How do I make myself a fashion budget?

Money has been on my mind a lot today. As I pulled my W-2 out of my mailbox at work this morning, as I wrote my monthly check for rent, and as I perused my bills due at school for the class I am taking this semester, I laughed quietly to myself at the idea that people on average pay $28,000 for a wedding and usually more. I’ve said it a million times and I’ll say it again: money is crazy.

I realized that I didn’t even mention how I came up with a $200 per month budget for clothing. That budget is certainly not one-size-fits-all. Last summer, I called my mom to complain about how guilty I felt about a recent purchase and she (in all her motherly wisdom) suggested I set a budget for myself so I didn’t have to feel guilty anymore about my clothes and simply enjoy them. This is what she had me do:

1. Carefully, with a fine-toothed-comb, go over my bank statements for the past 12 months and add up what I spent total on clothes, shoes, accessories, underwear, and jewelry.

2. Divide this number by 12.

3. Start by budgeting that much money for myself per month. Later, if it felt like too much, I could adjust accordingly.

My problem had been that every time I tried to start a budget before, I fell right off of it because I tried to stick to something unrealistic (for myself!) like $50 a month. It just isn’t going to work.

Noting trends like (a) I spend twice as much as usual in November on Black Friday and (b) I spend much less than usual (almost nothing) on clothing in December, I budgeted my $200 and have stuck to it very well ever since. Not a shadow of guilt!