Oftentimes, quitting bad spending habits can lead to productive, fulfilling life changes — like learning to sew instead of buying fast-fashion items you can only wear a few times! Check out this video for more lifestyle changes that can save you money:
Making it work is brought to you by wealth simple which gives everyone access to simple affordable investing on cruise control for as long as i can remember i’ve always loved clothes as a former fashion blogger i used to covet trends like they were gospel and made sure i was rarely tagged in the same outfit twice on average i bought at least one new item a week
Hitting them all was my main hobby and i had next-day delivery subscriptions to multiple online stores but i was so focused on staying in style that i never stopped to think about why my clothes were so cheap and quickly available then i started learning about the environmental impact of fast fashion that is cheap clothing made at a rapid pace to keep up with the
Latest trends and realized the damage my shopping habit was contributing to the fashion industry accounts for 10% of global carbon emissions according to the united nations environment program a single pair of jeans requires about 2000 gallons of water to make and the equivalent of a garbage truck load of clothing is dumped into a landfill or burned every second
And that’s before you even get into the appalling conditions faced by the garment workers once i knew the facts it was impossible to enjoy buying clothes in the same way in many other areas i was making an effort to do more for the environment like swapping single-use plastic water bottles for a reusable one and taking the bus instead of ubers everywhere but all of
This felt pointless unless i quit fast fashion – truthfully i had another incentive i was getting tired of following trends it was exhausting trying to keep up not to mention expensive i realized it wasn’t making me feel particularly happy or good about myself either and rather than conforming to a narrow set of fashion rules i wanted the freedom to start dressing
For myself all of this led to my decision last year to quit fast fashion and stop buying new clothes for a while it worked brilliantly i rediscovered clothes that had been lurking in the back of my wardrobe and got into the swing of second-hand shopping but i struggled whenever i needed a specific item after unsuccessfully scouring every vintage store i knew for
A simple black dress i started wondering how hard would it be to make one instead so i decided to take matters into my own hands and sign up for a sewing course i had virtually no sewing experience barring a few classes in high school and i needed to get right back to basics i did some research online and came across a small studio offering dressmaking classes
For beginners on their website the studio owners talked about sewing as a type of slow fashion the environmentally and wallet-friendly opposite to fast fashion it seemed like a perfect fit over the course of a weekend i went from being unable to work a sewing machine to making my own a line skirt learning to sew in such a short time was intensive the class worked
For around 6 hours a day with only a 15-minute lunch break but by the end i felt like i’d mastered the foundations of sewing when i tried on the finished skirt it fit perfectly and knowing i had created it myself felt amazing from then on i was hooked the following week i bought a sewing machine and some basic supplies and i started creating pieces for my handmade
Wardrobe i soon moved on from simple skirts to more intricate dresses and now around 1/3 of the items in my wardrobe are handmade the machine and supplies cost one hundred and fifty dollars on top of the two hundred and fifty dollars i paid for the course four hundred in total it felt like a lot at the time but i knew it would be worth it i was right even with the
Price of the fabric sewing still works out a lot cheaper than buying new clothes a skirt that would be $30 in a store costs about half of that to make and i always choose high quality materials so i know my clothes will last it’s also totally broken my habit of buying wearing and then discarding clothes sewing each item takes time which makes me value it more than
Something i could have quickly picked up in a store i also don’t care about having a cute new outfit every week anymore i’ll happily rewear clothes to get the maximum wear out of them and nothing beats getting a compliment on something i’ve made now i can see that the joy i used to get from shopping was short-lived once the buzz of buying and wearing a new outfit
Wore off i’d start looking for something new to have the same thrill all over again i never realized how stressful it was traipsing around from store to store feeling like i never had enough clothes until i stopped by contrast i’ve since pared my wardrobe down to some basic tees jumpers and a pair of jeans that i mix and match with my handmade skirts and dresses it
May be smaller but the satisfaction i get from it is so much more authentic and it also makes getting dressed in the mornings a lot easier i quit fast fashion to reduce my carbon footprint and in doing so have completely changed my outlook on fashion it’s taught me the value of quality over quantity and has given me the confidence to cultivate my own unique style
And perhaps most surprisingly of all it’s made my love of clothes even stronger living a financially secure life doesn’t mean forgoing anything fun it just means deciding what’s actually worth your money and what isn’t and when you take control of your spending it’s a lot easier to start prioritizing your future with wealth simple you can set up an investment
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Transcribed from video
How I Quit Fast Fashion & Save 50% On Clothes Every Year By The Financial Diet
