I have few enough clothes that I can usually tell you most of my wears per season with very simple calculations-- some things get worn almost every week without fail, some things get worn every two weeks, a handful of things rarely get worn because they are failures, and a few I can count the wears per year on my hands because they are special occasion clothing. I'm thinking about making a list or spreadsheet of costs to see what items were in what price range to see how they wear over the long term. I do have a budget, but often don't know how much I spent because all of my liquid cash that isn't earmarked for savings or bills goes into one account and is used for extras like chocolate, eating out, gifts, hobby purchases, toiletries, etc. I always know the balance, but haven't been tracking clothing versus other expenditures (although I frequently transfer remaining balances to savings).

Interesting replies. It looks like I'm one of the few technopeasants who still prefers to use a pencil.

One thing I could add: I don't calculate cost per wear. I just guesstimate. But I could probably tell you quite accurately -- to a precision of, say, five dollars -- how much every single item in my wardrobe costs. I cannot forget prices. Is that weird, or typical?

I use a spreadsheet. I have it set up so that I type in the dates I wore the items (in separate cells to the right of the clothing entries), and then the spreadsheet automatically calculates how many cells have dates in them, which gives me the number of times I wore the item.

I do keep a paper log also, and then I just type in the numbers at the end of the week. Keeping a paper log lets me put smiley faces to the outfits that I liked best.

I use the spreadsheet to calculate CPW too.

I don't use a spreadsheet but maybe I should. I was doing well in October with one in, one out but here I go again with all of the Black Friday/Cyber Monday action and have shopped a lot. Time to get back to one in, one out.

This is really the best I can do. And one in, one out works for me because it's a form of tracking. If something is new and I'm considering keeping it, I have to go review my wardrobe for a potential purge. I give myself a few months to waffle then stuff is gone.

I have tried all sorts of analysis but it doesn't seem to make any change in my behavior, in which I tend to overbuy for an imaginary lifestyle.

"I cannot forget prices" Aziraphale, neither me:-)

Thank you, everyone, for your helpful and interesting replies. I am leaning toward a paper-based solution at least to start with. I had Stylebook for a while and the photo editing felt never ending. And my computer generally lives in the opposite end of the house from our closet. Maybe I'll adapt Gigi's idea of noting everything down in a notebook and then updating a spreadsheet every few days.

I'm the same: nearly photographic memory of price paid, where bought etc. I work with a kid with Prader-Willi syndrome, he has a photographic memory of meals & foods... he teases me & says I have 'the prader-willi of shoes.'

@ Aziraphale: people forget prices?!

I keep track of my clothing purchases in the notes section of my gmail contacts by my email address. I note both original price incl. tax and the price I paid, probably to assuage my guilt at my spending.

I keep track of what I wear on a spreadsheet with columns for top, bottom, topper, and footwear. I used to include accessories and comments but I got lazy.

My wardrobe turnover is relatively minimal so I don't generally count CPW. I did count when a cheap pair of shoes became trashed within a couple of months. I also know that an item or two for which I paid full price really earned their places in my closet. The amount I wear an item can fluctuate from year to year.

Lol, Claire. So I guess it's typical, then?

I don't do any spreadsheets for my wardrobe but do the hanger thing, which involves putting my clothes into the closet with the hangers facing one way at the beginning of the season and once worn turning the hanger the other way.

FYI for those who are new to spreadsheets those in Google drive are much easier to navigate than Excel and free

I live and die by my spreadsheet, but it seems like I run mine a little differently - since most of my shopping is via thrift stores and similar, I don't really track my costs as much as others.

I track my outfits by date, as shown in the pic, which allows me to pull the data out into another sheet and sort by item or activity - if I want to see how many times I've worn "hot pink maxi," for example, I can sort by that column, and see all the times I've done, and with what - and if I wore it for travel or work, or how often it's been casual outings, and so on. In another page, I keep a log of my purchases, so if I really want to look into those numbers, I can compare them against the wears I find in the above; that part is pretty simple math

1) Sample of data tracked

2) Tabs that I use to collate data across the various sheets

@Aziraphale ♥ Technopeasant