It’s hard to believe that the first month of 2020 is over! It’s also hard to believe that I successfully completed the first month of my low buy year exactly as I had planned it.
When I decided to set out to do a low buy year, I was tired of buying clothing! I’m not much of a consumer in other areas such as makeup and hair products, but I love clothes. Always have, always will. I know this about myself. I also know that in order to keep from slipping back into my old shopaholic ways, that sometimes I need to hold myself accountable and to reign in my compulsive shopping nature.
If you read my previous post, I talk about how I was constantly shopping (secondhand, but still!) and then not even wearing the items I had bought. This is something that I did a lot of back when I would have classified myself as a “shopaholic”. And even though I was buying secondhand clothing instead of fast fashion, I didn’t need any of it. I also thought that I was setting a bad example for my kids. Hence, the decision to do a low buy year.
When I started the challenge, I didn’t realize the positive impacts that it would have. I mean, I knew that it would slow down my rate of consumption if I could stick with it, but I’m finding that there are so many more benefits.
Benefit 1: Sticking to our Family Budget
This is the first month in a long time, perhaps ever, that we have perfectly stuck to our family budget. I say we, but I mostly mean me.
Even though I have a personal shopping budget, a lot of times in the past I would go over it. I would spill over into the family budget if I decided to go into a consignment shop and I had already spent all of my money. This was mostly because I didn’t track it as carefully as I should have.
Now, this wasn’t as big a problem as it could have been since I always move money to savings on payday, but it meant that I was drawing from those savings to cover unplanned expenses.
The worse part: my actions were veering over into behaviors that I didn’t want to revisit. Taking from savings is similar to running up a credit card balance to buy things that I couldn’t afford, something that I did when I was a shopping addict.
I think about my future a lot nowadays and I don’t want to continue to rob from my future self to placate my bored present self. I’m feeling pretty positive that this low buy year is going to be very beneficial for my future self!
Benefit 2: A Stronger Mindset
I have an okay mindset. What I mean by that is that if I really put my mind to something, I can usually accomplish it. But, I am also quick to throw in the towel when things get hard.
I took one trip to the consignment shop this month. The reason was to drop some things off to sell. But while I was there, naturally, I had a look around. I avoided all of the clothing but I looked at coats, boots and accessories since I don’t have any capsule wardrobe restrictions on those. I found a pair of boots…more on these later!
After that one trip (which I took at the beginning of the month), I can’t tell you how many times I wanted to go shopping. And a few times I told myself that I would just go and browse. But then I was rational enough to realize that would be a very bad idea…I knew that I would find at least one thing that I wanted and I would find some way to justify it and buy it.
So, I resisted the shopping urges and found other ways to fill my time. But without the goal of a low buy year, I know I would have succumbed to those shopping urges.
Benefit 3: Less time shopping meant more time for other things
To get my mind off of shopping, I spent time doing other things that I enjoyed. For me, this mostly revolved around reading. I read a book called “The Woman in the Window” by A.J. Finn which I thought was great…I was very invested in the book after only a few chapters. I also read some very interesting articles and watched quite a few youTube videos!
I also had more time to do some planning for Uncomplicated Spaces. I came up with some ideas for future posts and thought about what I want to do with this space in 2020. Although this venture is mostly a hobby at this point, I do have dreams to make it more someday.
I will admit to browsing on The Real Real when I really had an urge to shop. I find that online browsing is like window shopping…I am much less likely to purchase something online than if I go to a consignment shop. There’s a built in barrier for me…I can search for specific items, add them to my favorites and then forget about them. I’m not sure how I’m able to do this, but it definitely helps with shopping urges.
Benefit 4: Less stuff to deal with
I think this one is quite obvious but it definitely deserves mentioning.
Mt desire to successfully complete a low buy year mean that I wasn’t shopping, so I didn’t have to worry about finding a place for whatever I bought and brought into the house. I didn’t have to worry about my “1 in, 1 out” rule, whereby I remove an item from my wardrobe to make room for a new one. I didn’t have to worry about how I was going to dispose of any items that I removed from my wardrobe.
I didn’t have to take time cleaning items that I was adding to my wardrobe. Since I shop secondhand, I clean every item that I buy as soon as I bring it into the house. Depending on the material, this can be very time consuming. And also, nerve wracking.
Benefit 5: Finding more joy in the things that I already own
Not shopping this month has definitely helped me with my capsule wardrobe. And vice versa. One is most definitely conducive to the other.
A lot of the time, I find that even though I’m doing a capsule, I will still find myself shopping and adding to the capsule. This seems counter intuitive to the purpose of a capsule, doesn’t it?
Not shopping this month has made me feel way more appreciative of the clothing that I already own. I’ve been having fun styling pieces in different ways. I haven’t felt bored with the items that I have chosen, but I have decided to add a few more colorful pieces to the capsule because the winter blues are real and I feel like some color would help at this point! I’ll also be swapping out a piece or two that I haven’t really been enjoying.
Now, for some fun little updates…
What did I buy this month?
As I mentioned above, I bought myself a pair of boots! I had a pair of knee high, slouchy boots on my thrift list for the past few months. My preference was a brown pair. I had seen some online that I really liked, but I really didn’t want to spend too much money so I decided to wait and see if a pair would show up in the shops.
When I went to the consignment shop to sell some items, I decided to have a look around while they went though my clothes. Well, wouldn’t it just so happen that there would be a pair of knee high slouchy boots waiting for me on a shelf. The only problem…they were burgundy. But nevertheless, I decided to try them on and I loved the fit of them.
This got me to thinking about the three outfits that I could make with them off the top of my head. Once I came up with the 3, and had sent a picture to my husband to see if he liked them and to assuage the guilt I was feeling over the purchase so early in the month, I decided to purchase them. It also didn’t hurt that they were Diane von Frustenburg for $22! And in mint condition! I found the exact same pair on eBay for $115 so I think it was a pretty good deal!!
Aren’t they gorgeous!! They are having their debut today on the blog because winter has made it’s presence very well known in my neck of the woods and it hasn’t really been conducive to wearing pretty suede boots, so behold a little outfit that I put together! I’ve been dreaming of this look and it’s taking all of my patience to not wear this out in the world, but soon…
Without the goal of a low buy year, I know that I would have bought more than these boots. But the fact that I did only buy one thing makes me feel proud of myself. I just really hope that I can keep this momentum going!
What changes am I making to my capsule wardrobe for February?
After a month of a mostly neutral color palette, I’ve decided to add a little color moving forward with the capsule! I have a few colorful items currently in the capsule (pink floral dress, green vest and skirt, parfait sweater…I’m referring to one of my sweaters this way after a comment on one of my IG posts referred to it as such and I liked it) but there’s just not enough to keep the winter blues at bay.
It feels weird for me to say this because I’ve always had such an affinity for black/dark toned clothing. But I believe that personal style is always evolving and that there’s room for all the colors/style ideologies in a person’s wardrobe.
Oh, but in case you were worried, don’t be, I won’t be abandoning my black clothing for cotton candy dreams, but a little sprinkling here and there might be in order ;).
I’ll be including a powder blue wool sweater that I thrifted back in December and a red duster that I bought back in 2018. I am also including a denim duster dress that I bought secondhand from the Real Real a while back because I just missed it! I’ve decided to remove my long tan silk shirt from my capsule as I’m just not excited about it at the moment. It might make a re-appearance in the spring!
So the addition of 3 items and the removal of 1 item brings my winter capsule to a total of 33 items of clothing.
Well friends, that’s my update for January.
If you’re doing a low buy year, how is it going so far? What challenges have you encountered and how did you deal with them?
Until next time,
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