spend on this, save on that

photo cred: maria lloyd photography – check her out here!

note: i actually shared this a while ago, but made a few updates. enjoy!

it’s funny, because if you ask my husband i have ‘really expensive, fancy taste,’ which couldn’t be further from the truth. i appreciate a really nice bag, but i won’t spend more than $15 on sunglasses. i have designers i like because of their style, their brand presence, or the mission of the company, but not purely for the logo. i have a few rules for myself when it comes to splurge vs. save, and they are the following:
1. always carry a good bag. you can have a very simple, very inexpensive outfit that will look so put together if you have the right bag. the opposite can be true, too. you could be head to toe chanel, and if your bag is falling apart, you are going to look like you are falling apart. ok, that’s a little dramatic, but you get the drift.
2. pay attention to the ancillary. now, this is not necessarily a ‘splurge’ per se, although it can be, but this is where i put my money. a wise lady [hi mom!] once taught me to never color my own hair, and pay up for the professionals to do it, and i have done so and credit my hair being relatively healthy for as blonde as it is [this is not God-given, people, this is many hours in a salon chair with many pounds of foils on my head]. while it’s not flashy and over the top, spending money on self-care like hair/nails/skin is a must-do for me, since i ‘wear’ these things everyday. [apologies if that just got a little ‘silence of the lambs’-y]
3. spend on maternity. i know, this is so counter-intuitive, because ‘you will only be pregnant for a short time,’ blah blah blah. LET ME TELL YOU when you are 9 months pregnant, and nothing fits, and you can’t see your feet, and you can’t sit down but goodness you cannot stand another minute, having pants that fit is a blessing. so splurge on those maternity denim, and then pay it forward and pass it around to your prego girlfriends. i’m convinced karma will pay you back tenfold when you have a good little sleeper snoozin’ in that dockatot.
4. save on denim + sunglasses. now this one is a very personal preference, because some people will tell you to splurge on these. i save on denim in the sense that i won’t pay retail. there are a couple really good brands i love that are relatively inexpensive [check them out here and here], but if i find a pair of fabulous sam edelmen distressed, applique jeans, i am not paying $200 for them. i will buy them if they are VERY on sale, because they are fabulous, make me feel like a million bucks, and don’t cost a million bucks. also, i will not pay for expensive sunglasses because that’s a surefire way to tempt the universe to have your kid to throw them under the wheel of their moving stroller and crush them. not that that has ever happened to me …
5. do the adult thing. buy things at the end of the season when they go on sale. those block heel lace up shoes i have in all of my photos? $17 score from nordstrom rack last september. would i rather be buying boots? yes. but i did the adult thing and bought the shoes i know i would wear, when they were on sale. delayed gratification, yo.

what about you? what are your rules? let me know! hit me up on insta, or leave me a comment here!