Transcription
In over a decade of being a slow fashion stylist and content creator, I've discovered that the secret to break a habit of overspending on clothes isn't to take things to the extremes and go on a shopping ban and never buy clothes ever again. Instead, it's about developing small habits. Habits that are followed consistently and that create an environment that positively impacts not only your shopping habits but your emotional and mental well-being.
So, in today's video, I'm going to share five habits that I do consistently that have transformed my personal style, my emotional well-being, and also my fashion spending habits. I'll also share tips on how you can apply these habits to your own daily life.
Starting with the night before, you know that saying a good morning starts with the good night before. It's the same for our clothes. I'm talking about prepping our outfits in advance. What does that have to do with overshopping and spending too much money on impulse buys? I'm going to tell you.
Planning our outfits the night before sets us up to get dressed with more ease in the morning. It creates awareness of what we already own and helps us rediscover items that we haven't worn in a while instead of thinking we need to buy new things. It reduces decision fatigue and the frustration of running around the house looking for an item that you can wear while your kids are asking you 10,000 questions and the cat is trying to eat day-old play-doh.
Think about it. When we're putting an outfit together in this state of chaos, we either choose the same thing over and over again because it's our easiest option, or we put together something we don't even like because that's all we have time for and the mental bandwidth for. Both of these things lead us to falsely believe that our closet is the problem and we don't have enough options. But we know that's just not true.
Instead of chasing after arbitrary items that we think we need or pieces that are exactly like the ones already hanging in our closet because we didn't know they were there, we're able to pinpoint what we actually need and what we actually like, reducing the amount of impulse and redundant purchases we make. And if you think you're going to miss that regular hit of dopamine, think again. Studies have shown that being creative in any form, which includes putting an interesting outfit together and building something new, you still get a little jolt of dopamine that way, too. It doesn't have to be perfect. Don't overthink this. You can also use an app like Index and plan your outfits on your commute or while you're watching TV. Dedicate like 5 minutes the night before and see how it goes.
Create a financial barrier. I started doing this when I lived in Milan. I allow myself more freedom to shop when I'm overseas, but I was probably buying too many things. I felt like I had accumulated more clothes than necessary and I was spending more money than I wanted. So, to fix that, I decided how much of my discretionary income I wanted to spend on clothes every month, if at all. And I would take that money out in cash and that would be it. That's all I was allowed to spend for that month. So, I had to be really intentional with that cash and how I spent it and what I bought. This creates friction and difficulty when it comes to buying new clothes. Adding friction is a really good way to break a problematic habit.
Journaling and gratitude. One of my favorite quotes is by A.A. Milne, the author who wrote Winnie the Pooh. "When you love what you have, you have what you need." This quote reminds us that contentment isn't about buying or acquiring new things or even attaining huge goals we set for ourselves. At least that's not how I interpret it. Contentment comes and goes, but I swear it stays longer and is easier to attain when we practice gratitude regularly.
Some of my greatest moments of contentment are simple. They're when I'm with my friends. If I've just cooked myself a really good meal and I sit down and enjoy it. When I am in nature, taking Apollo for a walk and I notice the sun coming through the trees. Or even the gloomy days. I started practicing gratitude almost 7 years ago, but I only started noticing the benefits around 3 or 4 years ago. I noticed the benefits and changes in my life, but also surprisingly in my closet. I stopped unhealthy comparisons on social media and I stopped buying clothes out of a sense of being inadequate or panicking or out of a sense of scarcity. Gratitude has allowed me to shop from a place of clarity and abundance. When I shop from this place, it allows me to distinguish if I'm buying something out of scarcity, that sense of inadequacy, or if it's something that I actually love, and that I think I'm going to get a lot of enjoyment and wear out of.
But gratitude on its own can actually be problematic and unhelpful. In a way, it can be a little bit toxic even because you feel like you have all these things. Shouldn't I be grateful? I have a home. I have food in my fridge. But some days, that's really hard. Even if we are super privileged and have everything we could ever need, we develop unhelpful habits when we're stressed, bored, or when there's something bothering us deep beneath the surface. And that's why, in my opinion, gratitude is pretty useless if we're not coupling it with things like self-work and self-reflection.
So, this is where journaling comes in. I'm trying to include journaling as part of my daily routine, but it's so much harder to stick with. So, I'm pairing it with another daily habit that I love doing and that I'm already consistent with. Enter drinking my AG1 every morning. AG1 is kindly sponsoring this portion of the video, and I'm really happy they are because it's a part of my life whether they sponsor my videos or not. AG1 is a daily health drink that combines my pre and probiotics, multivitamins, superfoods, and antioxidants all in one scoop. You get a fun welcome pack on your first order, which includes a shaker, a scoop, and a tin to keep it in the fridge. So, what I do is I fill my shaker, add my AG1 and their D3 drops, and I give myself however long it takes for me to finish my AG1 to do my journaling. Some days it's longer than others. Sometimes I finish the journal before I finish my AG1, and that's okay. It's about building the consistency and that habit. I love this habit because it reinforces my identity as being someone who prioritizes nourishing their body and their mind. AG1 supports my digestion, my immune function, and supports consistent energy levels throughout the day. Even though I eat really healthy, I've always eaten really well, I know I can still have nutrition gaps, and AG1 has been clinically shown to fill common nutrient gaps. It comes in three new flavors: citrus, tropical, and berry. But honestly, I'm an OG girly. If you're interested in AG1, you can go to drinkag1.com/alissabeltempo or you can use this QR code on the screen. You'll get a free welcome kit when you first subscribe. Five travel packs, those are key. And a bottle of vitamin D. Thanks AG1 for sponsoring this portion of today's video.
Replace scrolling with connection or creation. A recent survey found that almost 50% of Gen Z and millennials say they've made an impulse purchase from social media. If scrolling is a shopping trigger for you, listen up. A good way to break a problematic habit is to eliminate triggers and substitute new habits instead that solve a similar issue that you're struggling with. A lot of us head to social media for a sense of connection. We want to see what our favorite creators are up to or what our friends and family are doing. Or in a lot of our cases, we go to it for outfit inspiration. Instead, we find ourselves comparing our style and our closet to others that we see online while getting served really appetizing and appealing cute outfits and new clothes that promise we will become those people we were just envying.
So, let's find connection and inspiration somewhere else. Can we replace connection through texting a long-distance friend or calling a family member or even just checking in on our neighbor? For inspiration, maybe we go old school, buy a magazine. Book time in our calendar to visit a local art gallery. Just going outside and spending a minute in nature. If you're not in nature, go outside and check out your urban street and all the cool things that are happening there. Sometimes just getting out and being part of humanity and or nature makes all the difference. This doesn't mean we have to stop using social media altogether, but when we scroll out of boredom and stress, it really can lead to unwanted purchases. So eliminating that can greatly reduce our shopping and overspending.
Exit the shopping situation. Back when I started the channel, one of my first pieces of advice was to take a 24-hour pause between the time you think you want or need something to the time you actually buy it. 10 years later, and I still stand by this advice. When we're shopping, we actually get a dopamine hit when we are anticipating receiving something, not actually receiving the thing that we want. So when we're making decisions from this hyper-emotional state, they might not always be rooted in what we actually need and genuinely want. This is why it's so important to step away from that situation so that you can bring your mind back to a more pragmatic place.
When I travel, this is a lot harder to do. I get it. Or even if you're shopping secondhand and you're in a market and like there isn't really the opportunity to walk away for 24 hours. In these cases, I still exit the situation for a short amount of time. I go for a coffee, I go for lunch, I leave for an hour or I walk around the entire market if necessary and then I come back to it. If the piece that you were looking at is no longer there, then it just wasn't meant to be. What's important is that you're creating that separation so that you can come at the decision from a better place and reduce your impulse buys.
So, that is what I have for you today. Thank you so so much for watching. Thank you for caring about slow fashion. Thank you to AG1 for sponsoring today's video. Don't forget, I do have that discount code for you and a link. I will leave it in the description box below. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day or evening or morning, wherever you're at. Don't forget to give this video a thumbs up if you did like it or if you learned something new. Hit subscribe if you haven't already and I will be back in another slow fashion video. Thank you so so much for watching.