Just totted up how much money I’ve spent on clothes since September- a bit shocked.

[Notellinganyone]

I used to keep note of my clothes spending from the start of the school year and fell out of the habit, Just did a tally and have spent just over 2k. I’m a bit shocked but probably shouldn’t be. I shop in a mixture of Jigsaw, Whistles, Marks etc. How does that compare to your spending? Children have now left home so have more disposable income so no debt.

How would I react to someone telling me that having children means damage to the planet? I have often been in that situation and I have listened and recognised they are absolutely right. I haven’t been offended or defensive. It hasnt stopped me wondering what can I do tomorrow and the day after tomorrow to try to do better and shift my focus away from consumerism. Without that shift the planet is in trouble and so are we.

Of those examples, the glass really, really pisses me off. Such an easy thing to do and glass has to be one of the original recyclable materials. Your mum would have been returning pop bottles when she was a kid.

Sadly not. We never had pop although I always pleaded for dandelion and burdock when the pop man came (‘‘twas a Northern city).

I’ve tried to encourage her to do a bit of recycling but she’s not interested at all. She’s 79. You can’t force stubborn people to do things they aren’t interested in.

On a thread about someone who already had children or was pregnant, would you say the following:

Have the OP and all the people saying ‘go for it if you can afford it’ ever looked at the mountains of waste produced by westerners who keep having children? I simply cannot understand how anyone justifies having children now. We are poisoning our planet with all these children.
There are enough children in the world already. Turn off the tap.

Your own words, just tweaked slightly.

Obviously, buying clothes and choosing to have a child are quite different! But in terms of environmental impact, adding more people to the planet is massively more damaging. It just seems the height of hypocrisy to lecture the OP about her choices when your own have been far from ideal.

This is such a circular argument. I can’t go back in time, we can all only go forward and think about what we can do differently tomorrow. Or do you really think nothing at all needs to change and that we in the west should all continue to consume at this rate without any slowdown at all, no matter how much plastic in the oceans, no matter how much warming, no matter how much forest destroyed, no matter how many species go extinct?

No, I've said all along it's important to consider one's choices and their effect on the planet. I'm just trying to suggest that your comments to the OP were out of place on this thread, as would a harangue about the environmental impact of having children on a thread about someone who had just discovered she was pregnant. But you don't seem to recognise that, so I won't derail the thread further.

RosePoppyClover must have the most ginormous loft or lock up if she’s storing all the whole family’s life long clothing for her children to wear, then grandchildren, great grandchildren, ad infinitum….

Mine comes to £1700 for the same period

I think @RosePoppyClover does make some valid points but as @WeHaveTheRabbit points out that’s not really what this thread is about. Ultimately we all make choices and I think my clothes consumption over my lifetime has been relatively modest in terms of numbers of items bought. My Toast sandals are arriving on Wednesday so very excited about those!

No... It really is.

Try reading UN IPCC AR6, or the World Wildlife Fund's reports.

There is no debate. I truly wish there was.

@RosePoppyClover thanks for answering & it was exactly as I predicted - more than 1 child!

You've been very vociferous on this thread so can I please ask you a couple of further questions

How old are your dc?

Do you drive?

Do you buy every single thing for you & your family & your house second hand? Literally everything?

I'm really curious to see how your lifestyle aligns with the v high standard you demand from the rest of us.

@op hope the new sandals are glorious 😍
I have a pair of green Toast wedge sandals bought several years ago & still going strong.

Please come back tomorrow & tell us about them!

You was the one who stated you were shocked at how much you had spent, it made me think given that you used the word ‘shocked’ that you wanted advice on how to cut back and that you did think it was a problem, or maybe you wanted users to respond with comparable feedback. I’m not sure now what you wanted. Obviously you didn’t want my suggestion to watch ‘The shopping conspiracy’, which isn’tonly about saving the planet.
Did you want people to applaud your expenditure like it’s a some kind of achievement, or to treat it like a competition and feedback who could spend the most money within a few months, did you want them to berate you, congratulate you? It appears no one would be right.
It was all a bit strange which is probably why you didn’t get the answers you were looking for. Your money, spend it as you wish, it’s not going to affect anyone. I think most people are looking to help and support MN users with genuine issues and problems rather than attention seekers.

Well said, I applaud you 👏🏻

Oh piss off

Where do ye put your clothes??

I've spent around 800 euro since Sep. Salary 180k.

Just checked:

Sept: 132.54
Oct: 178.66
Nov: 223.60
Dec: 406.00
Jan: 352.49
Feb: 67.31
Mar: 190.36
Apr: 157.44
May: 36.98
June: 6.96

Total: 1,752.34

I'm quite pleased, actually! Everything was knackered so I bought a whole bunch of shoes & boots, a couple of coats and what feels like half of Nobody's Child. I did sacrifice much-needed household spending, though, so am on a near-total clothing ban for at least the rest of this year.

Enjoy your new stuff, OP!

I have a lot of coats, most of them are in the box room which is used for storage and usually 2 or 3 of the everyday one are on the pegs in the hall which are rotated seasonally

I'm wondering what you spent 6.96 on?

RosePoppyClover… yes I 100% agree, and watching ‘The Shopping Conspiracy’ on Netflix cemented this even further for me.

2k since September is not a lot really. You say you have no debt - then if you enjoy the clothes are able to afford them don’t worry too much. Enjoy

@LifeReallyIsTooShort - if you’d read the whole thread you would see that I qualified it to say it was more of a musing really. I think your tone is unnecessarily combative- this is a forum for discussion about all sorts of things big and small. I think the tone is fairly clear from my OP and I feel my posts in response have been pretty measured. You seem very bitter.

£213 nothing exciting but including a work jacket, 2 pairs of work trousers and then the rest on thermal and underwear..

Heavens, are you ok?
I did read the whole thread. No bitterness intended, and apologies if it came across that way because it’s clear you are offended, it was not my intention, I simply gave the honest feedback you prompted.
Just a thought though, with respect it might be better not to ask for feedback in your posts if you don’t actually want an opinion that doesn’t match yours, we are after all entitled to an opinion on MN.
Enjoy your shopping and spending, it’s no one else’s business, and better not to make it so if you don’t want it.

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