Tentatively dipping my toes in here ---
Do you love clothes, shoes, accessories, and beauty products - perhaps a bit too much? 
Have you self-prescribed a shopping ban, are you on a strict budget, or are you trying to learn to shop more mindfully for other reasons? Are you a budding recessionista, thriftionista, frugal fashionista - or would you like to become one?
Would you like to do this with like-minded people, still looking stylish and up to date?
This thread could be a place for mutual support, inspiration and creative tweaks (planning outfits from what you already have; charity shopping, swaps, repurposing).
My personal goal: no more clothes, shoe or beauty purchases in March.
I'll tell you more about why I am here in true 12-step tradition, but we need a few like-minded people first
For beauty and fashion style advice, join in our Style forum chat.
Style and beauty
The Shopping Ban / Frugal Fashion Thread
FrugalFashionista · 08/03/2013 08:03
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I'll share my chair with you. Might not be much room though given the size of my arse 
RussianRed I love consumer psychology (talking about it here was not my idea, but I'm happy to oblige ) and have been reading quite a bit about it this winter (eg, how supermarkets organize their shelves and eyetrack customers and use loyalty card databased to understand consumer behaviors). One of the bottom lines of these works is that consumers say they like a lot of choice, but actually feel very unhappy when choices are nearly unlimited. How does this apply to your wardrobe - unlimited choice - outfits and accessories in all possible colors and styles - will not make you happy, they will just increase clutter and make the clothes selection process in the morning more difficult.
Another consumer psychology thing: most women's magazines are not run on subscriber's fees. They rely heavily on advertising. So in many cases, magazines are set up in a way that they make you want to buy the advertised products. You will not get balanced information, true negative reviews, and lots of studies have shown that many women feel worse about their body and shape after flipping through a magazine - the models there are impossibly perfect, their skin flawless and hair glossy.
My favorite magazine ever was a small American lifestyle magazine called 'Budget Living'. It was NYC based, and was not one of those dreary things meant for older women - it was really stylish and had a strong arty hipsterish vibe (raiding dumpsters, rescuing furniture from the curbside). Their most memorable beauty tip? In a pinch, use (unused) disposable toilet seat covers - they mattify really well Well, of course they didn't get advertising from Lancome and L'Oreal, just small DiY stores and mail order companies; the magazine went under in 2006 (autopsy here).
BillStickers if you have some reading time during Mat leave, the book Overdressed: the Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion (Disclaimer: I've linked to the American store so it's not an 1-click affair to most of you) is a great read and eyeopener. If anyone needs to kick an out-of-hand fast fashion fix addiction, this is the right book. It's well-written and balanced, positive and motivating and was a real wakeup call for Frugal. A tip: I use my local libraries a lot (some of them even have ebooks) and buy a lot of books 2nd hand from Amazon Marketplace (often for a penny +p&p). Has anyone else here read Overdressed or does anyone have copies to swap?
Gosh, I well understand the shopping filling a void thing. All too often I find myself responding to negative emotions with a couple of easy clicks of the mouse. Thanks to blimmin' PayPal it's not always necessary to get out a card.....
Early in the morning is usually the worst time for me, when I am weakest shopping-wise. I blame my early rising DC . So, in my case, perhaps I'm filling a sleep void with clothes. Hmmmm......
More seriously, I buy far less and far better when I actually Try Stuff On. Maybe it sounds obvious to many of you but it took me a while to realise that a snatch, pay and run mission while a toddler whined in a pushchair and her sticky fingered brother threatened tantrums about non-forthcoming trips to the toy shop was not the way to considered clothing purchases! Oh for the days of child-free festers around dept stores and boutiques with strategic stops for coffee and cake somewhere they don't hand out colouring pencils and balloons....
Anyway, I reckon I buy maybe 90% less if I try on. Getting stuff home and then trying on doesn't work as well (for me) because quite often I never get around to returning the it. Same with online shopping.
I've also found I've bought considerably less since I started being strict about only buying natural fabrics. Increasingly hard to find on the high street but I'm lucky enough to have a couple of really decent second hand dress agencies nearby where some excellent stuff turns up now and then.
Someone further down thread mentioned budget beauty ideas, I think. Can I drop in my recommendation for the Aldi Lacura range? I know there were rumours about it being discontinued but I'm hoping rumours are all they are as I really rate the stuff. And I say that as an ex-high end beauty junkie.
Uh oh. Kids whining about snacks. At not yet 7.30am FFS.
Newsletters you might like
I don't know if it's already been mentioned, but You Are What You Wear is another interesting book in terms of shopping and wardrobe sorting psychology. It's a bit American and psycho-babbly, but it does make some interesting points. I got my local library to order a copy in (normally costs about a quid, I think), as it's not something you'd necessarily want to keep re-reading.
My best capsule wardrobe move ever was limiting myself to:
- natural fibres as far as possible (physically couldn't find a jumper I liked this winter in a natural fibre, so compromised there a bit)
- buy less, buy better
- limit myself only to styles that work together (in my case, I know they are the right style for me thanks to HoC style class, but using a Pinterest board to identify a particular 'look' you want to emulate would be a good compromise in the interests of not spending!)
- as above, but with colour.
The flipside is that I am well past the point of shopping my wardrobe/finding hidden gems, did all of that a couple of years ago, so am now trying to develop my little capsule wardrobe without actually spending much money.
I am forcing myself to not wear just the new/most exciting bits of my wardrobe though - have been rediscovering my silk shirts this week, and today am wearing a Me & Em dress that has been shunned over winter in favour of a (second Me & Em) dress that I always feel works better. Now I have put on the older one I'm not sure why I took against it!
Working today, back later
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