When I was a baby, one of my first words was, “Shopping!” I would say it when I saw my grandma (my mom’s mom). My mom loved to shop. My grandma loved to shop. My sister loves to shop. I also love to shop. We’re bargain hunters. We’re quality-finders. We comparison shop and help friends find just what they’re looking for, and we love it.
Unfortunately, it costs money.
Fortunately, while I love to shop, I tend to feel like I don’t do a lot of it. I felt happy and confident in that notion until I looked at Mint.com and see that we spent over $4,000 in the “shopping” category in the last 12 months.
Our “shopping” category includes things like clothes, electronics, books, and anything we buy from places like Walgreens or Target.
Bryan and I don’t spend money equally. I’m going to guess that I spent 95% of the dollars spent in the “shopping” category. Bryan isn’t the one in our family to buy clothes or to go to Target to stock up on office supplies or to buy a replacement coffee maker.
This is one category…since it’s almost entirely discretionary…that I first cut back on when we need to save some denaros. It’s also one that would make a lot of sense to budget this category more closely. I think I have a good sense of what we spend, but if I had cash in an envelope to spend, I’d be sure to stay on budget. I still haven’t implemented the cash budgeting system, but I may. On the other hand, Mint.com sends me emails when we’re approaching the budget limit, which is pretty helpful.
On the plus side, (according to Mint.com) our family spends less than the USA average on the “shopping” category. And it helps that unless I have someone to watch my kids that shopping isn’t too fun an experience in general!
I spent about $500 on clothes and shoes for Sylvia and Andrew over the last year. That seems like a lot, but then again, much of it is from resale shops…
How does your family handle “shopping” expenses? Do you have a clothes budget for each family member? How do you decide on the best time to purchase things like, oh, a replacement microwave or a new lamp? Are you a compulsive reader of Consumer Reports?
Just wondering 🙂
For what it's worth, we always had clothes budgets for the members of our family. Of course, you already know most of what we did…just wanted to respond. We've also always done like you were talking in your last post…had accounts for saving up for things and tried to not purchase until we had the money there. I think you're on the right track with your accounts for different purposes. If nothing else, it really helps you assess where you are and where your money is going so you have good information to work on the next year as you adjust.
For what it's worth, we always had clothes budgets for the members of our family. Of course, you already know most of what we did…just wanted to respond. We've also always done like you were talking in your last post…had accounts for saving up for things and tried to not purchase until we had the money there. I think you're on the right track with your accounts for different purposes. If nothing else, it really helps you assess where you are and where your money is going so you have good information to work on the next year as you adjust.
I take between $200-$250 each month from my budget to buy Target-like items – clothes, shoes, makeup, shampoo, etc. I take the cash out each week and once it's gone, it's gone. The reason I take the cash out is because we save all of our change – if my bill is $65.01, I pay $66 and we take all that change and keep it in a piggy bank in the kitchen. We've been doing it for 6 years now – we save about $600 a year in change, easy. We bought the baby furniture that way, trees for our yard, nice blinds for the entire house, etc. Our next purchase is new lamps for our bedroom and the living room – time for the college light fixtures to go!
One tool I’ve used over the years to help identify what’s worth buying and what’s not has been this: I figure out how much I bring in per hour (net, not gross), then figure out how many hours I need to work to pay for this item. When you look at an optional purchase and think, “I have to spend six hours of my precious life working for this _____ (fill in the blank),” it helps you decide if it’s really worth it. Sometimes it is, and sometimes it isn’t. Another thing I think about at my age (vs. when I was yours) is: “Man I’ve accumulated a lot of stuff!” At one time it was so important to have this stuff. But too much stuff can clutter life–it doesn’t enhance it. I love shopping too, but at some point you start to think, “Do I really want to drag this around, have this item in my house inventory, and have to watch over it, organize it, clean it (or clean around it), inventory it, etc., for years to come?” Accumulating because you enjoy getting something new (and getting the buzz from the purchase) can become burdensome if practiced too often, year after year, without purging.
I’m in a consumer culture class right now and so I feel as though I should have something pertinent and/or useful to add…but I don’t.
Wasn’t that useful?
I take between $200-$250 each month from my budget to buy Target-like items – clothes, shoes, makeup, shampoo, etc. I take the cash out each week and once it's gone, it's gone. The reason I take the cash out is because we save all of our change – if my bill is $65.01, I pay $66 and we take all that change and keep it in a piggy bank in the kitchen. We've been doing it for 6 years now – we save about $600 a year in change, easy. We bought the baby furniture that way, trees for our yard, nice blinds for the entire house, etc. Our next purchase is new lamps for our bedroom and the living room – time for the college light fixtures to go!
I was thinking about the age of my car the other day (which will be 12 years old in May) and feeling like it was kind of old, but then realized that I had just parked by a Beretta in the work parking lot. Chevrolet stopped manufacturing this model thirteen years ago. There’s also a slightly-dented Geo Metro that I frequently see in the parking lot. Those haven’t been produced in over a decade either, as far as I know.
I feel we fall somewhere into the middle of Consumptionville. There are definitely things that we spend money on that we don’t need. Michael likes electronic toys and computer games and I am more into clothing, shoes, cooking and bath products. With out consulting Mint, I can safely say that these are probably areas we overspend on.
On the other hand, we tend not to replace major appliances unless they stop working and we use furniture and vehicles as long as possible. I have no qualms with secondhand furniture and as long as my old car continues to work reliably (and has few major repair bills) I will continue to drive it.
I don’t care much about decorations and knickknacks (they’re just more to dust or maintain in my opinion)– most of the things we have that fall into this category are Michael’s, or are secondhand, or have some sort of practical function.
We used to be compulsive purchasers of kitchen equipment (as a result, we have 3 whisks), but since the paella pan for last Valentine’s Day, I don’t think we’ve purchased anything other than sponges and scrubbies for the kitchen – until last night, when our stick blender broke just as we were preparing to make hummus. So I went and got a new one at Target – $19.99. I’m figuring we bought the last stick blender while we were in college, probably for something around $20, so well worth the investment.
Clothes. I buy the kids new shoes every fall, and new snow boots if they can’t fit into last year’s. Same with winter coats – if last year’s doesn’t fit, I buy them a new one. And by new, I mean new, not second-hand. I also spring for a couple of pairs of pants for Egon, and a few new tops for Shara. The rest of the year, new clothes for them means deep discounted sales at Target or Old Navy, or trips to Savers or St. Vinnie’s. Daniel usually gets one new pair of pants a year, and maybe a couple of shirts at St. Vinnie’s. He does plow through socks, though, I feel like I am always buying those!
My personal shopping issue is shoes. I like them. I have many many pairs of them. I probably get 2 or 3 pairs a year. But this year, one of those was $2 at a resale shop, one was 70% off at Famous Footwear, and one was a pair of boots given to me by Sonya. I try to be fiscally savvy about my obsession, is what I am saying.