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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)

#131
post #38
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.

$95 USD for a nice dress shirt is cheap. $120-150 is normal, $170+ is expensive. I can't find dress shirts I like for $95 USD unless they're on sale for 30-40% off, and that's very rare.

Cheap shirts have terrible collars with no shape, poor cloth that doesn't drape properly or feel nice on your skin, shit buttons (Not MOP or even horn), paper thin plackets, usually boring or gauche fabrics/patterns, etc. The list goes on.

I understand this sounds insane to people who don't care about clothes, but these things matter to me. A shirt that lacks these things looks terrible to me.

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

#132
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.

>> This person lives differently to me.

Yup. The rich are different. They have more money.

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

#133
post #26

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... .

Less then 1/5 is still super normal.

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

#134

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.

If you are buying all those, then you are buying massively more then you even have a chance to use.

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

#135
post #93
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.

25.5% of that is Finland's VAT. Europeans include tax in prices. Also, for whatever reason, European clothes cleaning systems are insanely harsh, and your clothes don't last nearly as long when washed there. I think it's related to the energy efficiency requirements; the dryers are much much hotter (if they are available at all) and the washers have to use miniscule amounts of water so they use a lot more agitating i…

Hrm, every benchmark of top-loader machines vs modern front-loader machines I've ever seen has front-loaders doing far better in terms of limiting damage to clothes. I suppose it's possible that old-fashioned high-water-use _front-loaders_ are easier on clothes (are those still a thing in the US?)

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

#136
post #93
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.

25.5% of that is Finland's VAT. Europeans include tax in prices. Also, for whatever reason, European clothes cleaning systems are insanely harsh, and your clothes don't last nearly as long when washed there. I think it's related to the energy efficiency requirements; the dryers are much much hotter (if they are available at all) and the washers have to use miniscule amounts of water so they use a lot more agitating i…

Do you have a reference for cleaning systems being harsh? Having moved countries I noticed many difference in: water hardness (will make your cloths stiffer), materials used (when you buy stuff), usage (car versus biking vs public transport), weather (some places is more rainy), washing habits (not everybody washes as often).

Overall my impression is that the quality of the clothes affects more their lasting chances than all the other aspects.

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

#137
post #106
post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Counterpoint: I've run 7 marathons in 7 consecutive days, whilst wearing some low-profile altras, and after the mid-way, I was switching to more cushier ones.

I'm not disputing that cushioning "feels" comfortable. So does Vicodin. But if cushioned shoes work well for you, I wouldn't expect you to change anything. Invest in HOKA. My audience is all the runners who have problems, and keep turning up the dial on cushioning, orthotics, etc. ... before finally giving up on running by their forties. Or they run on NSAIDs and trash their kidneys.

I wear boat shoes daily, they're essentially a flat piece of rubber. Gives me the sensation of being "half barefoot" (things don't hurt but I feel every little piece of gravel and crevasse I walk on.

I'm also 78kg so I don't know if anything I wear or don't wear on my feet really matters, but it feels good and they last for ages since it's just suede/leather stitched down into rubber.

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

#138

Oh, thank you for the validation! For three years I've been measuring, weighing, logging all my nails and hair and poop, and I thought I was alone!

What is the average weight of your poops?

Are you storing and cataloging them all in a deep freezer?

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

#139

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.

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 a…

Painting can be quite an expensive hobby. Maybe not 3.9k per year expensive, but still, I'm sure I've spent more than $1k in the last 12 months. It starts cheap, but the cheap materials tend to be shite. There's always savings to be made, but they often cost time over money.

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

#140
post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting you mention shin splits - those (and ITBS) were my crippling complaint for 15 years, before I tried barefooting, basically in desperation.

Can you recommend any good resource on how to start seriously with barefoot running or walking?

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