Shopping with Karen
I have a new friend. Her name is Karen and she works at the local UPS office. I see a lot of Karen as I help my wife with her clothes shopping. She buys the clothes and I return them. The other day, I did the calculations (I am good at those) and realized that my wife spends more on returning clothes than I spend on buying clothes. And that includes the clothes I buy for our son. My daughter doesn't let me anywhere near her clothes purchases. Perhaps she is wise. Karen told me that I should be thankful that my wife returns purchases she won't wear. For a long time, she was too embarrassed to return her unwearable purchases - and she never even told her husband about them. Until of course, he found out. Now she is not allowed to shop any more. Me, I just keep retuning any box that I find lying around that has an address label on it. Of course, I have no idea what is in any of the boxes, but Karen is a good guesser - especially when it comes to guestimating the insurance value.
Some of you may be doubting the accuracy of the above, but I assure that it is true. How can I possibly spend so little money on clothes. Here are the principles by which you can save time and money on clothes shopping.
1. Day of the week clothes. Yup, that's right. Seven shirts for seven days. In the Winter wear an undershirt and a sweatshirt. In the Spring remove the sweatshirt. In the Summer, remove the undershirt. In the Fall, put the undershirt back on. Wash shirts once per week.
2. Buy new clothes when the old ones have holes. Buy the exact same item - pick a new color if you want. I buy Lands End mesh cotton polo shirts. Each lasts for about two years. Sure the color changes over time, but that just adds variety. Let others pick the colors for you - it's fun for them.
3. For growing kids - just pick the next size up when necessary.
4. Occasionally we have to buy things that we don't purchase online - e.g. shoes/sneakers. Set the 5 minute goal. Pick the item and get on the checkout line in 5 minutes. We have never missed the deadline.
Some of you might think that this takes all the fun out of dressing every morning. My response - lots of other opportunities for fun. This approach will help your kids know what day of the week it is.
Others will argue that people will notice. Trust me, they actually don't notice. Sometimes I wear the wrong shirt - and no one ever notices - and I have broadcast that I wear the same shirt. And if they did notice, consider it an opportunity to gain a new recruit to the Simple and Easy lifestyle.
Now perhaps your life is already simple, easy, full of leisure time and long spans of nothing to do. Let's assume you are already working out daily and that your closets are cleaned out. Then, by all means, spend lots of time shopping for things and if you don't like them, just get your spouse to handle the return. :)