I came across something the writer calls The $30 Project. This freelance writer gave herself the challenge to not spend more than $30 on any one piece of clothing for an entire year (2010). In 2011, she budgeted $100 per month for clothing. And for this year, she's giving herself a budget of $1200 to spend on clothing any time she wants (so same budget as previous year without the monthly strings attached). She recently wrote an article that got published in The Huffington Post about cutting all her hair off and going pixie after having long hair. I haven't read it yet, but I probably will. She did that last month and, from my cursory glimpse at her Pinterest pages, it looks like she's discovering how having super-short hair suddenly changes everything about the way your outfits look. (I remember that moment, too, when suddenly the outfits you used to wear all the time don't look right any longer and you start to go crazy trying to come up with new outfits that suit your hairstyle.) Plus the girl looks way more chic with the pixie cut than she did with her long hair + bangs...and if you're going to write on a topic like fashion on a budget, you should probably look as chic as possible to try to get your 'Look, you can look nice without spending a ton!' point across.
You can see her project blog here: http://thirtydollarproject.tumblr.com/
p.s. I'm a big fan of women chopping their hair off (if they want to) once in their lives. I think women should do it simply because it forces you to go outside your comfort zone a little. We can get stuck in hairstyles and keep them for no other reason than we're bored and don't know what else to do. It does take some courage to take the plunge and drastically alter your hairstyle, especially when you know that it's not an easy fix if you hate it. And I know a lot of people have a strangely deep-seated hatred of this sort of drastic chopping off of hair thing. People think it's unfeminine. Others think you're making some sort of statement. But, this is the real secret of it all: it's just hair. I think every woman should chop their hair off at some point. You can say you don't have the right face shape for it; you can say that you can't cut your hair off because your husband/boyfriend/significant other won't like it (although, don't say that to me because I'll probably say something snarky in response. I have a very low tolerance for doing/wearing only that which you think another person will approve...yuck.); you can say you're afraid people won't be able to tell if you're a guy or a girl (true fear, I know); you can come up with whatever excuse you find handy. But, from my own experience, I can tell you that it's not that big of a deal. When you go short, you don't have your hair to hide behind any longer, it's true. What that means is that you're forced to change the way you act and the way that you express yourself. You no longer can nervously twirl your hair or constantly brush it behind your ears when you're shy. You can't hide your face behind bangs or long layers. With short hair, you clearly show your face to the world and there's nothing to hide behind, but this doesn't mean that you're vulnerable. It means you have to [wo]man up and face your own insecurities. It can definitely make you more confident in yourself, which will change the way you're viewed by those around you--in a good way. Will everybody like it? No. Does everybody like the haircut you have now? No. Will people more freely give you their positive and negative opinions when you chop all your hair off? Probably so, yes. I never got more compliments from strangers on my hair than I did when I had it super short. The important thing to remember though, is that cutting your hair doesn't change who you are; it doesn't turn you into something you're not...it's just hair.
But, this isn't a post on hair. Or, at least, it didn't begin that way. I love the idea of the $30 project. It wouldn't be very hard to do at all. I tend to shop very low-cost stores like thrift stores and consignment stores as it is. Columbia's got some good ones. I might do this? I could begin it in June and go for the whole year buying no piece of clothing for more than thirty bucks. Hmm...mulling, mulling, mulling... Yes!
I would say I'd budget $100 a month, but that would actually break the bank for me. Gotta stay realistic, here. Momma (and Bea) gotta eat, and jeans don't make a meal.
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