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Buy less than 12 items of clothing in 2011 challenge – end of year update

Posted by on Tuesday 3 January 2012 in anti-consumerism, frugal, less than 12 clothes challenge, low spend 11 | 10 comments

This morning I tweeted that I think it’s going to take me most of 2012 to catch up on all my leftover stuff from 2011 – and this is one of those things!

The Challenge

Last year, I set myself the challenge of buying no more than 12 items of clothing in 2011 – and I invited other people to join me. A good number of people signed up (or committed themselves to similar goals).

What I bought

I went until July (which was a full nine months since I’d bought any new clothes) before buying anything then raced up to 11 things by October!

I bought:

  • 1 x a woolly hoodie jumper from a charity shop
  • 4 x jeans from eBay (mostly replacements for old ones falling apart – I wear jeans all day, every day)
  • 1 x light cardigan from a high street store
  • 2 x t-shirts from Threadless
  • 2 x long-sleeved tops from a high street store
  • 1 x a cord jacket from a charity shop

I can’t tell you how many things I watched on eBay, or added to basket on other online shops, or considered at in-person shops – it was a LOT but I only bought those 11 things. By and large, I thought a lot more carefully about what I was buying because I didn’t want to go over my limit. That said: I still made impulse buys and mistakes. I love the cord jacket I got in October but that was a mistake: I’d spent most of the year trying to find the perfect spring/autumn jacket on eBay but then impulse bought the jacket at a charity shop even though it didn’t have a hood (which was a key thing for me) — I’ve been rained on so many times since then! The biggest mistake though was the Threadless t-shirts I bought in September – I’ve had t-shirts from there before and they’ve been decent quality; this batch though are awful — incorrectly sized, shoddy fabric, poor stitching = unwearable. It really annoys me that I wasted two of my quota on them! GRRR!

(The jacket, with the reason I keep getting rained on asleep in the background ;) )

Lessons learnt

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Declutter November mini-challenge – the overlooked bits of your wardrobe

Posted by on Monday 7 November 2011 in decluttering | 7 comments

Since many of us have gone a bit silly in the cheap clothes boom over the last decade, we’ve got wardrobes, chests of drawers and vacuum-packed storage bags stuffed full of clothes we no longer wear. There is a lot of coverage in the media these days about getting rid of everything you’ve not worn in the last 12 months, how to organise a clothes swap/swishing party or how to par down to a capsule wardrobe of five classic items.

Like most people I know, I generally keep on top of my tops, shirts, skirts and jumpers – checking through everything every six months or so, and consigning stuff to storage limbo if not straight to a charity shop. (95% of stuff in storage limbo goes to the charity shop at the next clear out.) But a few weeks ago, I realised there were a few areas I don’t really think about when I’m tidy: I then proceeded to get rid of over 20 pairs of knickers (either completely falling apart, the wrong size for me or thong style, which I used to wear but now hate) and about the same amount of socks I never wear for various reasons (size, fabric, shape etc). My underwear drawer is so much easier to navigate now!

So this mini-challenge is about those sorts of place: in addition to your usual one thing a day, have a look through the overlooked bits of your wardrobe to see if you can get rid of another five things from there. Everyone will overlook different bits, but here’s some ideas:

  • Your underwear drawer, your lingerie stash and tights collection etc
  • Nightwear/pyjamas
  • Accessories – charity shops love spare winter scarves/gloves/hats at this time of year, but also look at belts, ties, cotton/silk scarves, sunglasses, bags and other hats – are you really going to wear that fancy fascinator again?
  • Shoes
  • Swim wear and holiday items
  • Exercise clothes – especially if you’re an occasional exerciser like me :)
  • Coats – if they’re hung up on hooks away from your wardrobe, they might get missed.

Have a think – do you think you overlook anywhere? What can be cleared out from there?

If I’ve missed anywhere obvious in my suggestions list, do let me know as I’m probably overlooking it and will need to sort it out!

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May – end of month review

Posted by on Thursday 2 June 2011 in goals, meta | 5 comments

Another month that seems to have lasted ages but in a good way. Lots of long weekends too – but enough stuff going on to fill them with. I meant to write this post yesterday but was in the garden ’til past 10pm — so much to do!

Goals in 2011 progress

Things are still progressing in the garden – but slower than I thought in some areas. I only had my first fully homegrown salad last week – compared to regular salad from the garden in April last year. (I’m saying “fully homegrown” because we got two tubs of living salad from Lidl at the end of April and have cut-and-come-again from them several times – really been good value for money but not the same as growing from seed.) I’ve successfully taken cuttings from two perennial herbs too, so that’s another step – and I realised I should make that goal more measurable by coming up with a list of applicable plants/shrubs.

We’ve baked a good few times so are probably almost on track for the “once a week” goal, I’ve been making more stuff from wood so again improving those skills, and we went on a “learn to fly-fish” course while we were in the Lakes the weekend before last, which obviously isn’t the same as fishing in the North Sea but again, steps in the right direction. I like the idea of trying out the various different styles of fishing – see which one suits us/me best.

Not great goal progress but not bad :)

Mini goals

I set myself a few mini-goals this month – just a to-do list for myself really. Out of the five goals, I managed to complete one of them (pressure cleaning the coop) and half do two others (spent a lot of time looking at phone options and have decided I have to go see some in the flesh now; and, also I’ve sorted through nearly all of our kitchen cupboards). The other two things have been, um, forgotten. Will have to add them to my next to-do list…

Buy less than 12 items of clothing in 2011

I actually bought something this month! I bought three second-hand but BNWT bras on eBay – they are pretty but the focus is on functional, and they’re all replacements: I ripped one bra at the start of the month (not sure how), which spurred on my purchases, but earlier in the year had mentally retired two others because they were old and uncomfortable — so they’re on my exemption list.

Perhaps that purchase sated my previous “want new clothes” desires as I haven’t really been bothered about looking/thinking about buying anything else. Still no new clothes for six months now!

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Shopping my wardrobe for shirts

Posted by on Friday 15 April 2011 in frugal, less than 12 clothes challenge | 8 comments

Last night, I decided to go shopping in my wardrobe for shirts.

It’s about five months since I bought (or acquired by any means) any items of clothing or related apparel. The less than 12 in 11 challenge has been easier than I thought in many ways and my tally for the year is still zero – but recently I’ve been getting a bit more tempted towards breaking that embargo. After the long winter, I’m a little bored of my warm woollie options (or rather warm cotton hoodie options) and lately I’ve been getting a bit meh about my selection of my Spring-suitable tops too. A couple of weeks ago, I sorted out my chest-of-drawers drawers, which was great for refreshing my memory about my t-shirts and last night it was the shirts in the wardrobe’s turn.

I had 29 shirts & blouses in my wardrobe and another one in the wash. How many of those 30 shirts have I worn in the last month or, hell, the last three months? One. The one that’s in the wash (I’ve worn that all of twice). Admittedly it’s not really been light-cotton-shirt season of late and I don’t have anywhere that requires me to be smartly dressed but still – that’s a lot of shirts for someone who doesn’t wear shirts much. Ten – one-third – of the shirts were solid black from the days when I wore solid black shirts as a work uniform and standard going out wear. No one needs ten black shirts. Last night, I dragged them all down into the living room and tried them all on in turn (giving John a free boob flashing floor show at each iteration).

Of those 30 shirts, 14 straight up didn’t fit. They were either too short (especially as I wear my jeans low) or didn’t come close to closing around the boobs (I’ve got somewhat large sweater cows), or both. I think I’d kept at least half a dozen out of wishful thinking – because I love the patterns so much and won’t be able to replace them. The one at the back of the picture above with green stars on it hasn’t ever been worn because not only was it a little snug upfront, the arm holes were blood-pressure-band tight on me. (Having said that, it’s a lovely, lovely shirt – if anyone wants it, let me know and I’ll post it out. It’s a size 14 and there is a bigger picture here.) Those shirts will go to charity shops or into my crafty fabric stash depending on re-wearability/pattern.

Out of the remaining 16 shirts, two need repairing (button replacements) and five need to be worn over a vest top or under a jumper. Nine – less than a third of my shirt collection – were fine — they fit and I still like them.

Getting rid of nearly half my shirts might not sound like “shopping” but it was really useful to go through them all and remind myself what I have (I’d straight up forgotten about at least three of the keepers), and what they look like/how they can be worn. I think I’d stopped even thinking about wearing shirts because it was depressing to look in my wardrobe and see so many that didn’t fit or couldn’t be worn as they are for whatever reason. Looking at it one way, I’m losing near half my shirt collection; looking at it another way, I just gained nine new shirts ;)

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Less than 12 things in 11 clothing challenge update

Posted by on Wednesday 2 March 2011 in anti-consumerism, less than 12 clothes challenge | 5 comments

Since we’re through two months of 2011 now, I thought it would be a good time to have a quick update on how everyone is doing in the “buy less than 12 items of clothing in 2011” challenge. Seems like everyone I’ve heard from is doing pretty well!

  • Taphophile has blogged about her progress – she bought two things in January but nothing in February – and is gearing up to sewing stuff in March.
  • LynS has also blogged about her progress – she’s bought nothing this month after one thing in January.
  • Digitigrade says “[I’m doing] Very well! Haven’t bought a single thing :) Can’t bloody afford to anyway!!”
  • AuntyRubbish is on target too: “[I’ve been] really good! Bought one thing a month, after lots of thinking first.”
  • Jan is on target too – she bought two jackets to layer to replace an old barbour jacket – and found some bargain underwear too (the latter is on our exceptions list).
  • SBlove_crafts is on the “bought nothing yet” bandwagon – well, not quite bought nothing: “Have bought patterns and fabric to make my own instead :)”
  • Maria hasn’t bought anything “other than a pack of underwear” and two shirts at Goodwill – the latter for an unusual reason — a pirate themed fancy dress party!
  • bookstorebabe wasn’t necessarily sticking to the “12 in 11” rule but vowed to be more conscious of her buying and after a big clearout, she knows what she’s got in her wardrobe so “at least I’ll be just buying only what I need. And being mindful of what I buy. I have fewer clothes, but have nicer things to wear-really, I don’t have to keep every worn out thing to ‘wear around the house’. More room in the closet. A less daunting pile of laundry, hurray!”
  • Su, who is doing a World War 2-style coupon challenge instead of 12 items, says she’s spent “£10 & 10 coupons” this month on yarn to make a cardigan/shrug and slippers.
  • And finally me – as I said in my end of Feb review, I’ve not bought anything so far this year – either from my quota or from my exceptions list – so it’s going well but I think I can feel the “I’m bored with my stuff” cravings setting in so March might not be quite as thrifty…
  • UPDATE: Oops, I read Colleen’s update then forgot to include it: she’s in the bought-nothing-yet club too – even though an evil gremlin is destroying her t-shirt collection…

If you’re also doing the challenge, how is it going for you? And any late entrants to join in the fun?

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