How much do you spend on clothes every year?

[Anonymous]

$200ish. I work from home and dress like a homeless person. I have underwear with holes and t shirts from 1992.

—woman, HHI 300k. My husband likes it because he calls me “low maintenance”. I am, across the board!

But I spend plenty of money on other things. Our house is decorated beautifully and I spend way too much on my horses and travel....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Folks who say they spend just a few hundred a year on clothes - do you want to buy more, and hold yourself back, or do you have no interest in owning more clothes/replacing what you've got?

Clothes and shoes are like the last on my list of stuff I wanna spend money on. I actually enjoy having a small closet. Last time we moved it was a breeze to empty out everything. I shudder when I see my friends' mountains of clothes and accessories.

[Anonymous]

I have no fashion sense and dress like crap. Most of my clothes are from goodwill although I do have some designer items I've purchased in the past. I usually only buy to replace an item I've outworn or no longer fits me.

Woman, HHI $190

[Anonymous]

Honestly I have no idea. I have designer purses that I have spent a good chunk on and then shirts that I have picked up at Target. I'm lucky enough to work from home so I don't need "work clothes" but I also like to wear nice stuff when I go out.

[Anonymous]

We spend 5-6K on clothing for two adults. 190K HHI, so roughly 2.5-3% of our annual income. It's typically one of our top five spending categories annually (after our mortgage, student loans, and groceries). When we first started tracking our money I was a bit disgusted with how much was spent on clothing and tried to cut back, and set an annual budget of $3500 for both of us. We wanted to cut back primarily on principal, since it wasn't a strain financially - we were still meeting all of our established financial goals. All I learned from limiting the clothing budget was that I really like clothing and am willing to spend money on it. Artificially limiting my spending on clothing felt stupid since there wasn't a real financial reason to do so for us. There are other things I don't really care about that were better places to cut (we average less than $100/month on restaurants and alcohol). I don't buy a lot of clothing, but each individual item tends to be pricey. For example, in the past year I've readily spent $400-$500 each on good quality boots, a Scottish cashmere sweater and a new coat. My husband, who probably spends $1000-1500 each year takes a similar approach. So his share could literally be a pair of $650 shoes, a $500 suit, and then just replacing staples. With staples, we find what we like and buy it in bulk, which can also add up. We'll buy 14 pairs (i.e. two weeks worth) of the same Smartwool sock. Since we buy them all at the same time, they generally need to be replaced as a group too.

Even though I know we buy way more expensive things than average, and we do this weird bulk purchasing thing, I really think that people here are grossly underestimating how much they spend on clothing (or they don't track their money well enough that their answers could be considered anything more than a wild ass guess). Even if all they did was replace essential staples that wear out - going to Target and buying a six pack of basic Jockey undershirts will set you back $50. So are you really only spending a couple hundred bucks each year? Really? Well, I believe the people who openly acknowledge that they live in holey and ragged clothing that is well past the replacement date. And I'd believe it from people who only shop at thrift stores and have small wardrobes. And I definitely believe it from folks who legit don't have the money to spend more on clothing. But for everyone else - I suspect they just don't track their spending well enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:most of the people who replied above are pretty frugal in this area. How do you do that?! I constantly have the urge to buy new clothes, new shoes, new bags...I try to budget them though so my spending won't get out of control. I admire those of you who only buy clothes when "needed"!

I spend about $1800 annually, how do I get that down to $300.... hehe

for me it is easy to do I have never had the urge to spend money on those this. I hate clothes shopping. I spend about $1000 a year and that includes getting walking shoes every three months which covers nearly half of the cost.

How do you Keep your shoes and clothes from looking shabby? All that wear and no replacement?

[Anonymous]

OP, I’m curious if you would have gotten very different numbers if you posted in the beauty and fashion thread.

[Anonymous]

I used to love to buy clothes but we’re trying to pay off debt and I work from home so right now I’m not buying any clothes. I also have quite a bit already so I don’t “need” anything. Whenever I start looking online for things I just tell myself that I don’t “need” anything and it can wait. I wear jeans and basic shirts that I’ve had for years. If I had the money to buy lots of beautiful clothes, would I? H*ll yes!

[Anonymous]

I'v never kept track. But, if I had to do a ballpark estimate of work, weekend and workout clothes, undergarments, swimwear and 4-5 new pairs of shoes per year, it's close to $2K. HHI=$340K.

[Anonymous]

I'd love to see how the numbers vary if the poll were asked to followers of the Beauty and Fashion board. I'm embarrassed to post my info here, but we spend closer to $5-6K/year on a family of four. Shopping is one of my main hobbies and like a previous poster, I could scale back, but would rather eat out less and cut costs elsewhere. HHI is $300K.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd love to see how the numbers vary if the poll were asked to followers of the Beauty and Fashion board. I'm embarrassed to post my info here, but we spend closer to $5-6K/year on a family of four. Shopping is one of my main hobbies and like a previous poster, I could scale back, but would rather eat out less and cut costs elsewhere. HHI is $300K.

I'd like to see that as well. I am probably at 5k a year for myself, especially if it's a year I need to replace my basics. I bought 3 suits recently (skirt, pants, dress, blazer) from Theory and even on sale, that was probably pushing 3500 all in one go.

[Anonymous]

I don’t know how a guy gets by on a $500 suit if he has to wear one to work unless he’s very tiny and shops the sales.

[Anonymous]

$2000 family of 4 3 females. Cheap versions of name brand clothes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Folks who say they spend just a few hundred a year on clothes - do you want to buy more, and hold yourself back, or do you have no interest in owning more clothes/replacing what you've got?

I have a hard time finding clothes to fit (I'm fat) so I don't really desire more clothes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know how a guy gets by on a $500 suit if he has to wear one to work unless he’s very tiny and shops the sales.

There’s places that do decent custom suits online for $500-$600. And they’re legitimately decent.