Clothing Budget Planning – How Do You Do It?

We've talked about clothing budgets before, but not about how you PLAN your clothing budget. So let's discuss! Some questions to consider:

• DO you plan your clothing budget, or just try to stop shopping when you feel like you've spent too much?
• have you had a clothing budget for limited times in your life, like maternity clothes or clothes for a big new job?
• do you differentiate clothes, shoes, and makeup in your budget plan?
• do you save your budget in a special place? (you know I love my automated savings!)
• if you purchase clothes for multiple people (e.g., partner, child, parent), does each one have a budget in your mind?
• how do you plan for big sale events like the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale and Amazon Prime Day sales?

{related: not sure what to do first/next in your personal finance journey? here's our money roadmap}

We've talked a lot about clothes and money over the years, including picking the most affordable work clothes, rounding up our favorite low-cost clothing basics, given tips on how to stop shopping and shop your closet, as well as discussing fashion math and thrifting for workwear.

My Clothing Budget Planning

To answer my own questions… I've always been such a creature of sales that I DON'T have a huge plan for clothing budget, and I've found it hard to track since a lot of my kids' clothes and my clothes will come from the same stores, or some stores sell a mixture of clothes with other household items and groceries, like Amazon and other big box stores.

I HAVE kept track over the years of money given to me by the women in my family — the small little birthday checks and so forth that, when added up, can be a big purchase. (This was how I bought my first designer bag!) I've also always loved the idea of going on a shopping vacation such as to New York or Paris and having a budget in mind for that.

Back when I started as a lawyer, I think I did have a budget (and a relatively high one, for me at least) to buy new suits and other workwear — it wasn't my entire summer associate savings, but the money definitely came from there.

{related: financial tips for new lawyers (or other women in their first high-paying jobs!)}

Even for maternity clothes I didn't really have a budget, I just tried to keep costs as low as possible. A girlfriend who was pregnant at the same time as me was buying much nicer maternity clothes, figuring that she wanted multiple children so she would wear them more — but the fashion math is so iffy on those because you don't know how many future children you'll have, or if you'll be the same size in those pregnancies…

I have had a general idea of what is a “good price” for various clothes over the years, though, and tend to stick with it…

In terms of clothing budget planning for others, I suppose I have it easy because I'm buying for my husband and sons, and not one of them truly cares about clothes…

Over to you, readers — I know a number of readers have mentioned over the years that they have explicit clothing budgets. How do you plan your clothing budget, how do you account for other people and for big sales/lucky finds, and how do you keep track and adjust from year to year?

Stock photo via Stencil.

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