In the spirit of #konmari and Tidying Up, I want to talk about a spending freeze!
I’ve tried to stop buying clothes for random months and it has NEVER worked. Every time I’ve given in and buy something….fail! But after cleaning out closets and realizing how many things I don’t wear, I want to take a step back with a two month spending freeze.
Why? I often buy a “cheap” shirt but I just don’t wear those pieces as much as my classic items. Think Barbour jacket, Ray-Bans, Madewell jeans – these items are more expensive but I wear them time and time again. Plus all those cheaper items do add up over time!
Same thing with home decor – sometimes I buy something just because I feel like I “need” something else. But honestly I don’t need more junk in our space and I’m happy with the decor that we do have. So it’s time to take a step back from all the shopping to kill time!
So here’s the new plan – no discretionary buying in February and March. This includes:
- No home decor – goodbye randomly browsing At Home or Homegoods on the weekend!
- No random Amazon impulse purchases
- No clothing – it’s a weird time of year anyways (is it winter or spring?!)
- Can only eat out once a week – lunch, brunch, dinner, random coffee included. AKA if I go to Starbucks that counts! (I won’t count places we have gift cards to – this is only for when I have to spend my own money)
I do have a few exceptions – if we need something for baby, I’ll get that. But I want to be sure we NEED something, so I won’t be doing any more buying before baby. Additionally, if I need more nursing gear/clothing I’m going to buy that too – some things you just can’t buy ahead of time!
I’ll still share outfit photos but I’ll be shopping my closet instead of buying new items. I wear items I’ve had for months/years more than new items anyways, so that won’t be too difficult. But you’ve been warned that there won’t be many new and exciting pieces showing up for the next two months 🙂
I want to leave you with some inspiration in case you want to take part – you can obviously make your own “rules”, so take whatever pieces you want to enact!
- Merrick has some great ways to style items you already own – like this post.
- Think about ways you can style pieces you already wear, like a utility jacket!
- Also the ladies at DIY Playbook are doing a similar February challenge – read their tips here and how it went last year.
So there you have it – I hope you’ll join on my two month adventure. I’ll be sure to report back on how it goes – so check back!
Photo by Madison Kaminski on Unsplash
