Clothes lasts about 100-200 wash cycles(*) allowing the computation of daily depreciation costs, mostly for fun.

(*) That is, if you line dry and machine wash. If you tumble dry, take 25-50% off those numbers. If you hand wash add some.

For instance, if $50 bed sheets, which is closer to the 200, are washed about once a week, it will last about 4 years or about 1000 days. This means that sleeping will cost about 5 cents a day.

Retail clothing typically last about 100 cycles. This seems to hold for pants, shirts, and underwear. Sweaters seem to last much longer, say 200. Socks last shorter, say 50.

Suppose I wash pants and sweaters every 5 days and shirts, socks and underwear every day. Also, suppose pants and sweaters are $40, shirts are $20, and socks and underwear are $5 each.

Getting dressed thus costs:

  • Pants: $40/(5*100) = $0.08
  • Sweater: $40/(5*100) = $0.08
  • Shirts: $20/100 = $0.20
  • Underwear: $5/100 = $0.05
  • Socks: $5/50 = $0.10

To get dressed thus cost about half a buck a day, 15 bucks a month or about $180 a month if you don’t hunt too carefully for it. I usually do better than this. If you got an eye for it (and I don’t) you can do even better through selective thrift shopping. Check out the affordable wardrobe blog for inspiration. Unfortunately, I find US thrift stores difficult because I am taller and slimmer than most Americans, which makes even retail shopping difficult—I’m usually looking for 34×34 jeans.

Note! From this we should not conclude that just sitting around in your underwear or running around naked is the most frugal solution, although it is.



Daily Yakezie Short Carnival: How I Got $8 Glasses @ Canadian Finance Blog & Are you born to be a SAVER? @ Stay at Home Mom CFO

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Originally posted 2010-03-05 14:40:30.