The Completely Crazy 2012 Clothes Challenge

mishmogs

Decided to have a squint through my undies drawers and threw out some old stuff and brought some of the unworn from the bottom to the top. Sifted through my socks and tights and those socks which have seen better days (faded and very bobbly) are now residing in the shed to be used as ties for the garden stakes and a couple of pairs of tights have now been darned at the toes and are reusable and am feeling a bit pleased with myself.

I did think about reusing the knickers as dusters but I dont wear tiny weany ones! but decided against it as I could just see DH using them on his motorbike and stuffing a couple in his top box to use when he cleans headlight etc. and I would be a bit

Had a searched through a bag with my scarves in and found a couple of long forgotten stripped and embroidered ones so am wearing one today.

Didn't buy anything clothes down town today, but did find a nice piece of welsh tapestry material which I may use to make a handbag with come springtime ready for the summer.

oldestgnome

Everhopeful09 wrote: »

Hi,

I am following this thread daily and love it! Am tempted to join, but not sure how much to budget for a year! Already spent £33 on a pair of boots (still in their box)!

Any advice on what is a realistic budget? Also what is included in this?

I'm loving the idea of freedom days and think i need a date with my wardrobe to sort through it all!

EH x

You can set the budget at whatever you feel comfortable with, there is a massive range amongst those that have signed up from less than £100 to more than £500. I tried to work out what I usually spend, came to the conclusion that I had no idea so have budgeted £300, for me this includes everything clothes/shoes/accessories wise, including swimwear and gym kit. Some people are only including clothes not shoes or excluding other specific categories of items.

If I am given vouchers etc for birthday I will include those in the £300 and use the cash equivalent of the vouchers elsewhere in my budget. However some people choose to use money made on ebay from selling as extra budget and also don't count vouchers in their total.

The main thing I want to learn is awareness of the choices I am making and consider the purchase before I make it!

Everyone in this challenge has their own reasons for doing it so set a budget and join the rest of us, we're a friendly bunch! It doesn't matter if you go over its only fun

HTH

Callisto

I'd advise you to look away now if you are trying to avoid shopping, as I've bought loads of stuff recently, mainly for sister's wedding!

Gorgeous purple shoes from M&S (were £25, but used Christmas gift money so declaring £0)
Pack of three grey tights (were £5, but used Christmas money again, so £0), have realised these will not go with wedding outfit, but nice to have an alternative to black for the winter anyway.

Spends I am actually declaring!

Pack of three black tights £4
Belt £2, handbag £3, gloves £1.50, purple feather hairclip £2, dark blue shrug £19 Matalan - Total £27.50
Handbag £7.99, blue hooded top £9.99, pretty sheer top £6 New Look (took a couple of shrugs back as they didn't go with dress for wedding, but as they were sale items I could only exchange for something else!) Total - £23.98
Black feather hairclip £7 and cream rose hairclip/brooch £5.50 Claire's Accessories. Total - £12.50
Sparkly grey glass necklace and bracelet set - £12.50 Past Times (goes lovely with dress!)
Pashmina Ebay £1.99

Total - £82.47

Added to the £20 I previously spent on a dress, that is £102.47 already! I would never normally spend so much on hair accessories or buy two handbags at once, but I fell in love with the New Look bag after panic buying the Matalan one - it was only £3, but will probably cost me that much in fuel to return it!

I needed to make a supreme effort for sister's wedding as she is quite picky (I had already bought one dress and she told me she didn't like it!) I will be able to wear/use it all again anyway, though probably not the black feather hairclip as it's v. posh, will have to wear it round the house to get my money's worth.

I've also bought perfume, body lotion and lots of make up, very glad I don't have to declare that here as well or I would probably cry! No more clothes shopping until spring at least, unless there is an emergency. I need to concentrate on losing weight and getting fit now.

scotmumof3

:wave:HI CAN i JOIN PLEASE CAN YOU PUT ME DOWN FOR £75 . MIGHT SEEM A BIT LOW BUT I WORK IN A CHARITY SHOP AND ITS AMAZING WHAT YOU CAN PICK UP FOR A COUPLE OF POUNDS I WOULD RECOMMEND IT TO ANYONE WHO LIKES A BARGAIN AND WANTS TO STICK TO THEIR BUDGET XX

salesaddict

Evening all

I have spent £21 of my allowance already.

A lovely Limited Collection Top reduced from £29.50 to £9.00
Autograph necklace reduced from £18 to £3.00
pair of slippers for my little girl £12 to £3.00 (originally for me so including it, but her little face lit up when she saw them)
Coast necklace £28 down to £6.00

What I need to guard against in all my purchases, clothing, make up and toiletries is getting carried away with what I've saved without thinking what I've spent. This is probably one of the main causes of my overspending and credit card debt over the last decade. I'm really hoping this challenge will make me more mindful of that

kerri_gt

Everhopeful09 wrote: »

Hi,

I am following this thread daily and love it! Am tempted to join, but not sure how much to budget for a year! Already spent £33 on a pair of boots (still in their box)!

Any advice on what is a realistic budget? Also what is included in this?

I'm loving the idea of freedom days and think i need a date with my wardrobe to sort through it all!

EH x

I lurked on this thread last year and have joined proper this year with a budget of £500. Clothes spending isn't really a massive issue for me in terms of money spent, but I do have a lot of clothes and feel I need to make the most of what I do have (plus the wardrobe is rather full) and I tend to keep repeat buying items like ones I already have (superdry / A&F type t-shirts being a particular weakness of mine)

I came to my budget number by working out (from my spend diary and a few estimates for items I seem to have conveniently missed off ) for 2011 (and 2010) which was prob about £900 and then reducing it to something that would at least make me think about what I'm buying. For me, if I go over then its not the end of the world, but I really want to try and make use of what I have already this year. HTH

Adela31

I just realised I have given myself a tenth of what I would normally spend. Everytime I went to primark I could spend £40, and would do that about once a week... ouchies no wonder I am skint!

Still on £0, and a lb gained in weight this week, so no buying things!

scotmumof3

Well done adela31 for not spending yet especially as all the sales are on just now. I know what you mean everytime I go to Primark I spend over £50 it's so easy to do so I am going to just stay away fron there for a while at least

immie

second clothes spend this year, gone over this month's allocation already noooo...I accidently bought a dress on ebay, i had it scheduled on a sniping software so it sort of just 'happened', £5.95, total so far £23.49/£240

Also I've been going on the swapping site Bigwardrobe more since the challenge, i'd definitely recommend it! It used to be pretty quiet on there but they must have gotten more members over the years, I listed couple of new things and got like 5/6 swap offers the next morning!:D gonna be getting a dress and a jacket in a swap, i wonder if I should count postage as spend?:D

Everhopeful09

Hi,

thanks oldestgnome & Kerri gt for responding, right i'm going to put down £500 for the year and will see how I get on! At least it will make me think twice about buying clothes, I could easily spent £100+ a month, might explain why I end up in my o/d! Already spent £33 on boots which I'm declaring, now just got to wear them! Think I'm going to need to raid the sisters wardrobes to avoid the spending and actually sort my wardrobe, got a few items with the tags still on! Opps

EH xx