She's On The Money - Emma Edwards Stopped Shopping for 365 Days and Accidentally Fixed Her Finances (Plus Her Relationship With Money and Herself)

Episode Date: November 25, 2025

You know when you’re standing in front of your overflowing wardrobe, absolutely drowning in clothes, and still somehow convincing yourself you have nothing to wear? Today’s guest knew that feeling all too well… until she decided she wasn’t buying a single new item of clothing for a whole year. Yes, Emma Edwards did the thing a lot of us love conceptually but would never have the courage, discipline, or emotional stability to actually commit to. Jess Ricci is self-admittedly in that group, so she decided to give Victoria the day off, and invite Emma into the studio to find out all about it. They dive into how what started as a “maybe this will calm my spending” experiment ended up rewiring Emma’s confidence, her habits, her body image, and the way she understood her own self-worth. Turns out the problem wasn’t the wardrobe… it was the stories she’d been telling herself every time she added something to her cart.Inside this ep:👗 The sneaky emotional loops that make you impulse spend👗 Why your fantasy self has way too much influence over your actual budget👗 The mindset shift that makes old clothes feel brand new again👗 How to rebuild a wardrobe you genuinely love wearing 👗 The inner peace that hits when the parcels stop👗 What happens when your style finally aligns with your identity👗 How redefining her identity reshaped her finances Join our Facebook Group AKA the ultimate support network for money advice and inspiration. Ask questions, share tips, and celebrate your wins with a like-minded crew of 300,000+.And follow us on Instagram for Q&As, bite-sized tips, daily money inspo... and relatable money memes that just get you.Acknowledgement of Country By Nartarsha Bamblett aka Queen Acknowledgements. The advice shared on She's On The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's On The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs. Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN - 321649 27708, AFSL - 451289.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My name is Natasha Bamblett, I'm a proud First Nations woman, and I'm here to acknowledge country. Tii, gilinyan ganya, nianakaka yao yinbina waka, nianakai nianbina yakarumja, duminyagumiga dumiga ithawaka nirawamundamun imalan, mumibangada bomi ininyalan waka, gaunan yakarumja, wutunarana. Hello beautiful friends, we gather on the lands of the Aboriginal people, we thank acknowledge and respect the aboriginal people's land that we're gathering on today take pleasure in all the land and respect all that you see she's on the money podcast acknowledges culture country community and connections bringing you the tools

knowledge and resources for you to thrive she's on the money she's on the money Hello and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast that's here to help you spend, save and invest in line with your values. No, I am not Victoria Devine and she's not even here today. I've given her the day off because I wanted to do something special. I'm Jess Rikki and today we're talking about something that sits right at the intersection of money, identity, and self-worth. Our wardrobes. You know that feeling when you're staring at a closet full of clothes, but still think to yourself, oh, I've got nothing to wear. Well, my guest today knows it better than anyone. She's someone we've had on She's on the Money

before. She's the founder of the Broke Generation and the author of the brand new book, The Wardrobe Project, A Year Buying Less and Lacking Yourself More. I've invited Emma Edwards into the studio today to talk about how a no-buy yard changed not just her wardrobe, but her entire relationship with spending, confidence, and identity. Welcome back to the show, Emma. Thank you so much for having me again. Oh, I'm so excited to see you. I have been an avid follower of the whole wardrobe journey from when you did your very first short challenge all the way through. I cannot tell you how excited I am to talk to you a bit more about it and what you've learned and the book. Yes, thank you. It's been a long time coming, I think, because I did the original challenge in like 2023,

yeah documented it all and now it's now it's uh immortalized in a book as it should be and i feel like it's exactly as i said it's it's something that so many of us can relate to right like that feeling of standing in your closet and looking at like kilos and kilos of clothes i mean like there's nothing in here not one suitable thing is crazy so i'm very excited to get your thoughts on how we can kind of work around our mindset on that but before we start i wanted to go back to who you were before the wardrobe project can you paint me a little bit of a picture of the old emma Edwards not just the kind of shopper that you were but what you were going through I guess on a deeper level yeah let's go all the way back I mean it's a funny one for me I think writing a

book like this and doing this kind of challenge because everyone's like didn't you write the book called good with money like aren't you meant to be really good at money no no no no and I think that's where it got really interesting for me because the me before this challenge you know way way back was a hot money mess I always call myself but kind of in the year leading up to the challenge specifically. I'd done so much work on my finances. I'd got so many of my ducks in a row, but there was just this one kind of nagging area of spending and my kind of, I guess, behavior that was still, I don't want to say a problem, but it wasn't kind of fitting into the same boxes that the other things that I'd worked on in my money had. Yeah. I wasn't spending money I didn't have

anymore. But I was still buying things with this sort of cycle of an emotional high followed by a crash. And I used to kind of do that with all kinds of things. And my money in general would be very chaotic. But I started to get on top of that sort of in 2018. I started that journey end of 2019. I paid off my debt, then 2020, you know, we started to have lockdowns and things. But I was lucky enough to keep my job and I was side hustling at the time. So you know, I was saving and I was still making that kind of progress. But I think particularly here in Melbourne, you know, by 2022, we were only a deep breath away from the last lockdown. It simultaneously feels so long ago. And also it honestly feels like yesterday as well. I can't begin to explain it. Trying to tell people

who weren't here during those lockdowns feels impossible. Exactly. Especially when I tell this timeline, I'm like, yeah, you know, 2022, I started to think about doing this year without buying clothes. And they're like, what do you mean that was right after lockdown? I'm like, we came out lockdown october 2021 yeah and we didn't know if we were gonna you know the first half of 2022 we were like oh when's the next one like when's lockdown seven and i think like a lot of women i had an interesting experience during lockdown in that my relationship with my body was just like thrown into the dumpster fire i couldn't agree more i discovered getting wine delivered to my house yeah i drank a lot ate a lot of cheese and like i've always been like a bigger gal like a

bit chunky or whatever. But I was sort of around that same time, you know, getting back to the point of like accepting my body's natural set point. And, you know, I'd had disordered eating problems in the past. I'd sort of really made good progress on, but then being stuck inside and kind of dealing with rapid body changes as well as kind of going back out into the world and back into work and nothing fitting. And, you know, loads of people bought clothes online during COVID, even though we had nowhere to go, I was one of those people. Just a small bit of joy, any bit of joy we could get. Literally. And I really went through this sort of cycle of trying to reinvent myself and wanting to

emerge from lockdown, a different person or a more polished person, or, you know, really wanting to like put this, I guess it's probably something to do with wanting to make all of that lost time mean something. I went into lockdown in my twenties, came out in my thirties. Yeah. Wow. And that was, you know, everybody's got their own kind of experience with the years that they missed. But yeah, for me, I'd had a lot of things I wanted to feel about myself by the time I was 30. And I don't think I would have got them anyway, because of where that feeling was coming from. But I think lockdown made that even worse. And so yeah, before the challenge, I was really in

this cycle of constantly reinventing myself and buying things for the person that I wanted to be and kind of having this idea in my head of what something was going to look like on me or what it was going to change, you know, how it was going to change my life, the lifestyle it was going to give me and then not getting that. And that's when I started to think, oh, this is really lingering. This is the one part of my behavior that I'm not able to control. Sounds really restrictive, but I don't feel good about. And that's when I started to think about what would it be like to just not buy anything for a whole year. And that's a very radical thought to have, especially in this day and age, I feel, because exactly as what you were touching on, I guess,

the broader psychology of it all is, you know, so much of marketing leans into, you're going to feel a certain way, you'll become a certain person by owning this product. It's this idea that we're sold by influencers, by brands, by everything. But the thought of making it through a whole year, I remember when you first announced it on your Instagram, because I followed you forever. I remember when you said it, I was like, conceptually, I love it, but I simply could never do it because I feel like it's so hard for me to imagine stepping outside of the consumerism, I guess. And I wouldn't consider myself like a crazy consumer. I try to be very mindful and very conscious, but you're totally right. Like the way that it all plays into our

broader perception of ourselves, you know, and what that means, stepping away from that and saying, no, I'm not going to buy it at all is almost unfathomable to me. And I don't feel great about that. No, I'm glad that, you know, when you speak to somebody that really relates to the things that I'm saying they're like wow you always get a couple of people that are like oh I haven't bought clothes since 1979 and I'm like good for you and it's one of those things that you know we kind of a lot of people experience this kind of borderline addictive cycle with with buying clothes and things um or buying anything associated to your identity but we don't really talk about it yeah and I'm so I'm always so stunned that we are so willing nowadays to examine our behavior and

examine our self-sabotaging patterns in every single area apart from spending we're so secretive about it with spending and we pretend that we've got it all together or we justify things and and say oh you know it's this or it's that and it's okay because x y and z but there's actually so much to be learned about yourself through the way that you're spending yeah and i think while a lot of women's spending the things that we buy are seen as frivolous but also examining your spending is also seen as a frivolous pursuit a lot of the time I'll get sort of like not it's not mockery but it's sort of a commentary from people yeah that oh you're you know how dare you talk about what women are buying when there's actually so much to be learned and there's a lot of freedom

to be found when you unpack why you're buying things yeah and also don't punish us for being a product of the the net that you built for us in the box that you built for us it really I think disproportionately impacts women because of you know the generations and generations of patriarchy and women should look a certain way like you can't go into the office without looking put together your hair you're done your makeup your outfit like all of these things that are put on us but then as soon as you care about it or want to break it down or want to examine it it's oh well don't be silly like don't be frivolous it's really interesting I think the way that that impacts everybody it sounds like you had to set yourself some ground rules to get going so you've decided

to do this challenge you've gone I want to step back I want to figure it all out what rules did you put in place for yourself yeah I'll just kind of add on a bit you know a lot of people go what made you decide to actually do it and aside from the fact that it was getting towards the end of the year and I had the opportunity to do a really clean Jan to December yeah I was in the UK for the last month of 2022 and I'd been back twice that year because it was the first time since 2019 so I was like, well, the borders are open, let's go. And I kind of realized that I'd been thinking about it, but the thing that really was the nail in the coffin was I was, you know, shopping around. I love to shop in the UK because they've got a lot more plus size options than we have here

in Australia. I was sort of seeing all these things and it was a different season to when I was there the last time. And I was thinking, oh, you know, having all these, you know, creative stories evolving in my head of how great these things were going to look. And I was suddenly struck by the fact that I had those same thoughts about the things that I'd bought when I was there the last time. Interesting. But now those things were not as special as I thought they were going to be, or they were, as I would later learn, like quite big purchase mistakes. And that's when I kind of thought, yeah, I think there's really going to be something valuable here. So I embarked on it from January 1st, 2023. And my rules were, it was specifically

clothing. Yep. And a lot of people go, why wasn't it, you know, why wasn't it a no buy about everything? And firstly, that I think that would be really hard and really restrictive, but also a bit like I'd said, you know, I'd worked on so many areas of my spending and I wasn't over consuming in skincare or beauty or even, you know, I'd stopped using takeaway apps for a period of time. And I found that really helped. I'm quite good at a challenge environment to really step back and examine why I'm doing things. I find that abstinence really helps me do that. And so clothes were a really specific part of it. It wasn't shoes, it wasn't bags, it was specifically clothes. In fact, I probably under-consumed in accessories to the point that I wasn't,

you know, tying outfits together. It was all about, I think because it was so deeply related to my body image and my relationship with my body, it was the clothes that were the thing. So I didn't specifically ban shoes, although I later did bring in a shoe ban just because I found I was flirting a little bit with, you know, oh, I can't buy clothes to not look at shoes. And I was thinking, oh, you know, I didn't, I think I bought a pair of Crocs during the year. That was it and again is it really they're not like an outfit so I wasn't too worried about that but it was very specifically no clothes and I also banned second-hand shopping because a lot of people were like oh why don't you just do second hand or you know I'm doing it too but just second

hand but the problem I had with second hand that was that it was just um it was permission to over consume it's like over consumption with a clean conscience for me and the thrill of the hunt and the the dopamine seeking and the you know that all of the barriers that would usually stop you buying clothes you know price availability size you know those sorts of things were all all gone when i was thrifting because it was such a if you found something that you liked that fit or that was a good price it probably wasn't too expensive because thrift stores are generally cheaper or it's on depop or marketplace or vinted or wherever you're listening um but also there's this intense scarcity so like our brains produce scarcity to help us justify purchases anyway and

we'll think oh it's going to sell out or it's this but in a thrift store you know it genuinely is going to be gone there's one of them you can't do your think about it for 24 hours or wait till next week or buy it on payday necessarily so i thought let's just cut all of that and i had a lot of feedback from people being like oh why don't you allow yourself three items or this or that and i kind of thought you know i had so many people what if this what if that and i just thought i'm just going to deal with all of it if it happens. If I get invited to a cowgirl party, I will deal with them when it happens. There's a high chance that I won't. I'm not a particularly sociable person. I don't have a jam-packed social calendar. No good scooting on Saturday night. Not likely.

And you know, your brain kind of goes, oh, well, what if I get invited to a black tie event? I thought I'll just cross that bridge when I come to it. If I have to borrow something, if I have to buy one thing because I genuinely had nothing else, I still think there's benefit. so I really just went in all guns blazing and said no clothes at all yeah I think there's so much merit in removing those barriers too and just saying well exactly you said like if something comes up I can figure it out I'm choosing to do this challenge it's the journey that I'm going on and if that had changed over the course of the year that's not a bad thing I think you still would have had the opportunity to take a lot of learnings from it but exactly the dedication the

setting yourself up for success I think is such an important part there's a big self-trust piece as well I think you know a lot of people go what if my weight changes or what if this or what if that I think just trust that you will know whether you are buying something because you're cheating or whether you're buying something because you genuinely need to yeah I think once you really commit fully to the challenge and that is a huge you know it's a big thing in behavior change committing to the changes is a whole part of it there's the change that you do but there's also the commitment that you make there's a lot to be said about just saying you know what I'm going to try it getting on the horse is the hardest part all the time and if you fall off you can just get

back on. Yes. How did those first few months feel? Was there a point where it got really hard? Did you feel like there was a transition period where you were having these impulses to do things that you were battling against? Yes. I found the first couple of months were hard in that I could just see how long I had to go. I was like, Oh, I've done it. And I've said it online. But at the same time I was finding a lot of joy in putting together outfits I hadn't worn before and that's why I do recommend people even try it even just for a month because there's a lot to be found in your wardrobe yeah just by going wow I've really got to get creative here so the first couple of months were pretty easy you know in Australia it was summer at that time so you know the things

you wear for the first couple of months of the year first two three months of the year about the same yeah the time I found it hard was when we got to sort of April May and the season started to change. I had realized that I was looking outside of my wardrobe then for, I guess, signals of what to wear. You know, when you get really out of the habit of wearing a certain season of clothes. You're looking for inspo, what are the people wearing? Yeah. And you hit that point where you're like, what are shoes that aren't sandals? Yeah. I mean, you're like, what do I wear? Yeah. How do I cover my arms? Yeah. Like I have no sleeves. Yeah. Yeah. You're just not in the cycle of it. That's when I found the temptation the strongest because I started to

realize that I think a change of season, there's this shortcut available to you in shops. When you feel like you've got nothing to wear, there's this shortcut and you can go, oh, I'll just get a couple of basics. I should get a couple of cardigans. I should get a couple of jumpers. I'll just get a couple of pairs of jeans or whatever it is. And it sort of patches up that resistance that we feel to not feeling connected to our wardrobes for that season. That was when I started to find it the hardest. And then there was sort of a period after that where I'd really pushed my wardrobe to the limit. I'd really, you know, you run out of combinations eventually. And then I had to really start re-wearing. And while I got a lot of enjoyment out of that and satisfaction in a way,

but also just neutrality. I kind of accepted that I just didn't have to feel good about what I was wearing all the time. And that having a few things that I did like, I could just keep reaching for those. And I have found this new type of joy in really loving something and wearing it again. I just, it sounds so ridiculous, but I just hadn't experienced that, you know, that dopamine rush, that enjoyment outside of something new. I relied on novelty a lot in my wardrobe. And it's such a, it's again, like such a societal thing. It's the don't, you know, you don't want someone to see that you in an outfit that you've worn before. You need to find a different way to wear it. But there is something really lovely about knowing like,

these are my favorite jeans and I wear these jeans twice a week, every week. And I should feel good about that. I should feel good about my cost per use being low. I should feel good about the fact that I made a good purchase decision for something that I will get a lot of wear out of. But it's so interesting that you're, yeah, you're saying that typically wouldn't give the dopamine hit. You're so right. We've, we are always looking for that new thing, but that dopamine from the new item disappears so quickly. And that's where we get stuck buying again and again, because we're chasing it. And I, you know, I sort of explore a bit in the book about this idea of having nothing to wear. And when we look at the connection between beliefs and behavior, if we allow ourselves to

believe that we have nothing to wear because we are buying the wrong things, because we haven't organized our wardrobe properly, because it's a change of season and we feel like we have nothing to wear, a very logical response to that is to buy more stuff. But I think something really interesting happens when you realize that the solution that makes logical sense is obviously not working because if you keep buying more but you still don't have anything to wear there's a missing piece somewhere for me it was that you know buying to be somebody I wish that I was buying to hide my flaws buying for the novelty buying for the dopamine hit and I think when I started to realize that there was so much joy to be had in actually

seeing how I looked in my clothes and wearing clothes because I liked how they looked on me rather than because I liked the idea of them yes especially being a bigger woman and I have some size privilege I do fit into some mainstream stores um but even then when I look at pieces of clothing online 99 times out of 100 they're on a slimmer model which only fed this idea yeah of what it was supposed to look like so I'd be all hopped up when I'd buy something thinking I was going to look like that yeah and then I wouldn't look like that and sort of that combined with everything else that was going on with that sort of spending pattern that just fueled this cycle of try again try again try again and every time I had my hopes up that I was going

to look like this image in my head that I kind of came to refer to as the fantasy self which I'm sure we'll talk about later yes yeah breaking that down and it's interesting the cutting off the consumption played a really interesting role in intercepting that behavior yeah a lot of people go well what if I stop buying but what do I do about all the other emotional stuff when you stop feeding it with buying a lot of it neutralizes quite naturally on its own over time doesn't happen overnight we want it to happen overnight that's why it's a year-long challenge why it's a year it really needed to be a year yeah it's and the crazy thing is those models also that we're all looking at don't look how no because if you've ever been to a you know an e-commerce shoot

they're pinned in with these giant clips or they're photoshopping things they're wearing shoes that are two sizes too big it's all again it's all in the power of marketing but I want to ask you a bit more about this fantasy self exactly as you just said can you tell me a little bit more about her what she was for you and that role that she does play in your spending the fantasy self was something I started to tease out again this is why I said it had to be a year because this is where I started to see these patterns in what I was buying I have a whole sort of section in the book where I've got all these categories of things that are hanging in our wardrobes and the stories that they're telling. And a big one for me was these fantasy items that were things I would buy

again and again and again to try and emulate this look that I had in my head. And it's often the opposite of who we are, or it has certain aspects of ourselves that we wish that we could change. Sometimes it's a height thing. Sometimes it's size thing. You know, for me, my fantasy self was always this sort of complete antithesis to me, like tall, lanky, slim beanpole when I'm literally like the opposite of that 100% but I wasn't it's like I only saw clothes through the lens of her yeah and never me and I think that's why the year was so powerful because something else that I did was when I wore outfits that I liked I took a photo of them and added them to an album on my phone so I could refer back to them and doing that made me see my clothes through

the lens of myself for the first time yeah I don't think that we realize how little we're actually looking at ourselves. Previously, when I'd look in the mirror or I'd assess how I felt about an outfit, it was benchmarked against that fantasy. Subconsciously, of course, we're not thinking these things in real time, but that was why I didn't feel good about the way that I looked because I felt like I looked wrong and I had to try and change it. And the easiest shortcut for that was to buy something. And so looking, sort of seeing myself in a different way, I think the year didn't allow me to really engage with the fantasy self because I couldn't. I engaged with her through buying and I bought for her, but I didn't get to do that through the whole year. And so what

was left was me. And I realized by the end of the year, I was like, wow, my body image is so much better than it used to be. Just really gradually. And I thought that can't be a coincidence because I haven't been putting my body on trial through, you know, women's sizing is a whole mess. Don't get me started. Do not. So I haven't been putting my body on trial for what fits. I haven't been putting my body on trial against this fantasy of what I wish I looked like or what I thought I wish I looked like. I haven't been comparing myself to the picture online. I haven't been getting my hopes up and then putting it on and being disappointed. All of that stripped away gave me this room to actually

see myself and that's when i could start seeing clothes in a way that was i feel good in this yeah rather than oh this isn't quite how i wanted or you know anybody with thick thighs will know that trying to embrace the straight leg jean trend please all jeans are skinnies yeah it's a wide baggy baggy or skinny there's no in between no mom jeans don't know her no yeah barrel leg i don't mind because barrel leg look like mom jeans yes I know what you mean I was trying you know my my thing always and I don't even think there's this term anymore it'll probably come back around again with the styles but there was always this style of cigarette trousers oh yeah sort of pencils tapered yes it's what I always wanted but just didn't work for me and now I you know

I would resist the wide leg for some reason because I don't know that was playing into what my body really is. And I was almost addicted to trying to be different. But the year kind of took all of that pressure away. And I actually found at first peace with who I was, but down the line, a lot of joy. And now when I get dressed, you know, I wear the same things over and over again. And I'm more, this was kind of a realization that I had towards the end of the year or more sort of even in the year after where i was able to buy again i like my clothes that i have more than the things i see in stores when i think about going to an event that used to be like great perfect excuse to go and buy something new yeah whereas now i'm like i can't wait to wear

that dress because i don't get to wear it often because it is more formal i can't wait to wear that i know exactly what i'm wearing even for this today i know exactly what i'm wearing that's incredible and it never used to be like that and when you don't feel like that that's where all of those marketing messages hit you. And they work. They work so well. You've only got to walk around Chadstone or any shopping center. I looked at this the other day, I was walking around and I thought 80% of these stores, if not more, are for women. Because we're huge consumers. We're such a huge segment of the market. It's an industry that's been built though on making us feel like shit about ourselves. And that's why it's so profitable, I think, for them. Was it confronting to slowly

make that realization about all of these I guess suppressed subconscious feelings about yourself because as you were talking about I was deeply honestly relating to the fact that if I think on it really introspectively the relationship that I have to my clothes and my wardrobe and shopping I think is very similar to what all I'm hearing is that I need to do this challenge next year but I think there are a lot of things in terms of my self-perception and self-worth that maybe I don't feel so great about that really feed into that. And I don't like that's quite uncomfortable to think about. Was it hard to make those considerations and move through them or have those realizations, I suppose? Yeah, it was in a way, especially when you kind of

consider the environmental impact of our consumption. And, you know, I feel kind of icky when I go, this wasn't a sustainability challenge and it kind of was in a collateral way, but I did it from a finance and a behavior perspective I found that the sustainability was you know an added benefit but I think that there really is something to be said about the behavioral aspect of sustainability so I guess that's just on that yeah but yeah it was confronting to realize I think how long I'd been subconsciously stuck in that cycle and how something that I thought I enjoyed you know I'd make these excuses sometimes oh I just like clothes I love fashion I love fashion girl yeah when really I just you know I say this in the book I thought that I liked

fashion but I actually just liked buying and I think that's when you're getting the most joy from your clothes when you're buying you don't love fashion you just love buying yeah there's not you know you can absolutely love both and you can shift that love of buying into into style yes But yeah, it was confronting, but it was also almost a relief in a way because I had finally understood the link between those things and why I was doing these things. And I think, you know, it helped in a way that I got the benefit in real time. I sort of had the realization that I had this problematic cycle, but at the same time as experiencing the other side of it. So that really pushed me through. Yeah, that's incredible. There are so many great lines,

great catchphrases that you have that really sit and resonate. One that I particularly loved was the concept of outsourcing your identity to consumption, which we've kind of just touched on. But I think there's so much power in that state. Like you're really calling it for what it is. Whenever I say that line, a lot of women relate. And I think that it's, as you say, confronting in a way to realize that we've kind of often pieced together the version of ourselves that we try to be through buying and I talk in the book a bit about the term put together a lot of women say they want to look put together and while I you know I on the surface that makes complete sense and I think the term put together that there's merit to it especially in a professional

environment or when you're you know putting together your favorite pieces but there's almost like a slightly sinister undertone to that term of put together and I kind of marry it up with the term polished that a lot of other women relate to that, you know, we are sort of piecing ourselves together with things that are sold to us. And I kind of sometimes question if we weren't putting ourselves together with all of these elements that are constantly sold, where would the billions of dollars go? Yeah. And that's it. There's so much power, I think, for the big corps, the big companies, not to put my tinfoil hat on, but you know, there's a lot out there, I think, for these huge corporations in keeping women feeling bad about themselves, keeping us consuming, keeping

us not looking, you know, at what is causing those things moving past that, because that's what puts money in their pockets at the end of the day. And I think as well, keeping us, you know, a lot of people will kind of go, oh, companies aren't sitting there thinking about how they can make us feel bad about ourselves. But I think as long as the goalposts are moving, that's all that matters. As long as we are in that position of feeling the way we do about ourselves by consuming or consuming being a part of that playing a role in that that's all you need because there's always something more to be sold there's there's a piece that comes from which is what the challenge is really saying I have enough and the link between having enough and being enough when you say that

you have enough you're sort of subconsciously saying well I am enough as well I don't need to buy new things to go to that work event to have my birthday to be seen in any way I'm enough with the things I already have yeah and there's an interesting link there yeah is that one of the biggest things you'd say the experiment taught you about like the impulse control and emotional side of it all yeah I think there's you know there's that deep emotional side and then there's also sort of the whipped cream on top that's that just you know that quick dopamine hit that buying something online or getting a little treat or whatever you know that's sometimes very um you know flash in a pan that's very real it doesn't necessarily mean there's a ton of emotional stuff

going on that can still be quite real I think there's two parts of it to unpack the deeper stuff the deep cycles of what you're buying and why you're buying and then there's really watching that sort of cycle of little treats cycle of dopamine but again stepping back and creating more distance between the last hit and the next hit that can break the cycle as well and it's something I did during the year was what I called exposure therapy. I'd go into the shops or browse online and allow myself to meet that desire. And yeah, there's a lot of mental peace that comes from just saying, I'm not even going to entertain buying this. That was probably one of the most surprising things actually, you know, in a impulse control sense. There's also that, you know,

that meaty emotional stuff, but realizing how freeing it was to just not be buying. Yeah. If I see someone's jacket, it didn't matter. I didn't have to go on Google Lens and start putting it through. I didn't have to Google, where's that from? Oh, that looks like that. Oh, it's out of stock. Oh, they've got it at high, what's it called? High point. Yeah. Can I be bothered to go all the way over that? These loops I would jump through all the time. Oh, I want it for Saturday. Will it get delivered in time?

It's never ending, the thoughts, the noise of it all. isn't it? And I have more questions about that, but I think we should jump to a really quick break. And when we come back, I want to dive a little bit more deeply into all those concepts that don't go anywhere. Welcome back, everybody. I'm chatting with Emma Edwards, who has just released her book, The Wardrobe Project, all about her year of buying no clothing. Now I have been wondering a little bit when you took buying out of the equation, did you notice other areas of your life like time or creativity or happiness also started to shift yes I found you know I had that mental piece that I talked about before um that just sort of I don't know it just felt a lot

lighter um in in general yeah but obviously I was you know hyper focused on the challenge I was talking about it online you know that was obviously quite palpable I think the other sort of area is I found a new sense of creativity, not just in my wardrobe, but I also I took up sewing again. I used to sew with my gran when I was younger, because I would go to her house when I was on school holidays or whatever. And she died when I was 15. So I didn't sort of pick it up again. But I'd always wanted to. And you know, again, I could have done that at any point. Yeah. But I just don't think it's a coincidence that I found the time the focus, you know, I'm I'm very big on making a list of things I'm going to do and not doing them.

I don't think it's a coincidence that I was able to engage with that during the year because I think it took, I think the challenge took a lot of urgency out of the way I was relating to clothes or even projects. And I think previously I was kind of going, Oh, I must start sewing again, but it's going to take so long to make one top or like, I can't, you know, that thing about not wanting to be bad at something oh yes I won't be able to wear it out because it's not going to look like when I go to the store yes whereas I think the sense of slowness gave me a sense of patience to learn take that up in a way that you know it directly fed into what I was trying to do as well I did have a rule within the challenge that I could buy fabric again I had to do so

mindfully a lot of people go oh I took up sewing and I couldn't stop buying fabric you do have to be careful of that. Fabric's expensive, but yeah, there was, it was a very creative year, I think. Because you've removed some of the noise that feels, I feel like it takes up again, subconsciously so much room in your brain, all those things, exactly as you were saying, the hoops of, oh, I want this, but where can I get it? Oh, it's out of stock. Maybe I'll drive to the side of the city or I can borrow it from someone or I can lend it online. It's a lot of, a lot of volume in your head. I imagine once you, you finally figure out how to switch that off. yeah it is and I'm yeah now I'm thinking now you've asked me that I'm thinking oh what did

I do with that sort of mental piece but you know I noticed you could have just enjoyed it and I'd noticed it a lot you know if there would be uh an event or someone's birthday or wedding and I just you know people are going what should I wear oh I'm popping over to Charleston to look for this and I was just kind of like I'm done I know what I'm wearing and everyone's like oh of course you know what you're wearing but sounds lovely yeah it was great it was so good was there a moment or something you realized during that year that completely rewired your mindset where you thought, oh my gosh, now that I've seen this, I can't unsee it. Like that switch just flipped. I think it was seeing those patterns in my wardrobe. And I think, you know, coming back

to something you asked earlier, was there a point where it felt hard? There was a point probably seven or eight months in where the penny had dropped on how I was buying the wrong things. so chasing that fantasy self buying things you know another thing i would do would be um buy if i liked something in black i'd go and buy it in every color i used to do this too yes or i'd go and buy a very similar version to something else because i couldn't find the one i wanted where's my stripy top i'll just buy another one oh my god or um you know little things like i wanted you know at one point i wanted a pair of like white off white jeans and i couldn't find any that I liked that fitted partly because I was chasing that tapered look but that's neither

here nor there but I found a pair in Suzanne of all places love a bit of incredible very generous on the sizing and they fit they weren't quite what I wanted but I wanted to wear white jeans so badly that I bought them having even though you didn't love even though I didn't love them yeah so I think when the penny dropped on that I was kind of eager to get out and I kind of thought oh I know now why I hate my clothes all the time, because I'm buying for all the wrong reasons, buying all the wrong stuff. And so I had these things that I did like, but that was quite a limited wardrobe. Everything else I could see the issues with, and I wore them anyway. And I know I really pushed those to the limits, but I started to compile this sort of list of yeses and noes. So like

really specific things about clothes, like the length that I like, the type of sleeve, the type of fabric, the type of fabric weight. Like I really knew what good purchases were going to be for me now yeah and at that point I kind of wanted to rush out and go oh let me test this out and you know buy the right things um so that kind of got quite difficult but that penny dropping of where the patterns of buying had been really wrong that kind of really changed the course of the challenge because I could see then a time after the challenge which I had to start entertaining towards the end of the year because I kind of thought god what now like what am I going to be like am I going to repeat am I going to go back to the way I was am I going to repeat

all the same patterns and I think realizing those things which sound practical but actually when you marry it up with that emotional stuff make a lot of sense yeah that's when I started to kind of think ah I've really made a breakthrough here because I have so many reasons now not to go back to the way that I was because there's an alternative yeah and I now think that I know how to buy things mindfully that I do want to keep wearing and that's really how that was the turning point that got me to where I am now yeah were you nervous at any point about coming to the end of your year because I think for a lot of people when you do any kind of restrictive challenge whether it be clothing or finance or even you know for people who do fitness challenges and things

there's this uh I guess very common storyline where you do it you push really hard you get through it and you get to the end and you blow out, you know, you have your huge, yeah, exactly right. Were you ever concerned that that would be the case or were you so steadfast in what you learned that you just knew that it was going to change your approach completely? I was concerned because you can't, you know, you can't take the fish out of water. Like we still live in a world where there is more and more and more and more. We are still seeing everybody's lives on social media. There is still somebody's latest affiliate link that I can click and there's still those external inputs so I knew that you know I actually say in the book that the challenge

really began the year after because then I had to consume mindfully and you know there were certain things I wanted to replace in my wardrobe but I had to be careful not to go crazy or be over I was a bit overconfident at one point as well I think or I can't possibly make a bad decision whereas you know a couple of misses throughout that year when I did buy a few things what were those things can you tell me like was is there something that comes to mind that you bought that you're like oh that was a bad and you know you now you can you know why yeah I mean it's a hard one because it was partly as well the um the fabric wasn't it was a bit of a letdown there was some practical aspects to it but just missed the mark just missed the mark like it was a it was a suit

sort of a linen blend suit yes that I got on a really good price and I fit really nicely and I was really happy with it got it in the UK actually and um something about when I hung it out the sun changed the color of the white yeah because I washed the trousers a lot more than the jacket yeah and the the color change so there was that aspect but there was another i just sort of i look at it and i'm like i could have lived without that could have done better yeah like i i wear it because this is the other kind of thing i learned to you know things don't have to be absolutely perfect wearing things can change your opinion of them uh i pulled a lot of things out of my donate pile uh oh i love that and i said this you know i i run this accountability challenge as well

with other women in the group. And a lot of people have their own kind of experience with these concepts, but something universally true, aside from when you've had a drastic change in size, usually there's some treasure in your donate pile because we get rid of things very, very quickly because the novelty is worn off

and because we want an excuse to buy something else. But yeah, I kind of got a lot. Sorry, I can't remember what you actually originally asked me. This went, this took a turn. I said, wait, come on, Jenny, and I'm loving every minute of it. No, I said it was like, was there a specific item? Which I think you did answer.

Yeah, the suit. You're bound to fall off though too, I think as well. Like when you're changing the way that you fundamentally consume, like there's going to be some learning curves. I think it's so impressive that you can say after coming out of that whole year, you know, there are a couple of swings and misses, but overall like you're really happy and you know what you need and what you look for well enough to shop really effectively now.

Yes, the way I consume is, and that's kind of how I forgave myself for not being on you know on the mark every single time and you know the the way the money is fundamentally different yeah but I think the other challenge I had which is actually how I ended up doing the challenge again this year with slightly modified rules is that again you can't take the fish out of water like there is still so much more and more and more when I learned to buy better I had to I did a mini freeze during the year did three months where I didn't buy anything else because one I was craving that piece because there were so many things, but also too, you still only need a certain amount of clothes. So while I had learned

to buy well and buy things that I would really want to wear, the ability to over-consume is still so easy that I almost was getting, even though it was more useful things I was buying, I was almost kind of had to be careful not to over-consume good things because I'd had this pattern of over consuming all the wrong things and that's what kept me reconsuming yeah whereas then I had this as I said before almost overconfidence where I was like I buy so well and you know my I am good with money as they say so I wasn't spending money I didn't have you know I had this almost does it where do I actually stop then so then I had to sort of I did the challenge again this year where I was like I'm not bringing anything new into my wardrobe partly for some sustainability

reasons which I'll come on to but also to to I guess experience those learnings again with a wardrobe I loved and that was completely different because I wasn't learning all the things I'd done wrong I was actually just learning to be with what I had and now as we come to the end of this year I don't need to go and replace things in the way I did before so now it's much more of a lasting change that has happened. I later towards the second half of this year, I allowed a limited amount of thrifting because I wanted to get back into thrifting, but I still had that, oh, it's really hard to say no to something that's really good. How, how do I limit this? So I really wanted to try that within the context of thrifting being the only option. And that's been really fun. I've

been customizing some things. I've been buying a couple of things and dyeing them. I bought this and I dyed it into my signature rust. Yeah, it was green to begin with. Oh, it looks fantastic. I would never have known that that was not its original color. No, it did a great job. It came off so well. Shout out to Rhett.

And I love it. You look gorgeous. And it has matching trousers as well. Yes. But that's, you know, that creativity has really come back again. And I don't think that that's a surprise that it's in the year where I've stepped back. And I think just, yeah, something can seem really restrictive, but actually there's so much to be found and experienced.

Absolutely. How has your style changed through all of this? like what's the criteria now that you use to assess? You were talking about sustainability and that element a little bit. What kind of things are you looking at when you are considering bringing something into your wardrobe? Yeah, I'm really looking at, you know, I'm very much of the belief that the most sustainable outfit you can wear is one you already have. And so there's that, you know, you don't need to be, you know, jumping through hoops and looking for all these amazing sustainable brands if you're not buying anything at all. Look, I have some work

to do on perhaps where i'm shopping you know i'm you know i'm not shopping sheen and timu and things like that but you know your shops your major retailers it's a gray area yeah like your kmarts and yeah kmarts country road which you know that it's not exactly sustainable so i would again it can be harder in plus size there are a lot less um truly ethically made plus size stores but again i use that as an excuse for a long time can't shop ethically because i'm fat shouldn't have to but it is it's hard it's like you're limited already and then you know but i've really you know i'm focusing very much on things i will wear yeah um you know on my criteria list i've i've worked out what makes me love my body the most so things that work really well on my curves

things that run longer because i have a funny body uh composition that my torso is really long i'm tall in general but a lot of my height comes from my torso yeah so where for so long i was chasing that like long leggy athletic look that was just so not what I am now I really kind of embrace my um my curves but also the space I take up um I talk in the book a bit about how I I moved away from wanting to be that sort of beige minimalist clean you know old money almost look to much more bold and like you know orange is my signature color and you are colorful to me when I think of you I do I think of vibrant yes and like I'm not a quiet person and I am silly and I do joke around and I'm not neat and polished and you know put together per se in that traditional sense

so I really started to lean into that a bit more yeah um and I started sort of using these style anchor words so um I started there's a drink that I have when I'm in the UK that's like an espresso with whipped cream they call espresso con panna and I was like that's kind of my style like there's the basics and the simples and the you know the nice clean you know suiting or denim or whatever but then there's these like punchy elements as well yeah like no one can see today but i'm wearing my like my big velvet orange shoes which people have come to know me for the most fabulous shoes i've ever seen they're fantastic but like they're kind of me in a shoe like they're big and they're chunky and they're loud and they take up space and they're very cool and that's kind of a really

big difference as well from trying to fit into that little neat box to just being like especially now with the way we're seeing style and we're seeing this move to the right with this sort of you know uh clean girl clean core yeah moving away from that even my nail lady said the other day she goes you're the only one of my clients that gets a bright color and i was like that's crazy and i was like oh look maybe they have to have beige for work it was like no it's a real trend long gone are the days of cajun shrimp you know for anyone out there and it's yeah having like embracing that in my style has been really nice and doing it within the boundaries of this is what works this is what I will wear this is something that will fit with what I already have

yeah and overall just consuming less buying less and liking myself more oh that's the dream those anchor words that you're talking about is that something you talk through in the book because that's something I really struggle with someone asked I do like Q&A on Instagram or something recently. Someone said, how would you describe your style? And I said, I have absolutely, like for my clothes, for my home, I couldn't tell you. And I feel like that's probably a huge gap because like, how do you shop when you don't know what you're shopping for? It's kind of like, how would you exist in the world if you didn't know what you valued? You know, how do you shop when you don't know what your style is? I think, yes, I do talk about that in the book and I talk about it

in the sense of, you know, I have to stay in my lane because I'm not a stylist. I talk about style a lot, but I'm not a qualified stylist. Uh, but I talk about it in this sense, a lot of anchoring it to something, um, something physical or something visual, whether it's a plant or a place or a city, a drink, you know, there was that kind of ice latte phase. I think a lot of people will have that sort of style, but there's a lot to be said about that because you perceive that thing a certain way. And so someone might say, Oh, my style is, um, New York. And like, that's not something that can be replicated by anybody else because the way they perceive new york oh yeah is really specific to them so again people will be like espresso what are you like what are you talking

about but it made sense to me yeah and i see that in my style choices and that's really all that matters yeah whereas when we kind of use where you know feminine floral like it can help in a way but then a hundred girls in a lineup could say feminine and it could mean something different to them so your interpretation of like traditional style words like that yes but i think when you pick it you know for some people their style might be like a velvet sofa and like that evokes a feeling in them and they replicate that in their style and then it's really unique to you which is what style should be really exactly exactly but we're so homogenous in our style now the individuality is more and more rare yeah not celebrated in the way that it should be I feel

like either wow we've covered so much today before we go I would love to know for anyone who's listening. They're going, I think I need, they're doing exactly what I'm doing. I need to do this challenge. This challenge is for me. What would your advice be to someone who's looking to take it on? Well, I have a whole advice section at the back of the book. So definitely check that out because there's a lot to say. My advice would be don't overthink it. Even though I've overthought it to the point I've written a book about it. Don't overthink it. Just see what happens. Again, trust that you will overcome any obstacles as they come to you. You'll instinctively know whether you are sticking to your values of the challenge or not. And I guess within that, think about what

you want to get out of it. What is the feeling that you have around your clothes? Yeah, you relate, but what does it feel like for you? What are the examples of the things that you relate to? What items in your wardrobe may be making you think about your fantasy self? What does your fantasy self look like? How does your shopping and your relationship with style kind of relate to everything else in your life? You know, for me, it was those body image issues. It was growing up through diet culture, through, you know, that touched my money in a lot of ways. And this was that one lingering thing. A story I tell a lot is a story that's very generously shared in the book from somebody from my accountability program. And she had left a toxic relationship and she realized

that her fantasy self was actually not her fantasy self but his fantasy of what she should have been and like there's a like there are so many ways depending on what stage of life you're at a lot of people experience fantasy self when they become a mum yeah because they're so you know there's that's like next level of women's standards of everything that you should be when you become a mother and the identity shift that you go through and the lifestyle shift that you go through COVID was a big one at the time, you know, for me, thinking about how maybe your buying patterns are relating to other things happening in your life. Yeah. That can kind of help you find what you're looking for in doing the challenge. I'd be careful of doing it just to get the satisfaction of doing

it. I'm sure that can be very enjoyable. But I think you need to go with a question that you're looking to answer in a way to get that really deep learning out of it. But you know, it doesn't need to be a year it could be a month and i think a big one is know your behavioral style like i said before i'm somebody that does very well with a challenge with abstinence partly because of what i do for work yeah it becomes content for me it helps me examine you know i'm fascinated by why we do what we do why we buy so that helps for me um but if you're the type of person that needs a three-item buffer work with that like you know yourself better than i know you make like set yourself up for success rather than trying to do what someone else has done because it sounds good

yeah yeah it's got to be very personal to you like your style oh I love that and what a beautiful little bow to title up in I have loved this chat Emma thank you so much for coming in and sharing I honestly it's been such a joy to have you in thank you so much for having me I could yap about this all day oh you'll have to come back I know so many of our community members are going to be exactly like me and wanting to dive deeper into this so we'll pop a link for The Wardrobe Project in the show notes. You can grab your copy. I honestly, I think I'll be doing this challenge in 2026.

And if you enjoyed this episode, please send it to a friend who might need a little nudge to rethink their shopping habits or their overflowing wardrobe. Don't forget to hit subscribe so you never miss an episode and check out all of Emma's links that we'll have down there as well.

So thank you for listening, everybody. And we'll be back for another episode on Friday. Bye, guys. Bye. The advice shared on She's on the Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's on the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards

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