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May Project 333 Summary & Accountability Update

As long-time readers of “Recovering Shopaholic” know, I have committed to posting monthly accountability summaries throughout 2013 (and possibly beyond).  These summaries help to keep me honest and include the following information:  what came into my wardrobe, what left, how much I spent, and how well I did in adhering to my shopping-related rules.  As I’m doing Project 333 during April through June, I’m also including summary information for that challenge in the accountability updates for those months.

Project 333 – May Summary

As the Project 333 interest level is high for many of my readers, I’ll start with that summary.

NOTE:  If you’d like to learn more about how to do the Project 333 challenge, I highly recommend the “Dress with Less” microcourse from Courtney Carver, the creator of Project 333.

I’ll kick off with my May numbers “in a nutshell”:

  • Number of Garments Worn during May:  33 (yay!)
  • Garments Worn 5 Times:  2  (black jeans, Gap trouser jeans)
  • Garments Worn 4 Times:  3  (cobalt cardigan, burgundy cardigan, Cabi jeans)
  • Garments Worn 3 Times:  2   (black skirt, striped cardigan)
  • Garments Worn Twice:  9
  • Garments Worn Once:  17

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Project 333 Week Nine Update

It’s time for another Project 333 update…  Nine weeks down, four to go!  During Week Nine, I wore six outfits, completed my May shopping hiatus, and delved back into the world of shopping (big surprise…).  In this post, I share my wins, challenges, outfit photos, and a few links to other bloggers who have written about the Project 333 challenge.

Wins for Week Nine

In short, the following are what I see as my wins for week nine:

  • More Outfits:  I “got dressed” on six of the seven days last week.  Included among these outfits are two skirt/dress outfits and lots of black, burgundy, and grey.  I also experimented with more advanced pattern mixing in my third outfit.  I’m trying new things to break up the boredom of dressing with only 33 garments.  I think the combination worked out okay…
  • No Shopping in May:  I successfully completed my challenge to not buy any new clothes, shoes, or accessories during the month of May.  In order to do so, I had to resist the temptation of the Nordstrom Half-Yearly Sale.  I’m proud of myself for seeing my shopping hiatus through and not giving in to the siren call of the sale!
  • Repeats are Okay:  When I was processing my week nine outfit photos, I noticed that I wore one of my cardigans and a pair of my jeans on two of the days.  I used to go out of my way not to do “repeats,” even if I didn’t think I’d see the same people on the day of the encore wearing.  This past week, I didn’t care.  I see this shift as progress.  I’m caring less about what others think and concentrating more on how I feel and what I want to wear.

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Neglected Wardrobe Areas

As many of you know by now, I spend a lot of time at home.  I’m self-employed and have a variable schedule.   A lot of the things I do involve sitting in front of my computer in my home office.  While I’m working from home, I generally wear workout clothes and loungewear.  I also spend a lot of time exercising, including almost daily walks by the water with my husband and trips to the gym a few times per week.

Neglected Wardrobe Areas

Have you overlooked a key area of your wardrobe?

Something’s Wrong with This Picture

Even conservatively, I would guess that I spend 50% or more of my waking hours in athletic wear of some sort.  Surprisingly, however, a very low percentage of the money I spend on shopping goes toward this clothing category.  We’re talking an expenditure of maybe 5% of my total clothing dollars, if that.  An abundance of attractive athletic wear is available in stores, but the garments I wore until very recently were old, pilling, stretched out, and long past their prime.

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Resisting the Allure of a Sale

As many of you know, I recently accepted a challenge from a reader to not shop for a month.  I committed to go the entire month of May without buying any new clothing, shoes, or accessories.

At first, it was really easy for me to refrain from shopping.   In fact, I started to feel like it would be “a piece of cake” for me to breeze through the challenge and I even considered the possibility of extending my shopping hiatus.

Sale Temptations

The ever alluring store sales – so difficult to resist!

Then, It Happened…

Then, it happened… I learned about the Nordstrom Half-Yearly Sale.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with Nordstrom’s sales, here’s the bottom line.  They only have sales three times per year – two half-yearly sales in May and November, and the “Grand Poohbah” of sales, their Anniversary Sale in July.  I can’t remember the last time I haven’t shopped at one of these sales.  After all, Nordstrom is my favorite store, I love shopping there, and I’m a “regular.”  Many of the salespeople know my name and greet me warmly when I arrive.  I feel “at home” there, like I’m in my element.

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Project 333 Week Eight Update

I have now completed almost two months of Project 333.  Amazingly, I continue to learn more and more about my wardrobe and myself as I navigate this challenge.  As those who have been following my journey know, it’s really been a roller coaster ride for me. Case in point… While week seven was quite easy and smooth-sailing, week eight had me feeling confronted at times.

I sometimes wonder if would have stayed the course with the challenge if I were not blogging about it.  While I hope I would have honored my commitment to myself in any event, it definitely helps to have a group of readers who are routing for me to succeed.  Knowing I’ll be writing about my experience also helps me to think more deeply about what I’m learning and pushes me to find wins to report even in the more difficult weeks.

Wins for Week Eight

While I had to wrack my brain a bit more this week to find the positives, I do have some wins to report.

Still no shopping!

I continue to honor my promise to you (and to myself) not to shop at all during the month of May.  I have to admit that I found it more challenging this past week, as notifications of Memorial Day sales were everywhere!  Every time I looked at my television, email, or Facebook page, I saw yet another notice of “amazing deals” to be found in stores over this holiday weekend.

I had to harness all of the willpower within me to resist temptation this week, especially for the all-too-easy online shopping. But I’m proud to report that I did it!  I’m pretty much taking it one day at a time at this point and reminding myself that May is almost over.

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