Here we are guys – the start of April and a WHOLE THREE MONTHS into 2021. Q1 is officially over and I’m here to talk about the pressing issues that everyone wants to hear about …

How my Low Buy Challenge went! 😂 So if you’re new to the blog or just an occasional reader, you can go back to this post here to find more of the why’s or how’s of this challenge. The basic gist is – a limit of 5 clothing/closet items (doesn’t include beauty) with no spending limit, just an item limit.

We know that back in February I purchased a sweatsuit from Target, mainly so that I could match with my youngest daughter. That was my first and only purchase for a loooong while. The winter months weren’t super tempting clothing-wise for me; for the most part, I was happy to wear the joggers and sweaters I already had in my closet.

But then.

But then March came. And in March many clothing brands start to launch their spring collections and if there’s ONE THING I HAVE A WEAKNESS FOR, IT’S PRETTY TEXTURES AND DAINTY FLORALS!

I started having SUCH a hard time saying noooooo. To kick things off, I discovered a new brand, Neuflora, and found myself so drawn to their clothes that immediately I purchased my 2nd and 3rd items for Q1:

The Aspen Sweater by Neuflora – this isn’t the best picture I have of it but it’s the only one so … make do. I have it layered under a denim jacket here.

The Wilmington Top by Neuflora – I haven’t actually worn this top yet (still has tags) and when I was trying it on for this photo, I was too lazy to swap out the jeans I had on. I think when it comes time to actually style it, this top would look better with skinny jeans instead of these straight cut ones I had on but … you get the general idea either way. I’m still not convinced that this top doesn’t just make me look fat but … for now I want to keep it.*

Then CJLA dropped the first of their many spring collections and try as I might to resist, I still found myself adding a few things to my cart. (I do want to say that this is a vast improvement from just blindly buying basically the entire collection every time.) I tried to be really intentional about what pieces I wanted to buy and made a big effort to only get things that looked different from what I already owned.

The Reef Dress by CJLA – As soon as I saw this dress, I knew I needed it because it reminded me of a breezy dress version of my Comfy. I was a little nervous because a few Instagrammers did Stories try-ons for this dress and said it was way too shapeless and big but I am actually in LOVE with mine.

From the same collection drop, I also grabbed this Joslyn Dress*…. and I’m on the fence about it. I love the print & color and it’s super comfortable/fits well BUUUUT .. is it flattering? I feel like it makes me look chestier than I already am … but maybe I’m just self conscious about it? It’s also slightly sheerer than I anticipated so I’m not sure how I feel about that either. For now, I’ve decided to keep it but we shall see.

So that’s 5 items and I should be all good, right? Erm .. well.

There was ANOTHER spring drop by CJLA and I ordered three more things from that collection 🙈They haven’t arrived yet so technically .. do they count at Q1 purchases if they didn’t arrive by the end of March? I don’t know … HAHAHA.

For those who are curious, I ordered:

The Amaya Jumper

Elodie Scarf

And I also got one more cute floral dress but for some odd reason, it has completely disappeared from the CJLA website so I don’t have a link or stock image for it … 🤷🏻‍♀️I don’t know why.

But either way, as you can see, that puts me at 8 items total. 😬Again, I’m not sure what to really do with the in-limbo items – the ones that I ordered during Q1 but that haven’t come yet. There’s a chance I could try them on and hate them which would put me back at 5 items or there’s a chance I could try them on and love them which would put me over.

Lessons Learned:

RETURN THINGS: I actually purchased more than these 8 things but I was way better about returning things that I for sure knew would be a hard no once I tried them on. I’m a little embarrassed to say that before, I think I would have been more inclined to just keep everything with the thought of “well, maybe one day I’ll wear it…?” and this challenge has helped me not do that.

LOVE WHAT YOU HAVE: Another really cool takeaway from this challenge is the idea of truly LOVING what you own. Loving the way it looks on you, the way you feel in it, the way it fits with everything else you own. Not just kind of liking it, not just liking it in certain outfits, but truly 100% loving every piece you have. I’ll be honest, I already regret the Target sweatsuit (my first purchase) because while it’s adorable and super comfy, I only kind of like the fit – the neckline is a little too high and rigid for my liking. I would have preferred it with a slightly slouchier cut. I realized I need to be pickier with my clothing that I decide to purchase and keep. If you noticed, I placed a * on a few things throughout this post and those are the things that I’m still undecided on … I guess if I return those items with a * and keep the three remaining CJLA things that have yet to come, I’ll end up with 6 items total for Q1 which isn’t too bad … right?

In Conclusion:

I really liked this challenge and what it did for my spending and I’m going to be repeating it for Q2. The rules will be the same – 5 items total, only applies to things for my closet, with no spending limit BUUUT I’m going to add one new caveat. Anything over the 5 items needs to be a 1 in/1 out thing. So for every item I go over the 5, I’ll have to get rid of something, too. I’m not sure if this is a good idea or if this will totally undo any gains I’ve made in my shopping habits through Q1 but this is an experiment so … I’ll try it out and report back at the end of June how it went!