A penny saved…

I find being stylish AND thrifty a real challenge sometimes. A large portion of what is in thrift shops is not old enough to be classic but is more just old. And worn. While I don’t have to follow every latest trend - in fact, I like cultivating my own sense of style - I also don’t want to look like I’m coming out of left field, fashion-wise.

What is a frugal girl to do? My solution is to keep the vast majority of my wardrobe black or brown. Tops, blouses, pants, skirts - all mostly black or brown. It allows for a lot of flexibility, interchangeability, and patterns get dated really quickly. With needing less separates, I’ve found that I have more left in the budget if I need to get something trendy.

I have found that while I have to constrain my spending, even in thrift stores, if I’m not in love with what I’m wearing, it affects how I feel about myself. It’s a similar sort of ugly feeling that manifests with bad hair. Taking care of you, through exercise, haircuts, clothes or food are some of the small ways we make ourselves feel loved.

Too often, it’s easy to allow the good feelings we get when we shop replace so much needed feelings of love. So we buy more, wanted to recapture those feelings. Does it balance the stress of high credit card balances or not being able to pay essential bills? Bad money habits are like any other bad habit - they take honesty and dedication to break. You need to develop new habits to replace the bad. Maybe nurturing new and positive money habits should be considered another expression of self love.

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