Update from Nov 12th

This blog started life as www.nonewclothesforayear.blogspot.com on Nov 12th. But I forgot the password.

It starts again with these files recovered!

So here we go.
After a false start back in January 2007 when I made a half hearted pledge to stop shopping for new clothes for a year I have decided to give it another go.
At 41 years old with four children, a dog, a job and what remains of a social life my wardrobe needs to be adaptable/flexible/magical.
Alas, I have made the mistake of assuming the magical aspect will work with each new purchase I make.
Sadly, into my fifth decade and I realise it aint going to happen.
Instead I decide that I will dress smarter. The first step is to save some cash before buying investing in a brave new wardrobe.
I have decided that for one year I will make no more new clothing purchases. The only exception will be hosiery or underwear but only on a replacement basis.
No more sneaky additions to the supermarket shop or sidling off to the Sale racks at Whistles and Gap.
I am going cold turkey.
This weekend I sorted my wardobe and a little magic has already started. After storing some dodgy items in a suitcase, chucking out some deadbeats and lovingly folding the items I bought after a two week dose of (half a stone shedding) flu last winter into a pile on the top shelf of my wardrobe I stepped back.
The shoe rack was cleared, the wardrobe dusbusted and I was left with 15 categories of clothes (shoes, boots, jeans, trousers, casual tops, knitwear, shirts, going out tops, skirts, dresses, bags, scarves, jackets, suits and coats).
And I have anally applied a number to each item. I want to know what type of clothes I wear the most so I can invest better in November 2008.
Back to the magic. Firstly, usually when I sort my wardrobe I become depressed with the clothes that don't fit. After they were swiftly spirited away I decided to try on each of my 21 dresses. And apart from two that I struggled to pull up the zip I found two that actually look much better for the extra pounds I have acquired this year. One is a knee length lace scoop neck shift dress from Next which I bought in 1988 for my future husband's first Works Christmas Do and the second was a midnight blue and black velvet calf length dress (still with the label on) which I bought at the sales last year after it had been slashed by £50 to £19.
As Christmas approaches I am starting to feel a little more excited and loving my curvier figure a little more.
Secondly, as I dress this morning on the first day of my challenge I start to dress differently.
As a dog-walking working part of the time at home mum I want to look stylish yet feel warm and comfortable. Shoes are essential for this. Today instead of working from the middle (jeans or trousers) up I start at the bottom. I select a flat pair of soft brown leather boots (Clarks £65 circa 2006) and then move on to a knee length black velvet needlecord skirt with a green and yellow print (TK Maxx 2004) followed by a black skinny rib polo neck jumper (New Look 2004). For walking the dog I add a mustard Gilet (Primark £5 2007).
And reader, it works.
My outfit ticks all the boxes and I don't feel depressed at the thought of 365 shoppingfree days to go!