That’s just insane. What’s the idea behind it? “I may not have a long life but at least I’ll look fabulous”? Please. I love fashion, clothes and accessories, but good nutrition is FAR more important. Besides, beauty only lasts so long without proper nutrients.

I don’t think so – meals are something I share with my husband, fashion is just for me. It would feel selfish to change our budget in that way!

I would eat out less often in order to have spending money for shopping, definitely. But then again, eating at home is often a more healthy option for me, anyway. As far as giving up other things–well, spa treatments aren’t that important to me, and I prefer to do my own nails at home anyway. I guess it just depends on the person. I would never starve myself, though. That’s where I draw the line. Not to mention that I am kind of grouchy when I’m hungry. I might look fab, but no one would want to be around me, anyway.

I love food, I’ll even say that I’m a bit of a gourmet, so I’d never give it up.

Another budget category that’s more important than fashion to me is the beauty budget. I mean not just makeup, but moisturizer, cleanser, bath products, hair care, everything in that department. I can buy myself new clothes any time I get some extra money, so the change from old to new (and from bad to great even) can be instant, but skin & hair need proper care every day, if I let it slide, no new clothes will make me look good.

Actually I do the opposite. I buy almost exclusively in thrift shops, flea markets, and in normal stores on sales. That way I can afford to eat mostly organic.
Buying cheap low quality food to save for clothes and cosmetics sounds horrifying for me. I know that it is quality organic food which will keep me looking good over the years, not clothes.
What I mean is: you can buy the cheapest clothes and still look stylish and beautiful. But you can’t get away with eating trash !

When I reworked my budget recently, I actually did think about the benefit I gained from the money I spent on food versus on clothes. I realized that I was spending more than I wanted on lunches out, processed foods, food that ended up going to waste, etc. Since then I’ve been cooking more food from scratch at home — grains, beans, vegetables, etc. — and taking my lunch to work most of the time. Honestly, my clothing budget is part of my motivation for doing this — it’s worth it to spend more time in the kitchen if I can have more clothes that I love. Of course, that’s very different from actually restricting calories to save money.

I’d much rather spend quality time with my loved ones than have an expensive outfit. It’s sad when luxury items are more important that relationships.

I haven’t changed the budget for our couple dinners, but do bring my lunch to work everyday. It saves me a lot of money. When my husband comments on my shopping habits, I tell him that he eats his money, whereas I wear mine!!

I don’t see how shopping at less expensive grocery stores and eating out less is such a negative thing. In fact, it would probably be healthier to prepare your own food!

Actually going hungry so you can buy clothes sounds very wrong, but to me it’s in a completely different category than the other two items listed.

Eating out costs as much as premium denim?! Goodness Angie, where do you eat?

I guess it depends on your “eating out” lifestyle. I pop maybe $20 tops for a night out. It’s not really that hard. I forgo the drinks and happily stick with my nice free water, and the vegetarian options are generally cheaper anyway. Certainly nowhere I go requires paid parking, even when I’m at home in the ‘burbs. And of course, no babysitter. Even with these things, I can’t fathom spending more than $50. $200 for a single person is outrageous. Instead of cutting out eating out, why not just cut DOWN on it? I find that the more you pay, the less food you get anyway!

Eating out is a social occasion for me. Shopping is something I do by myself for myself. If I gave up eating out for shopping, I would be very depressed and lonely.

I would NEVER give up my food lifestyle, which has always been organic and healthy. I cook all of our food at home and once a week my hubby and I go out to eat. It is an important time for us and I would never sacrifice that for more clothes! That is just silly! We are pretty good with money and consider ourselves to be ’savers’ instead of ’spenders.’ We recently got a big raise in our budget but our style budget has stayed the same, and the extra funds are going to savings.

My style budget is probably the lowest of my miscellaneous fun stuff. I think that it is important to look nice everyday, but if for some reason we did not have money for any fun stuff anymore I would not care if I could not go shopping for clothes anymore. It would be the very first thing I cut off from my budget, because I don’t do spa treatments or manicures/pedicures anyway.

While I, too, value time spent with those I’m close to more than any fabric, I also love cooking for my friends and have cut back my eating out budget in order to keep my current budget for fashion. However, I am single and not responsible for a family or a husband, so I cannot say that my way is the way to go in these tough times… I’ve made choices appropriate to my lifestyle, but I think everyone should be cutting spending where it’s responsible, first and foremost.

I would never cut back on my food habits in the name of fashion! Reconnecting with my husband on date night or having wine night with the girls is far more beneficial to my physical, mental, and spiritual health than any pair of shoes, no matter how fabulous they may be! My girlfriends and I may ooh and ahh over each other’s clothes or handbags, but the real love comes from the time and laughs we share!

That said, I’m cutting back on EVERYTHING given this economy. I can’t really justify spending more money someplace else just because I cut back in another budget area. The only thing I won’t sacrifice are my hair color appointments! I’ll happily go without a new outfit in order to cover up the grey hair!

I spend the bulk of my flexible income on food. I cook everything from scratch and buy a ton of very inexpensive produce plus a small amount of expensive high quality raw nuts, cacao, coconut oil, and “superfoods” (maca, chia, etc.). That makes a huge difference in how I look and feel. I wouldn’t be willing to cut that from my budget to pay for clothes. I also would never cut back on how MUCH I eat in order to buy clothes.

I would be willing to cut pricey restaurant meals, going out for $5 lattes, etc., though, and I’m planning to do that. I like and agree with Angie’s point that the cost of a nice meal out is equivalent to the cost of premium denim, and the jeans last far longer. Plus, restaurant meals are usually rich and fatty and that doesn’t help with my weight-loss efforts!

I’m a very good cook and I tend to be disappointed when I go out to restaurants. I generally can and do make food that’s equivalent to or better than what they serve, and for a far lower cost, both health- and money-wise. The stuff I don’t or can’t make–certain types of ethnic foods–I can get for very cheap at the many charming hole-in-the-wall joints in my city when I want a break from cooking or a fun evening with my husband, away from home. We do need to get away now and then, since we work and study at home. Having a cheap (

I love to cook and special food is a part of our family life. I love trying new things, making a meal for my husband, and helping my daughter to develop excellent food taste. Given the choice, I would go without the new jeans to buy better ingredients in the grocery store.

That being said, I already balance these two areas out. We rarely eat out – if we have a craving for a more ‘upscale’ menu, we get the ingredients and have fun making it together. Dates with my husband without baby are often coffe dates. We’re there to talk anyway, what we eat doesn’t matter. I homemake just about everything, so we don’t spend money on takeout or processed foods. This is not only cheaper, it’s healthier. We save the all-out dinners out for anniversaries.

I also choose to maintain my fashion choices, but I also do that in a balance. I shop at thrift stores, will buy things on ebay, remake/tailor my own garments to give them new life, and will happily wear one garment several ways in a week to make my wardrobe stretch. Personally, I think that all these areas are about balance.

In the experience I’ve had with youth who have eating disorders, it doesn’t matter what is the stated cause of the disorder, it matters that they have it. If a woman is limiting her eating to buy fashion, that is disordered eating. If eating, which is essential to life and health, is considered less important than a surface image, that is disordered eating. Unfortunately, fashion and disordered eating frequently go hand in hand and this is just another sad instance of that. I thoroughly admire the women on this forum who are interested in fashion but who accept their bodies for being beautiful female forms, instead of trying to be twigs.

Excuse the soap box… this is an area in which I have witnessed too much hurt for me to be quiet about it!

I don’t believe that there is any need to keep buying things all the time to look fab. So I dont really relate to the idea of spending less money on food to have more for fashion. Food is a necessity..fashion is not. So no, I’d rather buy expensive food and wear last season’s clothes than the other way round.

Oh my, this discussion is all over the place. So I think the term “fashiorexic” is sensationalist, and I will just assume that YLF readers don’t starve themselves or advocate nutrionally depriving themselves in the name of fashion. If the article suggested something like that then we can probably all just agree that it’s crazy and move on.

I think the more interesting discussion is what your priorities are in terms of cutting back during an economic crisis (assuming most people are or are planning to cut back to some extent, unless they’ve already had a super frugal lifestyle that doesn’t leave any room at all for cutting back.) The piece I don’t understand in some of the comments above is how decisions about how much money to spend on food (groceries and/or eating out) are related to quality time spent with family and friends. You can have quality time over food on a budget (eating rice and beans at the dinner table with candle light at home) or at a restaurant. To me it seems more about what kind of “indulgences” do you treasure most, and for some it’s eating at restaurants, for some it’s buying clothes, for others it’s spa treatments, and for others it might be buying books or going on trips or spending money on a sport or hobby. For me personally, I’m finding myself spending less money across the board, without cutting out a category completely. I still buy clothes, but I buy less and I really look for deals. I still spend money on good food and wine, but much less than I used to, choosing a lower end restaurant where I can get away with a $40 tab for our family of 3 rather than a mid-range restaurant for $80, and our date nites are less about “dinner and a show” now than about “a movie and drinks”. So I guess I’m trying to keep things in balance, because I enjoy fashion, food, and going out (and books and travel) equally and can’t imagine giving one up completely; instead I look for cheaper ways to make it all happen.

One other note: yes, people’s income and budgets are different, depending on life stage, circumstances, choices made etc. Some are able and comfortable spending fifty or seventy bucks or more per person on dinner out and others cannot or are not willing to. I hope we can just let that sit, though, without making anyone feel weird about it on either end of the spectrum.

Sooo, what was the question again? Are you spending less on food or less on fashion or both?

I think that prioritizing my purchase decisions has depended on my financial and career situations… I’m with a lot of those who have posted so far in choosing health over fashion — however, I have picked fashion over ‘good’ food before. Instances of this were buying a much-needed winter coat or interview outfit and eating “less quality” food for a week as a consequence. I would like to think I’d always pick food over fashion, but I’ve been in situations before where I had to put a fashion buy first. In those situations, I was fortunate enough to have friends who had me over for dinner, make a meal for me, etc. However, I also went without makeup, bought less gas, made none or few car trips, etc. I didn’t sacrifice in just one area of my budget.

As for curbing luxury spending to keep my fashion budget, I really don’t make a lot of luxury buys either. We are able to pay for my husband’s private grad school if we manage our money wisely, and we try to be efficient with our spending – that means we buy at an outlet grocery store, I never get pedis/manis, I don’t color my hair, and I get haircuts at an Aveda salon school. A lot of our money management is easier because of my job — I live on campus as part of my job, so I don’t have to commute and I have access to a small gym area. I do have a monthly clothing budget that my husband and I agreed to – and I’ve kept it at the same amount despite the economy crunch because my job requires me to dress a certain way, so I need to invest in certain things every season.

I think Antje’s answer is very smart, and I agree with her all around. I will also say as someone who’s slowly revamping my wardrobe (both because I’ve dropped a few sizes this year and because my style has gotten more sophisticated), I’m more willing to splurge on cosmetics and hair care items, as far as my “primping” budget goes, than clothes per se. It’s not too difficult to find real treasures for clothes at amazing prices (I’m wearing an amazing purple velvet dress that I got for four dollars, right now! – rummage sale), but you can’t get skin care products secondhand, obviously! (Ewww.)

And yes, good quality food, aside from the health benefits, makes one look better as well.

Hmmm… I feel I need to clarify – I have never starved myself for fashion – I always ate, but just chose to buy cheaper food! And these fashion buys were not ‘for fun’ but necessary – and I usually went to thrift stores or found a good item deeply discounted.

i think im a fashorexic- i dont skip eating, but i skip out on coffee from outside, meals out, restaurants, etc. if i splurged on a shopping trip- you know i got some great clothes when i’m eating at home!!

I agree with Antje. You don’t have to eat “cheap” food in order to buy clothing. And you don’t have to spend all your good times with friends or family over food. Some of the best times I’ve had with my friends was playing board games in my living room. Or decorating the Christmas tree with my Mom. Or dropping off charity items at the DAV with my Dad. Or walking the dogs with my hubby around the neighborhood. It’s all relative.

I’m with those who cut back across the board, not just in one area. My husband loves to eat out, so we might go to lower priced restaurants but still go out. We are cooking gourmet meals at home more.
Our biggest cut is in travel this year. Normally we would go overseas but this year we stayed in the States and will also probably do that next year unless our son isn’t able to come back to visit.
Gym memberships are important for our health, but I’ve never been to a spa, had nails done, or hair dyed, so won’t miss it. 80% of my clothing is from resale, but I’m happy with my finds. I’m willing to pay more for a fabulous investment piece when I find one now because I know I probably won’t be able to afford it as well on retirement income and that’s just around the corner. Yikes!

The actual act of eating out, not just the spending time together is important to us; so I wouldn’t forgo my almost weekly date coffee or lunch with my husband or our dinners out maybe 4 times a year.
We are already fairly economical on food at home, have a very cheap gym membership and don’t spend on spas etc. but I wouldn’t cut back on any other luxuries for “fashion”, until things were to the point where I had less than say $200 a year for clothes (and only that much because I need at least one pair of good shoes that are comfy with orthotics).

I do know someone who as a student, had to pay for lots of spending on beauty products by eating only instant noodles 3 nights a week for a while! I don’t think I could stand that for more than a week (though my husband, for non-financial reasons existed like that for about 8 months!)

I do cut corners on my children’s clothes which probably gives me more to spend. I can achieve that becuase they get some clothing gifts and more hand -me- downs than I can handle, but it does mean they are not always pristine and can look a bit dated. But I’d rather spend the money on their clothes when they are old enought to care about it.

I wouldn’t give up my healthy eating habits (organic is expensive) for clothes, but I have given up on going out for dinner to buy something nice before. How can you go out if you have nothing to wear? The idea is to keep it balanced.

Though I must add that spending less on food isn’t always = unhealthy eating. If one, say, cuts down on alcohol and takeout, buys more raw food and less pre-cooked food, she can find out she’s spending less on food than she used to. Home cooking can be tiring for those who dislike the process, but it’s also cheaper – if you compare the cost of ingredients vs a meal in a restaurant.

I understand skipping alcohol and not eating out. But to skip food or to skip healthy food is crazy. What I put in my body is more important to me. We are presently trying to be very careful with money right now (moving and all its expenses). I am staying far away from the internet and stores. But I am still buying quality organic, free range, grass fed foods for my family. Besides I tend to buy good quality classic style clothing which takes a while to go out of style.

This response requires numbering …

1) If you don’t feed your body adequately and healthfully, then you won’t look good in any clothes. So this is priority number 1. However, you can eat well on a limited budget – you don’t need to shop at organic foods places. If you are laid off, well, then you have time to clip coupons and cook from scratch and even grow a garden, etc. Eating well is more of a matter of your time than your $. (Been there, done that, own the apron).

2) As for the economy, I am personally following a strategy to upgrade my wardrobe now, while I have a steady paycheck, so that if I *do* get laid off, I have a good wardrobe that will help me land another job or consulting work. With each item I have purchased, I’m deliberately striving for a certain image befitting a hip, with-it, experienced 40-something marketing consultant.

This is who I want to become… if not tomorrow (out of necessity because I get laid off), then down the road (once kids are through college). Luckily, I’m in pretty good shape, having done most of the wardrobe upgrading already. If I got laid off tomorrow, I could be satisified not adding anything new for a long while.

I can’t say that about my last layoff, which was a few days before 9/11. (I am counting my blessings that we have now reached layoff levels from that same time, and I am NOT laid off – woo hoo!!). Prior to that layoff, I was stress-eating for months and gained 25 lbs. After the layoff, I had time to exercise and eat a lot better, and I shed the weight rapidly. Leaving me with NO CLOTHES that fit. Including no appropriate interview attire. I had no choice but to go out and put interview-suitable clothing AND a laptop (so I could consult) on my credit card.

3) With that said, and having been through numerous layoffs in the past (it’s par for the course in my field), I have learned that even the most stringent budget needs room for a little luxury and pleasure. This can be eating out or shopping or whatever floats your boat, and makes life worth living. Yes, friends are free… but that’s not what I’m talking about!

4) It’s just that you have to scale back that % of your budget accordingly – but it shouldn’t be eradicated completely. This is a lesson my father has taught me, and which was also reinforced by a financial planner I worked with a few years back.

It’s about living well – no matter what your income. I’m not suggesting anyone goes into debt, mind you! I’m just saying that it is a healthy strategy to arrange your finances in such a way, should you get laid off or go on disability income, you still have a certain % of slush in your budget to splurge on whatever makes you happy every now and then. If you don’t, you will become more and more miserable. And miserable people don’t get hired.

If I got laid off, we’d still have room for the occasional fashion splurge and meal out in a restaurant. Such indulgences would be less frequent, but they wouldn’t go away completely.

P.s. If I got laid off, first place I’d hit is my hairdresser: I’d offer free web marketing services in exchange for free cuts & colors.

And, our entertainment expense – going out to theater and arts events in and around our city – is helping me build a broad network of social connections that may help me land a job. If you have a job at the moment, now is the time not only to be upgrading wardrobe, investing in personal computer, but ALSO to be re-connecting and nurturing all your connections. You just never know when you may need help from friend, family, ex-coworker, passing acquaintance…. even virtual people you have never met who live in far-flung places!

(Lesson learned from my last layoff!)

Hmmm very interesting. I’ve only recently started to “invest” in myself with fashion. I’ve always lived frugally as a lifestyle choice in order to obtain other goals. Staying home with my babies, working part time “mother hours” once they started school, paying off my mortgage as quickly as possible, and saving for my kid’s college have been my husband’s and my main goals for the last 12 years. I guess now that I’m investing in myself now, I am still living frugally in other areas of my life to help fund my fashion needs. I cook the majority of my meals at home–I pack lunches for my entire family to bring to work/school, and we eat out a few times a month–usually for a special occasion. I actually prefer to eat home than out, because I am good cook and I know how foods are prepared when I make them. But, it is nice to have a night off from cooking every once in a while. So, I wouldn’t cut back eating out any more than I already do, and I wouldn’t buy less food or inferior quality food than I buy now. Even though I am a careful shopper, I know the importance of cooking with quality ingredients to create delicious food–and I would not be willing to buy fatty cuts of meat, or damaged produce to save a few bucks.

I am definitely in the Heck no! camp…while it’s important for me to look put together and polished, I can do that on a fairly strict budget, which I’m on right now, actually. However, eating healthily and having a balanced diet is worth the expense!

I would tend more toward “fashionexic” in some areas in that I value fashion way over eating out. In fact, I would have $0 in our eating out budget and $100-200 in our clothing budget every month if it were my choice (especially since I’m still trying to redo my wardrobe with clothes that actually fit me). Right now we are only buying essentials, because we are just that poor. My current clothing budget is $0 per month, and I don’t know how long I can go on like this. I have at least two pairs of shoes that I’ve worn to rags, and I can’t afford to replace them. I only own two pairs of non-denim pants, and only one pair of jeans that fits me. Yet we eat out and spend $20 and think nothing of it. This drives me crazy, but my husband likes eating out, so I put up with it and layer more polish over my worn out shoes and wear the same clothes week after week.

That said, I would not stave myself for clothes. We don’t eat “healthy” like most of you, because I’m a full time college student and part time singing teacher and don’t have time to cook often, and my husband works full time. Because of my acid reflux, we eat our big meal in the morning. This varies from mac and cheese to hot pockets, to freezer meals, to things I’ve actually cooked on the rare days that I had time the day before. Most things I cook last us several meals, but when they are gone we are pack to pre-prepared freezer food. For lunch we usually have a sandwich, chips, carrot sticks, and some sort of fruit, and we have cereal for dinner.

Eating out is the only “luxury” we typically have in our budget. Tickets for shows/concerts only happen rarely. The last show I went to was Les Mis, and we won free tickets for that in a drawing at work. We don’t do any sort of regular vacations, I’ve never been to the spa, and I do my working out at home and not at a gym. Going to movies and buying DVDs and CDs are non-existent on our current budget. Wow, that was a big long post, but it helped me figure out that my husband and I need to talk seriously about redistributing the budget so that we spend less overall but don’t leave any category totally empty. There has to be balance for all of us to be healthy and happy.

What a fascinating discussion! My husband is a doctoral student, I am a full-time mom to four kiddos and needless to say, the stipend doesn’t go far. We rarely eat out, almost always cook basic meals at home and don’t buy much pre-prepared food. One thing that has worked wonders for us is having two separate checking accounts for food/household and clothing budgets. Every month a certain amount is transferred to the food account and every four months (12/1, 4/1, 8/1) money is transferred to the clothing account. This helps me to keep the budgets separate and only use “food money” for food and “clothes money” for clothes. It also really helps me to think ahead for the next clothing season and stop spending on clothes (hard to do!) when the budget is nearly gone.

I wish I could say I was one of these people, the “fashioerexics”, it sounds so glamorous. Gosh I really am a 90s girl at heart. I have the type of body that requires a certain kind of nutrition to even be able to wear my wardrobe. I’m one of the organic health nut types and probably just barely a fashion type at all. I have things, but I make my food budget more of a priority and probably always will. Salmon for my skin, which means no Louis Vuitton. However, I am getting in to more prosperity consciousness which I think has a lot to do with it. There is no reason to have to choose one or the other…. I think it is all a matter of priorities. I have been to spas and have had “nice” things. I think the era we’re in puts these things at a premium so that people feel if they don’t get to have it all right now they’re not really living. I don’t buy in to that as much. I’m kind of budget minded but mostly I let the Universe bring me whatever I need from year to year. Although I will admit, I’d rather have clothes than meals out. Fine.