To fashion (or not to fashion)?

I figure that I pissed everyone off last week with my hating on the “your money or your life” book. If it makes you feel any better, I told my husband and my best friend to read it.  It also prompted me to ask my husband when he wanted to retire. He said before 50. If that is the case, we have a lot of work to do in the next 10 years, especially because we have another 2 years of paying off debt.

1. Pay off debt by June 1, 2020 (2 years from now)
2. Have enough for my husband to retire at age 50 (I’m not sure I want to retire) – this gives us about 10 or 11 years, depending on whose age you use.

So I’m on the verge of adopting one of those no spending, spending challenges except what is planned, and before I stop shopping, I ended up spending 160 pounds on clothes at Uniqlo and 65 pounds on shoes in order to put together my seasonal WHAT TO WEAR pre shopping ban plan (this is ridiculous and not lost on me). Hopefully, however, this is the entire summer clothing budget. Fortunately, neither of us works in a place where you have to wear fancy clothes every day. Our only other planned expenditure is a new bed, sometime, soon, maybe?

One important trick that I have to minimize laundry (and strain on the environment) is that we use our clothes steamer for getting out smells (like summer armpit smells) instead of actually washing the clothes after every use. Something to think about – the steamer kills the bacteria and relaxes the clothing and you can use it on anything! Last year we rid our bed and couch from grass mites that the dog brought home, all thanks to the steamer.

Summer clothing budget for her (£158.79): (update – £69.09 after returns)

1 t-shirt dress, with bra inside, (£24.99)

2 two new bras (£29.80) (update – these were returned)

1 pair of lounge pants with tshirt, (£14.90) (update – these were returned)

1 grey v-neck cardigan (£24.90)

1 flip flops (£19.20)

1 gola trainers (£45.00) (update – these were returned)

For him (£94.50)

3 white t-shirts (£29.70 for all 3)

1 pair of shorts (£19.90)

I new hoodie (£19.90)

 

How can this actually be enough stuff?

So maybe you are wondering (I get this sometimes from my friends when they see my closet full of nothing and neutrals), don’t you get bored with mostly neutral boring clothing? I don’t! Really I do not!  And because I have so many nice clothes that I am about 10kg too fat for at the moment, I am really trying not to buy anything that I won’t be able to wear once I slim down to my normal weight again. Thus going minimal, and neutral minimal, is the game plan.

Here is my summer week clothing plan (for her — I dont dress my husband):

Monday — Work from home! Garden clothes! Wide legged pants + tshirt + flip flops or maybe just the lounge set! PJ day! Sorry, but I love my first day home alone after the weekend.

Tuesday — Black dress, grey cardigan, cream trainers, and flowered scarf (work from office)

Wends — Black dress, blazer, (old) trainers (work from office)

Thursday — Black jeans + cream blouse + grey cardigan +(old) trainers (work from office)

Friday — Extra long shirt + leggings (or jeans if you want more stucture, like I do) + red purse (work from office) + (old) trainers

Saturday — wide legged pants + tshirt + flip flops + cocktail and garden shovel in hand

Sunday — wide legged pants + tshirt + flip flops + cocktail and garden shovel in hand

Here are the items:

Bottoms (3 items):

1. Wide legged trousers (mine are from Great Plains) currently onsale for 38

2. Black dress (uniqlo)

3. Black jeans (french connection)

Tops and Blazers (6 items):

4. Checked blazer. I bought one second hand but similar to this

5. Verticle stripped blouse  (Something like this, mine is black/white and older)

6. & 7. Grey t-shirt, White t-shirt

8. cream blouse (something like this, but not as expensive)

9. grey cardigan

Accessories (3 items):

10. 1 flowery scarf (already own)

11. 1 red purse (gift from mother in law)

12. flip flops

13. trainers

That means I only need 13 items to style myself until the end of June! Then I have to remake the July clothing capsule. If you do something like this, please send me photos and or comments. How many weeks can you wear only these 13 things?