Hi El Cee -- I haven't bought anything yet so no one is enabling anyone. I want to go to the mall and look and touch. There is no way I could rationalize that clutch. No matter how pretty it is it would never suit my life style. I do have Holiday plans from Thanksgiving into Christmas. Some family stuff, some travel. The clutch would be out of place at both types of event. I get that. I still like to look.

ETA: well as much as I wanted to go to the mall and shop. I couldn't. The parking lots are filled to capacity and the cars are just circling around. It just wasn't meant to be.

Sterling -- I totally understand... and I am all for "looking". I am an unrepentant window shopper and just love to "see what is out there" and to admire pretty things.

I think that the overall casualization of America has definitely had an impact on holiday dressing. My own holiday season is definitely much more laid back than days past. No one in my immediate social circle likes to get dressed up, and hubby is a total jeans and t-shirt guy. Sigh. When I worked in a corporate environment, we always had a "dress up" event in December. I looked forward to it and loved putting on a lovely cocktail dress and heels. But even my friends who still work in that type of business environment say that office celebrations are very casual now -- nothing fancier than dressy jeans with pretty tops.

I own four pairs of metallic jeans (to satisfy my magpie side) and am determined to wear them come hell or high water this holiday season (and beyond)... even if it is just around town doing errands. I could use a bit of sparkle in my life right now.

Sterling -- Oh Lordy! Have they started Black Friday early? Yikes! I am going to stay clear of the malls.

El Cee -- I absolutely love the idea of metallic jeans. They are on my to-buy list.

So, my "purchasing fast" (renamed from "shopping fast") survived the weekend (now at 21 days). Factors beyond my control have kicked in to support the purchasing fast. I can't park at the mall unless I plan on being there before the mall opens. I can't have packages delivered to the house until after Thanksgiving. Although I am shopping up a storm, I haven't purchased anything and don't anticipate purchasing anything this month.

Although I am shopping, I am avoiding Black Friday sales because sales are my Achilles heel. The purpose of this purchasing fast in the first place was to get my sales shopping urges under control. I stopped searching sales on the internet sites I visit; I throw away ALL catalogs before I even enter the house; and I stopped all emails notifications. I am blissfully unaware of the sales at this time.

Normally, my fear of missing out would be kicking in. It is not. I can't explain why though. Can a purchasing fast really reset shopping habits that fast?

I'm also realizing I have enough bottoms in my wardrobe to suit my every need. I DO need warmer winter tops for work. I hadn't even realized that more than 90 percent of my former work tops had been downgraded to casual. This might have happened last season when it was so unseasonably hot that I didn't shop or buy anything for work (combined with the fact that I never liked shopping tops in the first place). So I can rationalize one really nice sweater to work.

A note. When I first came to YLF, I had a fabulous work wardrobe, but absolutely no causal wardrobe (that I wanted to be seen in). I concentrated on developing a casual wardrobe and I am happy with it. Evidently, my work wardrobe fell in to disarray. My work wardrobe suffered over casualization and it shows. I need to fix this.

I'm doing very bad. I abandoned my challenge "Wear more dresses in Autumn". When the temperatures dropped I was not able anymore to wear my Summer dresses, even if autumnized with pullovers. And, useless to say, I could not find an Autumn dress that I like. So, back to my pants I am. On the other hand I am wearing more shoes than boots. Until last year , due to my well-known shopping mistakes, I had no transitional shoes, so I went through Autumn, Winter and part of Spring in booties. Very boring. This Spring I bought 2 pairs of transitional shoes (a ballet flat and a slip-on) that have proven to be great workhorses! Both extremely comfortable and both with a rubber sole that makes them wearable also in rainy weather. So I decided to transform my challenge into "More shoes and less boots in Autumn"!

It sounds like you are doing fabulous transforming your challenge to include more shoes and less boots, Sisi. Yay for you.

Thanks, Sterling!

Sisi -- You didn't abandon anything. You merely changed course when the weather was not cooperating with your initial plans. I think we all went through that at some point during this very odd transitional season. Your new challenge is fab -- saving the booties and boots for the colder weather is a great idea. It prevents wardrobe boredom. I do exactly the same. I try to wear all my fun shoes before the snow hits.

Sterling -- I love that you now call your challenge a "purchasing fast", allowing yourself to browse but not to buy. Congrats on making it through 21 days. Although I do think you deserve to buy a few warmer work appropriate tops when you decide to break the fast. Sounds like that might be a wardrobe hole (or, at least, a need).

New thread tomorrow!

Style Lab is ongoing. I'm currently trying to get more wear out of benched items. Today I'm in a skirt and topper that I was thinking of getting rid of, and finding I like them both. Ho hum.

So Approprio -- you are wearing previously-benched items and liking them. That seems like a major win-win. By the way, I have been watching for Style Lab posts. I've only seen two of them so far. I haven't miss any, have I?

Sterling, I just put another StyleLab post up. It's definitely raising my awareness about how I'm using my wardrobe, but my fear with pulling out these benched items is that it feeds my ever growing style creep. I think I may have to stop shopping in 2017.

Having implemented a purchasing fast, not shopping is HARD. An entire year? I would DIE. Just DIE.