Luxuriously Frugal

First of all, I don’t get any commission from this post. All the recommendations are the items I have personally bought and loved.

Nordstrom.com is where I shopped most last year with 12 orders placed.

There is no Nordstrom at where we live, but there was one at where we used to live. I went to the store a couple of times and was not too attached to it.  I am not a department store person. The amount of selections and choices overwhelm me. I just want to get out when I see mountains of clothing. So I always preferred the smaller mall shops or boutique stores.  After I realized the difference in cashbacks between shopping online and in store, I start to shop online for most of my clothing items. Living in a shopping desert also expedited the online shopping process.

I started to notice Nordstrom when several of my favorite fashion bloggers strongly recommended items from there. At the beginning, I was skeptical and thought they get paid to recommend those items. Then a few items really caught my attention, so I decided to pull the trigger. If the items turn out to be disastrous, I can just return them given Nordi’s free shipping and returns policy. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the items and kept everything in my first purchase from Nordstrom.com (Dated July 3, 2012). From then on, I am totally hooked and Nordstrom has become my go to place to shop for myself and for friends and family. Without keep rambling about my shopping experience, which could go on for ever, I want to recommend a few items that I have bought again and again, and will continue buying again and again.

1. Tissue Weight Wool & Cashmere Wrap (in a variety of colors).

The left is the old version and the right is the new version. Both of them are available on Nordstrom.com and the old version is on sale at 20% off.  I bought both versions in the colors shown here. The left one was the Christmas gift to my brother’s fiancee and the right one is the Christmas gift for my best friend. Both gift receivers love the gift and started wearing them a lot (based on their social media pictures). They both told me the wrap is of great quality and can be worn in so many ways for various occasions. I would have totally bought one for myself if I am not waiting for a Hermes cashmere wrap. This would be my go to gift for my girlfriends.

2. Caslon long-sleeve tees

The left is: ‘Melody’ Fine Ribbed Cotton Tee

The right is: Long Sleeve Fine Ribbed Crewneck Tee

Both are good quality, available in a variety of classic colors and are 100% cotton.  I bought both tees in the style and color shown above. I have been wearing them nonstop since I got them in November. They pretty much go with anything, like wraps, scarfs, jackets, vests, and coats. I prefer the left one slightly more than  the right one because of the lower neckline. The lower neckline makes it more wearable as a top alone and highlights my neck bones better.

I machine wash and dry them. They hold up shape nicely and have not showed any pills yet.  I will be restocking them for next winter during the semi-annual sales. However, I would not mind paying the full price ($25) if they are not included for semi-annual sales.

3. Lush maxi dresses

These maxi dresses are of great value (I define value as a good price-to-quality ratio). Full price is $50 and you can often get them on sale for around $30 or even lower.  They come in solid colors and prints. I bought one in royal blue (a great color!) and one in floral print. I could not find mine online now, but they will likely be restocking them soon for summer shopping. Don’t drop them because of the “Juniors” description in the title. They are of good length (the hem touches and slightly covers my instep and I am about 5″6-5″7), very forgiving around the shoulders and waist area. They are also not very low cut in the front. They are very soft and comfortable. I worn them to a beach vacation. I even wore the blue one to work with a short-sleeved black shrug on top of it. Received many compliments.

I machine wash them, but hang them to dry. I accidentally machine dried the print one and it shrank quite a bit and the color faded. So, do not machine dry them. But they can be safely machine washed without losing the shape or color.  My blue one is still in great shape and will likely last me through this year. I will be restocking them next year.

What else?

I love Nordstrom’s Free Shipping and Free Returns policy. I bought a jacket last September and was not sure about it. Then I forgot about it until it was like two months later. By that time, I cannot find the return labels anymore. I thought it is too late to return. Another month passed, when I was doing Christmas cleaning, I found the shipping labels and then I just sent it back with the labels. Within two weeks, I am credited with the full amount without a question asked.  How can I not be hooked by this fantastic customer service!

What’s even better? As I show in this post, you can easily get more than 10% cashback if you stack cashback portals with gift cards bought by the Chase Ink Plus card.  To be able to act on deals, I always have one $200 Nordi gift card in my purse.

I must have got the new blogger syndrome. I woke up at 5:30am this morning thinking about what blog post I should write today.

With a very demanding full-time job, two small kids, and a busy husband, I have no idea why I put other responsibilities/routines on my plate. I just know I feel happy when I am done with a post. I feel excited when I see a comment. I smirk in work meetings when I see the site traffic increases. Rationality never takes priority when we are talking about feelings.

For 2014, I budgeted $9000 for clothing items and we end up spending $8946.98. The chart below shows a distribution of the spending:

Dear husband’s spending is probably underestimated, as he often buys his own clothing and occasionally uses a different credit card that I don’t really manage.  Still, I shamelessly spent significantly more on myself. Well, I guess this is one of the perks for the budgeting person of the house.

I will focus on my purchases below:

By items:

Chanel Timeless Kisslock Clutch: $1,900
Mulberry Crossbody Lily Bag: $804
A Diamond/White Gold Ring Band: $510.45
An Hermes Scarf: $399
Stuart Weitzman Chicboot: $312.75
Other clothing and shoes: $3,319.03

By stores:

This chart shows all the stores I spent more than $200 at. Stores in the Other category include: Theory.com;  TJmaxx; Marshalls; Intermix; H&M; Bloomingdale’s; Target; etc. This grouping of stores helps me to more efficiently maximize cash back from the purchases.

By usage:

Mostly used: The Diamond/White Gold Ring Band ($510.45), wearing it every day
2nd place: Stuart Weitzman Chicboot (black suede) ($312.75), wearing it whenever possible, at least 40 times already this year.
3rd place: Alexander mcqueen scarf ($170), wearing it whenever possible, at least 30 times already; A pair of Tory Burch flat in black ($180), at least 30 times already

Least used:
Never worn: A lace dress from anthropologie ($45); a short-sleeve white cardigan from Ann Taylor ($25); A patterned shift dress from Neiman Marcus last call ($120); A pair of leggings from Boston Roper ($20)
Worn only once: A maxi dress from Nordstrom ($40); a patterned top from Neiman Marcus last call ($60);  A pair of pants from Boston Roper ($40); A floral patterned shirt from Ann Tayler ($30)
Worn only twice: Lost count, mostly items from $20 to $50 dollars.

Many items that I barely used are impulse purchases. They lured me into buying either because there were huge discounts, like the Anthropologie dress (discounted from $228 to $45) or because I wanted to take on riskier patterns and colors, like the dress and top from Neiman Marcus last call and the maxi from Nordstrom. Though these least used items may appear inexpensive, their costs per wear are much higher than those of the more expensive items that are used much more frequently.

Lessons learned

(well, maybe I should say, learned again and again):

Do not buy because there is a sale.
Do not buy because you suddenly feel like you want to try new things.
Do not buy from stores you are not familiar with (e.g., Boston Proper. Their products are of good quality, but they are targeting an older age group. Their pants/leggings felt a bit strange on me).

So here comes my wardrobe resolution for 2015:

1. Minimize impulse buys and totally eliminate the never wore category from 2015’s summary;
2. 25 items for 2015. I am copying feather factor on this one.
3. Plan ahead and stick to the wishlist.
4. No bag purchase: I already have a perfect bag for work, a perfect bag for travel, a perfect bag for running errands, and a perfect bag for formal and evening events. I don’t see any reason/motivation to buy another bag.
5. a $7000 pie. Almost certainly, I will again take the largest chuck of clothing spending in 2015. However, I will improve by shrinking the pie to $7000 instead of $9000.  That is another $2000 to our savings account. By maximizing my cash back from the purchases, I can add another $500-$700 to savings.

Well, it would definitely be better for our savings account if I make a $2000 pie. But I am not ready for that, at least not now.