September Purchases

I almost went the entire month without making any purchases. The great part was that I really didn't feel compelled to go out shopping- I spend a lot of time going through my wardrobe, purging things and reorganizing. Two of my purchases were made at a clothing market where I was a vendor, so I was in a situation where there was clothing all around me and it was hard to resist, although I'm very happy with my purchases. The third was when I decided that I needed a statement necklace to liven up some of my outfits (I bought it online so there was less temptation).

• Forever 21 Draped Statement Necklace - I wanted to get a statement necklace and I really liked grey shades of this one and think it will fit in really well with my black & white clothing.
• Born A Bad Seed Vintage T-Shirt - This label is from my city and I've always found it to be really cool. I'll admit I don't NEED anymore graphic T's, but I just love the easygoing/edgyness of this one. I've already gotten rid of a handful of graphic-t's that I own to make way for this one.
• Leopard Print Button Down Tunic - this tunic just spoke to me and told me 'I'm perfect for fall!'. & with boots and tights it will be perfect! I have a slightly similar top that I haven't worn in a long time that I will be purging to make room for this tunic.

August Purchases

After the amount of money I spent in July I'm disappointed I didn't spend less in August. I made the mistake of going to 'browse' in a few stores and falling in love with some things i shouldn't have.

Originally my plan for August involved doing another closet inventory and re-counting everything I own; I found the idea of doing that made me feel really anxious and I had zero desire to count my wardrobe again. My new plan is to go ahead with my super-wardrobe-purge and then do a closet recount near the end of the year. I can compare it to my original count I did in April. This seems like I'm giving myself a lot of time to do so but I feel like that's the amount of time I need to get it done. It's very possible I might do the count a lot sooner than that. Something I did do that I felt helped a lot was move a large part of my wardrobe into the front hall closet where I didn't see it all summer; all in all I grabbed about three things back out and I am pretty sure most of the remainder will be donated to a thrift store.

August Clothing Purchases:

• H&M Button Down Blouse - The above photo isn't the exact same print but it is the same cut. I love this blouse, the cut and the simple detail it adds to my outfits. It's one of the first garments in awhile I've owned that I can visualize wearing in a variety of outfits.
• ASOS Cami in Black and Blush - I wanted to add a couple of loose camis to my wardrobe to wear under sweaters. These ones get the job done.
• ASOS Wrap Dress with Bird Print - I had been watching this dress for a few months when it finally went on sale, it looks really great on me! The only problem I have with it is that it gets wrinkled really easily!
• H&M Metallic Skirt - I know that the holiday season is a ways away but I couldn't resist picking up this skirt; I've been dying to own a sparkly/glittery skirt to wear with simple blouses to holiday parties so I had to buy this skirt as soon as I saw it.
• Forever 21 Pleated Booties - These booties look so expensive but they were only about $45! I feel like they are going to add a lot to my fall outfits.
• Faux Leather Zippered A-Line Skirt - In earlier posts i mentioned wanting to add some a-line skirts to my wardrobe and I thought this one worked great, plus it has a little bit of edge with the zippers.

July Purchases

Well, July was definitely a bit of a backslide; the main detriment was taking a trip to the States to shop at the Outlet mall. I'll be honest and say a large portion of what I purchased this month were things on my 'to buy' list, a handful were things I really didn't need but loved and decided to buy anyway. Even if everything was on my 'to buy' list, it does make me a bit nervous making so many purchases in one month, because usually that doesn't usually mean that I hold off on shopping a bit more the next month, I just continue shopping as usual. So for August, I'm going to have a bit of a conundrum.

I'll start with what I tossed in July:

Skirt
Denim Shorts
2x t-shirts
Ankle Boots
Sweater
2x pj shirts

In August I plan on going through all of my Fall clothing and evaluating every piece, deciding what to keep and toss. Hopefully the tossed list will be a lot bigger.

Now the 'fun' part. My purchases for July:

• C Wonder Black and White Dress - THIS DRESS. I posted it awhile back as inspiration; I remember thinking at the time 'I would love to have a dress like this!'; but alas, at around $168 dollars it was a bit out of my price range. I happened to randomly check the website earlier this month and it had been knocked down to $83. This is still a bit pricey for me, but I decided to give in and make the purchase. I am so glad I did! A dress like this replaces five $20 dresses hanging in my closet, any day. It's a dream to wear and it will be hanging in my closet for years to come.

• Target Houndstooth Button Shirt - this seemed like a great casual shirt, but also very work appropriate when needed. And it's black and white!

• Levi's Skinny Jeans in Black & Brown - I wrote recently about how I constantly wear skinny jeans, and that I should add a few good quality pairs to my closet. These 2 are just that; plus I got a great deal at the outlet mall, 2 pairs for $40 each instead of the usual $60 each.

• White House Black Market Geometric Shorts - a pair of black and white patterned shorts were on my to-buy list for the summer and these fit the bill! I really love the cut.

• Kenneth Cole Faux-Suede Pink Perforated Bomber Jacket - this was an impulse buy, I admit. But it looks so great on me and fits in perfectly with my wardrobe. In turn I am now selling another pink bomber jacket I've owned for years and wore constantly years ago, but haven't really worn in the past year or two.

• Mudd Slip-On 'Birkenstocks' - a pair of sandals were on my list, and I couldn't go wrong with these ones for about $20.

• ASOS White Sandals - Once I bought the above Mudd sandals I was done buying shoes for the summer, alas my beige Joe Fresh sandals that I love bit the dust shortly after my outlet mall trip; I ended up buying these similar sandals online to replace them.

• Forever 21 Black & White Culottes - adding another cute pair of shorts to my wardrobe sounded like a good idea to me, and I used a gift certificate to buy this pair. It's really easy for me to see the difference in quality between some of my slightly pricier summer clothes and these shorts, but I don't mind having a few cute things from Forever 21 as long as my wardrobe doesn't become overrun by the store as it has in the past.

June Purchases

This was a very busy month for me, with my birthday and an internship. I had quite an urge to go shopping, and I did go to the mall one day this month with my mom to do some birthday shopping- I have to admit it felt really good to spend money, it felt cathartic to pull my debit card out and buy a few things. This has always been one of my main reasons for shopping, that it felt relaxing and fun. I'm not sure what to do about that except maybe find something else to replace it that doesn't involve spending money.

THIS MONTH I TOSSED: 
2x sweaters
2x button up shirts
2x shirts
1 pair of shoes

One of the only reasons I haven't gotten rid of more this month was just because of how busy I was. The month of July looks like there will be a lot of wardrobe-related tackling issues happening, including tossing some stuff and (hopefully) creating a capsule wardrobe.

Here are my purchases for the month of June:

• ZARA Leopard Attitude Sweater - I saw this sweater on the website back in January and it sold out almost immediately. I searched in every store, on Ebay, and couldn't find it. Last week when I saw it on the rack in the store I almost screamed! plus, it was marked down from $50 to $20 AND I used a birthday gift card to pay for it! I know that it isn't really something I 'need', but I know I will love it.
 

• H&M Grey Slouchy Leopard Sweater - I absolutely love this sweater and I've already worn it twice since I bought it last week. I know for a fact it will be a favorite this fall when the weather cools down.

• ASOS Pink Burnout Baseball T-Shirt - I had been searching for a slouchy soft baseball t-shirt for awhile and found this one on ASOS on sale. It's super cute and really easy to just throw on with some jeans.

• Joe Fresh Cream Crochet Skirt - I had been pining over this skirt for over a month, hoping it would go on sale. It finally got marked down from $45 to $29 and I snatched it up. It's exactly what I wanted when I talked about getting a sweet chic skirt or dress back in this post- so happy I found it!

• Smart Set Black & White Skirt - This is a amazing work appropriate skirt and I found it at Smart Set on sale for only $14.99, quite a steal if I must say. I think my goal at the moment in terms of work clothing is just to add a few very basic pieces to my wardrobe; as right now I don't have a job to wear it to but they are great to have on hand for interviews or anything that comes up.

• ASOS Leather Chelsea Boots - I have been wanting some flat chelsea boots for awhile, and these ones from ASOS were $120 marked down to $75 so I'm happy with that deal. I'm going to have to wait until it gets a bit cooler to wear them but I think they will become a staple for sure.

I'm happy that everything I bought this month was on sale (not included the H&M sweater, which was only $25). I think my focus for July is going to be working on maintaining & improving the wardrobe I currently have, as well as checking out a few thrift/vintage stores to see if I can find some good deals on a cute dress or two. I also really want to list a bunch of clothes on Ebay to sell; I have been meaning to do that for awhile.

For my birthday my mom bought me this cute skull necklace from Blue Ruby and earrings from The Bay; I love them both! They are so me.

May Purchases

This month has just flown by, I didn't get around to doing any posts because I was crazy busy! Overall I would say this month has been my most successful yet- I rarely did any online shopping, in fact I didn't end up buying a single thing online this month! I also did a variation on the 'Clothing Swap' idea with my friend, in which we invited people over to her place to take all of our stuff. Not very many people showed, but I managed to get rid of a huuuge amount of stuff! The majority of this stuff was not on my Closet Inventory list but things I had had piled up for ages. Nice to finally have it all gone.

In terms of things I had hanging up in my closet at the beginning of the month that have now been tossed/donated: I tossed 16 scarves and kept 33. Just a note that when my Grandmother passed away I inherited about 25 of her scarves, a few of which I got rid of. Even though I don't really know if they will ever come in handy to wear, the ones I kept are really pretty and I don't mind holding onto them for awhile. I also tossed a pair of Joe Fresh dress pants that were too short, and a faux-leather Moto Jacket from Buffalo by David Bitton that is too big for me.

There may actually be a few other things that made their way from my closet to the clothing giveaway party, I will have to do an updated Closet Inventory at some point soon!

Now for the fun stuff: my May Purchases.

• Max Studio Striped T-Shirt and W118 by Walter Baker Leopard Blouse from Marshalls - I have been wearing this Max Studio shirt ALL MONTH. Just try getting it off of me! It's the kind of perfect slouchy tee I see often online, but is just a bit too expensive to justify the purchase. The leopard blouse is great as work wear or for a dressy event. Both of these tops were originally around $65 and were marked down to $20.

• Express Columnist Slim Dress Pants - I absolutely love these dress pants! I didn't have any that fit me properly, and I wanted to make sure I had a good pair if a job interview or similar occasion came up. I went on a 40% off day and got them for about $50.00 which is well worth it in my opinion. I can't wait until I have a chance to wear them.

• Old Navy Pink Sueded Heels - These were definitely an impulse buy. But it gives me more reason to start wearing heels more often again!

• NYGARD Black Label Cropped Pink Pants from Target - These pants were on sale for less than $20 and I thought they would be a great buy for any future dressy/casual events.

The only reason I ended up buying the heels from Old Navy or the cropped dress pants from Target was because I was out with my boyfriend running some errands, along with exchanging a shirt for him at Old Navy that I got him for his birthday (he barely has any clothes), which tells me that a lot of the time I buy things on impulse and without any planning. Sometimes that's okay and you end up walking away with some nice stuff- but I know that I need to be careful and not let my need for instant gratification get away with me.

I'm really happy with everything that I bought- it's great that everything is pink, black, white or some variation. I feel like I'm really honing in my purchasing and not going off target to styles that are way outside of what I wear day to day.

• At the Clothing Giveaway with my friend I procured: F21 Floral Crop top, F21 Cream Jeweled Blouse, Cropped Cream Cardigan, and a light brown Infinity Scarf - I have definitely been trying to stay away from Forever 21 as much as possible (and I've been doing a great job of it I think!) but I didn't mind picking up these few items for free. And if I change my mind, I won't have any guilt about bringing them to the thrift store. I've been wanting a few more cardigans and I wasn't sure if this one would work into my wardrobe, but it looks cute on so I thought I would give it a try.

April Purchases

April was an interesting month. It was great in the fact that for the majority of it I did not feel compelled to shop, I didn't slowly drive myself crazy trying to tear myself away from online shopping. In fact I hardly went on my two favorite online shopping websites- Forever 21 and ASOS- at all this month. April was my first month out of school, and I finally had time to start going through my wardrobe, culling a few things, and that energized me. I hope to continue this through May. I still want to cut down on the amount of things I'm buying each month, so that will be something to work on in May.

• Joe Fresh slouchy crewneck tanks (1 b&w stripes, 1 black) & black cuffed shorts - I only have 3 other pairs of shorts and none in black so I was happy to find these ones! The 2 tanks were a bit of an impulse, but they have already gotten quite a bit of wear this month already so I think they were a good purchase.

• Forever 21 cropped tanks (in black, grey) - these are the perfect cropped tanks for layering under billowy/sheer summer shirts and tank tops. I've been in need of something like this for the past 2 years, and these two were only $6 each so I am pretty happy with them.

• ASOS Oversize Baseball Dress - I had been watching this dress for a few months and it finally went on sale, so I bought it.

•  From VALUE VILLAGE: H&M pink dress, H&M striped sweater dress, Gap b&w striped dress, Dollhouse pink skinny jeans - I went to Value Village twice in April to help someone do costuming for a high school show, and ended up finding these pieces for myself. I'm really happy with all of them, especially to find 2 spring/summer dresses. I generally don't like the buy out of season but the sweater dress was a steal at $15 and I know I will be wearing it a bunch next fall.

•  I was gifted 2 leopard scarves! People know how much I love leopard! Related to that I will be going through my scarves soon to remove some I don't need anymore and make room for these two.

March Purchases

March was definitely a tough month for me. With the stress of school ending and a bunch of other things I had going on, I really kept wanting that instant gratification of shopping- I did a bit this month, but didn't go crazy and I'm happy with what I bought. I did end up buying 2 dresses on ASOS a bit too quickly and when I got them I realized they just weren't going to work, so they will both be going back. I realized they didn't really fit what I wanted when I asked myself 'do these get me as excited as my red leopard print dress from ASOS?', the the answer was a resounding no. That means they definitely don't belong in my closet!

• H&M black lace tank and leopard/floral print dress - I absolutely love this dress, and the graphic print goes really well with my style and will be perfect for summer. The tank is a great layering piece under some of the more loose sweaters I've been wearing.

• ASOS black peplum top and blue tartan skirt - I had been lusting after both of these pieces for awhile, and after waiting for them both to go on sale they eventually sold out. Somehow they popped up on my radar this month, still in stock and on sale! I snagged them both.

• Value Village 100% silk leopard print Zara dress, Guess draped sweater - these items were a steal and I guarantee the silk dress will get a ton of wear next fall (I really hate buying stuff out of season like this but it was too good to pass up!); I don't have a photo of the Guess sweater but the way it drapes in the front is very visually appealing and the grey & black go well with the rest of my wardrobe.

•  Old Navy basic tanks in army green and navy blue - these are just really good basic tanks for the summertime.

• Sole Society Cross Body Bag - I have been on the lookout for a black cross-body bag for summer and I just love this one! It has a bit of toughness to it, but it's still chic enough to be worn with anything.

I am still working on doing a closet inventory, and then figuring out everything I want to purchase for the summer. I have a couple closet staples in mind that I want to seek out, but first I need to figure out what I have, as well as listing a whole bunch of stuff to sell on Ebay!

February Purchases

My February purchases list is going to be shorter than January's since I have been SO BUSY I didn't really have any time to actually go shopping, either at the mall or online!  I swear lately I am always jammed in between one commitment and the next- can't wait until this semester is over! Okay so the Forever 21 stuff isn't completely 'practical'... but I gotta have fun sometime, don't I?

• Joe Fresh pink cowl neck sweater - I have one in grey & I love it and wanted the pink one, so when I saw it for $10 it was a steal

• H&M silver chain link necklace, black/gold heart necklace - I LOVE the chain link necklace, it really pops and I don't have any other pieces like it (mine is silver, not gold like the picture). The heart necklace is a good dainty necklace for during the summer

• FOREVER21 - I used a gift card so it didn't cost me anything!

• blue leopard bodysuit - this was a 'just for fun' purchase, not sure if I'll regret it or not. With my love of leopard, how could I resist?
• paris crop top, pink crop top - The Paris & pink crop tops are to wear under floaty tank tops in the spring & summer

• JOE FRESH pink jeans - I recently realized my pink jeans (seen in the last post) were too big for me as I've lost a bit of weight over the past few years. These new jeans are their replacement!

I definitely noticed a drop in the urge to impulse purchase over the past month, mostly because of my busyness- but when I went in to Superstore to grab groceries I bought the pink jeans (and on another day, the cowl neck sweater) telling myself I wanted/needed them; and in those moments I really did feel COMPELLED to purchase them no matter what. I know i will get wear out of them so I think it will be okay. I think my plan for the month of March is to make as few purchases as possible; and coming up in April or May I will do a closet inventory to end off winter and start of my Spring/Summer wardrobe. I know already that I want some more summer dresses (which can possibly be procured with a few trips to some thrift stores) and maybe some tops; but first I must inventory to see what I have, and what I really need first!

January Purchases

After my January wrap-up post I decided to go over my purchases for the month. Even though I don't really have a budget, I spent more than I typically would- generally I only buy a pair of shoes a few times a year so the Steve Madden shoes kind of pushed me overboard. (But I love them so much!!)

January Purchases by meganegz featuring black velvet pants

ASOS red animal print dress, 36 CAD / H M black zipper dress, 36 CAD / Love 21 floral print t shirt, 14 CAD / Mango asymmetrical zip jacket, 63 CAD / Love 21 black velvet pants, 22 CAD / Steve Madden leopard print slip on shoes, 110 CAD / 21 MENS Leopard Crew Neck Sweater, 15 CAD

• MANGO faux shearling moto jacket -i love the shearling trend, and the jacket looks super cool


• ASOS red leopard swing dress -I'm still waiting for this to come in the mail


• H&M retro polka dot dress -this dress is super flattering, so far I've been wearing it with knee high boots but I would love to see what it looks like with sandals and heels once spring rolls around (the dress pictured is the same dress in a slightly different print)


• STEVE MADDEN Leopard Print Slip-On Sneakers -I cannot WAIT to wear these once the weather warms up! I love these shoes way too much. Such a great purchase


• FOREVER 21 (I only paid for one of these purchases as I had a gift card)
• Harem Pants -for lounging. Pj's all day makes me feel way too lazy when I want to get some work done
• Grey Leopard Print Sweater -this was from the mens section, it looks so laid back and relaxed and I feel like it could be mistaken for a way more expensive piece than it is!
• Black and Grey Floral Print T-Shirt -another piece for summer, this is going to look really great with cutoffs


• H&M Knit Tights -a good layering piece to keep warm when I want to wear skirts & dresses in the winter months

Overall I am happy with my purchases, I definitely want to head to some thrift stores this month to get a bit more creative with my wardrobe though.