← Her Style Podcast | Shopping, Color Palettes, Fashion, Wardrobe, Outfits, Clothing
Her Style Podcast | Shopping, Color Palettes, Fashion, Wardrobe, Outfits, Clothing
256 | How I Stop Myself From Buying Cute Clothes That Don’t Go With Anything
00:15:06
Tell me if you know this feeling. You spot something so cute while scrolling Instagram, walking through your favorite store, or in that TikTok try-on haul you don’t know how you rabbit-holed your way into. Your heart says, "Yes! I need that item...
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Heather Riggs
Tell me if you know this feeling. You spot something so cute while scrolling Instagram, walking through your favorite store or in that TikTok try on haul you don't know how you rabbit holed your way into your heart says yes, I need that item now. But then it hits you what will I wear it with? Or worse, you buy it and then it just sits in your closet with the tags on because it doesn't go with anything you already own. I've been there too. As a former queen of impulse shopping, I'm sharing my go to mindset and strategy shifts that have enabled me to stop buying cute clothes that don't fit into my wardrobe and start making smart investments I actually love and wear on repeat. This episode is for you. If you want a practical system for shopping more intentionally curating a cohesive wardrobe and saving money in the process, let's get into it with six doable steps you can start implementing to stop your impulse shopping right now. Welcome to her Style podcast where we're all about empowering you to show up and get dressed every day with confidence. I'm your host Heather Riggs, a 15 year and counting certified image consultant and color specialist ready to build a wardrobe and a personal style you love. Let's get started. I am not exaggerating when I say that sometimes it feels like a literal miracle when I think about how I used to shop to where I am now in my college years. Well, I it probably even back as far as high school and then college and then my early 20s. I spent every penny that I made on clothes. I always had this mindset of there's more where that came from and I can just make more money and no big deal. And I was never satisfied with what I had. It was a vicious cycle and eventually it did start to take a toll on my marriage. After my husband and I were married, he as I've said before on the podcast, he is very much a saver and inherently I'm very much a spender and we've learned to kind of meet somewhere in the middle over the years. But all of that buying and not feeling satisfied cycle really just left me feeling disempowered. I had the quintessential closet full of clothes with nothing to wear and it brought me a lot of guilt when I would go to get dressed and look at everything and just feel like, ugh, I don't want to wear any of this. I'm not excited about these pieces. I bought all of these things impulsively and nothing works together. Nothing feels great when I put it on. And I always felt like I needed something new for any occasion, especially if there were going to be photos involved. And back in that phase of my life, I loved taking pictures. I always had my camera with me. And so of course there was a lot of shopping to be done because I always wanted something new for the pictures I was gonna take when I would go out with my friends or when we would do something special or go on a trip. And I could justify buying almost anything. It was a serious skill. But it got to the point where I kept running my bank account into the red. And I was getting so frustrated with myself. And I was tired of feeling like that, looking at everything and just feeling completely dissatisfied and again, guilty over all the things that I had bought and still didn't really love. So I put myself on a shopping freeze. I think it was in the summer of 2012, and that's when things first started to change for me. I knew that I couldn't keep spending at that rate. And I was blogging at the time. Like Christine Buzan shared in our recent interview, that kind of made me laugh because I was doing the same thing in the early 2000 and tens. That's what all the fashion girls were doing. We had our style blogs, and I thought it would be a fun experiment to challenge myself to wear only what I had in my closet for an entire summer. No shopping whatsoever. And it was scary to me at the time, but it changed everything. I forced myself in that summer to get creative and to put my pieces together in new ways. And I wore items that I had not touched in years. And surprisingly, I think this was the craziest part about the whole experiment was I had fun getting dressed. I thought I would get really frustrated and have a hard time without shopping, but I realized that I had more than I needed. And it was not my clothes that were the problem. It was my shopping mindset and my habits around clothes and shopping. And I won't say that I never struggled with shiny object syndrome after that season, but I've learned over time and how to start shopping with intention rather than on impulse. That is the biggest game changer that you can make for your wardrobe. And my closet has only improved since then as I've continued to really refine and implement and ingrain these habits into my everyday life. And I wanted to start this episode by sharing that personal story because I want you to understand I'm not a minimalist. I'm not a natural born saver. I. I am someone who loves to shop. I appreciate fashion, and I love looking at beautiful clothing. And I would probably be more dangerous if I had a bigger budget, in all honesty. But knowing what I know now, I truly never wanna go back to those impulsive ways again. And so I wanna empower you today with a few simple strategies that I have picked up over time. Because I hear often from women in our community that you have too many things and you have a desire to simplify your wardrobe, and you do feel guilty about all the things that you've bought over the years. But you want to be able to have a streamlined, cohesive wardrobe that mixes and matches. You want to be able to get dressed easier and faster in the morning. And I think on some level, you're ready to uplevel your wardrobe. You want to have less, but better. And so all of that truly begins with your mindset and your shopping habits. And you cannot fix the problem by continuing to do the same things that created the problem in the first place. So if you want to have a different wardrobe, you've got to come to it with a different mindset. So today, I encourage you to pick even just one of these six strategies that I'm about to share, and you will watch your wardrobe begin to transform. So let's get right into it. The first one is to create a buffer between seeing and buying. And one of the first things that I do, if I start to feel that that's beautiful, I need that piece kind of impulse is to give myself some breathing room. Instead of adding that item straight to my cart, I will save it to my window shopping board on Pinterest. And this is going to give me a place to keep a hold of that item, to admire that item, to revisit it later, and to see if I'm still thinking about it in just a few days. Ideally, I would love you to work your way up to giving it like, a full week or maybe even two weeks before you click buy. But if you forget about it, that's a very good sign that you didn't really need it in the first place. And often what I've experienced is that the magic of that item will have already worn off by the time I go back to it. Nine times out of 10, when I go back to my window shopping board, I am not really that excited about the pieces that I see, and I don't even want them anymore. This one habit have saved me so many costly buying mistakes over the years, and I promise this one really works. So give yourself a little buffer between Seeing an item and immediately buying that item. The second thing you can do is stick to a budget and a shopping list. Before I start buying things each season, I make a list of what I actually need based on my lifestyle, the gaps in my current wardrobe, and my personal style. And I will also set a budget. This is one of the biggest things that I've learned to do, is stick to a budget for shopping every season. And sometimes I won't buy anything in a given season. But this way, when I find something that tempts me, I can ask myself, number one, is this on my shopping list? Is it something that I truly need? And secondly, does it fit into my budget? If not, if the answer to both of those questions is no, then I need to remind myself that saying yes to this thing thing is going to mean saying no to something else that I'd rather have down the line. I am not opposed to having fun and buying things that I love just because. But I need to have my essentials in place first in order to make my everyday dressing that much easier. If I don't have what I need, I'm going to feel frustrated in the morning. No matter how many fun, beautiful pieces I've happened to pick up, I need the practical things that are on my shopping list first. And then I can have a little bit more fun and be more impulsive with whatever's left over. All right, number three is to follow the rule of three outfits and three occasions. And this one is another game changer. Before I will buy a new piece, I challenge myself to envision at least three full outfits that I could build with it using items in my existing wardrobe. So I want to make sure that it's going to work with what I already have on hand. And then I also want to think of three real life occasions where I would wear those outfits. So if I cannot picture how this piece is going to fit in with my current wardrobe, or if I feel like I'm going to need to buy other things in order to make it work, and if it doesn't fit in with my actual lifestyle, that's a really great way to eliminate something from the running. Okay. Number four is to learn to admire without acquiring. And this one admittedly takes some time and practice, but it's probably the most rewarding of all of these strategies and habits. And just like you can admire a painting in an art gallery or a museum without buying it, you can appreciate a beautiful garment without needing to own it. You really can. I know you can do this. One of the top benefits that I hear from members of her style collective is how freeing it is to shop with greater discernment when you know what you need and you're clear about what works for you. It makes it so much easier to stay in your lane and genuinely admire what might be better left for someone else. You can still love fashion and you can find joy in what you see in the stores without feeling the dire need to have it or constantly accumulating more and more stuff. Okay, number five is to keep your main goal in mind. And my ultimate goal. This may not be yours, but my ultimate goal is to have a simplified wardrobe that I love, filled with pieces I'm excited to wear often that I feel confident in and that mix and match with each other very easily. And when I remind myself of this, of the main goal of having a simplified wardrobe I love, it's so much easier to walk away from trendy pieces and impulsive items that don't align with that bigger vision. I told you before, I don't want to go back to the days of having a cluttered closet full of mismatched clothes, having constant overwhelm and decision fatigue and chronic overspending. Instead, I am really grateful and excited to be a small, smart shopper, to be a confident dresser, and to feel secure and satisfied with what I have. Like I said, it's taken me time to get to this point, but impulse shopping does not support that goal or have a place in my life anymore when I think about what truly matters to me. And our sixth and final strategy is a new one for me. But it's trying before you buy with a rental subscription. Again, this is not going to be for everyone, but right now I'm a few months in and I'm still loving this. My newly rental subscription. It's giving me the space to experiment with trends and incorporate some fun pieces without having to worry about the long term commitment. So it kind of scratches that itch to play and to be creative with my style, but it doesn't add more clutter or cost because it's already built into my shopping budget for the month and the year. And this has been such a welcome addition and it's created a perfect win win for me recently. So again, you don't need to do all of these things and some of these habits might not form overnight or work for you for some reason. But I think that if you try even one or two of them this season, you are going to see a big improvement in your overall shopping and spending and your awareness of what you're bringing into your wardrobe. So to recap, the six strategies that I talked about today are Number one, create a buffer between seeing and buying. Secondly, stick to a budget and shopping list each season. Third, follow the rule of three outfits and three occasions. Number four, learn to admire without acquiring. Number five is to keep your main goal in mind and number six try before you buy with a clothing rental subscription. So friend, I hope that you feel excited to implement these strategies and to be more intentional with your purchases. Remember, you do not have to be a minimalist or have a tiny capsule wardrobe in order to enjoy getting dressed. You really just need to have some clarity, intention and a strategic plan. And if you're ready to go deeper into this work, I want to personally invite you to join us inside Her Style collective in this 90 day group coaching program. I'm going to walk you through how to build a wardrobe you love. No matter your budget. You don't have to do any shopping during this program. Either way, you will fully develop your signature style, learn how to style your outfits with clarity and confidence and curate a complete wardrobe that reflects the best and most authentic version of you and that works for your everyday life. One of the most impactful outcomes that my clients share is feeling in control of their wardrobe and their spending without sacrificing their creativity or their love of style. Doors are open right now so you can join us today and get off the impulse shopping roller coaster immediately. I would love to team up with you inside so you can head to herstylellc.com collective to get all the details and sign up today. Thank you so much for listening. If this was helpful, I'd also love to invite you to leave a quick written review or you could share it with a friend who could use encouragement like this as well. I'll catch you next week with even more expert advice to keep you going strong on your style journey. Thank you for listening to today's episode. If you want to stop copying everyone else's style and start dialing in your own spoon worthy signature look, head over to take my free 5 minute personal style quiz which you can find at the link in the show notes. If you've enjoyed our time together, please be sure to rate, review and subscribe to Her Style podcast so you never miss an episode. Finally, I invite you to make this a two way conversation and send me a DM over on Instagram eatherrigstyle to let me know how I can best support you on your style journey. I'm always here for you in style and service until next time.