and fill out my wardrobe*

Rummage Sale Clothes, $15

Usually, I never get much in the way of rummage sales, because there’s always too much digging to do, and the clothes are generally *ahem* not in the best condition, or not exactly attractive.  But last weekend, when I went to a local women’s club rummage sale, I hit the jackpot.  I manage to find quite a few lovely tops, in my size, without polyester, in styles that are current.  All this, for a mere $15.  Heck yeah.

I had $179.50 left in my shopping budget, so now I have $164.50.

Blue 3/4 sleeve: Kim Rogers,
Magenta silk button-down: Andrew Sport
Flannel and floral button-downs: Old Navy

Lime stripey 3/4 sleeve: Kim Rogers
Blue and white 3/4 sleeve tops: Rafaella
Stripey Tee: Old Navy

Shopping Plan: Week 35

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*Week 35 of My Great Shopping Plan of 2010, where I attempt to stay on a budget and fill out my wardrobe*

Gap Curvy Pants, $59.50

Last week, I finally did what I’ve been saying I would do for months, and I actually bought a pair of grey work slacks that fit.  At full price.   In polyester blend.  Which is something I pretty much never do.  Why, you may ask?

  • The two pairs of cotton/spandex work slacks I own have become too tight.  Until I lose some weight, I’m stuffing them in my hall closet with my winter coats.  I desperately needed something that I could wear to work now, at my current weight, that wouldn’t make me feel like I was suffocating.
  • I’ve been attempting unsuccessfully to thrift a pair of flattering, fitting work slacks for the past several months (really, since the beginning of the year).  For some reason, it’s been next to impossible to find non-polyester curvy slacks in a 12/14 at my local thrift/consignment stores.
  • I know that Gap Curvy works well for me, because my Gap Curvy jeans are pretty much my most comfortable and flattering jeans ever.  I knew that these slacks would work.
  • And the polyester.  You may know that I generally can’t stand polyester.  But as I said, I had no slacks that fit.  I went back to work full time a month and a half ago.  I desperately needed some professional slacks.  I could not find any in cotton/spandex.  The polyester content of these Gap slacks is 63%.  While that’s not ideal for me, it is acceptable given the circumstances.

Eventually, I’ll probably replace these slacks with some cotton blend ones and take them to a consignment shop.  Hopefully, the Gap will learn that some people don’t like polyester, and start offering some alternatives.  But until then, I at least have a decent pair of work slacks.

I had $114 left in my September (rolled over) budget.  Another $125 was added with the start of October.  So I started the week with $239.  The slacks were $59.50, so I now have $179.50 left.  I really need to get around to going on that shopping spree :)

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