June Shopping Reflections

Most of my time these days is spent on studying, which at least allows for some procrastination (and online shopping). I'll be done by this time next month, which is good, but there is also some trepidation about passing the exam.

The biggest "purchase" this month was that pair of L.L. Bean boots I ordered in March. With that factored in, I'm well over my $250 fashion budget for June. Once I put everything together, though, I'm also under the $1500 budget for the first six months of the year. In a few days, I'll post a separate "progress report" with the calculations and some thoughts about my larger approach to budgeting and shopping, which I'm excited about.

Because I don't intend to worry too much about the month to month budget as long as I'm under the numbers for the year, I'm pretty happy with the amount of shopping I'm doing. I cannot, in good faith, say that I have adhered to the "shopping fast" rules that I set for myself in January, which was probably foreshadowed by my budget post that very first month. Still, I am a much more thoughtful shopper now than I was this time last year, which is a good thing.

It seems that I like pretty things (mostly dresses) too much to be particularly minimalist in how I approach shopping for clothes. I promise that I haven't fully lost touch with the minimalist-ish notions that initially inspired me to start blogging here. I just have to retool my approach, and think a little bit more about "wants" versus "needs." More on that in a few days!

Fashion - (TOTAL: $373.86)

• Madewell Silk Overlay Cami Dress - $54.36* - It was final sale, which was a risk. The shape looks like something that wouldn't for a more busty figure because of the overlay detail at the chest, but I actually like this. Because the skirt also hangs fairly loose, my figure still looks balanced. It mimics a shift dress shape with surprisingly little of the awkward boob-tent effect that can happen with those. The lining is polyester though, which is not ideal for summer.
• Ann Taylor Floral Eyelet Dress - $56.55* - I posted about this dress a while ago and snagged it during a particularly good additional percent off sale promotion this month. The regular 6 ended up being the best size for me as the 4 was a bit snug and the fabric doesn't really stretch. 
• Panache Underwire Sports Bra - $73.95* - I ordered similar items from Wacoal and DKNY and liked this best. It is very expensive for activewear, I know, but I don't think it'd be possible to go that much cheaper and still get something that is both available in my size and prevents unwanted movement during high-impact type cardio. 
• L.L. Bean Boots with Thinsulate and Goretex - $189.00 - I've been waiting for these for a while, and I'm excited to finally have them even if winter is still months away. They don't run as large as expected, though that might just be my wide feet. 

Beauty - (TOTAL: $11.00)

• Biore Aqua Rich Sunscreen - $11.00* - Although I quite like the Elta MD one I reviewed recently,  I've also been interested in trying this one because of recommendations that I've seen online. 

*Indicates that price includes estimated California state sales tax. I normally do my shopping in New York, where I'm generally not charged a sales tax because many items are exempt. 

Linking up with Franish and the other budgeting bloggers again this month! I always have fun seeing how everyone else approached their shopping. 

A Closet First

I've been working out, mostly by running, on again and off again (mostly off again) for a few years now. In all that time, I've never had a particularly good sports bra, always relying on random ones without underwires or band and cup-denominated sizes from Nordstrom Rack. For me, those are fine for yoga, pilates, and the like, but for movement-heavy cardio like running or even the elliptical, there is always more than a bit of... undesired movement. The bouncy-ness, if you will, has never been enough of a problem to be a real factor in whether I work out or not. It was also never enough to actually get me to invest in something more substantial. I don't know if I'm an outlier, but I've generally found that all that undesired movement is much less uncomfortable than it looks. I barely notice it while working out except when I catch a glimpse of myself in a mirror. 

This month is definitely not another no-shopping month for me, and one of the things I've obtained is a better sports bra to go with my renewed interest in keeping to a fitness routine. I ordered a few designs and sizes to try out, and I must say, sports bras that use bra sizing are not an easy thing to shop for. I'm pretty confident that I've been correctly sized for bras, and I read the reviews for each design closely to know whether to size up. One thing that I wasn't used to was the more complicated designs (adjustable straps with clips and/or bands with hooks and eyes where I've only worn sports bras that slipped over the head with elastic). I didn't end up being that close with ordering the right sizes, for the most part. If I had to generalize, these designs seem to run smaller, sometimes much smaller, than expected in the band.

I did get the sizing right with the Panache Underwire Sports Bra (it runs true to size, but the band starts out quite snug) and it was my favorite design out of the ones I tried, with no clips for the straps, just a hook and eye closure in back for the band. The band is still a bit tighter than I'm used to, which I think is supposed to be the case with a sports bra. It is quite expensive, almost shockingly so relative to what little I normally spend on activewear, but it feels worth it so far. I wore it out to today's workout and it did its job well. 

The Big (Distant Future) Splurge

 

One of the things that I've started to do with my budget is put aside bits of what's "extra" into a "shopping fund." Whenever I receive an infusion of funds (whether my last student loan disbursement this past spring or actual income), I first allocate it into my living expenses for the relevant time period and then into some of my other savings goals. There's usually just a bit left after that ($50-ish, maybe), and after I look over my work one more time to make sure I haven't forgotten anything, I put what remains into my shopping fund. It is small as of yet, only around $250 because so many other things take precedence, but it's likely to grow at a steadier rate once I start work.

It is completely premature to actually think about how I intend to use my shopping fund. I have quite a few other things to address in the next few years: taking a significant pay cut for a year while I hit pause on my corporate career to do an academic fellowship-thing, expenses associated with friends' weddings, the need to accumulate a more substantial emergency fund, and aggressive student loan repayment throughout. If I'm running a little short in one of the other categories, the shopping fund will certainly be the first thing I raid.

Still, a girl can dream, and when it comes to spending on my wardrobe, handbags remain one of my relative priorities. I think it's generally reasonable for a young professional to put aside money and eventually splurge a bit on a nice handbag if they're so inclined. I won't personally be comfortable with making the splurge I'm vaguely thinking of for a good four years or so, barring some unexpected windfalls. The upside is that I have ample time to reflect on what I want. Presently, my hypothetical tastes lean towards the practical and versatile. This is seen in my relative inability to break out of my medium-large work-appropriate black or navy purse rut (the Pinterest link is my entire actual bag collection except for one brown Lockheart hobo that I can't find a picture of online). Maybe my tastes will change, but for now, the top candidates for my eventual big splurge are the Mulberry Bayswater, a Givenchy Antigona, or a Givenchy Lucrezia.

Do you set aside a shopping fund for yourself? What big splurge do you eventually hope to make? 

Books That Have Stayed With Me

 

This particular post is inspired by a meme I saw going around on Tumblr and Facebook a while back. It involves listing, and I quote from the prompt, "ten books that have stayed with you in some way. Don't take more than a few minutes, and don't think too hard. They do not have to be the 'right' books or great works of literature, just ones that have affected you." I've had my list for a while, though I never quite got around to putting it up on Tumblr as I initially planned.

These are the ten books that have truly stayed with me, in rough chronological order based on when I first encountered them. Many would not normally stand out as candidates for the best books ever, whether for their genre, from their author, or otherwise, and some of them are not fun to read, but each was valuable to me in some way. Ones that I would recommend to friends are marked with an asterisk:

1. Rebels of the Heavenly Kingdom by Katherine Patterson
2. A Problem from Hell by Samantha Power
3. The Plague by Albert Camus
4. Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay*
5. Please Look After Mom by Shin Kyung-Sook
6. Quiet by Susan Cain*
7. The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua
8. My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor
9. The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides*
10. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie*

I'm totally likely to write more detailed posts on a few of these at some point (certainly about Susan Cain's Quiet), even if it gets to being a bit off topic relative to what I normally like to write about. As such, I don't have detailed thoughts to write on every one of these in this entry. There are few things I like more than rambling about books I enjoy. I have a few jumbled thoughts for now.