To think £100 a month should be enough for clothes?

[SabineUndine]

I don't have to wear formal suits for work, so I'm always in smart casual, with emphasis on the casual. But £100 doesn't seem to go that far. What do you spend (inc shoes)?

I spend a lot more than that. Probably around £400/month. And yes I have too many clothes/shoes. Includes work attire.

For those questioning the 'monthly clothes budget', I assume this is purely an amount allocated to clothing for budgeting purposes as opposed to an amount that is spent every month.

I do it for everything: holidays (x/month to cover as many holidays as we have), transport (annual rail cards / 12), car maintenance (again an annual estimate / 12), gifts, charity, food, insurances, mobiles etc etc etc. It's just a way of running a household financially, knowing how much we can afford/not afford for various things etc.

I only spend a few hundred pounds a year on clothes & shoes so most months I spend nothing.

Holidays, food & wine, however, are a different matter....

It must depend on the person! This month I spent £110 on a coat and bought two tops from oasis for £40 each.
I don't often buy stuff for myself so every few months I will spend around £200/£300 on myself.
I don't have many clothing items but they're all high end high street or brands. I also don't like having a lot of things in my wardrobe so get rid of old stuff as soon as I buy new things x

I don't have a monthly budget, but I do buy a coat every 5 years, so coat price/ 60. 5 dresses to usually last 3 years, so 5x dress price/ 36. You can arrive at a fairly accurate monthly budget. I'm a creature of habit, I buy my clothes in two or three orders from the same shops. I don't much enjoy shopping so I have a good idea when an order needs to go in to prevent having to do it more than necessary.

How much? Gee whizz. That's a huge amount. I probably spend about £30 a month on clothes if I average it out.

I don't budget for anything. We spend what we need to, sounds complicated sticking to a budget.

Goodness. I work in an office and probably haven't spent £100 this year on work clothes. I've got dresses that are 5 years old and still completely wearable and jackets go on forever. I have a pair of smart black 'all round' heels, they are about £30 from next and I use a pair a year. I wear trainers to and from work and at home, need roughly a pair a year and spend £20-30 on these. Tights are less than £10 for 3 pairs, and I get the thick ones that don't really ladder.

Probably send that much in a year!!!

I can easily spend more than that on a mixture of designer, high-end High Street, eBay and charity shop quality finds.

omg secretspillernamechange, that sounds so parsimonious! Andy joyless.

I love to buy myself something beautiful, flattering and well-made

Used to spend a lot when I worked in the city but spend about £50 max per month now . Have reheeled a pair of black leather Boden boots and it's the 4th winter I am wearing them . Have a Coat on its 3rd winter - Kathmandu make which I love . I can't be throwing money around now so am just a bit more discerning , although at the same time would love to spend more

Pissed

Thought you may find this interesting.

and sorry, viscose /rayon is almost always cheap and washes poorly

Not true, synthetic fibres can actually improve wearability and washability of some clothing, especially Modal (a variant of rayon), it depends on the craft of the manufacturer.

When I go into charity shops they seem to be stocked with stuff from Tesco and M+S for a couple of pounds less than the new price. Do you have to put a lot of time into it to find the good stuff

Yes, that's the trade off, you can save £, but it may take a bit of time. Also, as charity shops typically contain stuff that has been donated by people of the locality, it helps if you're able to visit charity shops in an affluent area.

I'm lucky in the fact I live in such an area, and yes, some items maybe £50+ from the charity shop, but these items would have been £300+ when new.

My clothes last for about 2-3 years and then I donate them to either the local homeless shelter, the Sally ann or kids clothes go to the children's charity run by a local church.

DH spends a lot but each item lasts about 5-8 years. Good thing too as his last suit cost more than my dads car. His shirts are custom made as he has long arms and is picky about the fabric. He also like his shirts monogrammed. He also has more clothes than me and I was horrified when he thew something out. If it's in terrible shape I donate for recycling.

I agree, dh buys a suit every year from a private tailor, two pairs trousers, but they are such high quality they last a decade.

I'm a disaster I love new clothes. Yesterday I went to new look to buy a dress (20euro)for my dinner out with friends tonight. I love primark/ h and m/stradivarius and browsing around picking up a scarf and top etc. I dress smart casual for work (teacher) so buy cheap and cheerful ( and often) Have never thought about investment pieces or bought in a charity shop. Probably when I add it up and include vouchers which are always my presents I do spend that a year.

I agree with age. Dh and I are early 30s. She we have only been buying stuff around 10 years. So now we are almost sorted as own most things, but we have had to build that up. 10 years ago we owned no work wear, no suits, no smart dresses, no decent coats etc. So we have been buying a few items each year until now. I can imagine now that I own a ski coat, two woolen coats, A down feather coat, few blazers in different colours etc that I probably will spend far less in the next 10 years as have items for most occasional.
Dh also gets suits made due to his height, it's taken him around 10 years of ordering one a year, getting rid of his old supermarket brand he had at uni that didn't fit etc to now have a full collection he can wear daily to work, have enough to take spare travelling, and a change of type. He's also unlikely to buy every year now on those items

However we now have two children who need clothes every 6 months of so right now as growing so all swings around I suppose.

Yy to other types of clothes - I've just spent about £100 on gym gear. It was only from Asda but I go to the gym three or four times a week so I need a bit and swimming costumes get worn out especially.

I don't budget per month for clothes but adding up I've spent about £850 on clothes so far this year and still want a pair of jeans and a jumper (plus I need a new bra and swimsuit) so will be creeping towards your budget. I've had quite a spendy year though, I've bought 5 pairs of shoes (ankle boots, trainers, 3 pairs of smarter shoes for work), a dress, two pairs of trousers, a skirt, 2 jumpers and seven tops (not helped by work updating our heating so now the office is boiling so last January I bought 3 new work shirts to adjust to a roasting winter office). I find I go for a while quite happy with what I've got and just buying a new jumper each winter and the odd top or pair of jeans or trainers then (what has happened this year) I suddenly realise I my wardrobe needs a serious update.

dh buys a suit every year from a private tailor, two pairs trousers, but they are such high quality they last a decade.

So why keep buying another one each year, Where are they stored?

I rarely buy anything, give to charity loads, & my wardrobe is still chock full of little-worn clothes. You can't actually wear that many clothes at once. There are lots of unnecessary purchases by everyone. No need to justify, though, if it gives you pleasure to buy stuff, obviously.

LLijk - Dh needs around 10 suits. If he travels for work he will wear one and take 2 probably. Then on return, he might have another trip whilst the first three are at dry cleaners still for example and need to take another 3. On return he needs to be back in suits next day at work so could have three at dry cleaners, three dirty from second travel and the rest continue wearing. Plus a couple will be only great for certain weather ie two are linen for hot overseas travel, a couple thick wool for winter and the rest average.

We actually Don't have a huge amount clothes. Only live in a one bed flat and that's us and two children so everything has to fit.

I also hate shopping for clothes
£100/mon is reasonable. I don't clothes shop every month but when I do it works out roughly around dat & a tight squeeze. Kids need things replaced so often