I’m a shopaholic! It’s always been one of my favorite hobbies and I get such a thrill from buying clothes.
These days with online shopping, it’s triple the excitement: perusing the sites and filling your cart, ordering and getting the shipping notification and then finally when the package arrives at your house!
However, this year one of our family goals was to aggressively save and finish paying off outstanding debt including our cars, student loans, W’s college fund, etc. Part of setting ourselves up for success included doing a financial audit. This was eye opening as I truly saw how much I was spending on clothing.
While I still LOVE shopping and will continue to add to my wardrobe, I wanted to set some boundaries and issue a personal challenge to myself.
Part one: I have set a monthly shopping budget. That way, I have funds to spend if I so desire, but there is a limit. I think this will make me more accountable for my purchases and will make me think twice about whether or not I need the item versus it being a must/lust purchase.
Part two: I challenged myself to “shop my closet” for the entire first quarter of 2019. That means between January 1st and the end of March NO PURCHASES. Rather than buying new clothes, I’m looking through the pretty extensive fashion collection I already own and putting together outfits.
The result? Well I’m almost one month into the challenge and like any addiction, it gets easier every day. I must say, “shopping my closet” has revealed some great pieces I had totally forgotten about and even crazier some pieces with tags I’ve never even worn.
Writing about and sharing my challenge with you is also an important step as it will keep me in line. Excited to share more once the end of March comes around.
Have you ever “shopped your closet?”
PS – all the photos included in this post featured outfits I already owned!
Happy Closet Shopping,
Ivette
Ivette Faulkner 
One thing I noticed about your photos is that your existing wardrobe is versatile, classic and stylish.
After my favorite clothing retailer closed all their physical stores about two years ago, I decided to shop my closet. The clothing I had purchased was well made and I had an extensive wardrobe. This has been the first year that I started purchasing small pieces to compliment what I already own. The dollars and cents added up when I stopped shopping.
I’m looking forward to your end-of-quarter report.
Thank you!! It’s been a really great exercise to shop my closet. I’ll be sharing an update the first week of April on how the challenge went.