I’m craving a Spring jacket

But do I want one enough to make it one of my 12-buys of 2023?

I've used this pic from Whistles for no reason other than that I love the model, and the relatively unretouched pics. The trench is called Riley and is currently 20% off. (Opens in a new window)

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Remember when we talked about buying only 12 new things this year? Feels like a lifetime ago (that’s January for you) but I regret to inform you it was only this time last month. How are you doing so far?

I’m on track, technically, although I failed in my plan to get through January without buying anything so I’d have one in the bank, as opposed to one in the wardrobe. I cracked within days of writing this post (Opens in a new window), and bought a pair of Adidas trainers from Other Stories. In my defence, the search for the perfect trainers is one of my ongoing sartorial obsessions and I don’t doubt another pair will find their way into my wardrobe before this year is done. (In fact if it really is only one more pair it will be a miracle.)

Anyway, since we’re now past mid-February, and that newsletter got quite the response, I thought I’d shout out to see how everyone’s doing? Does it still seem like such a good idea now you’re having to suppress the urge to shop, regardless of whether or not you can afford it? Let me know in the comments. Successes? Failures? Sneaky ways to circumvent the rules? (More like guidelines…) I’m here for them all.

During the course of the last six weeks, I’ve discovered that the not-buying alone is not enough. I have to not look. Initially I'd thought I would be fine to sofa-shop to my heart's content, leaving overloaded online shopping baskets in my wake, just as long as I didn't click Buy. But it’s not that simple, because it turns out that the looking is at least half the problem. Once I look, the opportunities reveal themselves and there are so many.