4 posts from February 2008

it's super extra ironic because... i work for that retail mega-chain: Gap, Inc.  yep.  it's true.  i work for the online division.  great employer, btw.  love my job and my co-workers.  i actually have very little to do with the clothing... because i'm a product manager over our data warehouse.  but, that i work for the gap AND have decided i need to cut out my shopping habit is, if you ask me, pretty ironic.  or, at least, comical.

...starting March 1st, 2008, I'm officially going to swear off buying new or used clothing and shoes for one calendar year.  i'm not the first person, nor the last person, to ever take on this kind of a challenge--but i invite YOU to give it a go along with me and chronicle what ensues.

so, like any challenge, i need a few rules, besides the obvious.  here's what i'm doing:

1. no purchasing of new or used clothing with the exception of socks and underwear (thanks Carla and others) from any source (fairs, retail stores, websites, etc.)
2. buying fabric and sewing my own clothing is a-okay... but, see, i don't actually own a sewing machine, so that's a whole extra layer of complexity and fun to add into the equation.
3. the shopping embargo is limited (personally, anyways) to stuff i can wear.
4. 'renting' special occasion clothing is a-okay as well... (but i'm guessing pretty unlikely.)
5. borrowing or trading clothing with girlfriends is absolutely sanctioned.
6. alterations, dry cleaning, and shoe repair are highly encouraged.

yep.  that's it.  not too tough.  but none the less, it means giving up something that is, frankly, a big ol' habit for me.  it's unnecessary.  it's, more often than not, frivolous.  it's one of the many things that's preventing me from actually SAVING money. 

my husband and i want to buy a house.  we live in San Francisco, and it's expensive.  we really want to stay here and try and buy something, and we know we could in fact afford a pretty solid monthly payment.  yet we've been thus far entirely unable to buckle down and save.  now, i know that simply not buying clothing is not going to solve the problem.  there are a number of steps i/we can take to change our spending and saving habits, and i kinda see this as a HUGE symbolic step towards breaking my poor spending habits and making some serious change in the management of our collective finances.

this challenge, as you can see, is not entirely about pulling a nancy regan and 'just saying no' to retail therapy (my favorite anti-depressant).  it's about becoming--and staying--keenly aware of where my money goes every month.  retail therapy is only part of the problem.  but, it's probably the key contributor to my lacksidasical attitude about spending.  retail therapy always occurs in small, manageable doses that ultimately add up to a big lump of cash that i could have used for a down payment on a condo in sf for me, my husband, and my dog.

so, bit o' a.m.-bus-riding brainstorming lead me to an idea: could i actually go for an entire year without buying any new (or used) clothing for myself?  could i commit to that?  could i simply borrow dresses (if needed) from friends for special occasions?  just repair any older clothing that needs some love?  alter existing clothes that perhaps need a face lift?

entirely possible.  i need to noodle on this a bit more to decide if i want to commit.  hmmm...

my friend john needs a blog.  he's quite the social butterfly and seemingly the center of his social universe.  he hosts a monthly pool night at a bar of his liking every month and has done so nearly non-stop for the past 10 years.  he's prone to sending large emails out to large groups of friends with what's going on in his world, when the next pool night is, etc.  honestly, i do appreciate seeing his name in my inbox--but it sure seems like if he had a blog that he would get PLENTY of readership. anyways... his most recent email was GREAT.  why, you ask?  it was so darn USEFUL!

so, on his behalf... i present... your useful tip of the day:

To: Pool Night list

This is a PSA (Public Service Announcement) unrelated to Pool night.
(The next pool night will probably be the first week of March.)

The ability to quickly get off the ValPak coupon mailing list and
similar seems so useful, that I thought I would share this website
with y'all:

http://stopjunkmail.org/resident2.htm

We've recently been on a kick of calling catalogs and getting off the
list, and it has reduced the amount of wastage that we recycle
tremendously. The concept here is that it takes trees to make junk
mail and gasoline to deliver it, and even if you recycle, only a
percentage is recaptured. Better to stop the junk mail altogether,
and it makes your life less aggravating to boot!

--John