GET OUT OF DEBT TODAY!
THE BUDGETING TOOL - $50 USD 
Includes Paypal Fee = $2.00
If you pay instantly with Paypal, you will be redirected to a page where you can download the documents. Otherwise, I will personally email the documents once your payment has cleared. Thanks!
Tag Archives: Shopping, Style & Beauty
Went shopping today and didn’t buy anything
You must be shaking your head thinking: HOW!? This girl is a crazy shopaholic, and she is living in NYC for goodness!!
THIS IS THE FIRST TIME.. EVER!
This is the first time I’ve ever gone out to window shop and came back with nothing.
No. Joke.
Well, before you think that I didn’t go into any stores where I’d be tempted, I went into plenty around Soho including high-end, low-end and consignment shops.
Nada.
I saw a lot of things I immediately wanted, but thought all the way through:
- Price is too high for what it is
- Meh. A striped shirt. It’s not EXACTLY what I wanted (dark navy blue with white stripes)
- Do I really need another dress/top/pair of pants?
I HAD A WISH LIST
I had originally planned to go out and just browse, keeping in mind 3 items on my Wish List:
- Men’s Watch — I returned the Skagen; it needed to be slightly smaller-faced
- White Soft Jersey Blazer
- Dark Navy Blue with Thin White Stripes Top
Since I couldn’t find ANY of those three items, I didn’t buy anything.
I steeled myself, and exercised my willpower, which felt pretty damn good.
I even went into some consignment stores and almost bought an Alice + Olivia Beige Shirtdress for $90 but felt as though it was too short and sheer to be wearable for the long-term.
*pats self on back*
ULTIMATELY, MY OUTFIT WAS MORE INTERESTING
Surprisingly, I also got complimented a lot on my outfit.
They liked the color of my skirt:
..and that my shoes were actually woven ribbons, not a printed pattern:
Naturally, I took a lot of it with a huge grain of salt because they had hungry salesperson eyes… but it was still nice of them.
Funny enough, I got the skirt at Forever 21 for $20 (?) and the shoes were from Singapore for $90, with a plain t-shirt.
Goes to show that money can’t buy style.
Posted in Money, Shopping, Style & Beauty
Also tagged Didn't buy anything, New York City, Temptation, Window Shopping
7 Comments
To tailor or not to tailor?
I’m frustrated right now with my wardrobe.
It’s not that I don’t have the perfect pieces or that I feel like I have nothing to wear, but nothing fits well on me any longer because they’re 2-3 inches too big (I had to pin my skirt to keep it on my hips the other day!)
YES, THIS IS A #FIRSTWORLDPROBLEM WHINE
I know it sounds like a good thing when I say things like “my clothes don’t fit me, they’re too big”, but it isn’t.
What it is, is ANNOYING.
I had purchased the perfect wardrobe, had some pieces tailored to fit my Size 6 frame perfectly, and now I’m waffling between 1-2 sizes LOWER.
It’s my original high school weight when I was 18, so stands to reason it could be my real weight.
I know feel better at this weight (it’s more natural for me, I seem to have more energy and sleep better), but I also know that I could definitely go back up a size or two.
In fact, some pants I bought last autumn, are already a size too large for me.
FROM LAST AUTUMN!!!!!!
CLOTHES DILEMMA
Now I’m stuck with clothes I don’t reach for, because they don’t fit me, but are still good pieces.
Namely, some structured dresses, some pencil skirts and my go-to tweed suit which swims on me (I have to really belt that sucker to get it to stay on me).
I spent all this time and money finding the right pieces, only to change weight and have them hang like baggy sacks on me (unlike this Parisienne model who looks incredibly chic in her perfectly fitted Chanel suit).
The question is now to either tailor my pieces down to my Size 2/4 frame, hoping that I will stay where I am.
Or leave them and bet that in the next year or so, I’ll put on more weight to go back up to Size 6.
ARG!
SO. FRUSTRATING.
I do not want to waste money on tailoring or replacing pieces with smaller substitutes if it’ll just be wasted later.
THE OPTION: TO WAIT A YEAR
Either option sucks if I change weight again.
I guess the key would then be to wait a year to see where I am in December.
In the meantime, no more clothes, and if I do get them, they better be able to be wrapped tighter, or loosened (hello wrap dresses!)
I’m also going to try and rock some belts, but they’re another issue altogether when they slide up your torso and separate by leaving your skirt/pants to linger down by your hips.
HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH WARDROBE SIZE CHANGES?
Posted in Money, Shopping, Style & Beauty
Also tagged Betting, Clothes, Frustration, Life, Rant, Strategy, Wardrobe, Weight Gain, Weight Loss
16 Comments
My Wardrobe Count: What I own and how much it all cost
Am I crazy? Yes.
Do I like to shop? Yes!
Do I have a lot of free time? I did, when I wrote this post!
Will I keep up with this inventory list? Probably not. Let’s see how lazy I can become, shall we?
Am I going to keep shopping even knowing all of this? Er… can I take the Fifth?
I had been planning on doing a true inventory for a while now, but I wanted to wait until I purged everything before trying to list everything.
I have owned about 30% of these pieces since high school/college years. Yes.. really.
If it still fits, and looks to be in a good condition, I’m keeping it.
It took me 2 hours, 2 full pages, 2 columns-wide, front and back to list almost, and I had to go into the columns a little bit (oops).
This is also a great exercise to make sure I have pictures of everything — I noticed I was missing quite a few pieces.
Hey it isn’t as bad as I thought!
Granted, I had purged 50% of my closet sometime in 2007-2008. I also started selling more stuff in 2011-2012.
Plus, I gave away at least 3-4 full bags of clothing and things.
After all that, I’m at the 136 mark for just clothes which… seems reasonable to me compared to shopaholics with walk-in closets. (Okay, I kid.. I kid!)
I guess I could cut it down to 100 clothing items, but that means cutting into my Dresses, which I am not really keen on.
For some reason, I was imagining my clothes to be around the 250+ mark.. so this is a bit of a relief.
What I have listed so far in the 136-item count:
- Tops = 45 — $1802
- Pants = 13 — $1010
- Skirts = 9 — $451
- Dresses = 45 — $3516
- Sweaters = 15 — $1069
- Blazers = 4 — $190
- Jackets = 5 — $2181
What these 136-items cost: $10,219!
So you want to know numbers? I had to guesstimate a few of these items, but my wardrobe comes up to around $10,219 before taxes, at retail.
With the taxes (13%) on top of that, we’re looking at $11,547.47.
Now if I were to SELL these items, I could probably get $5000 out of the resale value of what I own.
You will also have to keep in mind this doesn’t include my shoes, purses or jewellery.
What are in all the categories?
TOTAL WARDROBE RETAIL VALUE $ PIE CHART BY CATEGORY
- Percentages are based on the estimated $ cost of each category, not item count
TOTAL WARDROBE ITEM COUNT PIE CHART BY CATEGORY
- Percentages are based on the item count of each category, not $ value
Hmm you don’t say!
- Spent 34% of my money on 33% of my wardrobe — Dresses!!
- Spent 21% of my budget on 4% of my wardrobe (5 Jackets) because of a single Burberry trenchcoat
- Tops only cost 18% of my budget, but make up 33% of my wardrobe (bang for your buck category)
- Sweaters made it out to an even 11% for both item count and % of value
- Skirts, Pants and Blazers are fairly neglected, as they should be, as I am more of a Dress fiend
CATEGORY BREAKDOWN (VISUAL)
TOPS = 45 ITEMS @ $1802
(11 tops missing above)
I know this looks like a lot, but I am including everything in here.
Broken down, it looks more like this:
- Work-Appropriate & Fun Blouses = 24
- Tank Tops = 8
- Long-Sleeved Shirts = 5
- T-Shirts (doubles as sleepwear) = 4
- Collared Button-Up Shirts = 4
My biggest category is obviously Work-Appropriate Blouses, which I would like to say I also wear for fun.
PANTS = 13 ITEMS @ $1010
(3 pairs of pants missing from above)
Broken down it looks like this:
- Work Trousers = 8
- Jeans = 2
- Sweatpants = 3
I rarely wear sweatpants, but some occasions like bumming around the house, call for them.
SKIRTS = 9 ITEMS @ $451
Broken down it looks like this:
- Work Skirts = 6
- Fun Skirts = 3
The fun skirts are not miniskirts, but they are still in my eyes, too short to wear to work (few inches above the knee).
DRESSES = 45 ITEMS @ $3516.00
What can I say? I’m REALLY into wearing dresses. It’s like a whole outfit in one go, how can you go wrong?
The only thing I hate is that I can’t wear dresses as often in the winter (too damn cold, even when I double-up on tights), so a lot of my stuff is Summer-Appropriate.
(5 dresses missing from the photo above)
Broken down it looks like this:
- Work Dresses = 20
- Summer/Fun Dresses = 21
- Formal/Event Dresses = 4
If I feel like it, I do wear more dressier dresses out just to get groceries. I find it fun to dress up, and unless the style is really inappropriate (too formal or shiny, cocktail, or flouncy), anything goes in my world.
SWEATERS = 15 ITEMS @ $1069
Love me a good sweater! They’re great as a way to layer on top of lighter things, or to wear as-is.
(3 sweaters missing from the photo above)
Broken down it looks like this:
- Work Sweaters = 11
- Casual Sweaters = 4
What I consider “casual” versus “work” sweaters, are either the colour or the style — if it’s too sporty (Lululemon stuff), I don’t wear it to work.
Otherwise, they’re pretty much all work-appropriate sweaters!
BLAZERS = 4 ITEMS @ $190.00
I don’t have much in this department. I only have the basics to throw over top of my other more colourful items.
One of the blazers is part of a grey tweed 3-piece suit, the rest are in navy or black.
JACKETS = 5 ITEMS @ $2181.00
This includes Autumn and Winter jackets.
I have 2 winter jackets — one everyday, one dressy (BF bought it for me).
- Note: The 2nd black Burberry trench from the left is almost the entire amount at $1600.
I have 2 autumn jackets — one in a bold colour, the other is neutral.
My last jacket is a black biker-style cotton jacket that didn’t fit under “Blazer” or “Sweater”.
Phew!
What I have not yet listed:
- Bathing Suit — I just have one, so no big list there
- Underwear (Tights included)
- Sleepwear — I wear the T-Shirts above, and my 2 leggings
- Winter Gear (Scarves, Gloves, Other)
- Purses
- Shoes
- Jewellery — I think I’m at 100 pieces of jewellery right now
I am not entirely sure I want to really inventory underwear or sleepwear. For instance, I usually only have one pair of tights in each colour (navy, burgundy, black, brown).
I will however, want to inventory the rest — winter gear, purses, shoes, and jewellery.
I’ll post once I catch my breath and go through those items 
How will this change my shopping in the future?
Would you kill me if I said it wouldn’t really?
Lately, I seem to be paying more, for fewer pieces. This goes in line with not wanting to buy quantity, but quality, although if I find a great shirt for $16 that isn’t a duplicate in my wardrobe, I’ll probably buy it.
For instance, I bought a cashmere travel wrap for $300. ONE WRAP. It’s considered ONE sweater. In the past, I never spent more than $30 – $50 on a sweater.
This is 6 sweaters in one pricetag… but far more heavenly.
Cost per use, right? Hello? Anyone?… ANYONE WITH ME?!!?!
*sigh*
Have you done something similar with your closet?
Posted in Money, Shopping, Style & Beauty
Also tagged Closet, Clothing Only, Cost of my Things, Stuff, Wardrobe, Wardrobe Inventory
14 Comments
My Current Wardrobe Wants List
This was my original list located here: How to shop and organize your wardrobe, and I’ve gotten through the important bits.
I’m also revising it to remove a few things:
Items Pictured Above:
- Thin Red Belt — Etsy P Store Handmade Red Belt – $14.50
- White Casual Blazer — Aritzia/Wilfred Shrunken Chevalier Blazer – $195
- Plain Brown Leather Boots — Haven’t really found them yet; What’s pictured is not it
Men’s Watch — Mondaine Don’t Rush Men’s Watch – $100(bought a Skagen watch)Leather Jacket — m0851 Perfecto in Ink — $780 – $830 (*cries*)(bought it on sale)Beige Trenchcoat — Burberry Woven Raffia Trench – $3095 (absolutely NOT in my range!)- V-Neck Black Sweater — Patrizia Pepe – $95
- Navy Wide-Striped Shirt — A.L.C. Travis Striped Shirt – $140
White Drape-y Dress – Wilfred Franca Dress – $175Brown Flats — Frye Carson Flats in Cognac $91 – $328(Purchased Frye Flats)Black Suede Round-Toe Pumps — Aldo Poston Shoes in Black Suede – $80
Why I am removing some items
Beige Trenchcoat
The more I thought about it, the more I realized I don’t need it, especially since if the weather calls for it, I’m just going to put on either my red or my khaki green knee-length coat, or wear my new m0851 Perfecto Leather Jacket.
White Drape-y Dress
Do I really need ANOTHER dress?
Black Suede Round Toe Pumps
Am I really going to wear these? Not really. I am more of a flats kind of girl, and even at work, I’ve been getting lazy on the heel-wearing front.
I’d rather have those mid-calf boots instead.
Posted in Shopping, Style & Beauty
Also tagged Closet, Clothes, Current Wardrobe Wants, Wardrobe, Wish List
8 Comments
Organize and shop your own closet to save time and money
Whenever I feel like I want to refresh my wardrobe, but I don’t want to (or shouldn’t) spend any money on new things, I do the following:
- Catalogue my current wardrobe
- Shop my own closet
- Make a list of Wardrobe Wants
Catalogue my current wardrobe
I like going through my wardrobe, I like cleaning (purging, de-cluttering) and organizing it, and knowing what I have, so I can dream up of new outfits so I can shop my own closet easily.
Once I started going through and itemizing items and cleaning it out, I realized I had a LOT of grey sweaters. In fact, it was the main colour in my closet as a neutral.
I realized that it was also the reason why I never reached for certain items because I chose my favourite grey sweater every time (‘Only grey sweaters, AGAIN?’).
So my solution was to catalogue my clothes onto my iPod Touch, using Picasa to see it on my desktop by:
- Taking stock photos (if I can find them) online
- Taking pictures of the clothes themselves
- Taking pictures of me, wearing the clothes (ideal, but I’m very lazy)
For example, here are my dresses:
Now that I know what I already own, and I won’t be tempted to buy yet anything similar to what I already own, like another red wrap dress.
I recently did something similar in my mother’s closet, and let me show you the two items she has an overabundance of:
Yellow Cotton Vest Shirts (6)
Pink Collared Shirts (8)
Granted, these items look really nice on her skin tone, but she doesn’t really need yet another pink shirt or yellow vest.
Shop my own closet
It can be hard not to want a new outfit after you see people wear different things, or a certain striped shirt you think would be perfect in your closet.
The truth of the matter is you may already have the components for a similar outfit (or at least, I KNOW I do), and you may just need a small accessory like a red belt to finish it off.
I “shop” my own closet, by going through, organizing it, purging pieces I know have gone unworn for too long, and really scrutinizing if I should keep an item or not.
At the end of the exercise, I usually end up creating new outfits and my desire to buy new things disappears after I realize I can’t really fit any more into my suitcases unless I get rid of other items.
Make a list of Wardrobe Wants
This is an exercise I go through on a regular basis. It can be easy to lust after new items, but are you missing other key essential pieces to tie everything together?
If so, then you might be wasting your money on yet another pair of jeans, but are missing the right pair of business casual herringbone trousers to wear with 50% of your wardrobe.
My Wardrobe Wants:
- Thin Red Belt — I don’t want to spend a lot of money, and I’m being very picky about the belt
- White Casual Blazer — Not structured; Thought I found it but the fabric is all wrong
- Plain Brown Leather Mid-Calf 2″ Heeled Boots — To wear under trousers during Autumn and Winter
- Men’s Watch — I have a few contenders in mind, but I don’t want to pay a ridiculous amount
- Thin, Supersoft Leather Jacket — I am waffling between one in an inky blue or a dark brown
- Beige Trenchcoat — I obviously love the classic, minimalist looking ones, but I want a good price
- Navy Wide-Striped T-Shirt — I am very picky about the spacing of the lines for this shirt
- White or Ivory Drape-y Dress — I found one, but the neckline was very lowcut…
- Brown Flats — Replacements for my worn out Rudsak ones; Am looking at Frye Carson Flats
- Black Suede Round-Toe Pumps — I think they’d look great with a good chunk of my dresses
White Straight-Legged Drape-y Pants— Found at H&M for $40! They’re perfect & the right $$Olive/Khaki Sweater— Found it as a thin wrap sweater last year at Lululemon for $98Striped Dress— Found it! Comrags Brady Style French Striped Dress for $300Red Dress– Found it! Consignment Diane von Furstenberg Red Wool Utility Wrap Dress for $136Olive/Khaki Dress– Found it! Bionic Genia Olive Dress by Mark Foreman, deeply discounted for $50
Items Pictured Above:
- Thin Red Belt — Etsy P Store Handmade Red Belt – $14.50
- White Casual Blazer — Aritzia/Wilfred Shrunken Chevalier Blazer – $195
- Plain Brown Leather Boots — Haven’t really found them yet; What’s pictured is not it
- Men’s Watch — Mondaine Don’t Rush Men’s Watch – $100
- Leather Jacket — m0851 Perfecto in Ink — $780 – $830 (*cries*)
- Beige Trenchcoat — Burberry Woven Raffia Trench – $3095 (absolutely NOT in my range!)
- V-Neck Black Sweater — Patrizia Pepe – $95
- Navy Wide-Striped Shirt — A.L.C. Travis Striped Shirt – $140
- White Drape-y Dress – Wilfred Franca Dress – $175
- Brown Flats — Frye Carson Flats in Cognac $91 – $328
- Black Suede Round-Toe Pumps — Aldo Poston Shoes in Black Suede – $80
How this will all save you time and money
- You won’t buy yet ANOTHER grey sweater again
- You won’t waste time browsing and looking for things you don’t really need as an Essential Item
- You
won’twaste less money because you will stick to your list!
Of course, in between looking for these Wardrobe Wants, I found pieces that were not really on my list, but overall, I’ve stopped myself from buying things I know I already have duplicates of in my wardrobe.
Do you do something similar?
Posted in Money, Shopping, Style & Beauty
Also tagged Cataloguing, Closet, Decluttering, Essential Items, iPod Touch, Listing, Photos, Picasa, Shopping your own closet, Technology, Wardrobe Clearing
8 Comments
February 2012: What I bought
I’m starting to understand that this post might become monthly — a ‘haul’ post, so to speak of what I purchased this month.
I’ll only put the interesting stuff, because no one cares about groceries
REPLACEMENT CASHMERE WRAP – $300
My lovely ivory wrap I just bought in January was stolen this month 
Yes. I paid an eye-popping $300 for a cashmere travel wrap because I travel SO MUCH and need something like that, and it got stolen in the hotel.
Don’t even ask me how.
Anyway, I ended up being morose and depressed for weeks until I found the right replacement for my perfect travel wrap.
I ended up buying a second-hand Herve Leger (yes THAT Herve Leger) cashmere wrap at a consignment store called REmix Clothing @ 639 Queen Street West (Yelp Review of REmix Clothing), and it was almost exactly the same price as my stolen one and it looks like this:
This time, I am gripping on to it for dear life and not letting it out of my sight.
*sigh*
Posted in Shopping, Style & Beauty
Also tagged 2012, February, February 2012, Haul, What I bought, What I bought this month
22 Comments
