Budgeting Bloggers: October

October budget breakdown

Wow, I haven’t bought this much stuff at one time since May! Before you rat me out to my accountant (joke’s on you, I don’t have one), let’s talk. You might remember that I held myself back a bit in September what with the whole lack of job thing. I saved my blog-related income instead of spending it on clothes like I normally do. Since I started working this month, I cut myself a little slack and added my blog income to my budget. But October just happened to be a very good month for blog income and gifted items, so I decided not to use my normal $150 “starting budget.” It was actually my goal this year to get to the point where I spend only blog and consignment income on clothes – blogging might not ever be my job, but it could at least be a self-sustaining hobby one day!

OK, enough about my hopes and dreams. Let’s move on to the really important stuff: shopping.

My Budget

  • $384 (blog income)
  • $86 (sold old clothes)

          =$470

What I Spent

         =$509 (total retail value: $1,119 + tax!)

I know I always make note of how much I save off retail, but I don’t really go into detail on how I stay organized and on top of sales. I’m planning a post for next week where I’ll share all my savvy shopping secrets. Stay tuned!

What I Received

I hope you guys don’t think I’m a douche for bragging about the free stuff I get every month. I only do it to be honest and transparent about not just what I add to my closet but how it gets there. And as much as I love pulling out my gifted items and yelling “IT’S FO FREE” (a la Rebel Wilson in Bridesmaids), they’re not really free. They’re earned through the mediocre work I do here on this blog 5+ days a week! Thanks for reading! And be sure to check out the other Budgeting Bloggers.

Budgeting Bloggers: April

April budget breakdown

 

Well friends, it was another epic month for my wardrobe. I got so much new stuff, it doesn’t even all fit in this collage. Of course, money doesn’t grow on trees (and even if it did I’d be out of luck because I can’t keep a cactus alive), so how did I swing a nearly $700 budget? Well, I chug away at this blog thing everyday and pick up a few cents at a time through affiliate links, waiting to hit the minimum, and the stars happened to align this month and give me two nice payouts. Plus, I sold off more old stuff, including a Marc by Marc Jacobs bag for almost $100! Finally, I didn’t spend all of last month’s budget, and I got to add all this to my modest starting amount of $150. Here are the details:

April Budget

  • +$196 ($150 starting amount + $21 unspent in March + $25 for shoes I returned)
  • +$285 (blog income)
  • +$212 (sold old clothes)

         = $693

This was my biggest budget yet! Next month’s should be significantly smaller because I don’t expect any blog income, and I don’t have much left from this month to carry over (only $4). I just swapped out my winter clothes for summer over the weekend, so I have a couple bags of clothes to try and sell. Still, I’m sure that won’t add up to a huge amount. It will definitely be a challenge to take it down a notch and spend, you know, a normal amount on clothes.

What I Spent

  • -$74 on a floral baseball cap and black panama hat from J. Crew (total orig. $116, both purchased during special promos)
  • -$12 on round oversized sunglasses from Nordstrom
  • -$141 on white jeans and windowpane jacket from Ann Taylor (total orig. $264, both purchased during promos)
  • -$110 on colorblock heels, gold sandals, and silver bag (not pictured) from DSW (total retail $238, DSW total price $157, minus $20 off during special promo, minus $10 rewards certificate, and the bag was on extra sale!)
  • -$59 on cobalt dress from Madewell (orig. $130, on sale plus additional promo)
  • -$171 on Rebecca Minkoff bag from Nordstrom Rack (retail $295)
  • -$40 on crop top from Kate Spade Saturday (orig. $45, got 15% off for signing up for newsletter)
  • -$42 on cobalt pumps from 6pm.com (retail $89)
  • -$22 on snakeskin pumps from Target (orig. $30, Kristin and I both got shoes during a BOGO 1/2 off deal and split the cost)
  • -$18 on floral clutch (not pictured – similar ones here) from C. Wonder (orig. $48, on sale plus additional promo)

         = $689 (total retail value…drumroll please… $1,267!)

What I Received (gifted items)

Keep an eye out for Fran’s next budget post to see all the other budgeting bloggers’ posts! I’ll be linking up with them.

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