Clothes and frugalness

DH and I are pretty darn low maintenance when it comes to clothes. Mostly we dress for comfort, not style. I was trying to remember what I have bought for us this past year. Not too much. Most of what I bought last year was for him, I think I replaced some basics - socks and an extra pair of long underwear. I probably bought him a couple pair of jeans. I also bought him a pair of slip on shoes. Croc's brand through Amazon, but I had a $15 credit, so they were only $16. He goes through his tennis shoes pretty fast and he likes a certain brand/style (New Balance). I bought him a new pair, months ago, so he could rotate out his worst pair, and I had forgotten he didn't use them right away and he packed them up when we moved here, 4 months ago. He asked the other day, didn't you buy me some new shoes before we moved, but I thought he had already started wearing them. He didn't think so, and found them in one of the boxes. Yay! He should be good on tennis shoes for most of this year, then. I also bought him about 6 t-shirts on Amazon, but he hasn't used them yet. He decided to wear out as much as possible the t-shirts he's wearing during this construction and then when it's all done he'll turn them into rags and start wearing all his new ones. Between the tennis shoes and shirts still to be worn, I don't think he's going to need much bought this year.

He's also lost so much weight that his jeans are hanging on him. He's on his last belt notch. But, since he likes to save things, he still has several pairs of his old Levi's from when he was smaller (like 10 years ago LOL) and once he can unpack them from a box, I have a feeling those will fit now again, haha! He's down like 40 pounds, from 230 last spring, to now 190.

For me, I recall buying a sweater at Costco ($8) and another sweater at Target that was half off at $12. I think I bought a couple of t-shirts, also. Last January I got a few clothing items, but they were actually Christmas gifts from DH (he gave me a note for a shopping trip to Kohl's), so I'm not counting them as part of clothing money spent. On that trip I bought a new pair of tennis shoes, which are now my "good pair". They are still in great shape. I mostly wear my "old pair", which are getting pretty bad. But, with all the dirt and dust around me on a daily basis, there's no point in me wearing my good tennis shoes. I'll just keep wearing these as long as I can. Most of the time it's one of the dogs stepping on my foot with one of their big dirty paws! I should probably give throwing them in the washing machine a try, I guess.

Neither of us cares about high priced, fancy brand name clothing much. That's not to say we don't have any, but in a few useful pieces, that we get good wear out of and they last years and years. DH has 2 Carhartt jackets (one really old one and a nicer newer one dd got him as a gift a couple years ago) and coveralls. I also bought him a pair of "Romeo" slip on shoes as a Christmas gift a couple of years ago., but those aren't really too expensive, in my opinion. He also has some snow boots that were very expensive years ago. I'm talking probably 15 years ago. I can't remember the brand, but they have lasted him forever. I have a couple of North Face jackets. One DD bought me as a gift, but she bought it second hand.  The other I bought at a North Face store, but it was like half off or something. I remember even the cashier muttering "I wonder if this is marked wrong". LOL. And again, this is my main go to winter wear jacket and it's lasted me years, too. I also have a nicer lighter weight jacket that is good for spring and fall and rainy days.

Other than that we wear pretty inexpensive stuff. Mostly jeans and t-shirts for both us us. For years (since I first met him) DH wore Levi's 501 jeans. They used to be pretty reasonably priced, and I'd stock him up a couple pairs each year, when they'd go on sale for like $17.99. But gradually the price on them seemed to just keep going up and up, until they were like $40-$45 a pair. Several years ago he decided to try some Wrangler's jeans. He likes them fine and they are about $15 at Target or Walmart. Now I can get him 3 pairs for the price of one pair of Levi's. I just did a price check and now they seem to be priced $50-$60.  I usually have to buy him a couple pairs of jeans per year.

For me, jeans last quite a while.  I usually try to get them at Ross or Walmart. I have a couple of Walmart pairs I got for $10 some previous years Black Friday sales (but they didn't have any this past year). I try not to spend more than $20 for a pair of jeans. Socks - I get white and black "peds" ankle socks. Pretty cheap. I buy Froot of the Loom women's underwear in a pack. They are like $1 a pair, but they last 2-3 years. This year, so far, I did just buy another pair of long underwear. From Target online and they were $9.50.

If we have to go somewhere where we want to look a little nicer, DH has some khaki pants and several nicer shirts (again bought years ago). I have a bunch of dressy tops and sweaters (from when I worked in the office), and we both have some dressier shoes. We usually use our dressier clothes infrequently and they last years before we have to replace them.

Clothing is not really something I actually budget for, since we spend so little each year. Half the time it's part of our gift giving to each other. While I understand "you get what you pay for", I'd rather spend a bit more on quality coats and shoes, than jeans, t-shirts, socks and underwear. While DH wears his clothes out faster, because he's doing work around the home/property, I am not hard on clothes at all....other than tennis shoes. As soon as I get a new pair, they get dirty!