Spring cleaning (& ThredUp Review)

Now that I'm not 20... 23... or even 25 anymore, I have learned so much about about the value of money vs. the value of material items. 

my new favorite artist - found here

When I got my first engineering job, as a co-op student, I all of a sudden had this huge income of money (going from $0 to $30/hr as a 20 y/o). In return, I saved about half and spent the rest on clothes. Unfortunately this is before I really valued material and make over quantity. So while I should have invested in a suit to wear for interviews, I bought party dresses and tons of jeans and shirts - because I could... and I was 20.  Oh, and was totally dedicated to the idea of "I have to buy this, it's on sale!"

When I was 23, I hit my next wave of "ooo income, must spend!" - I got hired full time, and moved to Seattle. This is the phase where I decided to buy every dress imaginable. And join every members-only site out there. 

Then, by 25, Ben had moved in - but my habits were hard to die. This is about when I tore my ACL too, and was on bed rest while I recovered. I gained a ton of weight, but still had access to shop online in my old "I'll get there again" sizes. (we all have those clothes in our closet, amiright!). 

When I got married, Ben and I decided to really start taking finances seriously. And more so when we were considering getting pregnant. I looked in my closet and found that I had pants that still had tags, and were 4 sizes too small. I had half my dresses still with tags, and equally not in my size.

The first step was to follow the moto "if I don't love it, don't buy it." and "only buy items that fit now."  These steps helped to refine how I was shopping. 

The next, huge step was to clean out my closet, and start new. I hated having so many unused and totally new clothes in my closet. I just never found an outlet for these items. There was a lot of equity in them, many were designer or quality name brand items. Then I stumbled on this post - and because I don't have an instagram following, I decided to go use ThredUp.

The first Bag, in which you order from them and is free, I filled up to the brim with about 20% gently used clothes and 80% still has tags. They go through the bag and list what they kept and my profit of it. The rest of the unused items go to a charity or a textile recycling factory - or you can pay like $13 to have them send your items back to you. They ended up using a lot of my items, which gave me an awesome, almost $100 payout. Of course I realize this is a FRACTION of what I actually spent on my items, but I wasn't using these items and was not earning interest by having them in my closet. They also send you an email after you items are sold. Here's a small snapshot of how my items are doing.

I just got done stuffing my next bag, which has about 30% new with tags items and more business-esque items - I even threw in a few pairs of barely used shoes. We'll see how I do, but it feels so good getting rid of BAGS of items.

If you sign up using my referral link, I win and you win!

Clean Eating - April

April brings rain to clean our landscapes and, for us, a diet to detox our bodies. During April, Ben and I are participating in a clean eating program. Basically - no gluten, dairy, or soy.

We laid out the entire week: breakfast, snacks, lunch, dinner. This way there's never a "what do I eat??" moment.

One day in, can't complain... and, like most things in life, there's a Ron Swanson quote for it.

Trigger Foods

knifes - west elm market

I loved this article about trigger foods. 

I've noticed, if I let myself indulge in a starchy, carby treat, I will then be eating starchy, carby food all day, every day. It gets totally ridiculous and I feel out of control and like poo on day 3 of my starch binge. 

How do I escape it? I wake up, and at every meal, every thought, and every action - I say to myself "My body only wants nourishing foods, only nourishing foods energize me" - very similar to the author's affirmation of "I am worthy of nourishment through love and healing foods. I release all unhealthy thoughts around food"

A day of repeating that, breaks the cycle and reminds me to love my body and everything I feed it. 

February's Folly

You know what's hard? 

                    quitting habits.

I relapsed on my resolution. I bought clothes. It was a rush. I had an excuse. I'm not happy about it, but I'm trying to refocus my efforts. 

This past week we traveled to Oahu for our (6-month delayed) honeymoon. As the vacation drew nearer, I felt the urge to buy beach things - it's been years since I visiting a warm beach and the need to update my wardrobe was overwhelming. At first I was resistant... I have a pretty healthy selection of dresses, swimsuits, some shorts and skirts.  Then I convinced myself I needed a new cover up because I couldn't think of anything that I own that would work. Luckily I wasn't going to spend more than $60 so all the incredibly amazing cover-ups at shopbop.com made it easy to say no. 

Then I found a rashguard, something I wanted for our Snuba adventure, and otherwise as a cover up in the water -- AND COULDN'T STOP THINKING ABOUT IT.  So, I bought it. -- and I'm glad I did, it was really nice to wear and worked well for me.

But, like any relapse, it trips the wire - knowing that I could break this resolution. I bought something else "for the beach".... two tube tops and a long skirt from American Eagle were justified. I even caught myself visiting my old "members-only" sites daily (eek!).

I don't hate these purchases, and I actually wore them a lot during the vacation. I didn't need them though, and I didn't put quality over consumption. That is what bothers me.

I'm going to try to work on conquering the rush I get from buying things. I have way too many, more important things (student loans, car payment, food, fun) to be spending money on clothes right now.

PS - reading this book right now about breaking habits.