I bought a few things in January but as I mentioned not everything arrived in time for me to make a video, so I decided to compile my January and February purchases together. Some January sale finds and a few opshop bargains!
What I Bought In January / February:
Kmart culotte short in navy lemon print
Kmart black sleeveless frill hem peplum tank Rebecca Minkoff Edie small crossbody bag in magenta
Thrifted Kmart abstract blob print tee
Thrifted Crossroads black ruffle hem maxi skirt
Thrifted Target colourful printed tank
Thrifted red statement bead necklace
Thrifted Spirit grey marle jumper Jeanswest Emily cotton v-neck tee in coral
Why I Bought It:
Despite getting a lot of lovely clothes and accessories for Christmas, I just had to check out the Kmart clearance sale in the new year and came away with some new clothes and even PJs, using a gift card I got for Christmas.
My search for a good local opshop continued in January and February, trying to find an alternative one after my favourite closed. I picked up quite a few bargains when I was browsing the opshops in the surrounding areas, most of the clothes only being $1 each. All completely impulse buys though, and nothing I absolutely needed, just things I wanted.
How I've Worn It:
I noticed I'd perhaps gone a little overboard with the buying (although certainly not the spending!) when I struggled with meeting my 'wear twice in the month I buy it' goals with some of my pieces. A good reminder that even if those clothes are only $1 each, I need to be more thoughtful with what I buy. With the grey jumper being an autumn / winter piece, I'm giving that a pass for not meeting the 'wear twice in the month I buy it' rule as I know I'll love it later!
I anticipate that the next few months will be a little slower with the purchases, while I enjoy what I own for a while.
A new 30 ways to wear post, as well as a review of what I bought last year and my fashion budget for 2019!
I love handbags, and I have a lot of them! But I frequently sell some to have funds towards something else I want more. This Chloe Marcie hobo bag was a bag I loved, but rationalised I didn't wear as much as my Balenciaga day hobo bag, so I decided to let it go. I did hit 30 wears before I sold it, so I've dug through the blog archives for some older photos of my wearing it. I wonder if I'll cringe as much looking back at outfit pics now in a few years as much as I am looking back on these pics now? 😂
30 Ways To Wear: Chloe Marcie Hobo Bag In Nut
Like many of my bags that I've now sold, I find this tricky to calculate cost per wear on! I bought it at a Reebonz offline sale, after wanting it for a while. I got a really good deal on it, so much so that I managed to sell it for almost what I paid for it. So you could calculate cost per wear based on the price I paid, or take that price minus the amount I got when I sold it and calculate it on around the $100 difference. I'm never sure what to do in these cases.
Inability to calculate cost per wear aside, I'm happy with the use I got from this bag. It held up really well, still looking like new when it eventually left my wardrobe, and I was pleased to look back at these old pics and see that I had hit 30 wears with it. I do sometimes regret selling it, but I know it wouldn't have gotten much more wear if it stayed in my wardrobe longer!
Chloe Marcie Hobo Bag In Summer
The handle drop on this bag is quite large, especially as the leather of the bag sags down a bit when the bag is full. It makes it an easy bag to throw over your shoulder in summer as it doesn't feel too tight or irritating to wear. The neutral colour works with all kinds of summer brights too!
Chloe Marcie Hobo Bag With Winter Layers
Being a neutral brown, this 'nut' shade is perfect for adding to winter outfits. I've picked similarly coloured scarves to wear with the bag in each of these layered outfits, but you can see it would work well without any matching as it looks great with black winter layers!
Chloe Marcie Hobo In The Office
Printed dresses or pencil skirts, I found this Chloe Marcie bag worked so well for the office. Again making the most of the neutral shade I could wear it with brightly coloured or printed pieces, or just let it compliment a neutral outfit. It's a rather structured hobo shape so doesn't feel too casual for work.
Chloe Marcie Hobo Bag With Jeans
As you can see in these photos, before I gave up my blue jeans I used to wear them a lot! The Chloe Marcie bag just works so well with denim, it's an easy choice when wearing jeans. I wore it a lot with skirts and dresses as you've seen in the earlier photos, but it was still a go-to with jeans too. Really versatile bag.
Chloe Marcie Hobo With Printed Outfits
Because this 'nut' shade is a nice neutral colour, it made the bag my default neutral piece to wear with prints. Something like a printed dress, or just a little print like a skirt or top, the hobo bag works nicely with all different prints and colours.
Chloe Marcie Hobo Bag In Pregnancy
Despite only having this bag during my pregnancy with my eldest boy, it was worn enough times for me to be able to include it as a category here in my wrap up. You know I love looking back at my bump pics when doing these posts! I wore the bag a few times in the second and third trimester as you can see. It isn't a heavy bag so was nice to wear during pregnancy, the braided strap is really comfortable on the shoulder.
What's In My Bag: Chloe Marcie Medium Hobo Bag In Nut
Where To Buy:
This hobo style of Marcie has been discontinued, but there are still some places you can buy second hand! All the bags above come with authenticity guarantees even though they are preloved.
I totalled it up, I bought 30 fashion items (clothing and accessories) in 2018. In 2017 I spent $1,696.53, my goal in 2018 was to spend less than that. I achieved that as I spent $1,014.44 if you include gift cards, which works out to $84.54 a month. If you don't include gift card spend, I only spent $664.44. I'm really pleased with the figures and that I met my goal!
I also continued to work on this 30 wears challenge! Every month I have to find something in my wardrobe I've worn 30 times or more to make these posts. This makes me focus more on ways I can rewear things I already own and makes me less likely to turn to a store for inspiration when looking or something to wear. Looking through my blog archives for ways I've worn things before often gives me ideas of things to try from past outfits!
My Goals For 2019
Same as last year, my goal for this year will be to spend less than I did last year. To make things easy on myself, I'll include the gift card spend. So 2019 will be the year of spending less (again), rewearing more, and hoping I don't go over my $1,014.44 budget! Wish me luck!
For something a little different, I paired some peplum tanks and pencil skirts together. It's not the first time I've worn the combo, and I'm wearing it in two different ways below. For a casual work from home day and for a day in the office.
I was excited to give my new tank a wear! My mum kindly picked this up for me in Kmart when we were browsing together. It's perfect for summer, and I could see it working with a pencil skirt and blazer or plain pants as well as with jeans and shorts. Really looking forward to wearing this more! Decided to pair it with my pink Balenciaga city bag to bring out the pink bird print.
The grey pencil skirt was a great neutral to wear it with, although I did wish I'd taken a blazer - the rain set in for most of the day and it was a little chillier than I expected. The black ballet flats were a good choice for the rain with the rubber soles.
Similar outfit to the one above, but I wore this pencil skirt and peplum tank combo for a much more casual day so I dressed it down a little with the Converse. The jersey material of this pencil skirt is a great relaxed fit with Converse, and I've worn them together in the past.
Had the daycare drop off in the morning and then working from home before doing the pickup and taking my son to his appointment, so this comfortable outfit was perfectly suited for the day.
The fun chook print scarf was a last minute addition, but I felt it worked well too add an extra bit of interest to my outfit, and a little touch of warmth in the cooler weather. The outfit seemed a bit plain without it!
Peplum tanks, like any other kind of tanks, are so easy to wear with pencil skirts. You can dress them up for the office or dress them down for a quieter day at home. If you're in a formal business environment, you might not get away with a peplum tank as you have to wear a button up or collared shirt, but for a business casual environment like my office this outfit formula works perfectly.
Just like in August's haul video, I've only included things I've purchased, but I was given more things I wanted to share here. As part of my brand rep role for Fashion Scarf Girl on Instagram, I was gifted some scarves to wear. You might have seen these pop up on Instagram over the month, but they haven't appeared on the blog yet. As always, I'll disclose when an item was sent to me to wear (marked c/o). There's another one I was given too but I haven't worn that yet!
Why I Bought It
I go into this in a little more detail in the video.
Somewhat predictably, the allure of the Jeanswest sale was too strong and while I avoided it for September, I caved on the very first day of October and went in 'just to look' while out with my sister, which turned into a try on session and some purchases..
It's been a LONG time since I've ordered anything from The Iconic - last time was in their boxing day sale almost 2 years ago! Was overdue a shop there!
With the majority of my purchases being early in the month, it was easy to mostly achieve my goal of wearing things twice in the month I purchase them! That dress is the exception - I haven't even worn it once as I've decided to set it aside for Christmas day. I know it's early to plan Christmas outfits, but I know a dress like that needs a special debut! I'm happy with it not meeting my 'wear twice in the month I buy it rule' as I know it's going to be worn a lot after Christmas.
What was your favourite piece of everything I bought?
After completing no Buy July last month, I was felt like I bought a lot this month to make up for it! Everything was on sale or an opshop find though.
There's a little for everyone here, with new purchases from Jeanswest, opshop (thrift) finds, and awesome accessories. Nothing was over $17, even though I bought a bag too!
I will always be upfront on the blog about additions to my wardrobe. I didn't include these in my haul video as I didn't buy them, but I became a brand rep for Fashion Scarf Girl in July and received 4 scarves as a result to wear over the next few months.
Shopping-wise, this month felt like a month of impulse buys! I wandered into the Jeanswest store just for a browse, and these tees were on sale with an extra 50% off sale prices. I got both for less than the full retail cost of one of them, I'm pretty happy with that! A nice slouchy, basic tee will get a lot of wear in my wardrobe so I couldn't resist getting both colours.
I'm an emotional shopper, so after a bit of a stressful start to the day, I went into Kmart for the containers I planned to buy, and decided to browse. While I didn't buy anything extra that day, I couldn't get these sparkly shoes out of my head (the messages on my Instagram stories telling me to go back for them may have helped there!) and so went back to Kmart again to pick up the shoes and some statement earrings.
After some luck with the green pants at various opshops, I really was hoping to get more for myself in the 'fill a bag with clothes for $2' sale at my favourite opshop (especially as all the proceeds were going to drought-stricken farmers), but as you can see I only ended up with two items of clothing for myself, that pile for the boys you saw in the video and some homewares after I'd been looking out for similar pieces for a while.
The bag was explained a bit further in the video too, but I wanted to try a new style and could not believe that I scored this for under $20! Still not sure how I ended up with that ebay voucher but it came at a perfect time! Its second wear is today so I haven't got the photo for this post unfortunately.
How I've Worn It All:
After buying those long sleeved tops at the opshop, the weather started to warm up and I wasn't sure I'd be able to squeeze in two wears of them! Thankfully they work for my business casual office, and it's really cold for my early morning commute so they got some wear that way! Was really pleased to wear everything at least twice, with some surprise pieces like the green skinny jeans being worn a lot more over the month!
Most of my opshop purchases are impulse buys, like this tee! It's rare for me to have enough luck to go thrifting for something specific and find it. I was so thrilled to come across this striped Coca Cola logo tee though, for just $1 (the whole rack was 8 pieces for $4, but there is limited browsing time when your child suddenly announces he needs to pee!). Since logo tees are perfectly on trend, I knew it would be an easy piece to add to my wardrobe. Here's two different ways I've worn it. Both involving a little print mixing!
A not so chilly winter morning meant I could take my opportunity to wear my denim jacket. It's going to sit unworn in my wardrobe for a couple months until winter is over now! It wasn't too cold to wear in the morning but was a little cooler in the evening. The Chelsea leather ankle boots helped keep me cosy too.
I did the day car drop off and pick up and worked from home. This outfit was perfect for that, I do really like this red maxi skirt with the denim jacket, and I wanted to wear that combination again (I last wore the denim jacket and red maxi skirt here). I thought the striped tee was a good print mix with the print on the skirt, and the red logo tied in perfectly. I really loved this outfit!
Was all so easy to put together, and so comfortable.
Another little touch of print mixing with this tee. Unlike the outfit above, I did wish this outfit was a little warmer when I sat outside in the playground with the boys. It was so funny as the kids were running around playing happily and us mums were shivering and trying to find the warmest (sunny and not as windy) spots to watch the kids playing!
Aside from wishing I'd worn something a bit warmer than a blazer, I did like this outfit. I wanted to pick out the navy stripes from this tee for a bit of matchy-matchy. This bird print scarf was so perfect. I loved the colour combo and the print mixing was nice too. I've worn this scarf with stripes before and enjoyed it then too.
I did add just a little touch of red with the bag - the red logo is fun as a pop of red on it's own, and I'll need to try that next time I wear it, but if you've read my blog a while you will know I can't resist a little matchy matchy-ness!
How You Can Wear It: Stripes are such an easy print to try print mixing with. If you're not a fan of print mixing though, you can still take some inspiration from the outfits above. Pick out a colour from your logo or striped tee and wear coordinating pieces like the red skirt in the first outfit, or coordinating accessories like the red dress and navy scarf in the second outfit.
Time for an overdue shopping haul video! The last item I ordered in May finally arrived so I thought I'd do a wrap up video with some of my May purchases and my June ones. I felt like I bought a lot, but it was only a handful of pieces - 3 to be exact! You can see my June purchases and the other pieces I bought in May in the video below. Plus, I included some bloopers at the end!
A month of impulse buys, after last minute browsing of the Rebecca Minkoff sale and just popping into the opshop for a quick look both resulted in buying things.
While I'm a little annoyed that the handbag I bought didn't arrive the same month I bought it, and it wasn't the colour I expected, I absolutely adore it. It was a bargain too, at 50% off! I'll upload a proper review of it on my YouTube channel at some point, but for now I'll just say I love it and I've enjoyed every time I've worn it.
I had been looking at the new Jeanswest winter collection and admiring the yellow knits when I saw this one in the opshop and for just $1 I quickly forgot all about the Jeanswest ones I'd been looking at! While it would be too thin a knit for winter in most other places, it will be perfect for Brisbane. When it gets really cold, I plan to layer a long sleeve tee underneath, which I've done in the past with my open knits to make them more winter appropriate.
The Coca-Cola tee caught my eye to add to my collection of Coca-Cola things. I have so many glass bottles, as well as towels, balls, badges, toy cars, even a Coca-Cola cookbook! While I don't drink it so much now, I still smiled when I saw this tee and just had to snap it up for just $1. I also feel like I've seen something similar in stores lately, with the recent rise in logo tees it's perfectly on trend.
How I Wore It:
I had no troubles finding and thinking of different ways to wear the pieces I got this month - which is a sign that they will hopefully be good additions to my wardrobe. They seem to be so far.
Every month I set myself a goal of wearing everything I buy at least twice in the same month I buy it, to make sure I'm buying pieces I want to wear immediately and can easily think of different ways to wear. As you can see from the pics above, everything was happily worn twice or more.
I'm giving myself a little bit of grace with the Rebecca Minkoff Love bag, as it didn't arrive until a month after I ordered it. I did wear it 3 times in the month after it finally arrived though, so still counting it as meeting my goal.
Update on Yearly Budget:
June is usually a big spending month for me as it's a change of season and I want to stock up on all the fun winter pieces in store. I'm pleased I haven't done much of that and only bought a handful of pieces this year. I'm really focusing on rewearing more of what I already own.
I've definitely spent more in the first six months of 2018 than I did in 2017 though, only because I did 6 months without shopping in the first half of 2017. I'm still less than half way under my total spend from last year so I'm hoping I can stick to that and spend less overall this year than I did last year. Fingers crossed!
I'll be attempting #noBuyJuly18 (just like I've done in previous years) so there shouldn't be any purchases next month to report. Feel free to join me if you want to forgo fashion spending for a month! My tips for surviving 6 months without shopping might come in helpful!
Embracing winter weather and getting my fleecy tights and my knits out for some colourful office outfits. I'm glad I have a business casual dress code at work that lets me be a little more creative with what I wear.
Both these outfits follow the same outfit formula, and despite the different colour schemes in each, I kept the same fun accessory on my bag. The silk 'scarf' tied in a bow on the Regan handle is actually a belt from the skirt in the first photo.
This skirt is silk, so it's quite light, but with a pair of fleece lined tights it was perfect for a cold morning. I wasn't sure what to do with the silk belt that comes with this skirt at first, then I realised I could just use it to accessorise my bag! (Video showing more ways you can accessorise your bags below.)
After trying it in pregnancy, I've been embracing green and blue together a lot more so I thought that this cobalt marle knit would work nicely with the green and yellow in this skirt. I wasn't too sure about the combo after first trying it on, but grabbing this green beaded necklace really tied it together for me and I loved this outfit combo. It did feel a bit matchy matchy, blue knit, coat and bag, with green skirt, bow on bag and necklace, but I do like a little matchy matchy!
As I usually do, copying the outfit formula I enjoyed so much from the first outfit to create this second one. I kept things a little more monochromatic this time around, with all of the yellow. I debated changing out the silk bow on the Regan bag but I think the yellow in the leaf print worked nicely with the yellow in this skirt.
Just like the outfit above, this marle knit is a thrift find too, only $1! It's actually a really orange-y thread with a few flecks of gold metallic, but with the marle it looks mustard - and if you've read my blog before you'll probably know I've been loving everything mustard. I smiled when I saw this, as I had just been admiring an email from Jeanswest with their new yellow heavy knit collection before I stopped by the opshop. Perfect thing to find! The sleeves are a bit long for my petite self, but at the moment I'm just rolling them up before I can get to the tailor.
The necklace is another new piece - $3 in the Kmart sale! I like statement necklaces like this, and I felt the green and blue went with the yellow in my outfit nicely.
While thin open knits like these jumpers might be a spring or autumn staple in other parts of the world, they are perfect for Brisbane winters. A cosy knit isn't just a weekend option, you can easily dress them up a little for a business casual office with a pretty skirt. A statement necklace makes the look a little more formal as well, or you could always add heels, a blazer, and swap to a pencil skirt to dress it up even more.