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I've tracked every piece of clothing I've worn for three years (2021)

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Re: I've tracked every piece of clothing I've worn for three years (2021)

#31

Post by tutorialmanager »

xnyan wrote: post #26
distances wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and the fact that they have a summer house where at least one pair resides. This person lives differently to me. He seems to live in Finland. It's a sparsely populated country covered in forests and with an abundance of lakes[0] which has led to a quite democratic summer house culture. It's completely normal even among working class to own a summer house by a lake. There's of course variation. A large summer house…

>It's completely normal even among working class to own a summer house by a lake. Just want to understand, by normal do you mean less than 1/5 Finnish households? Going by the source below, I don't know if I'm missing something but it does not seem to be normal? https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S01692... .

I think the point is that it’s not just the wealthy households. Not everyone wants a cabin but most people can afford one.

Re: I've tracked every piece of clothing I've worn for three years (2021)

#32

Post by RandomThoughts3 »

n4r9 wrote: post #6
distances wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and the fact that they have a summer house where at least one pair resides. This person lives differently to me. He seems to live in Finland. It's a sparsely populated country covered in forests and with an abundance of lakes[0] which has led to a quite democratic summer house culture. It's completely normal even among working class to own a summer house by a lake. There's of course variation. A large summer house…

Thanks, didn't know that. Still, the guy is spending wild amounts of money on clothing. Eur442 per year on shoes? I spend maybe £30-50 on an everyday pair that'll last me a couple of years. I also have a couple of pairs of dress shoes, hiking boots, running shoes, and lifting shoes, but all of those have been going for 5-10 years.

I’m more surprised by the seemingly lack of longevity of what he buys than by the costs.

442 euros is two pairs of dress shoes or one pair of good boots. I don’t think you can buy anything other than sneakers for £50.

My own dresser is not that far removed from his regarding to its content (I have far less blazers, don’t wear hoodies and have more suits) but I think I cycle each piece far less than he does because my annual closing budget is probably less than half his despite per unit costs in the same range.

But to be honest it’s not hard to blow though 3000€ of clothing if you replace a lot at the same time. An ok suit costs around 500€. You can double that easily if you want something fancy and you need at least three if you wear them daily. A coat will set you back between 200€ and 500€ depending of the material. A shirt is 70€-80€, dress shoes 250€. Throw in some accessories like belts or god forbids a watch and you are there. It adds up quite fast.

Re: I've tracked every piece of clothing I've worn for three years (2021)

#33

Post by egypturnash »

> Someone once said their goal is to have a wardrobe with nothing but favorite clothes. That makes sense not only from a value perspective, but in light of my data, that may also be the best alternative in terms of cost performance.

My clothes-buying strategy has settled on "if it doesn't look great on me in the fitting room then it doesn't come home with me". Which is pretty similar. You can still end up with things that rarely get worn for other reasons but it's a good filter.

Re: I've tracked every piece of clothing I've worn for three years (2021)

#34

Post by Swizec »

happytoexplain wrote: post #19
swatcoder wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think many people here at HN can admit to spending that much on their hobbies, even the ones without summer houses. It just sounds like fashion might not be one of yours?

3.9k USD annually is a lot for a hobby. I'm not going to argue whether it's "just a bit much" or "ridiculous", but I think it's strange to imply that it's somehow not a lot.

> 3.9k USD annually is a lot for a hobby. I'm not going to argue whether it's "just a bit much" or "ridiculous", but I think it's strange to imply that it's somehow not a lot.

It adds up fast.

Last year a single 2 week roadtrip on my motorcycle easily racked up around $5000 in total cost between needing new touring gear, new set of tyres, motels, etc. I have worn the touring gear once or twice since then but haven’t had a chance for any more big trips. The tyres I keep using of course.

This year a single maintenance visit came out to $2k. Just parking for my bike costs $1200/year.

Until recently when I started commuting again, my bike was purely a hobby. You could argue it’s still a hobby because I could totally BART/CalTrain to work if I hated myself enough. (it’s 60% faster by bike)

I think a lot of people on HN either aren’t honest with themselves how much hobbies cost, live in low COL areas, or both.

Re: I've tracked every piece of clothing I've worn for three years (2021)

#35

Post by koolba »

> In some cases, buying cheap is provenly more expensive

There’s an inherent bias in being willing to throw away a cheap pair of shoes that are a bit worn and stuffed. But not being willing to toss a $500 pair of Bruno Maglis with the same level of wear. That leads to the latter being worn further and driving it down till it eventually passes the cheap stuff.

Re: I've tracked every piece of clothing I've worn for three years (2021)

#36

Post by noodlesUK »

happytoexplain wrote: post #19
swatcoder wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think many people here at HN can admit to spending that much on their hobbies, even the ones without summer houses. It just sounds like fashion might not be one of yours?

3.9k USD annually is a lot for a hobby. I'm not going to argue whether it's "just a bit much" or "ridiculous", but I think it's strange to imply that it's somehow not a lot.

I think it really depends on what the hobby is.

If you’re into an individual sport and you have private lessons, which are more common than you’d think, you’ll easily blow thousands of dollars per year just for half an hour or an hour per week. Almost anyone who is beyond a fairly recreational level in tennis, martial arts or fencing will be spending thousands per year.

On the other hand, 3.9k per year is a massive amount of money to spend on cheaper hobbies like hiking or painting.

It also depends a lot where you live, HN is very US centric and is full of people who are earning big money at tech companies there.

Re: I've tracked every piece of clothing I've worn for three years (2021)

#37

Post by happytoexplain »

Waterluvian wrote: post #24
tekla wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. I have expensive hobbies, and this is a hilarious amount of money to spend, wow. I Scuba and my gear (dive com, suit, tank) cost less than 3k and its meant to keep me alive, versus win instagram points and it will last me a decade.

You don’t have “expensive hobbies.” You have hobbies that you feel are expensive. There will be people who perceive your hobbies as quaint and austere, and there will be people who think you’re being outrageously opulent. There is no objective “my hobbies are expensive. Their hobbies are outrageous.”

This is a pretty extreme form of neutral stance. Yes, it's subjective. One man's day out is another man's salary. But it's not so utterly boundless that it's noteworthy to point out that most people probably consider thousands every year on a hobby to be an "expensive hobby".

Re: I've tracked every piece of clothing I've worn for three years (2021)

#38

Post by Vvector »

n4r9 wrote: post #4

I did a double-take at the 3.5k Euro spend per year on clothing. My own spending is probably 2-3 orders of magnitude smaller. But then I saw how many shoes they own, and the fact that they have a summer house where at least one pair resides. This person lives differently to me.

He's paying $95 per shirt, $13 for a undershirt, $10 per underwear.

Re: I've tracked every piece of clothing I've worn for three years (2021)

#39

Post by tekla »

swatcoder wrote: post #22
happytoexplain wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

3.9k USD annually is a lot for a hobby. I'm not going to argue whether it's "just a bit much" or "ridiculous", but I think it's strange to imply that it's somehow not a lot.

It's more than I spend, but you're on a tech forum full of nerdy engineers -- gaming rigs and their upgrades, hot new phones and laptops, travel, collectibles, legos, shop tools and materials, music gear, sporting and camping gear, etc each burn through that kind of budget real quick. And nobody would call out that kind of spend were it for one of those.

Yes I would, anyone spending this kind of money regularly is a rube. Most of the shit you mentioned are up front one time costs with a minimal maintenance requirement. Anyone who is paying several grand to upkeep this stuff is an idiot and deserves to be parted with their money.

Re: I've tracked every piece of clothing I've worn for three years (2021)

#40

Post by jsnell »

> The 90 euro Converse sneakers and the 30 euro Mywears have a similar CPW of 0.87 euros and 0.70 €, respectively. Their effective cost is roughly the same, which means that walking around in the cheap Mywears is roughly as expensive as walking around in Converses. In this case, money buys quality, at least when measured by durability.

I don't think there's anything wrong with the author spending a lot of money on clothes and replacing their clothes at a high velocity. If buying stuff makes you happy, buy stuff. I've certainly spent a lot of money on board games I don't play enough. Tracking the cost per use seems like a good way to control the habit.

But this paragraph makes it seem as if the author can't make themselves actually admit that's the reason, and need to find an excuse for it. No, sorry, cheap sneakers do not wear out after 43 uses or expensive ones after 104 uses. At that point I'd persinally be classifying them as indistinguishable from new. Like, at best the author got bored of them after that many uses.

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