One-Year Purchase Review: January 2016

It's that time again. What was I buying one year ago?

I made several small clothing purchases, so I'm just going to group it by "clothes I still have" and "clothes I don't still have."

Clothes I Still Have - $92

• Bra, $46 from a Polish online store. You know it was worth it.
• Hot pink sweater for work, $5 from a thrift shop. I think this is one I wear all the time. Definitely worth it.
• Teal plaid pajama pants, $14 used from eBay. I've gotten a ton of use out of these in the last year, although I may have just surpassed them in comfort with a new pair of wool lounge pants. Still, I'll hold onto these for now.
• Green plaid summer shirt, $27 new from eBay. I got this because I have another plaid shirt of the same brand which I wear a lot in summer. This one isn't quite as good though, it's too long on me. I wear it sometimes, especially if I've already worn my better one, but it wouldn't make the cut if I had to pick my favorite things. I'm not sure why I was buying this in January.
  

I think clothes I've had for a year are generally worth it by definition, but as you can see, I'm on the fence about a few of these items.

Clothes I Don't Still Have - $40

• Cheap tank tops from Forever 21 - $27. I went a bit overboard since these were like $2-$3 each. Predictably, they were terrible.
• Sleeveless shell top for work, $2 from a thrift store. Again, not a huge expenditure, but not a great idea nonetheless. It turns out I don't really use sleeveless shells, since I feel like I need to wear sleeves at work. I'd only use sleeveless things for undershirts, so they don't need to be fancy. I'm even moving away from sleeveless undershirts now, since I think undershirt sleeves protect my sweaters better.
• T-shirt on sale from a going-out-of-business sale, $11. Again, I was wowed by the DEAL$ (which weren't actually that great tbh). This was a "burnout" style T-shirt which turned out to be basically see-through, so I never found a way to wear it without being self-conscious.

I'd say clothes I don't have one year later were, by definition, poor purchases. It looks like in most of these cases, I was more excited about the DEAL than the actual item, which is a recipe for losing money in dribs and drabs.

Bass Guitar - $197

This is for the actual bass, the stand, and a digital copy of Garage Band (which I never used because I couldn't figure out how to hook up my bass to my computer). I wrote about the bass in my March 2016 post, I Rebought Things I Decluttered! I'd previously had my brother's bass on long term loan. After I returned it to him, I went without a bass for about six months, then bought a new one, which, mostly, has gathered dust. I think I like the idea of being "a person who plays bass" more than I like actually playing? I mean, I enjoyed playing when it was something I did with my brother, but when left to my own devices, I don't play very often. After one year and only playing it a few times--and then, just playing the same songs I know, not adding new skills--I've decided to donate it to a girls' summer rock'n'roll camp.

So, I guess I have to say that this experiment was not worth it, since it was ultimately a failure. But I do kind of feel like, if I hadn't done it, I'd still be wondering if I would play the bass if I had one.

Earbuds - $25

I got these to replace an almost identical pair that had broken after 1 year. So I guess I should watch out that these might break now! But they seem to be doing fine. I don't carry or use these often, but I couldn't run without them. Worth it.

Summary

Total Self-Spend: $354

Total Worth It: $117

Total Not Worth It: $237

The overall spend wasn't too high (compared to other months) and I think I did a pretty good job of keeping expenses down aside from the bass. Like I said, I don't really begrudge myself that experiment, since I think music is a constructive hobby. It just didn't turn out to be the one I have a consistent, lasting interest in. For comparison, other things I mentioned in my "Rebought Things I Decluttered" post, the art supplies, have seen a lot of use. I think I'm just more of a drawing person than a music person.