Prioritizing Your (Clothing) Budget

One of my favorite bloggers is Paula Pant, who created the blog, Afford Anything. The link will take you to her "Start Here" page, which lays out her philosophy, but in a nutshell:  You can afford anything you want - but you can't afford everything. This means you need to pick and choose. What will you focus on?

Paula chooses to spend as little as possible on things that aren't important to her (such as her car), and instead spends lavishly on travel - she had saved enough money in her twenties to take off for three years of international travel.

We can apply this same mindset to our closet. I just read The Curated Closet: A Simple System for Discovering Your Personal Style and Building Your Dream Wardrobe by Anuschka Rees (available at your local library). As the title implies, her prescriptions are very practical, and she includes lots of exercises to help you identify your personal style, choose from a limited set of colors and figure out what's missing from your closet. She also echoes many of my own prescriptions, such as shopping slowly and building your wardrobe one piece at a time.

Prioritize your key wardrobe pieces.

Rees identifies three types of wardrobe pieces:  basics, such as jeans, T-shirts and flats in a casual wardrobe; "key" pieces which express more of your personal style (see more below); and "statement" pieces, such as hats, jewelry or special shoes which can amp up an outfit. She points out that you should put your emphasis not on the basics or the statement pieces, but on your key pieces, the ones that best express the look or style you want to achieve. These key pieces become the "big rocks" that you must put into your mason jar first; you can then fill in with basics, leaving the statement pieces for last.

As an example, when I was meeting with clients, it was imperative that I had a professional, polished look (my personal style). The  key pieces I remember owning that ensured I'd pull off that polished look were two nice wool blazers, one black, and one beige; a print wrap dress; and leather pumps, one black pair and one beige pair, that matched with each of the blazers. I felt I could get away with a less polished item if it was under one of the blazers and on top of the shoes.

This was a "key" piece in my work wardrobe,

purchased new and as part of a suit, for appx. $150.

Prioritize your key expenses, not your fixed ones.

This idea of key pieces in your wardrobe can extend to your budget. My husband and I used to work as budget counselors. We once worked with a single mom who was struggling to make ends meet. She was dreadfully afraid that we'd make her give up the one activity she and her two kids enjoyed and that they could all do together:  taking karate lessons. We were thrilled that she had found such a fun and bonding activity and asked her instead to consider expenses that weren't as important to her. She was spending money on getting her hair professionally highlighted every month; she was willing to change that to once every three months. 

As she saw clearly that there were trade-offs she could make that would allow her to keep the karate lessons, the light bulb went on, and she began to get more creative about other expenses she could minimize so that she and her kids could enjoy the karate lessons guilt-free.

Decide what's important to you and minimize everything else.

When we focus solely on the basics in our wardrobe, we'll feel as if we have nothing interesting to wear, and we may be tempted to waste our remaining clothing budget on low quality, "fast fashion" items that stand the test of time. So spend money first on items that best express the look you want to portray.  Similarly, if we only allocate money to the necessary items in our budget, we'll feel that we're missing out on what makes life worth living. As Paula Pant says, you can afford anything, but not everything. What will you choose?