• Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Disclosure Policy
  • Shop My Instagram
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
Confessions of a Basic Blonde

Confessions of a Basic Blonde

Just another Basic Blog

How to Budget for Bougie

Home & Lifestyle

I don’t think I have expensive taste, but I have a taste that is always a little more expensive than my budget allows. In college, I wanted fancier food (and alcohol) and clothes that didn’t come from just Target. Now, I love my crazy expensive Barefoot Dreams cardigan and paying for more convenient parking. I have always found a want to balance my bougie taste with my less-than-bougie income and I have a few ideas for how you can too.

Step 1: Go Through Last Year’s Expenses

This will be easy if you already put all your purchases on a debit or credit card because you can just look back at your statements. If you use cash a lot, try to remember all that you can. It’s okay if it’s not perfect, just try to get as much information as you can.

This will take a long time and it will feel like so much work but it is worth it. This way, you can track how much you spent each month and on what. Did you spend $400 on black Friday? You should know that so you can budget for that. Do you like to go to brunch every Sunday but don’t care if you eat the same brown-bag lunch every day at work? You need to know how you are currently spending money so you can better prepare for the following year.

Step 2: Make a Calendar

Make a calendar of all the major sales/times of year you buy clothes and beauty. Some of the obvious times you might buy could be Black Friday, Christmas sales, day after Christmas sales, Sephora VIB sales, Nordstrom Anniversary Sales, Shopbop sales, Amazon Prime Day, etc. If you don’t normally follow sales, but know you always buy new outfits for events like spring break or for a yearly Christmas party you will want to put that event on the calendar.

Step 3: Create your Budget

Now that you have your calendar, add how much you spent on each of those things last year so you can have a rough budget for the next year. No shame here, if you spent $500 on new summer clothes because you changed sizes or just because you wanted to, then that’s what you did and should decide if that’s how much you should plan for next year too. Adding up the real totals can be shocking if you don’t already track your purchases, so remember to not shame yourself during this process.  You are already making strides to improve your finances there is no need to dwell on past mistakes you can’t fix.

Add up the total of these purchases for the year and divide that out either by 12 if you do monthly budgeting or by the number of paychecks you get if you do budgeting per paycheck.  

Step 4: Now that you have your budget, use it!

Save that money each month for those purchases! You know when the next sale is coming so it should be easier to trick yourself into saving the money because you have an upcoming sale to buy things at! If you something you buy regularly is on sale for a good price, you can stock up because you have the money for it! 

Additional Tips:

Decide what bougie items are most important to you and make sure to budget for those first. If you’re spending more than you make you have to make cuts in your spending and bougie items normally are the first to be cut. Maybe you can cut out brunch by making food at home for your friends, but you can’t imagine living without your skincare routine or your bath bombs from Lush. Make sure that it all balances out in the end so you’re able to save a little money at the end of the month.

Buy bougie and drugstore items and alternate. I have a variety of fancy shampoo and conditioner bottles in my shower and I alternate between those and Sauve Professionals Conditioner and L’Oreal Paris EverPure Sulfate-Free Shampoo. This makes the nice products last longer so I can still enjoy them but not need to buy them as often.

Keep a wardrobe full of basics and accessorize with bougie pieces. Save your money for high-quality finishing pieces jewelry and bags that can be used over and over again. They will dress up an outfit of basics so you don’t need to have as complicated of a wardrobe.

Find alternate retailers to get the same products for less. There are so many retailers online now where you can just search google for a product and probably find one that has a sale or better shipping prices. No matter what product I’m buying I often will check Amazon and Costco to see if they have better pricing.

 

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Related

August 7, 2018 · Leave a Comment

« Learn to Sew at JoAnn Fabric’s
How to Deal with Oily Skin in the Summer »

Popular Posts

White Elephant Gifts Under $20

December Self-Care

How to Budget for Christmas

Sign Up for My Monthly Newsletter

Instagram post 2193712286353412802_2064619304 I stand outside in freezing weather for Christmas light parades and I LOVE IT ❤️🎄
Instagram post 2189486894331721073_2064619304 I bought a pom pom maker and now my house is covered in pom poms 😂 I love it ❤️ I love buying new Christmas decorations but u love DIYing some every year too
Instagram post 2187194120437635245_2064619304 We saw Elf the Musical last night and WOW our local theater people are amazing. It doesn't follow the movie exactly and has all new songs but still great to get  you in the holiday spirit 🎄🎄🎄
#elfthemusical #christmascheer #civictheatergrandrapids
Instagram post 2184907578490870219_2064619304 Happy Monday morning! I am loving all the Starbucks seasonal coffees, but honestly love all the options that Biggby has better 🙈 do you get into the seasonal flavors or stick to your tried and true?
.
#michigrammer #michiganoverboard #michigander #midwestblogger #michiganblogger #westmichigan #grandrapidsblogger #midwestmoment #biggbycoffee #coffeeaddict #coffeetime☕
Instagram post 2183606393452365625_2064619304 Brunch is my love language 🍳🥞❤️ also I'm going to wear this sweater pretty much every weekend for the rest of winter. If @abercrombie has the sherpa on sale Black Friday you have to buy it.
Instagram post 2183064415539045998_2064619304 Nom 🥧 😍I'm so ready for Thanksgiving foods but couldn't wait to make myself an apple pie 🍎 I got fun pie crust molds and pie crust shields and I think they worked really well! .
#wiltonpie #applepie🍎  #thanksgivingready #midwestmoment #michiganblogger
Instagram post 2179538861938506771_2064619304 More Christmas decor because I can't get enough 😍 I got these trees and the deer made of bark from a craft show and I'm so glad I did 🎄🎄🎄
Instagram post 2178644836998129874_2064619304 I love everything involved with Christmas and do not wait until December to decorate 🎄🎄🎄
Instagram post 2165611049733207332_2064619304 Happy #nationalcatday to my sassy pants cat who loves with my parents 😂 Chaos lives up to his name and begs for attention or food in between epic staredowns.🐈🐾

Copyright © 2019 · anchored theme by Restored 316