The Great American Apparel Diet
no buying for one year

Jesica

Jesica Blake 34. Wilmington, NC A mother of 3 (13 year old twin girls and a 4 year old boy) she is always behind on doing laundry. Working full time at a non-profit focused on land protection, conservation is a theme throughout her lifestyle. It took a real assessment of the household budget to realize that a majority of the clothing in the house was hers, not her children’s. With an overflowing closet, and a papa-san used only to support the giant pile of unfolded laundry that hasn’t been put away, Jesica realized a while ago that this is not only an excessive drain on the finances but also just plain too much clothing for any one person. The shopping slowed down a bit but that has not come close to stopping. With the thought of “a new outfit will make you feel better” engrained in her head since childhood, shopping for clothes has always been about buying a moment of happiness. This has conflicted with Jesica’s desire to teach her children less is more. “I buy clothes because they are cute, I buy clothes because they are on sale, I buy clothes because I don’t have them already, I simply buy clothes for every reason you can think of… But I don’t buy prepackaged snacks because the packaging is wasteful. The hypocrisy is really getting to me” Enough is enough already, Jesica is finally ready to move past the do as I say not as I do parenting and show them that shopping doesn’t fix anything and we have more than enough. “ I am hoping to not only stop giving in to the urge to spend money for no reason, but to also finally get a handle on the overwhelming amount of clothing I already have, while proving to my teenage girls not to feel pressured by the American ideal of excess”.