Fiscal Fridays: September clothes budget

Ok so if you read my last post, you'll know that I was really, really bad this month. Like, shamefully so. Dave Ramsey would be so disappointed. This extends to all of my spending habits, really, but my clothes budget was probably the most out of control. I blame moving. It got me into a "it's okay to spend" mood and I just went buck-freaking-wild. It's not okay. And as a result, I will be seriously cutting back in October. No clothes shopping. Packing my lunch every day. Purchasing only essentials as much as possible. We'll see how that goes... :/

Anyway, I guess it's time to stop beating around the bush. My monthly budget for clothes is $100. I usually don't beat myself for going over a tad; I'm talking like $10 or $15 over. This month, I spent $222.11 on clothing items. *cue blushing* The only thing that keeps me from feeling absolutely horrendous about this is that I filled some major holes in my closet and scored some truly unbelievable deals. No lie. In under $225, I got two pairs of shoes, six pairs of fleece-lined leggings, two dresses, two pairs of dress pants, one pair of skinnies, a blazer and five shirts. That averages out to just about $11 per item. And these are new, quality, name-brand pieces. That I will wear pretty often (for the most part). So consider my guilt (slightly) assuaged.

Since there's so much to cover, I'm deviating from my standard one-image-and-a-list-of-descriptions format. Aaaaand since the end of the month totally snuck up on me, some of these photos are less than awesome. Sorry?

These all are from Discount Fashion Warehouse, a heaven-on-earth store that takes returns and "flawed" items from stores and resells them crazy cheap. (Usually the flaw is a tiny hole or something, and everything I bought was damn near perfect.) The two beige shirts are Express, the mint and green ones are The Limited. They have lace! Studs! Tie-fronts! And one has a subtle high-low thing going on that is just about as far as I can go with that trend. $9 each.

Also Discount Fashion Warehouse (I'm just gonna say DFW for the rest of this post). Both are Express, both were originally $80, and both cost me only $22 apiece. The shirtdress was a longtime want, though I'll admit I bought the red dress specifically for my friend's bachelorette party. Now I have to figure out how to appropriately re-style a dress with mesh cutouts on my chest and hips (and back)...

White and gray slacks from Express, red skinnies from The Limited, all via DFW. I've been dying for some red skinnies, so these were an awesome find at just $10. And the slacks were $14 each.

Blazers almost never fit me (too tight in shoulders or too loose in waist) so when I tried on this Express number at DFW, I was elated to see it fit perfectly. And for $25, I couldn't pass it up.

OH GURL THESE SHOES. They're Lane Bryant and they were $12 at DFW. TWELVE DOLLARS! (Originally $70.) They were half a size too small and usually that's enough to make me put them back, but I risked it and I'm so glad I did. I stretched them via the two-layers-of-socks-and-a-hair-dryer method, and it worked like a charm. They fit perfectly and they double as a self-defense weapon!

I actually already owned a pair of these, but I wore them almost every day and the toes gave out. Target was sold out for a while, so when I got the email alert that they were back in stock, I snapped them right up again! They were only $20, and I'm debating whether I want to buy another "backup" pair. But I guess that will have to wait until November...

So I had a "$10 off a Groupon" code that was about to expire. I used it to snag a six-pack of these fleece-lined leggings. Three pairs of black, and one each of gray, navy and brown. So perfect! I'm going to use one black pair for camping and the other two for everyday wear :) They're usually $20 a pop, but it was $30 for six via Groupon, and with $10 off, I paid just over $20 with tax and shipping. Score!

So yeah, not my best month, budget-wise. Not really proud, but not really disappointed either. Ish happens, right? And hopefully I'll be able to say I didn't buy anything in October, putting me right back on track...*fingers crossed*

Do you have a clothes budget? How did you do? Better than me, I hope!