mycatssaymeow culling & buying retrospect

I have been playing around with my blog labels, hence reading over some of my old posts.

First of all it's a wonder that some of you have kept on reading (thank you) given that I write that I'll blog about it, but then I don't (sorry, but such is life - too much going on).

Secondly, I have been chuckling about my failed attempts to come up with my 'ideal wardrobe'... I thought it would be interesting to do a retrospect post, so that you too can have a chuckle at my failures and also to eventually show (in the distant future sometime) that it won't happen overnight, but it will happen when trying to build the perfect wardrobe. I think too many of us get caught up in having to have it all right now, instead of thoughtfully building it slowly.  You will see shortly that I have certainly fallen into this trap in some respects.

So without further ado, I hereby present the mycatssaymeow retrospect.

Country Road Spend'n'Save Purchases



On a whole I find that the majority of my Country Road purchases are usually successful.  This is due to me carefully selecting items to take best advantage of my Spend'n'Save vouchers by trying on the entire store. I don't usually buy an item unless I am certain that I will get the wear the out of it.

The beige pants were identical to the black pair, but I had to cull them as I inadvertently bought the wrong size and only realised this after quite a while. I went to wear them and realised that something was not right...

The jeans, although I'm not happy with the fit entirely, have been well worn... Given this point I will not hesitate to invest more money into a pair to replace these - I'm thinking a pair of blue Nudie High Kais to join the black pair I bought earlier in the year.  Nudie High Kais are flattering and comfortable on me.

On top of what is pictured above, there were a number of other purchases from Country Road, including dresses, tops and a pair of boots. All have been regularly worn.

Cue Purchases


I find Cue to be a little hit and miss for me.  I get quite excited by their mega 70% off the original price sales, but often buy things that are not quite right. The two slit sleeve blazers I bought and since culled have instilled in my mind not to get sucked into weird cuts and shapes that appear to be 'cool' because more probably than not these pieces are totally impractical for me.

I think the bow belts will get more of a work out in Summer - being a big wearer of black and grey in Winter, they highlighted the fact that I'm not so skinny anymore. I look forward to wearing them with printed dresses.

On top of what is pictured above, I also bought a couple of dresses, a few skirts and tops. My choice in tops has proven to be a little bit questionable, so these may in fact end up on the cull pile to be sold to raise funds for a more thoughtful purchase.

Online Purchases

I love shopping online.  Surprisingly the majority of the time I get it right. The items I have labelled best buys really are.  The much hyped Isabel Marant 'Dicker' boots are honestly one of my favourite things in my wardrobe, as is the dark grey jacket from her spin off 'Etoile" label. I would buy both of these pieces 100 times over.

The jacket marked "to be culled" has become superfluous due to the love the IM Etoile one gets, the striped top is not quite right and my Mum managed to wangle the red jeans from me after I returned from the US with burgundy J Brand skinnies.  So really, all in all I haven't done too badly in the online shopping department. I guess you could say that my saving grace is that I am yet to buying anything from ASOS (I've heard it's hit and miss).

Witchery Purchases

I think the proof is in the pudding: I should stay generally stay away from Witchery, especially from their sales on sale items.  I loved both the floral dress and the over-the-knee 'Ella' boots to death, alas each only lasted one season before they literally fell apart. I still have the dress for around the house as I adore the print, but I think next time I would rather invest my money elsewhere.

Miscellaneous Buys 

I'm glad I bought the Joseph trench coat, but it has not received the love that it deserves, problem being that as soon as I started wearing the coat pictured below - I forgot about all my other coats. I think next Winter I will make more of an effort to wear it.

The top I like, but it drives me insane. Within 15 minutes of putting it on the sleeves are stretched (as I like to scrunch them up my forearms). I'm vowing to myself not to buy anymore 100% linen tops.

And the dresses... they are cute - but I'm not anymore *sigh*.

The Winners

Every item pictured above except the animal print shoes has earned its keep.  I really like both animal print shoes but I have not worn either enough to determine whether they truly belong.

More Animal Print and Stripes

Some of the above items have helped me understand that things are not always what they seem... 

• Both striped items seemingly simple and classic but had features which annoyed me.
• The animal print items were badly cut, I returned the blouse for this reason but kept the dress due to my lack of work appropriate dresses at the time. The dress ended up tearing the entire length of the back seam within the year!
• The Country Road grey dress is a size large (!) and still quite fitted. I now often find myself with three different sizes of the same item in fitting rooms to get the right fit.
• The ACNE Pistols seemed like the perfect ankle boots, yet I have found that on me they only look good worn with skirts and dresses... thankfully, I wear skirts and dresses a lot of the time, so they have been consistently worn throughout Winter.

In retrospect

This post has helped me see that it's worth spending a little extra to buy the things that one really wants (my handbags [not itemised in this post], all the ankle boots, the IM Etoile and IRO jackets fit into this category for me).  I realise now that if something seems a little unaffordable it's worth foregoing the cheaper bits and pieces (that will end up on the cull pile in any event) to eventually save for the pricier items.

Also, I have to say that I am shocked about the volume of new things that I have added to my wardrobe throughout the time since starting this blog!  What's scarier is that I have not blogged about all of my purchases... For example pictured above are only two items that I bought in the US - but upon my return to Australia they almost didn't let me on the plane (which tells me that there are many more recent purchases)!

I really think that I need to get a wish list together for the following year to keep better focused on this 'ideal wardrobe' plan of mine.

Moved but no settled...

So we've moved into our new place... but we're a long way away from being settled in just yet.

Due to needing to get my boyfriend's place ready to rent out, we have not had the time to unpack and set up much except the kitchen (the most important room in the house in my opinion).  There are boxes stacked in every corner of almost every room and I am living out of various clothing receptacles; suitcases, boxes, department store pillow bags, you name it. I don't even know where half my shoes have gotten to? In light of my comment in my last post about not putting away anything until I determine its need, I have left unpacking my clothing and shoes until such time as I have a solid few hours of spare time to sort it all. Maybe this weekend...

On the shopping front, I am proud to say that it's now been exactly 1 month since my last fashion related purchase.  Sure I want to buy pretty new things, but items for the new place seem more important right now (eg a new kitchen bin, new furniture, a dish rack, new crockery, things for our garden etc etc etc).  Also when window shopping, I think back to the suitcases, boxes and department store pillow bags full of clothes and think to myself that before I buy anything fashion related, the new item must earn it's place in my limited wardrobe space. 

My mind is also bursting full of things I want to do around our new place - some 100% necessary (build and install flyscreens in all windows*) and others 100% conceited (pretty up my boyfriend's old filing cabinet so that it doesn't make our study look ugly). There are honestly not enough hours in a day!

* Not only did we discover that all the windows in our new place had been painted shut (hahahahaha *sigh*) but there was not a single flyscreen to be seen anywhere! The things you fail to notice during open inspections...

Ready, set, Pack! Move! & Reset!

I'm packing in preparation for our house move this coming Monday.

In a perfect world I would have liked to declutter our possessions whilst packing.  Alas, the world is far from perfect, so I will make do with vowing to myself that nothing shall be put away into a shelf/cupboard/wardrobe in our new home without first being scrutinised as to its usefulness.

There are no walk-in robes or built-in wardrobes in any of the bedrooms in our new home (a deal breaker for most, but I maintain that the existence of such features makes rooms less versatile), so as of this coming Monday my boyfriend and I will be back to sharing a 3 door IKEA PAX wardrobe.  The last time we did this I had my boyfriend storing his knits in Net-a-Porter boxes (oh, the humanity!). Welcome to my new nightmare... or should I say challenge?

Although my wardrobe is far less over flowing than when I started in my culling adventures over a year ago, thanks to an overseas shopping spree and a number of momentary lapses of judgement during the Winter sales, again I feel a necessary cull brewing.

In the outset I had hoped to have my 'ideal wardrobe' sorted by the start of 2012, but in reality my wardrobe is far from ideal... So just as the Australian Bureau of Statistics has reset the index numbers for each index series as of the September quarter of this year (which by the way totally caught me off guard whilst doing a calculation at work - I knew something was not right when my calculation indicated that the cost of living had halved in the last year... if only), I'm resetting my cull tallies and hence my ideal wardrobe journey.

Self-imposed spending bans vs those due to circumstances

Lately I've been reading a lot about self imposed shopping/spending bans (by the way, I think they are to blame for my record poor eBay sales).

I find it very interesting to read about participants' grand objectives with respect to undertaking a ban only to read weeks later that they purchased x (but it doesn't count because a voucher was used) or they purchased y (but it doesn't count because it was an item that was on their wish list for months if not years).  I giggle to myself but then think - I've been there and done that! I can totally relate and at times it's almost as if I am reading about my very own shopping ban attempts.

So yes, I too have tried to put myself on a shopping ban on many occasions. I've even written about my different shopping philosophies and strategies HERE and HERE and HERE. Although I have loosely succeeded in changing the way that I shop, when it comes to shopping bans, I have failed miserably.

Self-imposed spending bans

I could never really figure out why maintaining not shopping was such an issue for me?  It's only now, with the purchase of our new home (yes, settlement when smoothly) and the responsibility of servicing three mortgages between my boyfriend and I, that the penny has dropped as to the reasons for my past failures.

The reasons are as follows:

1. I have always been dissatisfied with the contents of my wardrobe - there's always a piece or two missing.  Upon buying those two pieces, I realise that there are another one or two pieces missing.
2. I will refrain from saying that I like to shop (because I seldom make a day of it), but I do love bargain hunting. This usually occurs in short spates in my lunch break. Let me tell you, a lot can be purchased during a lunch break, and multiple bargains soon add up to a mountain of money.
3. Until recently I could afford to shop like a maniac (read: go crazy during sale times and make single expensive purchases).
4. I have had no reason to budget until now, meaning that my level of disposable income was high. This of course leads to disposable purchases, in the sense that one starts behaving like a spoiled child with too many toys... you wear it once and then toss it in the corner.

Does this sound like you? If not, then why do you think that you have failed in your shopping/spending ban?

Spending bans due to circumstances

To say that being faced with the challenge of servicing three mortgages has changed the way I view spending my money and the true necessity of my possessions (more to do with having to pack them than anything else) would be the understatement of the century!

There are two ways I could go now:

1. Not spend as much as I have in the past.
2. Accumulate a massive credit card debt in order to maintain my unrestricted lifestyle.

No prizes for guessing which path I plan to take and already I have noticed a mind shift in the way I approach shopping and spending money.

My first observation is that I have stopped buying things that I do not NEED.  This may seem like a no brainer, but I challenge you to think of the last 5 things you bought and ask yourself: "do I really need this or did I just want it?".

Take my last frivolous shopping spree (if you can even call it that) that I enjoyed in Melbourne - I bought 5 things and truth be told I don't need any of them.  Not to say that I will not use or wear my purchases or that I am not pleased with them - but I bought everything simply because I wanted it.  Needless to say, no more buying the latest moisturiser just because it sounds good and I want to try it, because for the time being I have enough moisturiser to turn the Sahara into an tropical oasis.

Secondly, I have noticed that the things that I do need (arguably) have become glaringly obvious.  I find myself looking out for this stuff and my vision is no longer obscured by the things I just want and buy first or buy because I like or buy just because I can. These items that I NEED have now become the only items that I plan to buy.

My third observation is that I have parked the necessary purchases until such time that the need for them truly arises. For example I really do need new layering tops (I have been saying this to myself for years now). Say I was hit by a bus tomorrow and my clothes required to be cut away from me in hospital - I would be embarrassed by what lies beneath.  But given it is Spring here in Oz, this much needed purchase can be shelved until such time that it is truly required and I will make do with what I have for now.

And last but not least - I have come to acknowledge to myself that am an extremely lucky woman. Not only can I still afford to buy what I need, but I already have a wardrobe full of lovely clothes that would make most women pretty happy. It's time to take advantage of this blessing.

So next time you go shopping and are considering the purchase of yet another bottle of pink nail polish or the 10th striped top to add to your collection - ask yourself DO I REALLY NEED THIS?  I mean really ask yourself this question.  Answer it for yourself.  Don't feel compelled not to buy the item just because your answer is no (because maybe your circumstances allow you to go crazy Broadway style and also I would hate for you to miss out on the bargain of the century), but don't be surprised if you walk away empty handed.

Here is a video of Bart and Millhouse going crazy - Broadway style. Enjoy.

  

Good news!

The last month has been a whirlwind for us... we finally found a house!

Apart from the break we took for our holiday in March, we have been looking at open homes without fail each weekend and participating in auctions with no success for a year now.  We were thinking about giving house hunting a break for a month or so because we had lost our drive and then THE ONE came up when we least expected it. In fact the morning of the auction we almost didn’t bother getting out of bed thinking we had no chance (it was marketed for more than our budget).

Finding the ‘perfect’ home did prove difficult in the end, but we are very pleased with what we found and I truly cannot wait to ‘settle down’ at long last. I have felt like a nomad for a very long time now, knowing that where I was living was not long term.

Settlement of our new place is on 22 October. Fingers crossed it all goes smoothly.

So needless to say the last couple of weekends have kept us very busy...  We have just finished preparing my little cottage for sale. We even had to re-build the picket fence as the monkey who built it in the first place used untreated timber so it was literally disintegrating before our eyes (it was so bad that we pulled it apart with our bare hands). I’m so happy with the new fence and that it doesn’t look like a Homer Simpson job that I have to share a picture.

Hopefully potential buyers will fall in love with the fence and submit a nice offer...

Apologies for the dark photo... I literally put the paint brush down after painting the last brush stoke moments before I took this photo with my iPhone at dusk.

Last weekend we worked on the garden and after deciding that I could not afford to professionally style my house and hire furniture etc - I did it myself with the help of my amazing boyfriend. We were working on it non-stop all weekend.  I will do a separate post on that as I am amazed with the results. Our effort was well worth it.

Next weekend we are off for a preplanned mini holiday to Melbourne... Having just bought a big house, we can't really afford to do what I usually do (shop) but we truly deserve it, so I will at least spend my Myer vouchers which I have been saving for a while now :)