Considering it's nearly the end of January, I thought it would be a good idea to finally bring you the last of 2017's purchases as well as the full wrap-up, stats and thoughts. I will try and bring a Best and Worst Buys to you later.

Didn't snag much in December as too busy not having a full-time job but working full-time on other beeswax, including job hunting. I haven't been posting to Instagram much lately so nor do I have many pictures of the things so I've harnessed the magic of the Internet to bring you at least an idea. I've also had massive issues with the NBN at home over the last couple of weeks but I seem to have caught it on a good day today so let's hope I can get through the whole post.

I bought three things at Millers during their "nothing over $20" sale . . . none of which I have a photo of me in which is a bit annoying although to be fair, I've only worn one of them (pictured below) and the other dress is a bit hippy (in a physical, not lifestyle, sense) so the jury is still out with regards to it and the pants I was going to wear to fly to Melbourne but then when I was lifting a suitcase into the boot of the car, the wheel drove along my white tee and so I had to change my whole outfit. DRAMATICS.

Here are said pants in black (I got navy):


I also scored a cute replacement for my Rubi laser-punch brogues that were on the way out, having served me well, a slip-on Lavish pair from Harris Scarfe, marked down to $34.95 from $59.95. It took a while to actually score these as the city store didn't have my size and they were unavailable in tan online but a quick swing past the Tea Tree Plaza store left me victorious.


Then there was this blush backpack from Kmart. I'd been thinking about a backpack for those days when you need to cart stuff around in a more casual manner, especially on holidays, and this one definitely pulled its weight in recent trips to Brisbane and Melbourne while saving me from having to haul the My Little Pony one around.


While in Brisbane, I got to meet up with bloggy friend Mica from Away From The Blue for a chilled beverage and chat in a shopping centre between our two places. As we were leaving, I spied this cute clutch on a clearance table at the chemist opposite so I snatched it up for $15.20, marked down from $30.


Finally, when I got to go and meet my other friend Lana at Garden City, I had some time to spend before she arrived so you better believe I RAN into H&M and picked up these dresses for $29 each although technically because my Christmas present from the husband was spending money to buy such things with in Brisbane, they were free.

Admire my flatlay skills, please:


Okay! So let's look at the wrap-up for December:

Items acquired: 8
Total RRP ticket "value" - $282.95
Total paid - $129.95

And here are the stats for 2017 as a whole:

Items acquired: 138

2017 YTD spend - $2,556.14
2017 YTD "value" - $5,846.70

* Not counted: Louis Vuitton Neverfull Tote ($1680) as a freak exception purchase bought with part of my redundancy payout from my job of 11 years and have used almost every day since.

Key findings

For comparison, I spent $1,711.59 in 2016 and acquired a ticket value of $3,581.16. That was working three days a week as opposed to pretty much full time in 2017. Annoyingly, looking over the cost per wear, there are many items I bought or acquired this year that have only been worn once or not at all, which is something I really need to work on for 2018.

Thrifted items were also way down compared to last year, as I didn't have the same amount of free time to go op shopping.

From the 138 items acquired, I only paid full price for 36 of them (and most of those were Kmart, so big deal.)

Which brings me to whether I will keep tracking costs this year. While I do enjoy it and find it useful and educational, it is still a bit of work and I'd probably have to guess a few things that I've already bought without tracking. I'll think about it.

Did you track your spend in 2017 / are you doing it this year? Here's my handy spreadsheet link if you're up for it.