Could You Go a Year Without Shopping For Clothes? (Overig)

***** by J. Money on Friday, November 2, 2012

Could you go a MONTH? I read an article on this chick doing it over at Savvy Sugar this week, and I started to wonder if *I* could possibly do it too. At least without driving myself insane

I’m pretty good at completing missions when I put my heart into it, but there also has to be a good reason why I’m shooting for them too or else I’ll just tucker out and forget it. And I’ve already made my peace with clothes shopping about 4 years ago when I gave up ALL shopping (except the necessities) over 40 days of Lent – it was Awesome. A simple challenge that ended up changing my spending pattern forever! (I used to spend $200-$300/mo on stuff like clothes and random toys just for fun, but not anymore! I broke the habit!)

But for the sake of this article, if I WERE to take up another challenge with clothes, here’s how hard or not it would be:

Shirts — 8 out of 10 on the “hard-o-meter.” All I wear day in and day out are graphic tees and jeans. At home, at “work,” out and about running errands, and sometimes even church (though I have gotten better about wearing something at least with a collar ). So I could, in theory, give up all new shirts for an entire year, but I’m pretty sure I’d start looking ragged come 6 or 7 months down the road since I don’t have nearly enough shirts to cover me for a 12 month stretch. This one would be challenging…
Shoes — 4 out of 10. While I tend to pick up 1 or 2 new pairs of shoes a year – usually sneakers – I could probably get away with none for a bit if I started wearing some of my older shoes I no longer think are cool anymore. So this department is easier to handle.
Hoodies — 10 out of 10. This would be the deal breaker Just like with my shirts and jeans, the h0odie is the ONLY thing I wear to keep myself warm throughout the Fall and Winter days. Much to the frustration of my wife and mother, haha… But they make ‘em SOOOO comfy these days! And some pretty much look and feel like jackets anyways, probably to capture those consumers like me So while I *could* just use the same 15 or so I have scattered across my closets (no joke), I def. wouldn’t be able to resist getting a new one if it was awesome looking and on sale. This would be a big FAIL in no time.
Jeans — 5 out of 10. While these I do wear every single day just like my shirts and hoodies, I luckily have enough to last me a while if I were to never pick up a new pair again. But only because I’m okay with holes and rips all over the place as they only make them that much cooler
Socks – 2 out of 10. Oddly enough, this is one of the departments I have TOO MANY of! ‘Cuz every time I go shopping I usually pick up a few pairs (always on sale, of course) because I’m constantly on the search for the “perfect” socks out there. And when I get close, I then buy like 10 of them. So right now my drawers are overflowing with both awesome socks, and not-so-comfortable socks that I keep on the back burner just in case they’re needed. I could probably last 3 months without ever wearing the same pair twice, haha…
Undergarments — 0 out of 10 on the “hard-o-meter” (but not when I’m exciting! Bad-dum-ching). Similar to my socks, I have plenty of boxers waiting to be worn too I buy like 4-5 at a time when I see a killer sale, and I’m paranoid of running low on these guys so I tend to hold onto the ones I no longer wear just in case… So 12 months of gong without new ones would be no thang.
So hoodies aside, I could probably get close to rocking this mission if I really tried hard enough. But really there’s no motivation here ‘cuz I rarely spend money in this department anyways anymore. And when I do, everything’s always on sale and I get a total thrill finding them! Nothing like sporting my new crisp outfits in my basement when I’m blogging to y’all, haha… Love it.

Think you could do it? Give up shopping the entire next year? If both your budget AND closets are overflowing, it may be time to try out a new method. As the young lady mentions in that article, it would give you a chance to finally WEAR all your items that have been piling up as well! If you’ve got clothes with their tags still on ‘em, it’s time to start sportin’ those bad boys ASAP. They’re doing no good just sitting there! Either wear ‘em or sell ‘em and use that money to reward yourself for a solid 12 months of behaving yourselves You might be surprised at how it affects your future habits.