I’ve been salivating for some new work clothes ever since I started my new job and moved to a city where the shopping choices are endless. Last night, T drug me to the mall (seriously, it was his idea–he’s trying to update his wardrobe too).While attempting to shop two weekends ago I did not purchase a single thing–the sales were small and picked over, and full price seemed like too much.  However, new sales started at Banana Republic and almost everything was marked down a little bit. Did you know that the prices on the website are sometimes a little lower and that the stores won’t match? Still the in-store selection was much better and obviously there are no shipping costs.

After trying on about 20 things and liking about 10 of them, I purchased 4 items: 2 short sleeve shirts, a cardigan, and a super cute sweater. At an average of $40, the total was about $160, and after tax, a painful $175 for a spring wardrobe update. Still, I’m quite happy with my purchases. The cardigan in particular was much needed (my current ones are old and the longer chunkier style of a couple years ago). Work is COLD so I will wear it often. The other things will get a lot of wear as well.

As far as budgeting goes, that means I’ve used this months remaining budget ($30), next months budget (which I previously upped to $75) and pretty much all of May’s budget as well. Woah! This should be fine, I can last until June or later without shopping.  It is easier for me to get a couple things at once when there are sales. Also,  $100 of my economic stimulus check might go towards work related clothing or other “fun” spending, with the remaining $500 going to the e-fund.

Following my rule of donating at least one older item of clothing for every item brought in, my closet will be faced with some downsizing this weekend.