{Fashion Friday} Cost per wear ratio

I used to love shopping, every time I went out I found so many pieces I loved and always came home with loads of purchases and dreams of purchasing things that my budget couldn't stretch to bring home.

Now it is a different story, every time I go shopping I return home with more pieces for Jellybean than for myself, and most of the time the pieces that I get for myself are simple things like T-shirts or Pyjamas. At first, because it started happening whilst I was on maternity leave I decided this was something to do with my thoughts on my body, after all having a baby forces your body to change and evolve in the most unexpected ways.

Then when I outgrew that, I decided it was because I moved home to New Zealand and the shopping is just different here. Which is true, the boutiques of Christchurch have all but been wiped out by the earthquakes. But after a recent trip to Wellington, where the shopping is always fabulous I realised that this just isn't the case either.

Over the last eighteen months I've worn out a number of my core pieces, my stash of five different pairs of top quality Sass & Bide jeans have disappeared, either worn out at the knee, faded from black to grey/brown or simply don't fit my post-baby-butt. And I haven't been able to replace them, I've spent eighteen months looking for a quality pair of black jeans that I like and have not been able to source them ANYWHERE! I almost took the leap and purchased a pair of True Religion Jeans off the internet but at $400 USD + postage decided the risk of them not fitting was much too high for my liking.

I make a habit out of spending a lot of money on clothes, especially core pieces like jeans and jackets, after all if you wear a pair of jeans twice a week for two years (sometimes even three), those $200 jeans end up only costing you about $1 per wear or 65c for three years. If you buy a cheap pair of jeans for $50 but they loose their fit after a month, they end up costing you $6 per wear... not such a bargain in the long run.

So whilst I haven't been able to determine what's hit my shopping mojo, fortunately the other day after eighteen months of hunting I was able to find the perfect pair of jeans, yes they almost cost me a weeks wages, but yes they are absolutely perfect, and they make this post-baby-butt look J.Lo perfect!

Now the girl at the shop had a fab tip for retaining the colour of the jeans she said 'Wear them until you absolutely have to wash them, and even then where them a couple more times. When you do wash them, make sure they are inside out and wash with a teaspoon of salt."

Ah ha, so that explains why my other jeans faded out to that horrible grey/brown colour, I didn't wear them until they stunk!

Thanks to Vanish Napisan Oxi Action we are lucky enough to have a $50 Westfield Shopping Centre voucher to give away so that you too can invest in a top quality piece for your wardrobe, I just need you to tell me your favourite tips for protecting your clothes so that they too can achieve an optimum cost per wear ratio. Simply comment below or over on the Facebook page.

My favourite tip will be announced at the end of the month and contacted via email.

If you haven't already pop on over and discover Vanish Napisan Oxi Action's Facebook page for their 'Tip Exchange', back in the day most people relied on their Mum's passing down helpful hints when it comes to removing stains and keeping clothes clean. But with Mum's having to juggle so many different things on a day to day basis (such as kids and careers) all these tips seem to have gotten lost. So Vanish are creating an online hub where you and other people out there can share and learn the best tips when it comes to removing stains using Vanish Napisan.