I’m not one to really keep up with general New Year’s resolutions, but I do like to establish a few goals when it comes to style. Last year, I set five style resolutions: experiment, edit, create, sparkle and inspire. This year, I’m setting only one: budget.
I could say that I’m going to spend less or that I’m going to reimagine my wardrobe in new ways. Those are great goals to have, but they’re a little too broad to track. I’ve tried month long spending freezes, only to crack at the first sign of a sale or a limited edition designer collab. So when I read about how Jess of Here and Now set a monthly shopping budget for herself and stuck to it all year long, I knew this was something I had to try.
First things first: setting the monthly budget. This will vary depending, of course, on your income, your fixed expenses (look at how grown up I sound!), etc. Be realistic with your budget and find a number that will give you a bit of spending freedom, but also cover your bills while leave room for saving.
For me, that means budgeting $350 per month for clothes, which equates to an annual budget of $4,200. At the end of each month, I will be recapping my purchases and reviewing my budget with you. I hope that by evaluating my spending habits, that I will reduce the amount I spend on clothes and focus on more important goals, like decorating the apartment, experiencing more of NYC, and saving up for a few adventures during the year.
So here we go, 2014. Let’s do this!
When it comes to building your wardrobe, every girl needs the classics. Black pumps? Check. Nude heels? Double check. So once you cover the basics, there’s only one logical step from there: go wild. Metallics, pastels and cobalt — the possibilities are endless when you’ve got a killer pair of kicks. And if you consider sequin and leopard to be neutrals like I do, the rest of the outfit will just fall into place.