I read an enlightening blog post by a lady who kept a journal of her spending on clothing, accessories, and shoes for all of 2011, and then shared it with her readership. Ah! She broke it down into new, foreign, thrift, and online purchases (Etsy & Ebay). Discussed, were price tallies from each category as well as an overall read on how useful/wearable her purchases ended up being. Though I did not buy three pairs of Fluevog boots, I have already made quite a buying statement for this month already. Lord help me, those sale e-mails I get from Amazon, Groupon, and Ann Taylor Loft are my kryptonite.  And the sales themselves. 60% of SALE items! Well, now these new items are at trendy thrift store prices, and I have been in need of a pajama set for *cough* years! What am I getting to?

Monthly ‘sum-of-things.’ Yes, that’s right. Instead of fainting away as I sum up a whole years worth of  ‘Closet Buying,’ (because that where my accessories, shoes and clothes live, and because it’s stuff that I may sneek into the house so my guy housemates don’t roll their eyes), I will go month by month. I also like this approach because it gives me 12 time to look at my spending and think. Think about whether a two week old item is as invaluable as I thought it would be when bought, think about the quantity of stuff purchased in a given month, think about new items vs. thrifted ones, and think about how I want the next month to be. I may include price eventually, but for now, I’m not. Here we go:

Accessories

Wood cut necklace (Seattle boutique)

Turquoise and metal, two strand beaded necklace (fair trade, TTV)

————-* chunky necklace (fair trade, TTV)

Clothes

Green-ish teal cardigan with ribbon detail (ATLOFT)

Light peach tee with stripped detail (ATLOFT)

Spruce green-ish blue 3/4 knit top with banding (ATLOFT)

Magenta and grey 3/4 knit top with banding (ATLOFT)

Navy wool slacks (ATLOFT)

Pajama set -bottoms: flannel white and gray animal spots pattern, top: knit brown-gray long sleeve (ATLOFT)

Jean trousers, dark wash (ATLOFT)

Shoes

Black -below knee- boots with buckle detail (Buffalo Exchange)

After taking these pictures and simply looking at and re-trying on some of the items I’ve decided to take back two of the knit tops because (1) my buying this month was excessive, (2) the cut of the shirts didn’t do great things for my figure, and (3) the print of the magenta one was just not ‘me’ enough.

Top accessory pick: the wooden necklace.  The cut of it’s unique, whimsical and clean, is an interesting length and color/grain, plus it will remind me of Seattle when I wear it (and the good friends I have there).

Top clothing pick: Fun-ily enough, the pajamas. A close second would be the cardi, but no, it’s the pjs. I am rocking them right now. Loving the coloring and fabric of the top, and the flannel fabulous-ness of the pants, and guys, they match, but not in a lame middle-school way. I finally have cool pjs.

Top shoe pick: Okay, even though I only had one pair to look at, even if there were ten, the second-hand Seattle boots would still win out. I love ‘em. They are simple enough to dress up, dress down, wear with pants and an over-sized shirt or over leggings, paired with a skirt, belt and top. And they fit my calves. And they rescued my poor feet after being soggy for a few hours (the shoes I trudged around in during that rainy Seattle day, will never recover).

Flops: The shirts, and woohoo, they still have the tags so, back to the store they go!

*May end up being gifted, so it didn’t appear in the picture, nor did I want to reveal details about it.