Planning Before You Buy

When thrifting or surfing through the clearance racks, it is so easy to tell yourself, "It's okay, it's only ___ dollars." You know what I'm talking about. This is your justification for buying the thing without giving it any real thought, without looking into the future. I know it sounds dramatic when I'm talking about really inexpensive clothes, but it DOES matter.

Impulse buys can sometimes have a fairytale ending. If not quite that, they can at least make for an interesting tailoring project. But why not prevent the most likely outcome: regret. You know I'm a big advocate of just trying the clothes on, even if you are at the thrift store and, yes, even if you get all creepy-crawly about putting on used clothes. But if you plan to wear it at all, you need to know that it fits or at least has the potential to fit well after some simple alterations.

Also, plan how you will wear the piece. Do you need to make any wardrobe investments to pull it off? What I mean is, will it require you to spend even more money for it to look good? Because if you don't have pants that are the right color to go with it, or a belt to cinch it in just right, or leggings or shoes or WHATEVER, then the couple of dollars you are spending will quickly turn into a lot more as you buy more items to make the first item work. And is that really worth it?

But for more than just your wallet, you should consider purchasing or not based on your closet at home. Will this be just another faceless garment tossed into your closet to be quickly forgotten? Will it just sit by your sewing machine, waiting for you to have the time to alter it correctly? Will you bring it home only to realize you have another almost exactly like it that you haven't even worn yet? All I'm saying is, don't add more clutter to your closet that is unnecessary. Just think for a second before you buy.