Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Momemtary Magazine Induced Lunacy (and my avoidance of it)

I have been thinking a lot about spending habits recently. My own spending habits have, in the past, been appalling. Even yesterday I found myself seriously considering making stupid spending decisions. Here’s how it happened…

When I got home from work to my delight my favourite magazine was sitting on the coffee table waiting for me (I have given up buying magazines but for this one I already have a subscription). I quickly cooked, ate and cleaned-up after dinner, made myself a cup of tea and settled down on the lounge to enjoy it. As we are just half way through winter here in Oz the summer clothes are beginning to trickle into the pages of the fashion monthlies and the light breezy dresses and delicately strapped, glimmering heels make you begin to despise the dull greys and blacks of your dreary winter wardrobe.

My fashion addiction/philosophy and the improvements I’ve made

Now let me just pause here for a minute. I should note that I am an avid fashion follower and if I were to completely give it up I would be unhappy. I definitely know my obsession is expensive and should be cut back on but if I completely disregarded all fashion or just bought cheap clothes all the time I would feel miserable and probably a lot less confident. I’m a believer in spending money on good quality items that will last but I admit that I fall prey to expensive ‘trend’ items too and this is definitely where I could improve.

Over the past few years I have become a lot better, my wardrobe now contains about ¼ of the number of items it used to, I don’t spend a ¼ of the amount I used to though, however, on a cost per wear basis (which I think is the most important) I am definitely coming out on top. I used to be the type of person who couldn’t be seen in the same thing twice. I went out at night a lot (especially before I met my husband) and I had to dress fashionably for work (rather than my boring suit and shirt ensembles these days). I worked in event styling so there was an expectation for me to look good. I also am one of five sisters (the youngest in fact) and so talking about clothes and going shopping was a regular occurrence at my house.

These days I am a lot more methodical and thoughtful in my purchasing habits. My strategy is to make lists of what I have, need and want. I divide clothes into categories so I know that if I have 5 pairs of jeans I probably don’t need any more but if I have only one cardigan I could probably get another. What I have become really good at is paying attention to the types of clothes I wear. For example, I used to buy a lot of summery silk and satin camisoles with shoe-string straps. These were ‘going out’ clothes. I had a tonne. I loved to buy them; they were just as pretty as a dress but cheaper and there were always a million in the stores all year round. Problem was; I never wore them. When I got dressed to go out I would put one on. I would try it with a skirt but all my skirts were either patterned (so clashed) or too corporate looking. The proportions were always wrong or I would be trying to combine pastels with black. It just didn’t work. I would then move onto jeans but I hate wearing jeans when I am trying to get dressed up – I always wear jeans so it wasn’t really dressing up at all. Black pants were boring and shorts seemed too casual. That didn’t really leave many options. So the camisole would be flung on the floor and I would slip into something tried and true like a dress.

Living in uniform

Now I have decided that there are certain types of clothes I wear; uniforms almost. In summer I have 3 casual uniforms:

  1. bikini, denim shorts and a plain tee or tank with rubber thongs
  2. khaki tailored shorts and a loose cotton or silk blouse with jewelled sandals, and
  3. cotton or silk above-the-knee length dresses with jewelled sandals

In the cooler weather these don’t really change except that

  1. I swap my shorts for skinny jeans and thongs for ballet flats
  2. I throw on either a cardigan or a cropped blazer (more dressy)
  3. I layer finely knit wool tops underneath and scarfs on top

With finely-knit wool tops and opaque tights under my dresses and the addition of flat knee-high boots I can wear my summer dresses all year round. When I am going to somewhere more dressy I tend to wear the same type of thing every time (a silk dress) and mix and match between wedges (if I know I’ll be standing a long time), heels (if I’ll be sitting) or jewelled thongs (if it’s a bit more casual and summery). If its cold I have a cropped leather jacket I throw on top. I tend to use the same metallic clutch every time and switch around statement earrings depending on the dress and my mood.

So my wardrobe (apart from work stuff) basically consists of:

  • shorts (4)
  • plain cotton tanks and tee mostly in white/cream/grey/black/navy (10+/-)
  • light weight cotton and silk short sleeve blouses (5)
  • dresses made from either silk or cotton (5)
  • cardigans (3)
  • cropped blazers and jackets (3)
  • skinny jeans (4)
  • ballet flats (4)
  • flat knee-high boots (2)
  • jewelled metallic and rubber thongs (2)
  • wedges (2)
  • heels (10)

Knowing this, and knowing what was on its way to the charity bin (some of my jeans and shorts and both of my thongs) a few weeks ago I made a plan of attack for summer. When the Spring/Summer shows were on in Sydney I gleefully checked them all out on the net and made a short list of the things that were ‘must haves’ and that slotted into my categories. I don’t mind paying a bit more for a few designer pieces that I know not everyone will have. This year the list consisted of:

  1. a white Lee Matthews blouse with lace trim,
  2. a Thurley dress and blouse, and
  3. one or two bikinis from Club Bondi Swim.

If I had limitless funds I would have added a Kate Sylvester blazer and an Akira dress but I am trying to be very conservative.

I also knew that there were a few ‘basics’ that I needed to pickup that were either replacements for garments that I lived in last summer but have seen their use-by date or were, after very careful consideration, severely lacking from my repertoire last year. Basically, this list was things I will ‘live’ in. These included:

  • some above the knee khaki tailored shorts (I have my eye on some from Fleur Wood)
  • plain white t-shirts (possibly Bassike)
  • a few tanks (these can be cheap ones from Bonds)
  • a pair of rubber thongs (probably Havaianas slims in gunmetal grey)
  • some dressy flat sandals (I have worn my NineWest ones for two and a half years and the soles nearly have holes in them), and
  • a pair of pale blue skinny jeans (I’d love Ksubi but may opt for something cheaper).

These items will all work back with what I already own and, if I got them all, I wouldn’t ‘need’ anything else all summer, apart from sunglasses, which I plan on asking my family to donate towards for my Christmas present (I’m lusting after either Chanel or Tom Ford hence the need for donations). If I were to splurge on anything else it would be a silk slip dress from Bulb by Julie Lantry that I have been eyeing for 2 months now (this is actually quite a record for me and, you may thinks its sad, but I am very proud of myself for not having bought it yet) or some Dinosaur Designs resin bangles (maybe a pressie from the hubby?). The bangles don’t really fit into my list though. I don’t usually wear anything on my wrist apart from a watch. In fact I don’t really wear jewellery unless I am going to work (some stud earrings and either a locket on a gold chain or a pearl on a silver one – both gifts from my husband) or dangly earrings when I get dressed up. So maybe they should be struck off the list. However, I have decided that if I am restricting myself to wearing plain shorts with plain tops a lot this summer having a few bangles would make it a little more exciting and it wouldn’t matter if I wore them everyday because you can do that with jewellery. So they are staying on my splurge list.

Momentary Lunacy

But back to the magazine. As I flicked through I began to want more and more. There was the Lara Bohinc rose gold clutch (I could do with a new metallic clutch and rose gold is my favourite and suits my skin tone and matches my favourite earrings but it is $1500 although if I shipped it from England it would only be $750), the Country Road short sleeve trench (I have lived in my Country Road long sleeve trench for two winters now and it would be so handy and the colour is my favourite shade of stormy blue but then how practical is it to have a heavy-by-Australian-standards coat just for summer though it’s a good price for a coat so maybe I could justify it) and the Wayne Cooper cocktail frock (I’m young and have lots of friends who could possibly announce their engagement anytime so I need another dress because everyone has seen my other dressy dresses and there will be an engagement party and then a wedding so that is two dresses, oh wait, there was a great Seduce one on the last page as well). Yes, I kid you not; this is how my mind works. I mentally prepared a list of all the things I now ‘needed’ for summer. Let me tell you, it was not short. In fact, when I realised this I scrapped my old (sensible) list and started a new one.

I thought, in my magazine-induced rush that I was being responsible. I thought that by making a list I would weed out what was non-essential and then, be able to tot up how much all this would cost me and, safely in the knowledge I was being fiscally responsible, determine how much I needed to set aside each week from now until these must haves started appearing in stores. But when I added up all the prices of my new ‘needs’ I discovered that by the end of summer I would be about $6500 out of pocket. And it wouldn’t stop there, I already knew there were things that I couldn’t afford now but needed this winter that I was definitely purchasing early in the season next year. So even if I was to spend $6500 (which I wouldn’t/couldn’t) it still would not be over because there would be a new season in just six months and a whole new list of ‘needs’.

Magazine = Devil

So what’s my point? Well, here’s the thing. At about 11pm last night I got up and took my dog outside for some fresh air. I had been pouring over a magazine and my ‘list’ for a few hours now and had begun to get really caught up in the whole process. Despite the fact that I had spent the last week blogging about my personal finances, setting up targeted savings accounts, tracking my spending and reading ‘Affluenza’ I was still falling back into my old habits of want, want, want. And all because of 200 or so pages of glossy pictures and pretty women that had found its way to my coffee table. I am intelligent woman – how can this have happened? Well, my only answer is that fashion magazines are evil. I love them, but they are bad for me. And just like cigarettes, alcohol or anything else you can get addicted to I need to cut them out of my life…Cold Turkey. So tonight, rather than going home and reading that magazine again, and again the night after and again the night after that (like I would normally do until I buy a new one) I am going home to throw it out. I’ve flicked through it once, had a look at the pretty pictures and now I’m saying goodbye.

And my list? I’m not adding anything to it. Hell, I might even take a few things off.

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