If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know I’m big on tracking.  I believe that tracking can be highly beneficial for recovering shopaholics, as well as anyone who wants to shop smarter and better utilize the wardrobe pieces they own.   I’ve been tracking how much I spend, what I wear, and how often I wear it since the beginning of 2011, and this year I added photos and an outfit journal to the mix.  I also decided to look at what I’ve bought and whether my new items have become wardrobe workhorses or closet “benchwarmers.”  All of these types of analysis can help us make fewer buying mistakes in the future.

Do you review your purchases later to see if they were good or bad?

It’s been four months since I last did a purchase analysis, so it’s high time for another one!  Last time, I reviewed the purchases I’d made from January through April, but it was probably a bit premature to analyze my most recent acquisitions at that time.  In truth, since I did my post on May 5^th, the jury was probably still out on everything I had bought during April – and perhaps for the March buys as well. Continue reading →

This post launches a new feature on “Recovering Shopaholic.”  As most of you know, I’ve been sharing what I’ve bought and what I’ve purged from my wardrobe since the genesis of this blog.   In recent months, I’ve also started sharing my reasons for both my purchases and the closet pieces I’ve let go.  However, there has been one missing link from the equation…  I haven’t taken the time to analyze my purchases after the fact to see if they ended up being good buys – or buying mistakes.

I’ve purchased these 20 pieces since the beginning of 2014.

We Think Our Purchases are Good When We Make Them

I believe that most of us think we’re making good purchases at the time when we buy something new.  However, for a variety of reasons, that doesn’t always end up being the case. Sometimes our emotions get in the way of our rational thought, or we may be pressured into buying something by a salesperson or the friends or family members with whom we shop.  We may also inadvertently purchase something that’s very similar to pieces we already have in our closet, or we might rationalize buying a particular item because it’s on sale or is in line with a current “hot” trend. Continue reading →

At long last, we’ve come to my final wrap-up post for 2013.   However, this is a not a case of “I saved the best for last.” Rather, I saved the most difficult post for me to write until the bitter end.  In fact, this is the post I’ve been dreading writing.  But there’s no avoiding it… It’s time for me to face the music and share what I bought in 2013.

It’s time to tell the truth about my 2013 shopping…

This post includes how many items I bought last year and how many I still have, as well as the number of shopping successes and failures I experienced during 2013.   As an aspiring optimist, I like to find the silver lining in all life’s situations, yet I won’t “sugar coat” things here.  I made some big mistakes last year and I won’t shirk from admitting them to you – and to myself.  But I’ll also share what I learned from those mistakes, in the hopes that my lessons will also benefit those of you who continue to struggle with overshopping, bad shopping, and various wardrobe woes. Continue reading →