The Fashion Food Pyramid

You’re familiar with this, right?

The food pyramid provides guidelines for how to make sure you eat a balanced diet. Thinking about some of the purchases I made last year, I realized there were things I could do to better balance my shopping habits. So I made my own pyramid.


Absolutely: items bought on sale, during promotions, with discounts, etc. Both the dress and the shoes I had been keeping track of all season, and after months of patience I snagged them at amazing deals.

Within reason: items bought at full price. I had been lusting after this cape and the shoes and both of them sold out online. I miraculously stumbled upon the cape in the store, saw that one was left in my size and bought it immediately. Similar story with the shoes. There was no way they were going to last until a sale. I am happy to report that I wear both frequently.

Try not to: this is the splurge category. The sandals I used to be excited about, until I came to terms with how astronomically impractical they were; and my wallet was in pain for a good two or three months. The cuff I bought in Morocco, convinced I couldn’t live without, and haven’t worn once since my vacation. I’m not against splurges, but I’m going to try to limit them to once or twice a year. That way I can be sure what I’m buying is really meaningful.

This isn’t about prices. Whatever your budget is you can separate your purchases into these three categories. Whether your splurge is $50 or $500 I encourage your to create your own Fashion Food Pyramid to help you make the most of your money when you’re out shopping. And let me know how it goes!

Comments

4 responses to “The Fashion Food Pyramid”

  1. alison purvis Avatar

    I love this! one tip that is helpful for me when splurging is to consider if it’s outside my normal realm of fashion. it’s easy to get swept up in the aura of something new and exotic, but it could end up being an item that’s hard to style with the rest of your wardrobe. or you have to buy like 5 more things to make it work. I have splurged on a couple dresses that were very “me” and can happily say I wear them all the time.

  2. Stacy Avatar
    Stacy

    LOVE your clothes pyramid…what a fantastic way to figure out what I really “NEED” vs really “WANT”. I tend to lean to the more conservative side of dressing due to work, so I mix it up with accessories – and therein lays the issue…”want” vs “need”. However, my husband now understands that a woman, if she so chooses, does need that fabulous Hermes scarf and that classic Chanel tote.

  3. Kimberlee Avatar

    SO well thought out 🙂 This is similar to my fashion New Year’s resolution. I feel that I buy too many “fast” fashions and need to invest in more pieces as well as limit my shopping. I have a lot of clothes but always feel like I have nothing to wear, or wear the same thing. I’m definitely going to keep this mind!

  4. […] it’s going for ~$250 on ebay, which makes $179 look way better, but according to my fashion food pyramid, this would be in the “try not to” category. Today is the last day of the Kate Spade […]

What's your opinion?

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.