Why You Should Buy More Clothes
By Melissa Tosetti
Still working from home?
Eight months ago I wrote an article on why you should consider buying clothes, even if you’re likely to continue to work from home in the foreseeable future.
As we begin to see an end to the restrictions caused by COVID-19, the article is even more relevant than before.
You haven’t had to dress professionally in months. Chances are high you’ll continue working from home until 2021. Do you really need to buy more clothes?
The answer is yes, no and maybe.
Yes
While it’s tempting to use this time to save money by not spending on clothes you have to be careful.
Go too long without bringing anything new into your closet and the probability of getting sick of everything you own skyrockets. This can easily trigger a binge shopping trip. When we binge, we often make poor purchasing decisions.
Even if you’re not likely to fall prey to binge shopping, there’s the real risk that after living in sweatpants and T-Shirts for 9 months, you may need a few clothes to rejoin society. For example, your size might have changed with all that extra time for online workouts. Wait until you go back to the office and you might find yourself spending hundreds of dollars or more, all at once, to redo your wardrobe. It may make sense to start that rebuild process now and spread it out over time.
You can still save money by buying fewer clothing items this year. In fact, you can use this time to strategize and figure out what clothing purchases would enhance your current wardrobe. This can help you shift from a habit of just “buying” and begin a habit of “curating”.
A strategy you can implement to keep your wardrobe fresh is The 5 Piece French Wardrobe. It focuses on quality over quantity and is key to bringing specific new pieces into your wardrobe you’ll love for years.
No
If you’ve taken a pay cut or lost your job then of course it makes sense to hold off or greatly reduce your spending on clothes until your financial situation normalizes.
This also makes sense because you may find a job in an environment that requires a different wardrobe. By holding off or slowing new purchases, you can wait and see what your clothing needs will be.
Maybe
It’s a Wednesday afternoon and you pop over to Instagram for a quick “break” before moving onto your next work task. A clothing item catches your eye and before you realize it, you click “buy”.
There’s so much going on in the world. It’s understandable to decompress by doing a little browsing. The challenge is that the retail industry has made shopping so easy that we’re not always making conscious spending decisions. Or, we’re spending out of stress and boredom rather than from the perspective of what we want to bring into our lives.
If this resonates, take a look at the purchases you’ve made in the last 3 months. How many of those items would you buy if you had the opportunity to purchase them again for the first time? This is a chance to evaluate and make different spending decisions in the future.
The goal is to build a wardrobe of clothes you love. Not to dilute them with purchases made out of boredom or stress. The funny thing about those bad decisions is that a diluted closet makes us think we need to buy more. Most often, the key is to get rid of what you’re not in love with, make a list of the holes in your wardrobe and start shopping intentionally.
Melissa Tosetti is a cash flow planning expert, founder of The Savvy Life and author of the international bestseller Living The Savvy Life.
For the past eight years, she’s worked with over 625 individuals and families to create Spending Plans.
To learn about the Spending Plan process, visit The Savvy Life’s Home Page. If you’d like to learn about how The Savvy Life works with financial advisors and their clients visit: The Savvy Life Advisor’s Page.
