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Wardrobe budget project

Nicole D

Veteran

I really appreciated Laura's guest blog on budgeting:

http://youlookfab.com/2013/02/.....be-budget/

So far, I do not have a budget. I spend freely, feel guilty at times, and overwhelmed by my bulging closet. A budget is a good idea! I have decided on a ballpark number per month that I think I could spend, on myself. ( I also buy clothes for the family, but that happens sporadically, and they do receive a lot of clothes as gifts from family so compared to my budget, that is negligible!)

When I told one of my fashion buddies what I thought a very generous monthly budget would be she scoffed at me, and sad that on that budget I could probably get one thing per month. She suggested bingeing a few times a year and going on a fast the other months. I don't know if that would work for me, I find shopping very entertaining and the thought of going a month without buying anything is a bit daunting.

So here is my plan:

Month one: try to spend as I normally would but track purchases, including price, markdown, online or in store and which store, which items I bought, and how I paid.

Also want to track what I wear everyday so that I can calculate cost per wear, and just see what I wear most of the time.

Month two through four: decide on a budget and stick with it

Month five: evaluate

I am sure that the effort of doing this will:

1. Make me spend less, even in the first month (just like how diets work better when you write down whatever you eat)
2. Take up a lot of time and fashion-related energy, that would have otherwise been spent on online browsing, thus also saving me money!

ANyone have tips, templates, or software that would help me? I did sign up for te sylitics website, but it was a bit ovrwhelming.

I will let you know how it goes!

Thanks for reading!

Nicole

Shopping

15 replies

Latest reply was from qfbrenda

bj1111

Veteran

well, i'm doing a wicked closet cull so the amount of money i've spent in the past year is making my stomach do flip flops. of note, much of that was spent at zara. so maybe my solution is not to shop at zara!

re your current plan, as long as you react to rules and structure positively, you will be ok. not everyone (including me) reacts like this...i think of it like a diet! don't do so well with that either. i use excel just to track what i've bought, the price, and if i returned the item. this is so i keep a yearly track, without setting a budget.

re the time/fashion-related energy, if it gives you pleasure, spending your downtime perusing fashion is a worthy activity, unless you are postponing other activities.

Kalli

I use a spreadsheet on google drive to track my daily WIW. It's just more readily accessible on my phone so that whenever I have down time such as waiting in line I can easily update it.

I'm more like your friend on the splurge a few times and not buy every month. This way I can buy higher priced items and not feel guilty. I feel like my own wardrobe gaps are more readily filled out buy careful calculation and having to buy full price since my size is not easily obtainable.

I also use mint to siphon money over to a category called shopping and as I spend, I can track it there since I use my credit card more often than cash.

Suz

(website)

Veteran

I think this is a great idea. Just tracking what you spend for a month will be a worthwhile exercise in itself.

I also think the closet edit, done in tandem with the tracking, would be a great project for you.

Good luck with it!!!

I am in the opposite position -- I never spent ENOUGH on clothes (didn't have money, for one thing) and bought almost none. When I started YLF I had an almost empty closet. And even after two years of pretty constant purchases, my closet looks pretty lean, because I continually purge as I try to refine my style. I'm spending quite a lot in the process, LOL!

Glory

Veteran

It is a great approach. I track all of my purchases using excel but have only been doing that since I joined YLF. I also track my returns. Once per month I flag things that I haven't worn as possible mistakes. After 6 months I have a pretty good idea on what I spend and where.

jayne

Veteran

Great idea. I think you will get alot of understanding of your spending and whether it is worth it always but tracking what you wear.

Not cost per wear so much because I think you just want to see if you wear and love what you buy first and not worry about trying to buy cheap things so CPW is low. It takes years to get CPW low for high price things but you might be the kind that buys high price, keeps and wears for years and CPW in the first year will get in your way.

Rather find out if you are an impulse buyer that does not use everything and you have lots of orphans, or are you good at buying on impulse and still using it all. Or somewhere in between where you need to have a few impulse buys to make your happiness quotient high and experiment.

Tracking cost itself, I find, only helps later when you know your pattern and how many items you 'need' to buy per month. Then you'll find an average you can live with.

Carla

Veteran

Kind of like Suz, I have been underspending...and it shows. Having a too small wardrobe means your clothes get worn a lot, and thus wear out more quickly. Less expensive clothes, even decent quality brands, are cut along more utilitarian lines, and don't seem to have the style or flare. Since I've been trying to participate in this forum with pictures for WIW, I've noticed some of my garments are in pretty shabby condition.

I took my budget number and figured it monthly. It seems a lot to me, but since looking at higher end clothing, I see that it is actually pretty reasonable. Since I'm still figuring out my shopping list, I'm on a shopping fast and letting the money accumulate.

One thing I have determine is that I have to take a mini vacation and visit a bigger city to shop. There just isn't the quality I now want in the stores in my town. As such, I will have to have a very good idea of what I want, so I have started to made a 'look book'.

Knowing that the trip will be an expense, and that I will likely be dropping a couple G's, helps me keep to the budget in the mean time!

Jyoti

(website)

Veteran

I use Excel to keep track of my budget.

I'm like you in that I find shopping very entertaining, and I like to experiment with clothes and thus have a large wardrobe. I think a monthly budget works well for me rather than the binge and fast model. xD And I have a fairly small monthly budget I think, and I do pretty well with it! Although I do almost exclusively buy lower-price items, so if you like to spend more, it might not work as well for you.

I track the price, the sale price (if it was on sale), where i got it. Excel is nice because you can quickly add up monthly costs and stuff like that very easily, and it's very flexible.

harmonica

Veteran

I really like your plan and think you will learn a lot from it. Even if you find it hard to follow, you've at least realized that you need to do some changes and we're here to support you all the way

I find that having a budget is good, but I tend to shop a few high priced items when I'm at it. That means I have to go SYC for a month or so afterwords. A while ago I started to save a given amount every month. After some months it was really enjoyable because then I have a little extra to spend. Every time I make a withdrawal from the shopping money, I make sure that at least half of it is left to make sure I'm not going dry I love shopping, but I need to restrain myself by keeping the shops I love out of sight

lyn*

(website)

Veteran

Having too few pieces is annoying - I find that my favorites are wearing out really quickly and it's kind of scary ... I don't really know what to do about it, because they are now still in-season AND sold out in the stores

I ran my budget by a buddy too; and yeah, my budget is a lot smaller than hers, even though we earn the same. I like living through her purchases though, and she has tons of fabulous stuff! I don't think I'm missing out though - I love my stuff!

Caro in Oz

Veteran

I did this (in excel) for all my spending - it was a real eye-opener for me:)

May I suggest that you allow yourself some flexibility? I found an amount of "mad money" - that I could spend on anything with no guilt allowed - to be very helpful.

Mo

(website)

Veteran

I will admit to just good old pen and paper for the first 2 years of tracking my wardrobe budget. I finally put 2012 on the computer last fall. For 2013 I'm attempting 12 items for 12 months and have been tracking that by the dollar. Not sure what 'details' are important beyond just being aware of what you are spending vs what you want to be spending.
As for Cost Per Wear, I have a 'hit list'. I use a tally mark for every $20 increment and aim to get the items off the hit list when they dip below $20 CPW. My Muu Baa blush moto is down to 4 tally marks . . . I've worn it 3 times so far and it was $147. But, my Express suit is still at 5 tally marks, since I landed a job without needing it to interview. Hmm, I need to work on breaking up that suit this year!

Buttercream

Long-time lurker here, I finally signed up to comment because this is a big issue for me.

Like a few people above, I have a relatively small wardrobe (pregnancy and weightloss helped me purge the closet); but the fit, quality, and condition of many items is not great.

I aspire to investing in a small, beautiful wardobe; I just have to figure out how to do it while meeting my clothing needs and staying within my means!

This journaling approach sounds very promising, but also time consuming. I'll be interested to see how it goes for you.

Good luck!

Thistle

Veteran

I could share my Access database with queries, but then I would fall firmly in the geek chic category, and I am not ready for that yet!

Nicole D

Veteran

Thanks for all the amazing replies! I did put together a little spreadsheet on excel, but I confess to not really knowing how to use excel very well. Will see how it works going forward. Also, I found a template for a wardrobe inventory that I am going to try out, to help with the closet purge.
Here is a link:

http://www.coletterie.com/styl.....-inventory

Thistle, remember nerds rule the world, so I would only think more of you if I were allowed a glimpse of the geek chic side!

qfbrenda

Veteran

It sounds like you are using Excel and I hope that works for you. FWIW we use Quicken to keep track of our checking and savings accounts and that makes it easy to track my clothing spending for the whole family. Clothing gets entered as a clothing expense, and if I return something it is entered as a clothing deposit. So I can easily see the final amount spent each month. As a bonus, balancing my checkbook is easy and Quicken does the math for me.