BECOMING MINIMALIST - Week #11 & Project 333 Update

The goal I set for this week was simple:  Purge 69 items and update my resume

Saturday - Day #71

Some good news to report - the owner of the company I work at re-ran the numbers and wage cuts are NOT necessary.  Praise the Lord!  I literally had just finished updating my resume when I got the news.  I'm thankful and relieved, but being told my pay would drop by $10K definitely put me on high alert.  I think for the next few months instead of putting all my extra income towards my debt snowball I'm going to save it instead.  I'm on Step #2 (paying off all debt except the mortgage), but given the apparent instability of my job, I'm going to skip to Step #3 (saving 3-6 months worth of expenses).  Right now I only have one month's worth saved up which was a terrifying reality yesterday.  Depending on if I do 3 or 6 months, it will take me 2 1/2 to 5 months to reach that goal.  (Less time if I sell some items on eBay).     
It would figure that the day after my job scare, my order from The Limited would arrive that I placed last Saturday when they were having a 1/2 off sale.  Given what just happened though, I'm having a hard time keeping any of it.

These heather grey cropped lounge pants were the first thing I opened.  My thought process in ordering them is that they can replace my pair of navy Adidas capri pants in my casual wardrobe. (The Adidas pants aren't flattering on and make me feel chubby when I wear them).  They already have paint on them, so they can become my "painting pants" and my "painting shorts" can be thrown away.  At $29.97, I'm debating on keeping them, but I did throw my painting shorts away regardless.  UPDATE:  I tossed the Adidas pants too that made me feel chubby and decided to KEEP the new grey pants.

The next item I opened was this long sleeve tee.  I've raved about these tees before due to their comfort and softness.  It's one I can wear to work or wear casually with the grey capris (above) or jeans.  At $17.47, it's one I'll wear for years to come.  KEEP

This top was featured on a mailer I received and I instantly was drawn to the gorgeous red color.  I really debated on keeping it.  I finally tried it on Monday with a navy cardigan and even photographed it.  It looked cute on and I had a necklace that looked great with it, so it made the cut.  KEEP

This was the next sweater I had my eye on the last time as well.  It's really cute and has the tulip back, which I'm loving right now.  Not sure that I really need it though.  (Again, not a good day to even think about new clothes).  I debated for a few days on this top and in the end, it went in the KEEP pile.  If I put it with my red beveled necklace, it will make for a good dressier casual Friday outfit.

Everything else (including 2 tops, a pair of goldenrod yellow jeans (that were unfortunately low rise and I didn't realize it), the goldenrod top from the first order (which I didn't like the fit of), 3 sweaters (including the brown sweater from the last order), and a pair of dress pants went back.  RETURN

Sunday - Day #72

Still feeling anxious about my job situation.  This, combined with having cramps has left me feeling really bummed out.  My natural reaction when I'm bummed is to try to find an instant pick-me-up, which is normally when I'd do some online shopping.  (I'd love to buy a new pair of black Toms to wear for every day around the house).  Instead though, I pulled out a pair of my slippers with rubber bottoms and am wearing those and am focusing on purging some more today.  

On the bright side, today is my 7-year wedding anniversary.  We actually have plans to celebrate next weekend.  Who-hoo!

Monday - Day #73

There is a bad chest cold going around work and of course, I got it.  I didn't want to put clothes on today, let alone go to work.  I ended up trying on the maroon top on that arrived Saturday to see how it looked and the outfit evolved from there.  The necklace was what sold me on it.      

I worked on preparing my Fall capsule wardrobe yesterday and there's three maroon tops in it.  They're all differing degrees of heaviness and texture though.  I've got my options selected, but I think I'm going to formally build the capsule wardrobe as I go, versus make selections and then have to change them along the way.

Tuesday - Day #74 & Wednesday - Day #75

The chest cold officially got me.  Ended up with a fever and all kinds of nasty side effects from taking Prednisone.  If it gets this stuff out of my lungs though, it will be worth it.  Thank goodness I was still able to do some work from home!  Needless to say, there were no cute outfits though.  I finally put a sports bra on today (Thursday) and showered before 4pm, so that's progress.  :)

Thursday - Day #76

I basically decided I was going to work today, fever or not.  (Thankfully it broke).  The boss wasn't happy about it when he heard how I still sounded, but there was a ton of work waiting for me.

Today is the first day of my new Fall capsule wardrobe.  It was 64 degrees outside and I wanted to feel good in my clothes.  Since my goldenrod jeans turned out to be low rise jeans (major no-no with my belly), the teal jeans won out.  I paired them with my beaded Fall necklace, acorn earrings, and my boots that I love!  

Life happens - when I went to leave for work this morning, my battery was dead on my car.  I figured in my cold haze I had left my lights on when I came home from CVS yesterday so my husband came home and jumped my car.  However, I purposely left my lights off during my drive in to work and the battery was dead when I went to get something out of my trunk.  My co-worker ended up jumping my car at the office and I headed straight to Auto Zone (a car parts & accessories chain store).  Turns out my battery needed to be replaced.  $164.18 later, they replaced the battery for me (and disposed of my old one) and my car now runs fine.  Auto Zone also replaced my headlight Monday night after work that went out and fixed my trunk that randomly would pop open while I was driving down the interstate too.  Shout out to Auto Zone because I don't know how to fix anything on my car on my own!  :)

Friday - Day #77

Praise the Lord!  I survived this week!  As you can see, it's been a challenging one!  Unfortunately I went into work for about an hour in leggings in scrubby clothes (long enough to pick up & pay for one of our company vehicles that was getting repaired) and then came home because I still was feeling awful.  I wish I had more encouraging/enlightening things to share with you this week, but when you don't feel good, everything seems to be thrown out of whack!  

So far, my Fall capsule wardrobe includes the following:

1.  Maroon/navy/white sleeveless print top
2.  White 3/4 sleeve top
3.  Teal Jeans
4.  Black flats
5.  Brown tall boots
6.  Lia Sophia beveled paprika red necklace
7.  Lia Sophia grey/clear crystal Stanton earrings
8.  Lia Sophia beaded Savannah necklace
9. Lia Sophia acorn earrings
10.  Rose gold colored watch

As I mentioned Monday, I'm building it as I go, so I'll add to the list as I wear new pieces.  I'm also not limiting myself to just 33 pieces.  I am a jewelry lover, so for me, staying in the 45-50 piece range (jewelry included) is more feasible.  

Totals for this Week:

Current Inventory - 10,352

Items Purged - 2979
Items Donated - 1300
Items Used - 588
Items Sold/Returned - 87 
TOTAL ITEMS ELIMINATED = 4954

(4954/15306) = 32.36% of items inventoried have been eliminated so far

Next week's goal:   Eliminate another 69 items (and kick this stupid cold)!

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XOXO,
Stephanie