I've been Shop Your Budget since last winter. It's arbitrary and I don't need to do it but I prefer to do it. The main reason is that I'm fickle plus I don't really know what I want and like until I've worn it in. I don't happen to like the look or feel of Brand New Clothes. That doesn't mean I seek out damaged or distressed items, just that I want the thing to move with me and not surprise me by being unexpectedly constricting.
i prefer to shop in thrift stores, though not exclusively. I shop by color first. That means that I rarely shop online anymore, plus I hate paying for returns. Husband calls that "renting" my clothes. I also have taken a dislike to shopping eBay. I use it for browsing what other kinds of things a brand has, etc. But to me it all has an air of You Want This Bad Enough to Pay My Jacked Up Prices Don't You Now. I'd rather want things less urgently.
So, I have an artificial budget of @$50 month. Some months I am under and some over a bit. I was higher in June $99 and in July, when my few favorite thrifts were on vacation $175. This month I bought a fall fedora and a new winter hat, both of which I'd been on the lookout for, new and on sale. But it sent my month's total up to just under $80.
I don't count any periodic replacement underlayer purchases: bras, undies, socks, tights. I don't count the occasional shoe insole. I don't count the occasional new or replacement cosmetic.
I notice that with clothing I want new stimuli. With cosmetics, I pointedly don't want anything new. I would be happiest having an endless supply of just the few items I always use. I may expand the range to include different shades of eyeliner, for example, but I don't feel a drive to experiment. I do feel some drive to experiment with clothes and often wonder why I can't achieve stasis the way I can with cosmetics. It isn't a body image issue. I notice with cosmetics that when I at last find the shade of blush I want, I am satisfied. With clothing, success seems to breed a desire to replicate it.
I purge clothing all the time. I seem to acquire an average of about 40-45 items a month, though many can be small like scarves or a barrete. The thing I crave to buy the most is coats and secondarily jackets. I like clothing, but have little patience with shopping. I don't like to spend a lot of time at it.
There have been periods when I bought nothing for weeks or months at a time. I didn't see that I leaned anything from it. I do learn from purging my closet but that's more a matter of refining my choices.
