The Recovering Shopaholic's post linked to in this Link Love made me think about my own struggles to keep to a budget this year. I strongly suspect that I've spent a lot less on clothes this calendar year, simply because I've been tracking my purchases. However, I find that it's still not as much money as I'd like to have for my wardrobe. I suspect that part of that is because I haven't been thrifting as much, and honestly I don't want to go back to it too much. I end up spending a ton of time at thrift stores and although I save money it really sucks up a lot of my energy/attention if I let it.

It occurred to me this morning, when I was thinking about what I need/want for fall, that really I have two choices: increase my budget, or get OK with having less stuff. I honestly don't know which is the right one to do. Maybe my projected clothing budget was too low to start with! I am lucky enough to have a little bit of wiggle room in my discretionary $ so it's not like I can't reallocate some funds from other priorities. But how do you know if you truly 'need'* a bigger clothing budget, especially if you don't have a high-flying job that requires a very particular wardrobe?

*Need is so not the right word - 90% of what we wear is not true need, i.e. we'd be naked without it, but there are some things that are merely entertainment and some things that would be truly useful and worn a lot.