6 Ways To Style your way through ‘No Spend January’

January often feels like theeeeeee longest month of the year. It follows all of the fun and festivities of December with a sudden, much more serious tone. We love to use this time to set new goals and resolutions, get our heads down into a busy period at work and make those all-important self-improvements after reflecting on our mistakes or downfalls from the previous year. After chatting to work colleagues and friends, it seems like this month is absolutely full to the brim of healthy eating, no alcohol and zero spending.

Although I’ve not committed to ‘No Spend January’ myself, I know a lot of people do it to compensate for the indulgence of the month before and set themselves up for a year of more frugal behaviour. So I thought I would share my tips on the best way to style your way through a month of zero new clothes, whether that be January or any other month of the year.

Gather all of the inspo

I think after Christmas it’s so easy to feel like you’re stuck in a style rut. If you want to buy anything, the shops are full of sale items which fail to inspire and at the same time, we’re wishing away the colder weather with the hope of Spring so styling up any Winter appropriate outfits is the opposite of what you want to be doing.

When I’m lacking ideas on what to wear the first thing I do is gather inspiration. I’ll spend hours browsing Pinterest, creating new boards around trends, street style and daily outfits and then I scroll my way through Instagram and save anything I like the look of. This is something I would highly recommend as you can then essentially go and shop your own wardrobe and put together similar outfits using existing pieces, based on what you liked the look of. I usually do a ‘weekly saves’ story over on my Instagram so if you’re looking for a place to start you can find my page here >> @kayleigh_rebekah

Create 2 or 3 outfits around your favourite key pieces

We usually tend to have a few favourite items that we wear over and over, like a favourite t-shirt, blazer or pair of trousers so it’s a great idea to get them out and then mix and match your other pieces around those key items. That way, you should end up with 10-15 ‘new‘ outfits that you’ll love wearing because they are based around all of your favourite things. You could even pair some of your favourite items together all into one super look if you wish and wear this one on those duller days in January – blue Monday is coming up tomorrow so I’ll definitely be dressing in all of my favourite things to help improve my mood.

Create a January capsule wardrobe

I absolutely love the idea of creating a capsule wardrobe for a new season or even for a trip away as I think it forces us to look more carefully at the pieces we own and get creative. It’s all too easy now to buy more and more in order to feel like we have enough clothes, but the truth is fashion for me is all about being able to style pieces in new and interesting ways.

Creating a capsule wardrobe for January will not only force you to look at new ways of styling existing pieces you own, but it will take the stress out of looking through your entire closet every day for things to wear by limiting the number of items you have to consider. There are a few guidelines to follow which you can find if you do a quick search on google and also The Anna Edit is the queeeeen of creating capsule wardrobes so is a great one to watch on YouTube if you need some help getting started.

Focus on outerwear as the statement

Since the temperatures are considerably lower this time of the year, it’s even easier to focus your outfit around one key bit of outerwear. Make the most of your jackets and coats by layering them, belting them and accessorising them with different bags to change how they look. If you’re spending the day mainly outdoors, this is the IDEAL way to dress and I honestly love it as it takes so much thought out of getting ready in the mornings.

Don’t be afraid to outfit repeat

This may sound obvious but what I mean, more than anything is to outfit repeat and not feel bad about it. So often nowadays we’re made to feel like we should always buy new, especially when thinking about occasionwear or nights out but sometimes there’s nothing more satisfying than rediscovering an amazing LBD from the back of the wardrobe or your favourite knit from last Winter at the bottom of your set of drawers.

If you come across an outfit combination that you love and that makes you feel great, I say wear it wherever and whenever you can.

Try tonal dressing

If you’re still struggling with what to wear and how to style different pieces together, then give tonal dressing a try to see if that helps. Essentially, the key to tonal dressing is sticking to the same shade or similar colours. All grey, cream or black outfits tend to be the most classic and stylish ways of tonal dressing and I always find that dressing in this way is really simple and doesn’t take too much thought.

I would love to know if any of you are taking part in no spend January or if you have any other ways of reinventing your wardrobe without spending any money…