It took a mountain of credit card debt and college loans to make Kathryn Finney rethink her spending on clothes.
That, and falling in love.
“It took marrying someone cheap to understand how really in debt I was,” Finney says. “I had a love of fashion, but a real lack of cash, … and my husband said, `You’ve got to curtail your spending.”‘
More Top Picks Best Toddler Nap Mats For Preschool
Today the creator of the shopping blog TheBudgetFashionista.com, Finney is on a multicity tour with her new book, “How To Be a Budget Fashionista” (Ballantine Books, $12.95). It’s filled with tips on staying stylish without breaking the bank.
In an industry as high-brow as fashion, she says, the best-dressed always know how to snag a deal.
“I know editors in New York at major magazines who shop at Target,” says Finney, who lives in New Jersey. “Celebrities are beyond bargain shoppers. They want everything given to them.”
This is not the career the Minnesota native envisioned while getting her graduate degree in epidemiology from Yale. But when her husband created a blog site for her three years ago as an outlet for her shopping obsession, bargain fashionistas from around the globe flocked.
Finney, 30, feeds them with online coupons, trend forecasts, sample sale notices and frugal tips for women with real budgets and real figures.
She also understands shopping addictions: “Telling a fashionista not to shop is like telling the sun not to rise. It’s just not going to happen,” she writes in her book.
That’s where her top budget fashionista rule comes in. Finney challenges readers to stop buying stuff just because it’s on sale.
“I don’t buy something that I don’t love,” she says. “It takes such discipline to do.”
The result, she says, is a closet of fewer, better clothes — every piece of which you can’t wait to wear.
That brings us to her second rule: Bargains aren’t always good values. Finney calculates the “cost-per-wear” of anything she buys.
By doing this, she figures a classic Burberry trench coat for the bargain-basement price (by Burberry standards) of $450 was a better purchase than a $26 Isaac Mizrahi shirt from Target. That’s because she estimates she’ll wear the trench about 750 times; the shirt about a dozen. The trench only costs about 60 cents per wear, compared with $2.17 for the trendy shirt.
Finney also offers advice on the “Perfect Ten” classic essentials every woman should own, including a black suit, white cotton dress shirt, plain black pumps, perfect-fitting jeans, little black dress, trench coat and khaki pants.
Finney also has one fail-proof way to keep spending in check. She buys Visa gift cards in set amounts before shopping trips, and leaves the rest of the plastic at home. “Once that card is finished, it’s over,” she says. “It’s time to stop shopping.”
Finney tries to limit her clothing and accessories budget to no more than what she’s able to sock away in savings each month — after paying all basic expenses. Her fashion budget is about $200-$300 per month, and she also saves at least that amount.