What I Spent on Clothes in 2015

Blogmas Day 29
I'm a day late, but not a dollar short to link up with Budgeting Bloggers. This is the second year in a row that I've done a yearly clothing budget and let's just say that things went much better this time around. 

First, I am significantly under budget for the year…like by a lot 

Second, I love every single item that I picked up 

I want to focus on talking about WHERE the money I spent this year actually went. For me, the whole point of doing a yearly budget was to not only stay on track with spending, but to push myself to be more thoughtful with my purchases. Because let's be real, I could easily walk into a store like J Crew and happily walk out with one of everything. So today, I'm sharing how I spent my money this year by showing off my favorite OOTD's for 2015! 

Let's talk about clothes first shall we?

Here is what I bought in 2015!

5 blouses 

 {Total Hipsters}                                                {Guilty}  

2 button-downs

3 sweaters 

3 dresses

I prefer dresses to any other type of clothing so this one is no surprise, expect maybe the number is a little low 

{On Wednesdays, we wear Pink}                           {Balloons & Bows}

6 pants

Buying 6 pairs of pants however, well that is a surprise! I don't even like wearing jeans…yes I know that makes me a total weirdo. But with years having gone by of not purchasing any pants, there were slim pickings in my closet. This was a hole I had to fill, but I'm shocked by the types of pants I bought this year. While I did pick up a pair of blue jeans and a pair of leggings, I also purchased, not one but two pairs of leather pants. 

         {BowTie}                     {Fall at Fenway Park}              {Not so Perfect Plaid}

Leather pants {and skin tight ones at that} are completely out of my comfort zone! I'm the girl flouncing around in pink lace dresses. Somehow, I have fallen in love with these and I feel empowered to try more things that I normally wouldn't. Speaking of which, two other unexpected favorites were these white jeans and leather trimmed ankle pants. 

{White Jeans & Bean Boots}                       {Sloan Ankle Pants Review}

1 jumpsuit 

2 shorts

{Nantucket}

Next up is Accessories!

As far as I'm concerned, a few well placed accessories really make an outfit so these are worth spending on. I noticed that I bought a lot less jewelry compared to previous years, but the pieces I picked up are extremely versatile. And apparently, I turned into a total hat lady. I always owned a few hats for the winter, but I am now totally obsessed with sun hats, floppy hats, fedoras…you name it. 

{Apple Picking}                                     {Swamped!}

4 scarves 

1 necklace 

4 bracelets

3 hats

1 purse

Now onto the Big Budget Items. For me the items that always take up the most room in your budget are outerwear and shoes. I actually picked up a ton of shoes this year including: 

3 pairs of sandals 

2 pairs of leather boots 

1 adorable pair of striped bow heels 

and 

2 pairs of flats including my favorite Sam Edelman Flats featured in 

{Spring Preview} and {Weekend Fun}

3 jackets 

Now that I've shown you what I bought in 2015, let's talk about the bottom-line. I budgeted a total of $1500 to spend on clothing for the year which averages out to $125 per month. And I spent…drumroll please…a total of $1,213 which means that I ended up with a surplus of $287! Nearly $300 under budget for the year. I know, I can't believe it either. This means I spent only $100 a month.  

{Leather Boots, Navy, & Pearls}                        {LBD + Plaid} 

Part of me was tempted to run with the extra cash and buy myself something fancy. But then I stopped. The reason I budget my clothing purchases is to prevent myself from doing just this…making purchases just because I can. Buying things I don't need. This year of budgeting has really pushed me to analyze my purchases. And as you can see, I really didn't buy a lot of items. But the things I bought are versatile and I love them.

{Skinny Pineapple}                 {Twirl}

 Additionally, I noticed that I stayed away from those stores with low quality inexpensive pieces. This is essential because I always sell items that no longer work for my closet. Though I should note that I haven't sold anything I bought this year, I love them all too much. My point is that between the clothing items I sold and $$ earned here from affiliate links, I actually made more money from clothes than I spent on clothes this year! 

How did this happen you ask? 

{Metamorphosis}                         {S.N.O.B.}

Aside from nearly always buying items on sale and challenging myself with no-buy months, I don't spend any of the income I earn from clothes. In the past, I've noticed that many style bloggers tend to add $ into their existing budget. If $300 was budgeted and $200 was made selling clothes, then $500 gets spent. While that method makes complete sense to me, I didn't want to spend a penny more than what I initially budgeted. I was definitely tempted, but ultimately I chose not to add any clothing income into my budget throughout the year and the results were worth it. I'm not a big time style blogger and you won't find a single c/o in my clothing posts. I'm just a normal girl who occasionally blogs about her style. Thus, the fact that my out of pocket clothing expenses this year comes out to zero {with a few extra dollars going into my pocket…to the travel fund of course} is a big accomplishment for me. Be sure to check out all the other budgeting bloggers this month and see all my monthly clothing budgets for the year here

Happy Budgeting! 

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