It’s a new year, and that might mean it’s time for the new you! As we welcome in 2022, you may well be itching to get your wardrobe updated and making sure it reflects the choices and resolutions you have made ahead of the new year; however you may well also be keen to avoid maxing out your credit card and avoiding those awkward conversations with your bank.
Every season presents a number of new options when it comes to keeping up with trends but attempting to keep up with these can end up being a recipe for disaster in terms of your bank balance.
There are ways to help keep your fashion spending in check, here are just a few suggestions from a personal stylist you may be able to stay in style while also being under your budget.
When You Shop, Have a Plan
Everyone likes to window shop, and the act of cruising around the malls is in itself very enjoyable, but if you find it hard to maintain a responsible approach to shopping for clothes, then it’s likely you’ll end up spending a large sum on some occasions buying items just for the sake of it.
If you are shopping for clothes, why not form a plan of action. Make a note of the items you need and list them in order of priority along with the amount you are willing to spend. This will help you become more of a pinpoint shopper, and this can help you root out bargains both online and at your local mall.
At first, this approach may seem like it’s taking the fun out of the shopping experience, but after a while, you’ll get used to a new targeted perspective to buying clothes, one that will prove more financially responsible and also more likely to fit your needs.
Accessorize
Sometimes a selection of good accessories can helpfully make your existing wardrobe sparkle. The addition of some key items can breathe life into clothes you may not have worn for ages.
For instance, a great personalized necklace, such as the ones on sale here, will help to add a new angle to an ensemble in your closet. In this way, the addition of a handful of accessories could alleviate the need to go out and buy a whole new outfit.
A pair of great new shoes can make a selection of jeans, tops, and skirts really pop; similarly, jewelry can work miracles in much the same way. Accessories should be your best friend when it comes to putting together outfits that really work well for you, without the need to buy hordes of new clothing items.
Fast Fashion is Environmentally Unfriendly
If you want a moral impetus for changing your shopping habits, then take into account just how harmful the fast fashion industry is to the environment. Regularly buying more than more items, every new season or even more frequently, isn’t sustainable both in terms of your personal finances but also the world we inhabit.
A lot of fast fashion starts in third-world countries where workers are treated poorly, and environmental laws are skirted and broken; the end result is an industry out of control, feeding off your ‘need’ to buy new clothes every week.
Try to change your mindset in this regard. Not that long ago, we bought clothes that were built to last, items that we didn’t just wear once and then toss aside, and this usually involved using services locally rather than mass exporting of goods thousands of miles away, causing yet more damage to our shared ecosystem.
It’s time for us, as a society, to change our attitude to the fashion industry, and that starts with us as individuals altering our ways of thinking and shopping.
Use Second Hand and Thrift Stores
Fashion trends are almost always cyclical, with every season bringing back an item or two from a different era or decade. What better way to fulfill that fashion requirement than to shop in a great second-hand or thrift store?
This way, you get authentic clothing items that will be even more likely to hit the mark when it comes to the latest craze or fad. The additional benefit is also the cost will be much less than if you shopped for these items in an outlet store or the mall.
Shopping at thrift stores is also great fun. You never really know what you are going to find, and every piece has its own story. Frankly, if you measure the fun and enjoyment of shopping in one of these stores over a brightly lit, garishly lit mall, it doesn’t even compare.
Take a friend and make a day of it. Try on new things, and you might find something amazing, and more importantly, you get far more bang for your buck. Once again, this is a far more ecologically friendly way of shopping for clothes, and often these stores are set up for charitable causes, so it’s a win/win thing all around.
Be Realistic with Your Expectations
Frankly, even those with infinite budgets and money to burn would struggle to keep up with the perceived demand when it comes to the ever-changing fashion cycles. It’s best to be realistic with your expectations in this regard.
You don’t have to buy new items every season, and you certainly don’t have to do so just because fashion magazines and gurus are telling you to do so. Be your own fashionista, set your own targets and goals when it comes to how you wish to dress.
That way, you can be truly unique and work within your own budgetary constraints. Shopping when you know it’s getting you into financially choppy waters isn’t all that fun and takes away from the experience as a whole. In other words, if you buy a great pair of shoes, but the cost of them has put you in the red, then, to be honest, your love of the item will fade very fast indeed.
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