Goals

Flowers growing in wall, personal photo 

One of my hopes is that by having this blog, it will help me stay accountable to the standards I've set for my purchases.  And, to be perfectly honest, because I love making lists and rules and seeing how well I follow them. Don't I sound like fun at a party?

Anyway, my intention is to buy only items which fit all of the following criteria.


 Long lasting - Can be worn for at least-  but hopefully more than - two years without becoming unusable, going out of fashion, or losing its appeal.

Ethical - Are secondhand or made from materials that are environmentally friendly, from a manufacturer who pays workers a fair wage (at the least), and no animals were harmed during the production.

Fiscally responsible - Will be worth the amount of money I have paid for it, judged by how often it is used, for how long, and how much I like it.

When it comes to actually buying anything, I want to do the following for each category:

Clothing:

• Develop a capsule wardrobe for both the Fall/Winter and Spring/Summer seasons with as much interchangeability as possible. 
• Prior to buying, assess my needs for the next season and make a well thought out list of items to shop and save up for.
• "Shop my wardrobe" or finish a sewing project for that item first if I decide I need something. 
•   If I do buy, buy only secondhand or ethically made clothing.
• Buy only items which I need AND love AND will work with my other pieces.
• Make all reasonable efforts to take care of all items so they will last longer and stay looking nice.

Makeup/Skincare:

• Follow the routines I've purchased items for until they are used up.
• Afterwards, refine makeup and beauty routine down to only what actually works.
• Assess the products I buy when replacing to see if there is a better alternative based on my "ethical" criteria. 

Financial:

• Record all items for beauty and wardrobe that come in to my home.
• Record total amount of money spent on beauty and wardrobe for 2014.

So that's that. I've tried to follow this criteria for a while, but with, shall we say, erratic results. Hopefully by analyzing my purchases, I'll better understand why I'm so likely to buy shiny things which I don't actually approve of, or sometimes even want.