I have this fabulous jacket from Banana Republic. I love the jacket. It is fashionable and dressy and I feel like a million bucks when I wear it. Does that mean its worth a million dollars, because that is how I FELT when I put it on in the store? No. Is it worth the $150 original price? Is it worth the $60 that I paid for it?
I am going to be honest now. I have worn that wonderful jacket maybe 4 times. It isn't something you can wear every week and isn't exactly practical to wear to work often at all. It is too dressy to wear to brunch with my friends... it screams "Fashionable WORK outfit". Which leads me to the question: Is it worth it?
I have always followed the Dollar Test. It is a 100% original theory that I have lived by for several years. (Or at least believed was original until a conversation today with a coworker, Katie, who has a very similar theory. It goes like this: For every dollar spent on an item, you should wear it one time. So $50 jeans? better wear them 50 times to make it worth it. $20 shirt? get 20 wears out of it and you are golden.
Katie has been in the real world a few years longer than I have. She has the same theory but applies different numbers for different clothing types. For example, that formal dress? You probably wont wear it 100 times, so formal dresses should have a $50/time limit. Underwear? 50cent/time. The two of us sat there and named different types of clothing and put a "Dollar/time" limit on it. (Yes, we have the very exciting job of being accountants, so this is how we spiced up the afternoon). Everything for the most part had a $1-$5/wear limit.
The more practical way to organize your shopping? Have a budget. "I can spend 100 a month on shopping". This alone might keep you from blowing $60 on a jacket that you will only wear 4 times. For those of you who throw your budget out the window like last year's fashion? try to find a reasonable "Is it worth it" method. Maybe The Dollar Test will work for you?
I featured an article with a similar plan on D.C. Blogs a few weeks ago, and I think its a good plan, but it's flawed. I know if I buy a pair of jeans, I will wear them til they either no longer fit, or fall apart... that means I could wear them a hundred times... but I'm not going to spend $100 on a pair of jeans.
ReplyDeleteI love to shop, though, but I stick to outlet sales, or discount stores. I don't really care about labels so much what looks cute to me.
I do think this idea has a lot of merit, especially if you HAVE to dress up for work, though, and kudos to you for posting it!
I've thought this way for a long time - the more I know I will wear something the more likely I am to buy it even if it has a high price tag. The more you wear it, the less it costs per wear.
ReplyDeleteI love that. It is one of the reasons why I skip over buying a T-shirt at Target for a cheap price because I know I will only get 4 or 5 wears out of it before it starts showing its wear whereas a more expensive T-shirt I can wear for several seasons.
ReplyDeleteFound you through DFW Bloggers! Welcome.