So, I am now well into month number 3 of my no shopping challenge. That is a quarter of the way through the year, and I have still not bought anything new. Chuffed with myself, well yes I am! If I am honest, I thought I would have failed by now and bought something, even if just a boring cardigan for work, but So far, nothing, not even anything from any charity shops.
The most strange thing about this is that I actually have no desire to go and buy new clothes. Last weekend I has a couple of hours to spare in town, and even though I strolled past New Look and Debenhams, I just didn't want to go in and waste my money! This is such a strange feeling to me, in the past I never saw buying new clothes as wasting money, but evidently going cold turkey with my shopping habit has had the desired effect (so far anyway!)
And the spare cash has actually come in incredibly useful. The absolute bane of my existence, yet the thing I rely on on a daily basis, my car, has so far this year cost me about £500, and that doesn't inlude any of the usual costs such as insurance, tax, MOTs etc. Seriously if I didn't have a car, I would be a rich woman! But since I need the car to get to work, at least I have had the cash to pay for these bloody annoying but completely necessary repairs (although I have yet to get my wing mirror fixed which some idiot knocked off, black tape is keeping it in place for the moment and I don't want to go wasting my money on something as ugly as a Fiat Panda!).
And despite having these expenses, in the last 3 months I have managed to get myself out of my student over draft, paid off my credit card in full, and have managed to save a couple of hundred pound as well. Not as much as I might have hoped, but at least I am not owing anyone any money! I have also even mended some of my old clothes, which were perfectly fine except for the odd hole or rip. But having mended them, they are as good as new and I get quite a buzz out of bothering to fix something and give it a new lease of life.
Seriously ladies (and Gents) try this! You will soon realise that although you have hundreds of outfits, you tend to wear the same things week in week out anyway! And let's face it, it is so bloomin' cold at the moment, fleeces and jumpers and thermals are all we should be wearing anyway! Hopefully within a month or so, the weather will have warmed up a little, and we can get out our summer dresses and shorts. But if we are honest with ourselves we get to wear these things so infrequently in the UK, so there is certainly no need to go out and buy a new summer wardrobe! Those things we bought last summer, which may have got one wear if they were lucky, are still just as pretty
this year.
As my dear old Gran would have said, make do and mend!
P.S. I have also been fortunate enought to buy myself an iPad. Whilst these are brilliant inventions, they are not easy to type on, so please excuse any ridiculous typos which may have appeared!
P.P.S. when I said I have mended things, that was a lie. My mum has actually mended them for me, so sorry mum!
well done :)
ReplyDeletexx
That's a good change of pace! Sometimes, people end up spending something just because they feel like they have to. Instead of saving it for future expenses, such as daily maintenance for their cars, they do otherwise. So when they get an emergency expense, they don't have anything else to spare and have to resort to loans. Getting a loan isn't a bad thing in itself, as long as you limit it only to what's strictly necessary and don't get tempted to make more purchases than what is loaned.
ReplyDeleteSunset Payday