A History of Debt
I used to have a bit of a credit card debt problem; I accumulated my debts when I started my first business Vixed Baking Company and I spent inordinate amounts of money on “start up costs”.
I say “start up costs” since most of them were unnecessary for starting a business 🥴 Alas, those are the lessons you eventually learn.
To condense the journey of acknowledging my debts into one short sentence: I learned to live on very little. For nearly 2 years, I didn’t spend any money on anything except my necessities and paying down my debts.
I cooked all my own meals (the only times I went out to eat was when my man paid). I switched from exclusively Sephora to exclusively Ulta.
I even sold my car and relied on public transit for 6 months. That’s a big deal in Minneapolis. The public transit here is by no means exceptional, but I happened to live a few blocks from the train that took me to work.
Plus I didn’t have to worry about driving in the winter!
While not updating my closet may be a smart money move, it shouldn’t also be an affront to my self-care.
I cut all my living expenses significantly and only allowed myself $100-$150/month to spend on whatever non-necessity I wanted. One month it was a wax, one month it was a facial, one month it was books.
While all those purchases are technically frivolous, they all kind of still felt like necessities to me. I don’t need to read to literally survive, but feeding my soul is a kind of survival isn’t it?
As the months passed and my limited non-necessity budget was spent on whatever frivolous maintenance I chose, I yearned for one thing: A s**t ton of new clothes.
But I wasn’t there yet in my debt-slaying plan. I couldn’t just spend money on clothes like that until I achieved my goal of being debt-free. After all, I had clothes. Whether they were old clothes wasn’t important, buying new ones was not in the debt-slaying plan.
So I waited to upgrade my closet. I waited 3 months, then 6 months, then 1 year… Now I’m looking at my closet thinking DAMN what happened to all your cute clothes?!
The Time to Honor Your Style is Now!
I think in the time I’ve resisted updating my closet I’ve grown to dislike every article of clothing I’ve relied on these past couple years.
My favorite t shirt lost its appeal since it’s also my only relatively new t shirt (8 months old). My favorite leather jacket lost its appeal since it’s my go to fall jacket (3 years old). I now even hate my favorite jeans (1 1/2 years old).
Yes, I’m saving money by not updating my closet, but at what cost? Every day is a celebration you should dress for and every day I’m robbing myself of the opportunity.
While not updating my closet may be a smart money move, it shouldn’t also be an affront to my self-care.
The moral of the story is this: Acknowledge your efforts and reward yourself no matter how small the win because every win matters. I realize now I deserve to buy new clothes even though I haven’t completely reached my debt-slaying goals.
What matters is I made a plan and I’ve stuck to it. I still cook all my own meals and I’m still an Ulta person. I trust myself to achieve my goals at my own pace. And right now is shopping time!
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