How do you finance your vintage or vintage style clothing and hats?

[reetpleat]

I recently saw a lounger mention he financed the clothing with the money he got from playing music. When I lived in SF, before dealing full time, I would work to pay the bills, and only buy clothing with money that came from buying and selling vintage. I did this just to curb the habit and make a game out of it.

These days, I only add to the collection things I find in thrift or vintage stores on the cheap. I just cant bring myself to spend the retail prices the good stuff commands now. At the same time, I have stepped up the resale due to ebay and the slow times for real estate agents, and now it just goes into the general fund.

I know many members are married, so finding the money becomes a team decision. If so, do you have a special way to justify purchases by generating extra money for it specifically?

Or, maybe you have a certain amount you can spend a year.

Or, do you just buy what you want, when you want?

 

[Phineas Lamour]

I usually get hats or vintage clothes for birthday, Christmas, and tax return time. I have a wife and 2 small children so paychecks go to bills and food mostly.

 

[reetpleat]

If worse comes to worse, you can always eat your hat.

 

[rippy444]

Extra money.

The advantage of being a plumber, I can do some small jobs for free. Some times I am awarded gifts for my services and that is the hat money. I too have a wife and seven grand children.I am in that over 66 and make all you want bracket. Does anyone have a 1962 Ford Falcon I can have ? Thanks--RIP

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Like you, reetpleat, I rarely buy in vintage stores these days because of the inflated prices. eBay is getting pretty inflated too. Still good for the badly listed stuff.

As for funding my purchases, I buy so little these days that i don't really need to budget for it. I can just pick it up when i find stuff. But most of the stuff i find is too big, so the money from selling goes into the cash/karma kitty for buying those really big vintage purchases that i need to fill my wardrobe and are inevitably expensive (thankfully i've been at this long enough and dedicated enough that there aren't too many gaps to fill). It is fortunate, i must say, to have 2 chains of warehouse-style vintage stores in London that regularly have absolutely no clue what they're putting on their shelves. The gems i've had for under £30!!

bk

 

[Flat Foot Floey]

Good question. I give drawing lessons and work at the local theatre as a stage hand.

I spend to much for single items (dress shirts and stuff) instead to save and get a fitting suit. I should change my buying habits.

I also have a second vice: I buy art books like a maniac. For example I saw a book about russian theatre in the 1920s with all this crazy expressionist stage designs...I gotta buy it. Then a week later the 40s new york weegee book for only 8 €! Buy buy buy..:eusa_doh:

 

[reetpleat]

The advantage of being a plumber, I can do some small jobs for free. Some times I am awarded gifts for my services and that is the hat money. I too have a wife and seven grand children.I am in that over 66 and make all you want bracket. Does anyone have a 1962 Ford Falcon I can have ? Thanks--RIP

Do you ever get into houses that have vintage laying around. the home inspector I work with often gets stuff free. he just says, if you don't want that once you buy the house, let me know.

I went into the house of a recently deceased hoarder. Sad how he lived in teh laast years. he was quite old.

Inside I found at least ten beautiful suits along with tons of other stuff. Sadly, they were all destroyed by moth and mildew. Adding insult to Injury, most of them were custom tailored by macintosh studio Clothes. I will be posting a thread and pics soon.

 

[Dewhurst]

Any truly "vintage" item purchases come straight out of real finances for me. But they happen with such breathless irregularity that it hardly matters. What's one vintage item every five or ten years?

Not a hill of beans, that's for sure. (Man, I got my dork on today, it seems).

 

[Silver Dollar]

Fortunately for me, I don't collect the vintage stuff. I would love to decorate my house in Art Deco style but the cost would be so prohibitive that I won't even start saving for that. I guess you could say I'm more of a spectator enjoying the show. Believe me, if I could afford the vintage clothes, I would dress in nothing else.

 

[Viola]

I make up a budget for clothes, or housewares, or whatever. A hundred dollars a year in clothes goes a lot further used than new, anyway. I don't have to justify vintage as an extravagence, its pretty much always, the way I shop, an equivalency or a savings.

 

[December]

My fiance finances most of them. I'm a student, so I don't often have a lot of money but he is a very generous gentleman and likes to treat me.

He's not much into vintage himself but he appreciates my love for it. We did actually recently get him a 1960s coat and 1950s shoes, so it seems to be contagious!

That said, whenever I get a new installment of my student loan, I will set aside a certain amount to buy vintage clothes and other goodies.

 

[Edward]

I don't budget specifically for it.... I'm working towards a vintage & repro (given rising costs of the real stuff and me being just a size or two larger than the vintage average, it's mostly the latter) wardrobe; new clothes are mostly bought from that. I don't collect as such for its own sake. I do have a huge pile of stuff to sell - probably via eBay - which I'll use to fund something big like a suit or an Irvin. My B3 I bought using mony raised from selling a bunch of old stuff, including a couple of 80s/90s leathr jackets, and my no-longer-worn bondage trousers.

eBay has gotten pricey, often for no good reason. I've lost count of the number of times that I've seen the same 50s db suit on there looking GBP100 despite the trousers being moth-eaten beyond repair.