STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

Suasoria · Chanel

Tax season...do you keep track of your clothes spending?

KaffeeKlatsch · Marc Jacobs

Honestly, no. A few years I've held onto every single receipt. But not lately. I keep track of things I'd like to buy or that my wardrobe could really use...but not things I've bought.
And on a sidenote...am I the only one suprised at how low that average is?

Elle · Hermes

I don't keep track in any particular way, but since we bank online we have access to the last 3 years of monthly statements at any given time so it would really only take 20 minutes or so to go through a whole year and pick out appropriate purchases.

We did this when we did our taxes, only because I accused my husband of spending too much on his hobby and he accused me of spending too much on mine. Neither of us really spent too much, but I think we're going to move to cash-only system for our hobby items from now on - that way we know exactly what's being spent without having to look up anything.

I don't think that $700/year is that high - that's only $58 a month! And if you came close to that with some (most?) of your purchases from the thrift, imagine what little you'd get for $58/month retail?!

Kelly · Hermes

Honestly, I am really bad about keeping track of anything. My system is basically, I put a certain percentage of my money in savings, then I pay bills, then I do whatever I want with the rest of it. So if I eat out a lot or have to fix my car or whatever, then I have less money for clothes and other fun things. But I don't have a certain limit/percentage that I spend on any particular area and I don't really keep track either. As long as I don't touch my savings and I don't have any debt, I guess I figure I'm doing alright. I know that's probably a really irresponsible way to look at it!

I think $58 sounds alright as an average. I mean, there are plenty of people who wear $10 sweatsuits every single day (visit any Walmart to view them in their natural habitat!) and guys like my brothers rarely buy any clothes at all - they wear what they do have to death, then they'll replace it with another inexpensive item from places like Value City. I wouldn't be surprised if each of them spends $25/month, if even that much.

-- Edited by Kelly on Wednesday 24th of February 2010 12:32:18 PM

Suasoria · Chanel

The $700 a year was just for women. Kid's clothing was slightly less and men's quite a bit less. I thought it was low too, but I figure we're bombarded with consumerist messages constantly, so we probably believe people spend more than they really do.

TheLovelyLady71 · Hermes

I have an EXCEL spreadsheet that I keep track of my spending, on clothes, food, just whatever. I know my Cap. One gives me a break down of each catergory, so... LOL That's how I track my spending.