Back when I was in denial about my financial problems, I spent a LOT of money on clothes.
I bought at least one new outfit every month, more if I had a special occasion planned. If there was an excuse to buy a new outfit, I would hand over my credit card without a second thought.
Then, when I had my wake-up call with debt, I managed to get through a whole year without buying any new clothes at all – not even “necessities”. My hubby also did the same. This was from January 2013 to January 2014 (we finally bought a few things in the January 2014 sales).
Not buying clothes for a whole year might sound a tad on the extreme side when it comes to saving money. And it was, I guess. But I really needed to be extreme about the way I ran our household budget to enable us to get out of debt as quickly as possible.
Clothing expenses were just one of the areas that we needed to make some severe cutbacks on! Here’s how we managed to survive a whole year without spending on new clothes…
Extreme saving – no new clothes for a whole year!
1. We rotated our clothes – a lot
Our individual wardrobes consisted of a few good outfits that we’d already acquired and several fashionable outfits that were only good for nights out. We wore staple wardrobe items frequently, like jeans, t-shirts and jumpers.
The fashionable outfits that we owned basically went out of fashion, but we continued to wear them when we could.
I remember a family member commenting in good humour that I had my “uniform” on again. It was true; I wore one particular blouse a few times per week! I’m amazed now that it didn’t disintegrate right before my eyes, what with the amount of use I got out of it!
2. We limited our social life
Reining in our spending on other areas like socialising meant that we didn’t need to worry about new outfits for dinner and drinks. There were a couple of occasions where we did go out for a drink and we just wore the clothes we already had.
I have to be honest here and say that I did wish I could wear something new to make me feel better on the occasions we went out. But after the event, I always felt glad that I’d not spent money on something that wouldn’t help meet our financial goal of becoming debt free.
3. We repaired and revamped our existing clothes
When autumn came that year, I was so tempted to go out and buy a new coat! The one that I had was a couple of years old and it was looking really tatty, with buttons falling off all over the place. I invested in a set of new buttons which actually smartened it up a bit!
I was amazed at how expensive buttons can be. I paid £8 for 6 large buttons! But doing so was definitely better than spending £80 on a new coat!
4. I bought a couple of items secondhand
One hurdle that presented itself during this time was a friend’s wedding and I gave in to the nagging feeling that I needed something new to wear. I ended up buying a designer secondhand dress from the charity shop for £20.
I felt guilty at spending anything at all, but I did feel happier at the wedding knowing that I was wearing something “new to me”. All credit to the hubby though; he didn’t buy any secondhand clothes at all!
5. We didn’t need to renew our necessities!
Socks and underwear are the necessities of any wardrobe and we did have a good stock of those before the spending freeze on clothes! My hubby and I decided that as we were the only ones to see each other’s underwear, we would forgo buying new necessities, preferring to save our money instead.
Thankfully, my hubby and I had been married for a while (and had been together for several years before that), so we didn’t feel the need to impress each other with flashy underwear. If I was in a new relationship however at this time, I’m not sure I would have been able to be quite so frugal with my smalls. 🙂
Extreme saving gave us the motivation we needed to pay off debt
We needed to save like crazy to free up just a little money for debt repayment, as back then, we really didn’t have much disposable income left at all once our minimum payments had gone out of the bank.
Extreme saving like this allowed us to squeeze a little bit more out of our monthly budget, so that we could overpay our debts.
Going without new clothes for a year isn’t for everyone, but it was the right thing for us to do. It’s not like we didn’t have any clothes, because we did! We were able to keep ourselves clothed for a year using what we already had.
The only sacrifice we really made was an emotional one – accepting that we were going to feel unfashionable and occasionally a bit crappy about ourselves from time to time.
Yes, we could have made life a little easier for ourselves by allowing ourselves a small clothing budget or asking for clothes vouchers for gifts (we asked for money instead to overpay our debts).
But if we had been a little easier on ourselves, we wouldn’t have paid off our debt as quickly, there’s no doubt about that. For us, the sacrifice on clothing was well worth it!
And now? Well, we’re debt free and we do allow ourselves to buy clothes and necessities from time to time, maybe once every few months if we need something. We still never buy on impulse though!
That might sound like a boring way to live, but spending money on clothes just doesn’t have the same hold over us as it used to. Extreme saving did wonders in terms of changing our financial behaviours for good!
Have you done some extreme saving before? Tell me about it in the comments below!
And why not check out these posts before you go?
- How We Went from Saving Nothing to Saving Half Our Income
- Shopping Addict? How to Stop the Urge to Spend
- How to Be a Better Friend to Someone in Debt
Image sources: Top image from Pixabay, bottom image from Unsplash – both with text overlay added.
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17 Comments
Excellent post, I stopped worrying about fashion years ago. I’m sorry to hear that it was an emotional sacrifice for you, but shouldn’t we all be questioning why a tiny handful of people in the world are telling us what we should be wearing every season?
Thanks Jen! I do agree – I worry far less these days about fashion than I ever did before! The art of keeping up with fashion can be so expensive. Really, as long as we look presentable and the clothes we wear are fit for purpose, that should be enough!
I don’t worry too much about fashion, and I’ve acquired enough clothing for several lifetimes. But sometimes when I’m out I see a terrific bargain and I have to struggle not to buy it, because it’s not a deal if I don’t really need it. Good for you and your husband for prioritizing your debt over your wardrobe. It really is silly that we keep thinking we need new clothing when the clothing we already have is perfectly wearable.
Gary @ Super Saving Tips recently posted…Investment Pornography – Bulls and Bears and Brexit, oh my!
My big problem with clothes lately is that I’ve gotten big-put on weight. I hate my bigger clothes so when I lose weight–I’m the classic yo-yo dieter, I get rid of them, but by that time a lot of the smaller stuff is out of style, though I will say one advantage to being older is that syles don’t change as much as when you are younger.
For a whole year? Congrats! That must have been tough. Personally, it is really tempting to spend on clothes and wear something new especially when you get your paycheck.
Jayson @ Monster Piggy Bank recently posted…Breaking down the Barriers: How mobility makes the Forex Market more Accessible
What a fab post! We also went for a clothing freeze while trying to conquer debt and I also had a ‘uniform’ of 2 outfits I would wear and 1 particular skirt I think I wore solidly all last summer. My only issue is tights – as much as I wanted to buy absolutely nothing I would find myself having to buy tights!
Underwear was no problem – the number of holes and rips were quite hilarious but like you – Mr CR has seen everything before 😉
I still have a capsule wardrobe and I love it! No issues working out what to wear in the morning because all my clothes work together and there are few enough that I can see them all in one go on one short rail! It also makes me think carefully before adding clothes to the mix but I also then tend to go for more classic, better quality items I can keep for a long time rather than use-once cheap items!
Natalya x
Natalya @ Cottage Retreatist recently posted…Conquering the burnout at 30
Lol! Thanks Natalya! Tights are one of those awkward items that seem to tear and rip easily. And it’s not like you can hide the rips when wearing those! I was a bit unsure whether to confess about the underwear thing but seeing as you’ve also done this, I feel better! 🙂 I could do with replacing a few things in my wardrobe now as they were cheap to begin with and haven’t lasted. Quality clothes are better in the longrun, especially if you’re going for a capsule wardrobe!
I don’t usually set aside money in my budget for clothes unless there’s a special occasion coming up and I want something new. However, I recently bought and returned 3 different dresses for an event I have coming up. I thought I needed a new dress, but every time I brought one home, I realized that there was nothing better about the new dress than any dress I already had in my closet. But I couldn’t over come the impulse to shop for this special occasion. So it took me a few times to realize that I’d prefer to put the money towards debt than a new dress that I’ll wear once or twice and then sit in my closet for years with the others. Maybe I could benefit from a spending freeze on clothes so I don’t go through this cycle again!
Michelle @ Lively Chicken recently posted…How to Save Money on Items You Already Buy!
Special occasions have a funny way of making us feel like we need to spend in order to look the part! I’m glad you decided to put the money towards debt instead. You’ll feel amazing once you’ve attended your special occasion and instead of being slightly worse off, you’ll be better off financially!
We aren’t fashionable (except my daughter, and her ideas are…interesting.) We do, however, have a ton of clothes. I cleaned out my closet last year and donated a ton of stuff I never wore, and realized how much I was overspending. The hubby and I decided earlier this year that at the very least we would adopt a “one in one out” rule for clothes. Knowing that anything we buy needs to be a replacement for something else has really cut back on temptation and impulse spending. So we pretty much have only been buying clothes for the growing 6 year old, and most of those have been secondhand.
Emily @ JohnJaneDoe recently posted…5 Ways to Protect your Kid against Materialism
That’s a good way to look at it Emily, replacements only! I did this with a bag recently. Mine was falling apart so i gave in and ordered one from eBay. As soon as it arrived, I threw the old one away (it wasn’t even good enough to give away at that point). The old me would have hoarded it though!
Calling underwear your “smalls” is adorable. I’ve never heard that before.
Mel @ brokeGIRLrich recently posted…Financially Savvy Saturdays #151
Lol! That’s the British in me coming to the surface!
I rarely buy new clothes, only when absolutely necessary. I also adhere to a “One In, Two Out” policy so that I’m not overwhelmed by clothes. But congrats on going a whole year without buying clothes, that’s wild…but awesome!
Thanks K! i like your policy on one in and two out! I’m trying to work towards a more minimalist life so I’ll definitely remember to use that one in future.
When I got my current job, I was thrilled that it was a jeans and t-shirt office environment. No new office clothes for me – at least at first.
I did invest in a five more work-appropriate t-shirts in the spring. Here in Atlanta, they’ll be my “uniform” until November or December!
Jeans and t-shirts for work – perfect! Office clothes can really add up!