Annual budget for clothes for yourself

[RoseMartha]

Do you have an annual budget?

Do you buy what you like or what you need?

Does £300 a year seem reasonable to budget for clothes and shoes?
I have what I feel is good amount, but not excessive by any means, but change of circumstances means £300 will be my annual budget.

Used to be about £500.

I buy in sales, childrens clothes as I am small, second hand or Primark, so used to budgeting but do you feel £300 is a bit low.

I wear smart casual or casual mostly.

It depends how much you have already and if you follow trends I think. I think I spend an average of £50 a month on clothes and shoes. I've spend £145 this month but probably won't spend now until just before the summer as I'm trying to be good.

I don’t have a budget as such, but buying clothes £ shoes isn’t a priority for me. I spend less than £30 a month on average. The less I spend on clothes, the more nice holidays I can afford!

I set myself a budget of £100 per season, so £400 a year. But I can also top that up with any money I make outside of my normal salary - so via eBay, market research sites, bonuses at work etc.

It mostly goes on my credit card or Next account and then pay it off with savings.

I have enough clothes and they are pretty nice so unless something wears out and I need another I'm trying not to buy.
Happy to spend £200-£400 getting those few items that I need. I could spend a lot more and used to but want to buy less.

I spent £359 In the jo browns sale today

Its all relative..I don't buy things from Primark etc. I don't think they last or wash well.

If your weight is stable and you have a good base wardrobe then £300 A year seems enough. I guess it's more dependant upon innings and outgoings... everyone will be different.

God £300, I don't know if I could manage to stick to that.

I don't buy expensive clothes but buy a lot of mid price stuff. I would like a new mid season work coat, which I reckon could cost £100 quid though. No other major purchases on the agenda I suppose.I spend far too much on clothes.

£300 doesn’t seem like very much to me, but I really enjoy buying clothes and tend to wear my money rather than save it.

Thanks for replies. I think perfectly doable then which has made me feel happier about it. Pressure from other people in my life telling me it was unrealistic as too low made me doubt myself but I think it will be ok.

It’s all relative dependant on how many clothes/shoes you already have, what you need, where you shop, how often you shop and how much you can afford. It’s perfectly doable only I wouldn’t want to do it.

Buying 30 cheap items might turn into a bit of a false economy though.

It sounds ok. I spent £500 last year and £400 the year before, but before that when we were saving I spent closer to £200 .

I don't have a budget, but I know I have spent just over £300 in the sales in the past month.. I bought a cashmere sweater reduced from £170 to £65, a pair of trousers from L K Bennett, a pair of trousers from Me & Em, a jacket from Massimo Dutti, a silk shirt from Boden and a pair of ballet pumps from Clarks. However, some months I buy nothing and am not averse to the odd charity shop or eBay purchase. I also look after things and keep them for ages.

£300 sounds a lot to me!
I don't buy anything unless it's in the sale of charity shop - and only when something wears out and is needed like waterproof or work shoes.
Bought a new jumper this week from
Charity for £4 fat face new with tags and got some new jeans for 99p off eBay you just have to hunt for the bargains a bit more :)

For me that would be a winter coat (£60), pair of boots (£100), pair of trainers (£40), pair of sandals (£30) and 2 pairs of jeans (£70). Those are the items I need to buy new each year. I have plenty of dresses and tops to keep me going for a long time so I could do it and still have everything I needed. It depends on what you already have and what you wear and what you wear out and need to replace each year.
Another way of adding to your budget is to ask for a scarf, hat, gloves, pyjamas etc for Christmas and your birthday so you don't need to get those out of your £300.

Sounds plenty to me but I don't spend much. I buy mainly in sales or charity shop so rarely spend over £20 on any item. I'll probably buy 1-2 pairs of shoes a year, a couple of jumpers, couple of pairs of trousers, couple of tops each for summer and winter, a cardi and 2-3 dresses or skirts. I keep winter coats for several years so don't need to replace them frequently. I needed new ankle boots so I asked for them as my Christmas gift - got some suede ones for £30 in the sale.

£300 is perfectly doable although will require a bit of an adjustment from £500.

I would spend far less than Bernadette for example on each of those items. I get my jeans from the supermarket so they're more likely to cost around £20-£25. They seem to wear pretty well and usually last me a few years. I got my last winter coat in a Tesco sale for £15 six years ago. It got a small hole in the seam but I stitched it up and it's not noticeable. I'm sure I would spend more if I had the money but I seem to have plenty of clothes in my wardrobe!

As I said, your budget is perfectly doable if you need to stick to it but you will either have to buy fewer items or buy cheaper versions of each item. I don't necessarily find that the cheaper stuff has to be poor quality.

Our budget is £240 each this year, I'd say we spent more like £360 each previously.

I think it will be challenging! But I'm keen to make it work and be mindful of what I really need, and choosing the longest lasting quality I can within the budget.

Not got anything this year yet. DH has got boots and a workshirt, one of the kids got a coat.

200 a month but that includes hair and make up.
Have highlights every 7-8 weeks at £120 so that takes a fair bit of my allowance.
Also includes tights and undies .
I don't have any beauty stuff really - except brow tint every 12 weeks.
I do my own waxing and nails etc.
I don't think 200 is excessive.I have a good salary and need to dress smartly for work.
I rarely buy anything full price usually sale or discount codes.

I never really knew how much I spent on clothes - I am not much of a shopper and have spent 4 of the last 5 years either pregnant or feeding so last year I kept a tally of what i spent as I needed to buy a few things (rather than just buying things I wanted). I don't feel I went over board but on average I spent £150 a month.
I didn't even buy a new winter coat... I have no idea how you will manage on £300 for the whole year.
Maybe keep a diary on here?

I spend a lot more, but when I was younger I had a lot less money.

On a small budget like that what I would do is spend £200 on things that you have to spend more on - e.g. a pair of leather boots in winter and a coat. Other things can be purchased for a lot less. Buy less but good quality.

I'm having another zero buy year for clothes, I bought clothes last year but not the year before. a) I CBA to shop and b) I've got enough good stuff from years ago to last, don't need anything fancy for work. and c) I bought a couple of pairs of shoes last year so won't need any shoes

I spend the same as Bernadette or more on those staples, particularly boots and a coat, but on the other hand I definitely don't need a new coat each winter: they seem to last about 6 years, and the same generally for boots, though they usually need reheeling in that time.

I have in the past hugely cut down my clothes spending (to circa £100 per year) and it was fine, but after 4 years a lot of the stuff I had looked Old and I felt I was starting to look scruffy.

@Nacreous yes that is the thing if you dont buy for several years things wear out and fade. Some of my things will wear out this year.

@Ariela Wow that is really good that you manage that.

@DitheringDaisy That is a good plan. I have already spent 70 of it already, on five items, three bras, a tunic jumper and long sleeve tshirt, the latter two were in the sale in kids department😕. But thinking ahead will need a few t-shirts in the summer and manage with what I have as much as I can after that.

It's a 40% cut on what you've spent before which is tight but probably manageable for a year or so. Trouble is on here a lot of us have large clothing budgets so to us it sounds like nothing. Last year I spent £100 a month, year before (when I lost a couple of stones and had to buy a whole new wardrobe) I spent £175 a month. But even that larger figure was less than 5% of our gross household income.

I could easily survive a year without spending anything on clothes if I had to but after that underwear and t-shirts would start to be a problem!

I too could go several years without buying a thing, and be perfectly well-dressed. But, I like clothes the way that some people enjoy art ,and buy pieces that are of the moment. I keep them for ages, rework the shapes and spend more on accessories than garments.

I've not done as much clothes shopping for years as I have lately with the need for maternity clothing. I've never added up what I spend but I know it's probably:
£100 a year on footwear as I use it on my smallholding- wellies, long boots or short country boots. At least one pair of the three dies each winter.
£100 on outdoors gear, one year a coat, another might be replacing waterproof trousers. Including socks, gloves, hats in this as they make all the difference.
£50 on stuff for the day job (maybe not even that much)
£100 on casual stuff to replace worn out things. Also including underwear I guess. Maybe more if there's a big family wedding or something as there was last year.

Enough but not too much I think.