Monday, September 14, 2009

When Do I Buy New Clothes?

I am tired of most of my clothes and, frankly, a lot of them are starting to look kind of raggedy. As an attorney, I need to look polished and pulled together, so I've become hyper-aware of how my clothes are faring over time. I have been putting off buying new clothes because the plan was to lose weight. I didn't want to buy new things, only to turn around and bestow them on friends who can use them, sell them on Ebay for way less than I paid or just ship them off to Salvation Army. In the past when I've been losing, that has happened many times and I have bid farewell to super cute items that I only got to wear once or twice. We're in money-saving mode right now so I want the dollars I spend to go as far as possible.

But, of course, this year I'm not losing weight. I've been holding off on having a shopping trip through Spring and Summer. Now we're entering Autumn and I'm pulling out the same raggedy sweaters that I've had for 3, 4, 5 or more years. I call my style "classic" so it's not like I'm concerned about being out of step with trends, but the items are starting to show wear.

I'm hoping that I will actually start losing weight again at some point. I don't want to spend $98 (!!!!) on a pair of nice slacks at Banana Republic, only to have them not fit in a month or two.

(Also, I probably won't be spending $98 on a pair of slacks. Hello, Banana Republic outlet! But it's the principle of buying something that I won't get the full use of.)

What do you think? Should I bite the bullet and go spend a couple hundred dollars so I look nice, knowing that there's a chance I might be doing it all over again before the clothes have worn out?

3 comments:

Andrea@WellnessNotes said...

I have been in the same boat! For a long time, I didn't buy clothes because I didn't want to be wasteful... But I really didn't feel good in my old clothes and was somewhat self-conscious all the time. And I think feeling good is so important and makes such a big difference in our outlook... So when I finally bought some new clothes, I felt a lot better, and I finally lost some weight. So yes, the clothes don't fit anymore and that's a shame. But in the end it was totally worth it!

Kelly said...

Andrea, I appreciate the input since you've experienced the same thing. Feeling good is important. I guess I'll be going shopping.

Bobbie's Babbles said...

My sister works in the corporate world and has the same thoughts as you. She held a party where each person invited brought a friend and each person brought as much clothing as they wanted, but they had to bring at least 2 suits and everything had to be CLEAN!! She said it was great even though at first people were a little weired out. She got a black chanel pants suit and was very willing to pay the cost to have it shortened. Good luck!