CSB: 6 Months

Back in May, I put myself on a 365-day Clothes Shopping Ban b/c I decided that I have more than enough clothes already, more than enough I never or rarely wear, and not nearly enough money to be buying any more unnecessarily. 

It's been 5 months and 28 (or 29) days since then, and I haven't bought one single piece of clothing. Not one shirt. Not one pair of jeans. Not one dress or skirt or sweater or pair of shorts or jacket. I haven't even bought a sports bra. Not at a regular store and not at a thrift store and not online. Though believe me, there were some dicey moments (such as when Gap in June had "40% off all sale items" and Brad had to drag me out of the Waterfront Gap while I salivated and made up various excuses for why it was reasonable for me to shop). 

The only "apparel"-y things I bought were new running shoes - which were a health necessity considering I got runner's knee from wearing my too-old ones - and a $5 real leather Kenneth Cole purse from Goodwill (and, actually, my mom paid for the latter), but shoes and accessories weren't part of my ban anyway. 

On Monday it will be 6 months, meaning I'm halfway there. But, as one might have guessed, I'm going to need maternity clothes in the not-so-distant future. As I said to Butcher the other day after I ate dinner in the office and my pants chastised me for doing so, "Size 0 American Eagle skinny jeans are not made for pregnant people." I've been wearing my regular clothing up till now, and in the morning everything fits fine. But there's something about being pregnant and eating - after a day's worth of food, you really look pregnant and your pants second that motion. 

With week 14 fast approaching, I'm not too far away from needing some new jeans. So, the plan is a Thanksgiving break Target-a-thon, where they've got the adorable Liz Lange maternity collection. It's not likely that maternity pants are going to come anywhere close to fitting me at this point as I haven't even gained five pounds, but I guess that's where a Bella Band (or a knock-off) comes in, so I'll pick one of those up, too. 

I couldn't be happier about breaking the clothing ban - after all, it's b/c I'm having a baby! The truth is, though, that at about 1 month into this whole thing I was like, "No way am I doing this for a whole year. This stinks. Six months is more than enough." Now I just have a good excuse :). 

Even so, I'm pretty proud. I saved us a ton of money (which we then turned around and spent on the house, haha) and got a lot more wear out of the items I do have. I'm sure I will savor shopping for clothes at least a little more now, and even though I already bought nearly everything on the cheap, I'm sure I'll be a bit more spending conscious.