Living Below My Means Too Much?

[greedy4chips]

You do not mention a DH or kids so I am assuming you are single. If so, why not find a simple part time job to pay for your extra clothing. You can buy a ton of clothes if you delivered pizzas 1 night a week or donate plasma up to 2 times per week. Doing either of these could make you $200 per month and only take 4 hours per week for the plasma or 6 hours per week for the pizza delivery.

In your late 20's every dollar you don't put away is going to cost you a ton by retirement...don't cut your savings for clothes!

[tinapbeana]

Originally Posted by Gruntina

Thanks!!!!! I been trying to gear towards more simple wardrobe matching and this information is going to help me tremendously.... I have a new financial goal to set aside money to have a Fall/Winter set and a Spring/Summer set. I will pull out what I already have that fit these criteria and buy the lacking pieces. My main thing was I always seemed to lack the appropriate shoes for each outfit and that was my biggest issue. This formula also helps that problem.

Gruntina: something you might want to try to keep your 'formula wardrobe' more multi-seasonal is grey pants/skirts instead of black. Paired up with a pastel top, grey can be light and 'springy', but it's not too light to wear in the winter.

The other thing to remember is that brown doen't have to mean chocolate brown, it could be tan, khaki, camel, whatever. I myself prefer camel, but my plaine chocolate brown shoes still work with any shade

[Amissa]

Thanks again for the support! This is really encouraging!

I hadn't considered upping my deductible simply because I wanted to reserve my emergency funds for the big emergencies, such as the medical expenses that may result from a car accident. Also, if I recall correctly, adjusting my deductibles $250/$500 to $500/$500 did not save me a substantial amount of money. I will double check that and reconsider.

The formal occasions mentioned previously are formal enough that my boyfriend will be wearing a tuxedo. I don't really care about wearing the same dress again, but it's a club that is hosting these formal dinners, so it will be the same people seeing me. I can't exactly wear the same dress each time! I do have a classic black ball gown skirt I can pair up with different tops (I spied some at Sears for less than $30) and I happened upon some formal dresses at a resale shop for $12. Thanks sakigt - I will keep eBay in mind for formal dresses!

autoxer - I've seen that before. I don't know my FICO score; I've often thought of ordering it. Right now I have a balance of < 1% of available credit. To cancel the card I'm considering would raise that percentage to 1.74%. (I also have a plan to pay the balances off in 5 months; these balances were recently acquired due to the wedding.)

I don't have the urge to spend more on clothing. I see that I have more options than I originally thought. Right now my focus is getting ready to travel for the wedding & I don't want to think of the expenses to come - food, hotel & fuel!

Thank y'all very much. I look forward to utilizing this site for more things!

[Gruntina]

Originally Posted by tinapbeana

Gruntina: something you might want to try to keep your 'formula wardrobe' more multi-seasonal is grey pants/skirts instead of black. Paired up with a pastel top, grey can be light and 'springy', but it's not too light to wear in the winter.

The other thing to remember is that brown doen't have to mean chocolate brown, it could be tan, khaki, camel, whatever. I myself prefer camel, but my plaine chocolate brown shoes still work with any shade

tinabeana - Thanks... I actually considered grey in place of the blue because I am hesitant from buying navy color pants and skirts for the fall/winter. For some reasons, it makes me feel more of a maintenance worker or mechanical colors or it makes me think of school uniforms. I also feel too 80's ish in navy unless it was a blazer or top. I also thought of pinstripes to make a look seem different.

I do have some summer tops that I can wear under my jacket/sweater for the winter.

What I really need to focus on is maintaining my health and weight. I do tend to yo-yo which makes fitting into certain clothes at the time can be a challenge lol!

[Ima saver]

Boy, I am glad I don't work, I can just wear blue jeans all the time!

[Elgin526]

Originally Posted by Ima saver

Boy, I am glad I don't work, I can just wear blue jeans all the time!

Show off!

[markio26]

i wait until i have a buy signal on clothes.. at least 75% off... i just purchased underwear and dressy tops at wmt in different colors for $3 each... and they will go with my brown, black, blue and denim pants... i would try to add to my 401k each year, at least 2% more...my pal shops at church thrifts and purchases bags of clothes for a dollar...placing an ad on freecycle was a great idea and at craigs list.. all of the above comments were informative.. thanks for posting this.

[msnln]

I buy my clothes once a year and that is late fall, when everyone is clearing up that year's inventory and style. I check deal sites such as slickdeals.net or edealinfo.com regularly for deals and by doing this, I bought J Crew khaki pants for $10, Lee jeans for $10 and no name (but heavy cotton) button down polo shirts for $5 last year. These deals start about November and go up to mid December. My annual clothing expenditure has always been under $100. Fortunately, my job has no dress code and I wear jeans/polo shirts to work everyday during summer and sweater on top of t-shirt when the weather gets colder.