Tuesday, June 3, 2014

No New Clothes Challenge

 

I challenged myself to a No New Clothes challenge for the next three months {although I am planning on extending it until the end of the year, but I figured I'd start small and try it out.}
For many, this isn't too big a deal, but for me it is.
Over the past years, I've gotten in to the habit of constantly shopping. There's a lot of reasons for it, work, church, being surrounded by well dressed people made me feel pressured to constantly have new items in rotation, sales that are "too good to pass up". The fact is, I was spending way too much of my income on clothes. I want to "reset" my shopping habits and do some self-evaluation as to why I wasn't happy when I looked in the closet.

In short, I  need to be happy with what I have.

Fasting from spending in an area where I typically overspend will be an incredibly eye-opening experience. I expect to gain insight through this challenge. Just by starting this challenge I am much more aware of what a habitual spender I can be. I know that staying on budget, for me, means I need to be a better planner when I am spending money in the future. And this applies to so much more than shopping. This method of fasting, evaluating, purging, organizing, and planning could definitely be applied to any area where we have the tendency to overspend. Think about all the times we buy dinner because we waited until the last minute to plan for our meal.

Do you tend to overspend in one area? Would you consider doing a spending fast?