The main themes this year
2022 my clothing (and accessories) purchases followed two purposes, both of which were very intentional:
- Don’t buy to much clothing because I spent most of the year pregnant
- Build up a high quality handbag collection… without busting the bank.
Here’s the tally!
I sold two pairs of Loubies
After my first pregnancy I was already pushing it with my feet which grew half a size. I had a soft spot for Christian Louboutins. There is no logic to this! The shoes are impractical, uncomfortable, but I like their beauty. I knew after my second pregnancy there’s no way I could jam my feet without causing injury. Anything that I sell during the year, offsets my clothing spend, so sales are negative in the spreadsheet above.
I was almost 100% successful going on a no clothing spend challenge
I kept the majority of the maternity clothing I had when I was pregnant in 2019, though the certainty of whether I’d use them again was never there. I’m so glad I did! Then through two Buy Nothing exchanges in NYC I added a few more practical dresses to the bunch (the ones I had from 2019 were pretty, but some of them were a little too frou frou for me to run after a toddler). I added a few things mostly for our babymoon in Spain. The only item that I felt sort of “broke” this goal was this green dress. But I don’t blame myself. I could wear this dress over and over
I built up a luxury handbag collection without the luxury price tag
In 2019, I made the most money ever at that time. And it got into my mind in 2020 that I should treat myself to a high end ($1000+) luxury handbag. I told myself I needed to do minimum ONE YEAR’s worth of research for such a large purchase. I primarily considered LV, Prada, Bottega Veneta, YSL, but after all the browsing trips, I got less and less excited. There was not just one design I wanted.
This year I realized that my reasons for wanting the handbag did not fit with my values system. I cannot justify the cost even when buying used. Also, there was a part of me that wanted to “belong” with a luxury bag. But “belong” where? So who am I trying to prove? Why did I go on the browsing frenzy? I have my thoughts, but the point is, it no longer mattered.
I pivoted towards finding non-name brand leather bag manufacturers that would sell direct to consumer. I found Gianni Notaro and Andrea Cardone. Both are based in Italy, practically unknown, but appear to use high quality leather. It was a risk to buy sight unseen, but I’m so glad I did! I now have at least 5 handbags that I can wear on rotation and not get tired of any of them, and also feel guilt free over what I spent. You can see them featured in this video
A necklace I plan to resell – and a preview of 2023
Surprisingly my husband’s company decided to host a fancy holiday party in December. As I had no theme appropriate (Great Gatsby) dresses, being late third trimester and all, I figured I’d jazz it up with some nice sparkles. For those of you who watch me daily on IG you may recognize that I literally only wear one piece of jewelry – a necklace with a single pearl at the end. This necklace was the only jewelry Mr. Savemycents had gifted me but it carries a lot of meaning. It’s a pearl from Bahrain which he visited early on when we were dating. I’m not big on jewelry, so it’s the only necklace I have.
Last minute, I browsed Ebay and landed on this shiny Givenchy necklace. It served its purpose for the holiday party, but I am likely to resell it in 2023 as I can’t imagine myself wearing it often.
It did, however, cement an idea I’d been mulling – I would like to have one classic diamond piece of jewelry for going out. So I called up my friend @bandojewelry with whom I worked to redesign my wedding and engagement rings (both rings were damaged as they were removed by firefighters during my first pregnancy), and I will be designing a lab grown diamond necklace in 2023. This will be my first splurge that is $1000+, but it would cost far less than if I went the conventional route with a large jewelry company. Excited to see how this unfolds next year!
You can see my 2021, 2019, 2018 posts as well as advice on how to build your own capsule wardrobe by going to this dedicated page
