Budgeting Bloggers: September

September Budget Breakdown

 

Ah, September. The month where magazines gets thicker, and it’s time to buy all of the fashion. And this year, it was also the month where I found myself still unemployed and with a dwindling savings account. Great timing, huh? It was the perfect time to start a Le Tote subscription (you can read more about that here): I wore fun new stuff practically every day I left the house, and I barely paid anything for it! And, of course, I did take advantage of a couple sales and added some more permanent pieces to my closet. With all that, plus a few gifted items, it really wasn’t so painful being on an extra budgety budget this month. Here’s how it all worked out…

My Budget:

  • +$150 (normal starting amount)
  • +$20 (returned a bracelet I bought last month and never wore)
  • +$33 (sold old clothes)
  • [note: I did have blog income this month, but I didn’t add it to my budget like I usually do – willpower!]

            = $203

What I Spent:

            = $206 (total retail value: $302)

What I Received:

See the other Budgeting Bloggers over at Franish!

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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