Can you afford a $2,100 outfit?
The average American spends almost $2,000 a year on clothing costs. While that might sound like a lot of money, it actually fits within the recommended budget.
Financial experts suggest you should budget your clothing spending to reflect 5% of your income. If your salary is $42,000 after taxes, your annual spending budget would be a firm $2,100, or $175 a month.
These numbers are great for maintaining your current look. Yet, what if you’re wondering how to change your wardrobe, and completely recreate your style?
Staying within budget can seem impossible when you’re trying to transform your entire closet. Luckily, it is possible to have a whole new look, without spending more than you want. Read on to learn about how you can change your wardrobe, with zero financial regrets.
How to Change Your Wardrobe
Before you start making changes to your wardrobe, figure out why you’re doing it. In any life goal, you’re working towards, it’s helpful to know you’ve desired outcome. Take a moment to ask yourselves the following questions about what’s guiding your fashion intentions.
- Are you feeling bored with your current style?
- Is there a new look you saw that inspired you?
- Are you changing your look for yourself, or someone else?
After you find your answers to the questions above, you can start creating a plan. If you’re changing your look because of boredom, you’ll know to take a more bold styling approach. However, if it was another look that caught your eye, now you can try different tricks to mimic that fashion.
Finally, you should always be changing the way you look for one person, and one person only, yourself. Of course, it’s great to have coworkers, friends, and family members compliment our new look. Yet, at the heart of it, you have to be doing it for yourself.
If you try to change your look to make other people happy, you’ll always end up disappointed. Now that you know why you want to change your wardrobe, let’s begin! First, we’ll look at how you can asses your current wardrobe to find out what you need.
Looking in Your Closet
Every wardrobe needs to have a few staple items. Here’s a short list of the items you need to make sure you own.
- Jeans
- Dress Pants
- Solid Color Tops
- Jacket
- Dress Shoes
- Casual Shoes
Go through your closet to see what you’re working with. While you’re going through your clothes, take notes about what you have or need.
Write down how many pants, shorts, long sleeve, and short sleeved shirts there are. Include the color of the clothing item you’re writing on your list.
When you know the clothes you already have, you’ll be able to prevent overspending on unnecessary items. You can also make money by selling clothing items you don’t use anymore.
You can resell your clothes online, with a garage sale, or by taking them to a resale shop. Search online to find out what other people are charging for similar clothing items. Once you know how to price your items, you’ll be ready to put them up for sale.
Thrifty Threads
A lot of people mistakingly believe thrift store clothes are going to be out of style, or in poor condition. Yet, the truth is, many thrift shops sell clothes that still have the original tags on them.
Before you write off thrift store shopping, try it at least once. Spend the day and go to 3 to 5 different thrift shops in your area.
You’ll have fun discovering all of the different clothing deals you can find. Name brand, gently used clothes, for a fraction of their original cost.
Hospice Resale Shops
Hospice resale shops are a great way to help support your community. Now you can shop for clothes, and help families in need.
Hospice care is expensive and can be hard for some families to pay for. The profits made from hospice resale shops helps health care providers be able to continue helping patients in need.
When you shop at a hospice resale you’ll be buying items other people donated. Similar to the thrift store experience, you’ll be able to find new or gently used clothes.
We find that hospice shops are usually easier to find shoes in than thrift stores. However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still keep your eyes peeled for good shoes in the thrift store setting. However, for some reason, hospice shops have proven to be the best for finding quality footwear.
Find Deals Everywhere
Finally, if you don’t want to buy used clothes, you’ll need to get some coupons. Go online and start looking for coupons to your favorite retail stores. Also, search their websites to find out when they’ll be having their next big sale.
Certain companies will even offer discount promotions if you’re willing to sign up for their store credit card or rewards program. Be careful though, and make sure you read any contract before signing it, no matter what the discount is.
Do you have an older friend or parent you can take with you? Or are you, yourself a senior citizen? Many stores will have one day during the week they offer a senior discount, with significant savings.
Picking the Right Outfit
Now you know more about how to change your wardrobe. Knowing how to dress in a style you love, can boost your overall confidence. When you like the way you look, you’ll feel it inside, and everyone will notice.
Florida Independent wants to help our readers have the information they need, to live the life of their dreams. Have you always wanted to find your sense of style, but aren’t sure how to do it?
It can be frustrating to continually pick out the “wrong” dress, or shirt. If you’re trying to find out what type of look will suit your personality, we can help. Check out our latest article about how to choose a dress for any kind of occasion.