Sunday, 18 January 2026

What I Bought In 2025 And How Often I Wore It: Wardrobe Update

Last year was the lowest spend I've had on fashion since I started tracking my spend on the blog. This year, I bought many more items and more than doubled my spend compared to last year.

2025 was definitely a shopping heavy year for me!
I took advantage of the $1 clothing racks in my favourite opshop to try some different pieces, and honestly, not everything I bought made it past my "2 wears in the month I bought it" as sometimes those 2 wears were all I needed to know the pieces didn't work for me so they were donated back to the opshop for someone else to enjoy. Most things were winners though, and a few of the pieces I only managed to wear twice were due to me buying them late in the year and running out of days to wear them.






What I Bought & How Often I Wore It:


Clothing - Tops:

  • Anko Kmart short sleeve slub v-neck tee in copper - 6 wears
  • thrifted Mossimo black and white striped v-neck tee - 4 wears
  • thrifted Seed heritage black dolman sleeve blouse - 4 wears
  • thrifted no label terrazzo print white tank - 4 wears
  • Kisschasy Hymns for the Nonbeliever 2025 tour band tee  - 3 wears
  • thrifted Country Road grey crew neck tee - 3 wears
  • thrifted Dotti linen blend flutter sleeve blouse - 3 wears
  • thrifted Cotton on pale olive cami - 2 wears
  • thrifted Suzanne Grae basics red tee - 2 wears
  • thrifted Target cotton and modal relaxed red tee - 2 wears


Clothing - Jackets/Cardigans:

  • thrifted no label black and white leopard print cocoon cardigan - 6 wears
  • Kmart Anko oversized cropped denim trench coat - 4 wears
  • thrifted Target blue linen blazer - 4 wears
  • Kmart long sleeved brushed seam detail knit top in berry - 3 wears
  • thrifted TEMT long black duster cardigan - 3 wears
  • thrifted Valleygirl pink and grey tartan longline blazer - 3 wears
  • thrifted Dotti leopard print long cardigan - 2 wears

Clothing - Skirts:

  • thrifted Rama Boho Fashion pink and orange floral print button up midi skirt - 4 wears
  • thrifted Gypsy Mermaid blue tulip hem wrap skirt - 3 wears

Clothing - Dresses:



Accessories:
  • thrifted re-Up upcycled denim tote bag - 6 wears
  • thrifted hammered silver statement necklace - 5 wears
  • thrifted rose gold station statement necklace - 4 wears
  • thrifted grey and white beaded necklace - 4 wears
  • thrifted blue knotted beaded necklace - 3 wears
  • Colette white pearl beaded gum leaf tassel earrings - 8 wears
  • thrifted Target hammered silver circle earrings - 7 wears
  • Colette purple acrylic flower statement earrings - 5 wears
  • Colette silver light twist hoop earrings - 5 wears
  • Colette Tropadelic purple beaded tassel statement earrings - 4 wears
  • Colette Tropadelic fuschia coloured metal leaf earrings - 4 wears
  • Colette blue mixed shape faux crustal drop earrings - 3 wears
  • thrifted Lovisa red tassel earrings - 2 wears


Shoes:



Final Annual Fashion Spend:

In 2024, my lowest spending year since I started tracking my fashion shopping, I spent $199. This year, I spent over double that, with a total of $405.81 spent on fashion in 2025. I also bought a whopping 50 items, which works out at an average of $8.11 an item, reflecting how many things I bought that were pre-loved.



Fashion Goals for 2026:


Last year, as most of the previous years, I had a $1,000 budget for fashion shopping. In 2026 it's definitely time to bring that down to $500, so give myself a bit more of a challenge!
I'm planning to continue to opshop more and buy new less, shopping preloved as much as possible.

While I've deleted my YouTube channel and am reducing the amount I'm posting here on the blog, I am still tracking my fashion spend and how often I wear things. 

I'm aiming on being more regular with the 30 ways to wear posts here on the blog, but I'm not publishing daily outfits and full sized outfit photos here anymore.




Follow Away From the Blue on:
Bloglovin : Twitter : Instagram : Youtube : Facebook : LikeToKnow.It 

Posted by 9 comments:
Labels: ,

Thursday, 13 November 2025

It's In The Bag 2025: What's In My Bags For Donation To Share The Dignity

It's that time of year again! My annual post about Share The Dignity's It's In The Bag Christmas campaign.

This year, like last year, I decided to donate two bags, filled with essentials, for a woman in need at Christmas time.





What's In My Bags


I filled two bags this year, picking up these very gently used near new bags at the opshop through the year, knowing I'd donate them to the Share the Dignity #ItsInTheBag campaign. They both met the criteria of being a gently used handbag suitable for gifting, and they met my own personal rule of being big enough for everything I wanted to include.

Just like in previous years, I filled the bags with the essentials and then I added a few more things.

The Essentials:

  • Shampoo
  • Conditioner
  • Toothbrush
  • Toothpaste
  • Body wash
  • Deodorant
  • Pads
  • Tampons


I added some extras to my bags as well, to make the recipient smile.


The Optional Extras:

  • Hairbrush
  • Facial cleanser
  • Facial wipes
  • Tissues
  • Hand sanitiser
  • Face masks
  • Lip balm






If I've inspired you to donate, you can put your own bag together. The bag doesn't have to be new, just in good condition to gift to someone! You can view the Share The Dignity website to get a shopping list for building a bag and find out some things you can't include.

You can drop off your bags at any Bunnings across Australia, from 14th to 30th November. That's starting this weekend! Share The Dignity volunteers collect the bags and pass them on to local charities to distribute to women in need.


More It's In The Bag Donations:


If you want more ideas, you can view the previous bags I've donated here:


And if you're not Australian, feel free to leave a link to similar charities in your country in the comments!



Follow Away From the Blue on:
Bloglovin : Twitter : Instagram : Youtube : Facebook : LikeToKnow.It 



Posted by 3 comments:
Labels: ,

Saturday, 8 November 2025

What I Bought & How I've Worn It: October Wardrobe Additions

In what is continuing to be a pattern for me this year, once again I added more things to my wardrobe this month, despite doing so back in September as well!

Unlike September's purchases, all of the additions to my wardrobe this month were preloved pieces, and some I didn't even have to pay for!


What I Bought:


What I Added To My Wardrobe:



Why I Bought It:


I had a couple of bags of items to donate to the opshop and some time to browse so I walked out with a bunch of books for myself and the kids, and a very lucky 2 pairs of shoes and a dress! I really like the Kmart button down detail dress. It is such a nice colour and while I don't remember seeing it in store, being a Kmart piece I've seen it pop up at the opshops a few times, never in my size. I got lucky this time, it fits so well! It's really nice to wear for work.

I always look out for Converse at the opshop and could not believe my luck when I spotted these pastel blue high tops for just $12! While it has been a very warm spring so far in Brisbane I have been able to wear these more than I thought - they pair just as nicely with dresses as my low tops I wear all the time. The leather sandals were another bargain - just $3! They are also super comfortable to wear, which you'd expect for a sandal that retails for over $150!

While I didn't buy the last two dress additions to my wardrobe I wanted to call them out. My sister had been the beneficiary of two giant bags of clothes that started with a friend of a friend doing a wardrobe clear-out, who then took what she wanted from the bag and added some more and passed it on, until my sister went through the bags, took what she wanted and passed onto me. I ended up keeping 2 dresses for myself and even got some nice shirts for the kids and clothes for hubby - it was a real mix bag of everything in there! In the end, I'm not sure who exactly I got these items from as they passed through so many people before getting to me, but I'm thankful for them! I added a couple of pieces from my wardrobe as well before passing the bags on to the next lucky recipient.


How I've Worn It:


I set myself a goal of wearing everything I buy twice in the month I buy it, and I managed to meet or exceed that in October with both the pieces I bought at the opshop and the pieces I got from the wardrobe clear-out.








Current wear count at the end of October:





Already everything's at a pretty good cost per wear, with everything being worn at least twice. $0 cost per wear for the dresses I got from the wardrobe clear-out, and down to just 50 cents for the Kmart floral button detail maxi dress.

It will take me a little longer to get the shoes down to such low costs per wear, but as you can see I've been wearing them a lot since I thrifted them and I'm sure to continue to get a lot of wear from them, especially the sandals, over summer. 3 dresses is a lot to add to my wardrobe at once, but I have been reaching for dresses so much recently that I was easily able to wear each of these twice in the month, and I know they will get a lot of wear in the future as well.





Follow Away From the Blue on:
Bloglovin : Twitter : Instagram : Youtube : Facebook : LikeToKnow.It 

Posted by 4 comments:
Labels: , ,
Subscribe to: Comments (Atom)