I think Mary's and Adelfa's posts are extremely pertinent. CPW is sort of meaningless in itself. A helpful aide, maybe, and better than not bothering to think about the cost at all -- (well, unless you can afford that and don't care how large your wardrobe becomes) -- but certainly not the final word or an accurate picture of what clothing is costing overall.

It's so interesting how you cost trackers slice and dice everything. I am also very analytical, but I have never tracked actual CPW of anything. Going back a few years, when I relied mostly on thrifting, consignments, and flea markets for what I wore (when you could still get great things for a song), I would often mentally tally up the purchase prices of everything I had on (minus specs) and proudly note that the entire ensemble, including jewelry, was less than $100 -- or even $50 -- or sometimes as low as under $20.

Since lifestyle/work and location changes, I've switched back to buying mainly new items (in many cases, thrift prices approach new prices now anyway...it's shameful) and have raised my average purchase price a LOT, relatively. It's up to like $25! (OK, well, $60 for shoes and boots, with a preference for leather vs. synthetics.) I am still an insanely bargain-oriented shopper. Most things I have bought this year (so far, 55 clothing items, 7 pairs of shoes) were 50% to 70% off original price. Most expensive item so far? $75, which was half price.

I am OK with raising my bar here and buying this many things because I seriously needed to update and fill in after a few years of buying very, very little. If I'm accurate, I spent less than $300 on wearables in ALL of 2013, which was pre-YLF.

So, I build in a low CPW up front, and that works for me. Just like with TV shows and movies, I don't care if I'm on the bleeding edge of a style the moment it comes out...I figure that I will be wearing a carefully-chosen item for at least a few years because I tend to go for simplicity even in trendy pieces and hope things don't date super quickly (a risk we all face, bah). Plus, lifestyle makes a huge diff. I work at home and don't need dressy things much at all anymore. Major bottom-line savings there.

Today I have a prime example of how I utilize the CPW idea although I don't specifically track. There is a certain modal cashmere blend v-neck tee that has caught my eye. On sale, it is still $80. I've never spent $80 on a tee. But . . . . BUT, I am finding myself grabbing for a simple v-neck tee quite a bit lately. The $8 versions from Kmart are getting worn every week. Every week. I have an $80 white maxi dress that I've been trying to sell for months now on eBay. To spend that $80 on the tee instead would be infinitely more useful for my wardrobe.

Since I was tracking the number of wearings and keeping a list of purchases with the price of each, it only made sense to add that column to calculate CPW too.

I did assign a goal CPW to each category. Mine are:

Pants $8
Jeans $8
Skirts $8
Dresses $10
Toppers $10
Sweaters $9
Knit tops $8
Shirts $7
Tanks/tees for layering $5
Shorts $5
Sweatshirts $7
Shoes $10
Bags $10

If I had to guess I would say that maybe a third of my items have reached those goal numbers. But I didn't set any time frame in which I wanted to reach them so I don't know how meaningful that is, especially since the majority were purchased in the last year or so.

I really don't use CPW in terms of shopping, other than knowing that for my lifestyle, it makes sense to spend more on a pair of jeans than on a formal dress.

I also love the idea of joy per wear. A great outfit that is fuss free and comfortable and makes me feel confident and happy is priceless!

I'm impressed with the people who track this kind of thing. I was an accountant and used to do cost accounting, so this is right up my alley. Yet, I don't bother. I thrift a lot and just don't spend that much on clothes (the pajama jeans were wardrobe anomaly for me!). I have bought a lot of new things this past year, but still not totalling that much in the grand scheme of things.

Thanks, Susie, for your excellent list! I don't have a time frame either. I do buy clothes that are of good quality, so as long as I'm still enjoying them, they should last a few seasons.

I don't track wearings so I don't know an official CPW is for any of my items, although having that info would be really interesting, I must admit. I am probably aiming for something similar to Susie's range - under $5 per item for 'everyday clothes' like jeans or knit tops. I probably wear some things less than I think I do, like some of my shoes. But sometimes it's hard to tell until you get the item home. And then there are items that just last and last, like my last pair of flip flops which has probably been worn more than a thousand days since I bought them, and they're just now falling apart.

Mary's idea about amortized cost per day is a good one, too. As some of you may remember I started setting a budget for my clothing purchases at the beginning of the calendar year, and have found it a challenge to stick to almost every month, even though it's not a particularly super-low number. It just proves, I guess, that I was spending more than I thought I was, even though a lot of my purchases were bargains or thrifted. (It's actually pretty easy to spend 50 or a hundred bucks a month on thrifting if you're not careful.)