She's On The Money - Fast fashion needs to slow down

Episode Date: July 1, 2020

Hello and welcome to the FIRST OFFICIAL EPISODE OF OUR THIRD SEASON! Today we're having a discussion about how to make responsible decisions about fashion as consumers from an ethical and financial standpoint. Fashion can be fickle, and with the consistent perceived need to keep up with the latest trends we often we feel pressured into purchasing things we don't need or won't get enough wear out of - so today Georgia and Victoria are unzipping the real issues facing the world of fast fashion, focusing on finance (obvious) but also on ethics, sustainability, consumerism and the cost of comparison (not so obvious) - all of which are deeply important to the She's on the Money community. Do you love the podcast SICK and want more SOTM? Of course you do! Join our Facebook page to share your money wins and money confessions, follow us on Insta for daily inspo to keep you on track and DEFINITELY subscribe to our newsletter, the written recap of the pod's key takeaways, including some bonus bits you won't want to miss... In a money mess and need help untangling the muddle? We've got you sorted - simply record your qualm and send it through to us at [e-mail] and you may end up on the podcast! Your podcast hosts are Georgia King and Victoria Devine. 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 only and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. Victoria Devine is an Authorised Representative of Australia Pacific Funds Management Proprietary Limited ABN 34 132 463 257 - AFSL 339151.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

She's on the money. She's on the money. Hello and welcome to the first episode of the third season of She's on the Money, the podcast for millennials who want financial freedom. My name is Georgia King, a copywriter and journalism student with a little bit of an ounce when it comes to the world of money, but still with lots to learn, if I'm honest. and here to help answer my never-ending list of questions is my glorious co-host Miss Victoria Devine. Vicky D hello. Excuse me Georgia King. Sorry for calling you Vicky D. Yeah that's

disgusting but I'm glad to be back thank you. Good to see you. Okay so today on the show we are going to be tackling the controversial world of fast fashion. Talking through the problems with the unsustainable system as it stands as well as the ways we can ethically engage with fashion without ruining our bank accounts. But first Victoria money wins or confessions what have got for me for the last little while okay i thought good and hard about this i have had ample time to think of money wins and confessions and this week well i mean this one was from last week but last week my best friend steph turned 30 on your steph happy birthday happy birthday stephanie you are one of my greatest friends she knows that already um but we decided to go out for a high tea for her

birthday socially distanced yeah of course to a very beautiful venue it is what she wanted to do it's actually what I wanted to do as well so we were stoked about this yeah we turned up to the restaurant and they weren't actually ready for us and the waitress was delightful but you could tell she was so stressed yeah and so she's like oh my gosh I'm so sorry guys we have completely you know lost the plot in here today it's gonna be 45 minutes before you get any food on your table yeah bit of a wait yeah and we could tell she was really stressed and we're like no problems do not worry at all like we honestly weren't phased just happy to be out of the house we were happy to be out of the house we couldn't believe that we were free but also you know it's not her

fault you know these things happen also we we were having a good day we were not gonna let that get in the way yeah so she's like do you want a mimosa i was like of course i want a mimosa so steph and i shared a couple of mimosas and then she comes over to our table and she's like hey guys you know it was still gonna be another 20 minutes or whatever it was but i just want to let you know that I'm going to comp the whole thing because you guys were so nice to me and I was so worried that you guys would come in and be really nasty to me because, you know, we didn't have it ready in time. And I'm like, oh, my gosh, no way.

So my money win is that we went out for a fancy, fancy high tea and then the whole thing got comped. That's so nice. How good is that? I feel like you guys would have been happy just with a free mimosa. Oh, my gosh. I would have been happy with a free mimosa. In fact, I was happy not having anything for free,

but i just thought that was really kind and that was a very nice money win for me oh good one georgia do you have a money win or money confession i don't know where you've been well i do have a money win this week and i promise guys victoria hasn't paid me to say this where are we going with this so i've been at victoria's a little bit lately we've been podcast planning we've been recording we've been doing it all and she's been feeding me basically i do the summary yes so the other day what did she make me she made me poached eggs on toast i did with a side of guac and then we had like a burrito for lunch some coffees and then a glass of red wine to round out the day oh and don't forget the raspberry lollies that we had as well raspberry

bullets what are they daryl lee raspberry yeah yeah and they were the raspberry twist sorry yeah keep them in the fridge it makes the delight last longer yeah no so that was that was good but essentially you saved me a day's worth of eating very luxuriously so i don't know i'm glad i became i think that's a money win like yeah are you trying to whine and dime me what's going on yeah i'm just trying to impress you in the hopes that you consider me impressed yeah well i was just hoping that you'd sign on for another season of she's on the money so i was like do you know what georgia just seems like the type of person i could bribe with food and yeah was i wrong yeah no you're not wrong okay let's go back to the podcast okay sorry we'll take a quick look at

the facebook community i reckon who unsurprisingly has been incredibly supportive during a time that has been so hard for so many victoria have any of the posts stood out to you recently yes i actually have one post i think it's related to our podcast topic as well so i feel like this is a really good one so i've got one from dana and she posted this week actually she said money win i've had a few pieces of clothing that still had tags or were only worn once and a pair of skates sitting in my wardrobe for over a year so for the first time last week i tried to put them on ebay and within a minute one of the shirts was already sold and yesterday she put the skates on facebook and within five minutes she sold the skates on facebook meaning that she made 160 bucks in what's

like six minutes worth of work anyway i think that's a really big money win and also a little bit of a kick up the pants for someone like me who has had so much time at home yet hasn't gone through her wardrobe or put anything on ebay or facebook or garmentry or anywhere to sell it the same i have a huge bag of clothes that i'm i've been meaning to do that with and i just i can't be bothered yeah i think you saw in my study last time you were at my house georgia that i actually have a pile of clothing and shoes in the corner of my study that i've been saying look they're too good to donate but i also want to put them on ebay or something you just haven't done it Girl, find time.

I need to find time. Do a Dana. Exactly, do a Dana. Although Dana did part with her skates, which upsets me. Yeah, I'm not going to let my skates go. I actually have some pretty sick rollerblades. Do you really? Yeah, my best friend or one of my best friends, Rose and I,

when she didn't live in Canada because she's bailed on me, we used to go rollerblading all the time. Did you really? Yes, it was actually so fun. Interesting call. Yes, we used to like use our Saturday mornings, and this is probably the lamest thing you'll learn about me. we used to on a saturday morning go roller skating have a really fun time just like on the path so

near where we live or where rose used to live before she left me to move to canada was a completely concreted path yeah and it was called the century trail for anyone who lives in the inner east you'll know what i'm talking about so we'd go along the century trail all completely concreted so perfect for our rollerblades i stacked it a couple of times i've got some gnarly scars from our rollerblading escapades but you know what we'd do after that we'd go to 7-eleven and get slurpees because we're adults wait were you 12 no i was 28 no judgment here look no judgment but like we were still having fun yeah i'm happy for you i'm glad we spent five minutes talking about it our sugar-free coke slurpees were absolutely amazing one dollar by

the way is what a slurpee costs these days it's not healthy but what a good date day for me and friend yeah love that for you darl you know what i think you should keep the podcast going get us back on track georgia king i would love to know if you have something from the community that you would like to share i do i have a little win from a lovely lady named lauren and she's written a whole post about lulu lemon okay i love lulu i know they're the best essentially she had some tights for a few years they were starting to disintegrate or deteriorate she's written so she went back in and spoke with the sales associate and they actually exchanged them for free which seems I didn't know that that was a thing I know that's a thing for some brands

especially more expensive brands like let's be honest how much does the cost of lulu leggings cost you 100 and something yeah 120 or 30 yeah and they are more expensive ones yeah look they're an investment they are super comfy but also if you bought them in a month later all the seams came undone I'd be pretty annoyed yeah I love that money win I think that's really good but i'd also like to point out that i actually did say that on facebook georgia yes and i didn't love some of the comments on there because i felt like a lot of people were potentially trying to abuse that policy right because i mean if you've had them for a while and they've definitely deteriorated beyond what reasonable wear and tear might be then absolutely take them back they're a quality

product and you should expect quality right to last and if you've been wearing them for five use and you're taking your old lulu leggings back and saying okay well you can replace these i've worn these out now yeah i mean you got good cost per wear out of those i think that maybe you should do the right thing by the brands because if you don't those policies are going to disappear for the people who actually need them yeah so don't take the mickey there yeah don't take the mickey but like good little chat i think to have but also definitely a money win and definitely stand up for the things that you are entitled to as well like if something is broken take it back yeah ask the retailer what they can do about it the worst they can say is no exactly just be kind like approach

everything with kindness and i'm sure people will throw it right back at you lovely message to end that on v all righty so now it is time for the main topic of today's show fast fashion fast fashion is the term given to the cycle in which big brands mass produce the latest runway trends at an affordable price making them accessible to a wider group of people. Now this does sound noble and it's great that affordability means less exclusivity but usually these fast fashion giants actually lack integrity in their business practice and they utilize unsustainable unethical methods to keep their prices low. Now I've done my research guys and according to the ABC Australians are currently disposing of 6,000 kilograms of fashion and textile waste every 10

minutes wait what 10 minutes 10 minutes 6 000 kilograms okay i thought you were gonna say like every month or something and i was gonna be horrified at that as well but what do you mean every 10 minutes in australia okay sorry i'll let you get back with your rap but i just needed to jump in there give me some more stats stats gal okay so the fashion industry also accounts for 10 percent of global pollution which is actually the second highest industry contributor and this is because of the use of pesticides in cotton farming as well as fossil fuels in the production of polyester and also the release of methane from clothes in landfill as well as heaps of other destructive bits and pieces. Victoria for context because I am harping on over here for context can

you please talk us through a little bit of the history of fast fashion in Australia and talk us through why it is so very problematic. That was actually really interesting and Georgia and I this season have decided to not read each other's notes before we go into podcast recording so I'm actually shocked that that is the case georgia it has a lot of issues associated with it right like we know that already we've probably seen it on blogs on instagram we can see all of these fashion brands trying to be more ethical and for good reason but one of the main issues here is that's so bad for the environment in both pollution and waste but also the social aspects of inadequate working conditions in the warehouses that exist abroad which also have completely unsustainable

wages for those factory workers, which honestly, let's be honest, is a huge issue. So the other big issue is that we are spending money on items that do not last for us and they don't serve us well in the long term. So look, there's just so much going on there and I could harp on about values and beliefs and all of the things that I believe in. I think you guys know where I would go with that, but I think it's really important to just start this conversation, especially in our community because it is so important so in the past 10 to 20 years things have changed dramatically let's be honest we are making leaps and bounds in the right direction and the fashion process now no longer takes like six months actually can take only two weeks so it's ridiculous

insane how much goes into the design and the production and the retail of it exactly but it's also somewhat terrifying because you've got to think about what people are compromising to make that happen yeah so it's now no longer a process of six months where it's back and forth for design and then construction and all of that other stuff if it can take two weeks obviously that means that we can be in the latest trends quicker but also at what cost yeah and i think that we really need to be talking about that so the essence of fast fashion is that it is seen to be somewhat disposable i guess due to its cheap price point and often low quality like how many times have we all said oh i'll just buy that top it'll be perfect for saturday night yep and then you never

wear it again exactly so for me that's something that i've spoken about before and it's not aligned to my goals and my values but it's also something that you know each to our own but i have friends that i've had conversations around this topic and they're like i've really never thought about it too deeply and so i think that it's just a really good conversation to open up yeah so georgia to jump back on track the fact of the matter is that these always new stock in store that compels us as the consumers to keep shopping so that we can obtain the latest and greatest which we feel like we should yeah shouldn't but our dopamine levels are associated with this to get a little bit psychology on you for a second which are our pleasure hormones or receptors as you would like

and when we see these things we want to buy them and they give us this really good feeling so it spikes but then it goes away immediately yeah so i feel like a lot of us are potentially buying clothes that we don't need because they make us feel good for five minutes we wear them once and then they just go to landfill and it's an absolute waste for everybody involved it's a waste of your money it's a waste of resources it is just a waste and I mean I'm being dramatic but at the end of the day it's something that I'm quite passionate about yeah and we often end up in situations where we buy something a month ago and then we don't want it anymore because we bought it in the heat of the moment maybe it was like ill-fitted but you're willing to compromise because it was cheap

but then it's like well i'm not going to wear it because it is ill-fitted yeah and yeah that's the end of my little fast fashion rant but the driving principle of the problem with this fashion form and explains why it's so effective but also so damaging on our personal bank accounts well that's it isn't it yeah we're not just talking about you know being ethical and buying things from overseas like well i know that top from h&m was only going to cost you 14 or something but when you buy three of those a month exactly and we justify it so easy because quote me oh it's only 15 or it was only 20 like 20 is a lot in the grand scheme of things especially if it's not going towards something constructive exactly i think you guys spoke about this in season one in the price of

comparison but would you say that social media plays into this expectation that we always need to be looking fresh in a new top like you can't wear the same thing twice on the socials that's silly like what's that about I think that that definitely plays into it that was one of my favorite episodes actually to record because it's something I'm so passionate about and I think there's this unrealistic expectation for us to consistently be in the latest and greatest when it's not actually necessary like we put these expectations on ourselves but we'd never in a million years put them on our friends like I might think oh my gosh I can't wear you know I'm at a life stage where a lot of my friends are getting married and my thought process is I'm not going

to wear that dress to the wedding because the friends that are going to be at the wedding have seen that dress before whereas I'm sure if I asked you Georgia hey should I wear that navy dress that I have you go yeah you look great in it like just wear it again it's great dress so I think that we put unrealistic expectations on ourselves that we would never actually put on our friends so I think we need to be a little bit kinder to ourselves and also just be aware that you know we aren't all social media influencers and you know I've said this a million times but debt is invisible like each time you see someone on a social media platform wearing the latest and greatest one you don't know if it was gifted to them that's very popular

right now where brands will reach out to influencers and say hey we'll give you a dress if you post it on your feed yeah but two you don't know how much debt they went into that or if they're not in debt you don't know their financial situation that has allowed them to afford that exactly so stop comparing yourself to the journey of others we know on instagram we're only seeing people's highlight reels exactly and i know i love your mom i think she's great and also has some some wisdom there but i posted a quote the other day that said sometimes the grass is greener because it's fake yeah and i just thought that was so on point yeah i mean not so good but like i saw it and i was like you know what that's so true it's so true yeah that is so true and like

that then aligns george to my favorite quote which is fake rich now real poor later was that right did i say all right i mean that'll do let's wrap that segment so i was actually listening to an interview last week victoria with the founder of nignata which i don't know if you've heard of um but i haven't you haven't i'll explain it does that make me wildly uncool no no you're right you're right i mean ask my sister i am wildly uncool it's a beautiful byron bay based australian lifestyle brand beautiful leggings jumpers it's divine but i think it was laura may who was the founder she was talking about how she built the brand and she was so clearly so passionate about what she was talking about but she mentioned that a bigger brand had come in and effectively

stolen her designs and reproduced them slapped their label that's actually the worst yeah you can go to nignata's instagram to see which big brand that was if you're interested but we won't name them here that is not cool I actually have a girlfriend called Kat who is an absolute delight she runs and you guys might have heard of it Kat the label which is a gorgeous lingerie brand yeah um and she's had that happen again by a very large brand and at the time it is heartbreaking like you I reached out to her I was like what can I do and there's actually nothing I can do because I can't get involved in this but it's one of those things where you know she puts her heart and her soul in this like I have been following Kat the label since she started it and watching it grow on

socials and she's gone from being at home to having a small studio and now she's got her own warehouse and like she's absolutely killing it like she is the ultimate girl boss I promise you but to see someone who has been killing it and been so successful and like you know just carving the way for herself yeah to see someone with such or see a brand with such a big following essentially pulled the rug out from under them like the design was blatant it was exactly the same lace like i can't imagine how mad they are but it is just so wildly unfair and i don't think there's much they can do i don't think that there is either but i also think it's you know you wish these brands just had best practices and didn't steal other people's designs but then on top of

that we're buying it how terrifying is it that people can produce replicas so quickly yeah like to me that's awful but also something that you know we need to have a chat about as a community so that we're supporting those people in the community and we know why their product is a little bit more expensive because it's got the right ethics and morals and values behind it as opposed to a mass-produced item that has been bulk shipped from China to be in stores for a week tops like it's heartbreaking so I think it's really important to have this conversation yeah just start that educational piece and really start understanding where our clothing is coming from and support local where you can yeah absolutely and sometimes you do have to spend a little bit

more but I do believe that you're paying for quality and you're paying to support small business and like you know I think it's really important for us to also really highlight here that some people aren't in that position right like some of us are going to be listening to this podcast and you're like Victoria I can't afford to just go to Nagnata yeah like that was my next question to you is all right sorry for jumping ahead excuse me um what do you do if you do want to be an ethical shopper but you actually can't afford to be like you know supporting local can be really expensive a hundred percent but i think it's all about more conscious purchases right like i am sitting here in a pair of jeans that i bought at kmart and i am so proud of these

kmart jeans honestly guys like get on them like i think i bought them on sale as well so they were $15. But when I talk about that, I'm not just buying them because they are something that I'm going to buy once and wear once. Like I genuinely needed a pair of white jeans because I think white jeans is a little bit of a vibe for me. I don't really own much else. But I needed a new pair of white jeans and started to do some research on, you know, what fit other people liked and what was going on. And I saw a couple of blogs online where people were raving about these Kmart jeans I was like all right like I'll get on board this like usually I spend let's be honest $150 on a pair of jeans yeah like that's pretty standard $15 Georgia King I was very happy with

those but I think it's more about making conscious choices and not just buying for the sake of buying yeah like there is no shame in buying your basics from Kmart I love it I do it all the time but if I'm going to go and buy something from Kmart the same principles apply for when I'm purchasing there or if I'm purchasing from a really expensive luxe brand yeah am I actually going to wear this item how long will I wear this item for is it going to get the wear out of it yeah it would be nice if we could all step back and just say no I'm only ever going to support local but let's be honest that is not ethical it is not reasonable and not something that a lot of us can do but what we can do is be more conscious with how much we are adding to our wardrobe exactly so regardless

of what financial situation you're in regardless of what your beliefs are I think we can all step back and go well actually do I need this item or am I going to get the wear out of this I already got 10 of that in my wardrobe exactly and something that I have Georgia which is a little bit I know you're smirking because you've seen it on my phone before I have an album on my phone and that album has photos of myself which I would never want other people to see of outfits that I really like yeah and so if I put a new outfit together at home like I pair a different jumper with a pair of jeans that I haven't worn before I'll take a photo of it and I will save it to my outfit folder yeah so that one I love it because sometimes when I don't know

what I want to wear I scroll through there remember an outfit I've worn before yeah go find it in my wardrobe but second I actually use it when I'm out so if I want a new pair of white jeans i'll flick through and just see what's in my album victoria divine you own four pairs of white jeans you don't need another pair of watches i mean i did in this situation but i can just check what's there yeah and i actually have a rule that says that if i don't have five pieces of clothing in my wardrobe that will go with whatever i'm purchasing i can't have it yeah it's a little bit of a like hurdle that i put in place for myself so that i end up in a position where if I'm going to add something to my wardrobe,

I know I will be able to wear it. Yeah, brilliant. I think there's also a thing called capsule wardrobes. I think that's what they're called. So it's like you wear or you have basics or can you explain? I don't really know what I'm talking about. Okay, so I do try to have a capsule wardrobe, but I'm not nearly as minimalist as I would like to be.

So a capsule wardrobe is where, you know, there's lots of different blogs on this. So maybe we'll write an article on this, Georgia. What do you reckon? Yeah, sounds good. Get you to do some more research. um but capsule wardrobes are where you have essentially a confined amount of clothes yeah that all match together yeah so you don't have boundless amounts of tops you just have five

tops that you absolutely love wearing yeah so it really minimizes what's in your wardrobe but maximizes the wear of each item yeah so you're getting like good value there yeah good value but also let's be honest it makes picking your outfits easier because you have five tops that you absolutely love wearing as opposed to having 20 tops that you feel okay in so i think it's actually about how you feel as much as it is about okay well let's talk about how we can you know get more cost per wear out of each item that we have but also with capsule wardrobes i know that there are lots of different strategies associated with this right it's actually a thing if you want to look into it yeah um and there are people who say you should only have 30 items in your wardrobe

there are people who say 50 items there are people who say have 80 um and that includes everything it's like belts shoes jeans jackets everything um I don't I don't follow that because I just have never taken it that seriously but my take on a capsule wardrobe is just really making sure I have minimal pieces all of which I love wearing and that match each other yeah I actually feel like maybe I have a capsule wardrobe and I just haven't realized well you're always really delightfully dressed so you're much cooler than I am I just wear lots of beige and black if I'm honest actually I'm wearing orange jeans right now which yeah they're pretty cool they're pretty cool okay so let's let's move this show along Victoria um we were kind of so cool thank you I want some

solutions for sustainable shopping in Australia what have you got okay so we've been through a couple of them and as I said like it's a privileged thing to be able to do but we all can just be more aware of the decisions that we are making I guess first things first is support local where possible if you can buy local Australian made brands fantastic have a flip through their labels a lot of Australian made brands like if you go into small boutiques you'll find they're actually importing clothes so just like creep on them a little bit work out where they're coming from the next is just buy less like full stop buy less cross the board consume less like there is a stat that i looked up earlier and it said that the average australian actually buys 27 kilograms

of new clothing and textiles each year which i thought was insane yeah and all of those like as much as you're buying 27 kilos of new textiles and clothing people are only wearing things an average of seven times like that's not acceptable at all so technically we're wearing things for a week yeah and they're not using them ever again and then they are sent to landfill more often they're not so I think that that is kind of heartbreaking given how disposable we seem to think fashion is when you know let's think about it historically it was always seen as a cultural thing like fashion was a way of expressing ourselves expressing our culture like I feel like we really need to go back to the roots of what fashion is about and it's about just having

pieces that we wear because they make us feel good like we shouldn't be buying just stuff for the sake of it and I think there's something really empowering about being a wardrobe or outfit repeater yeah like I am honestly like I'd like to dub myself the queen of outfit repeating I think I might rival you for that title but yeah go on maybe we'll start a competition in the shoes on the money group who has worn an outfit the most times but I know that I have this stripy dress that I have had since probably 2011 genuinely like I got it way back in my first university degree for a university ball and I have probably worn it to upwards of 10 events i just love the dress honestly it's like really well fitted it's got pockets yeah like pocket

dress it's got really complimentary stripes on it it's my two favorite colors georgia navy and white so i feel like it was always going to be a winner but i love wearing it so it makes sense to me to actually pick that dress up when i have an event because i go hey i'd love to wear this dress again it makes me feel really good when i wear it yeah so i think that we need to go back to that and just not worry so much about people having seen an outfit like we buy an outfit because it was looking good on us in the first place what other solutions have we got there i would really love if you guys could do a little bit more research into your favorite brands double check their practices match your values and your ethics there's a really good online resource georgia

which you actually told me about when i said i wanted to do this episode called the ethical fashion guide which i absolutely love and it grades fashion brands based on their practices is so you can like type in whoever you want to look up and it'll pop up with a grading that is measured by the efforts undertaken by the company i'm going to read this verbatim verbatim because like i can't really you know paraphrase this properly but it says to mitigate the risks of forced labor child labor and worker exploitation in their supply chains as well as protect the environment from the harmful impacts of the fashion industry higher grades are given to companies with ethical sourcing systems that if implemented well should reduce the extent of

worker exploitation and environmental harm could you please praise me for getting through yeah well done thank you but that to me is really awesome for us to just be more educated as consumers like where does our stuff actually come from yeah like the impact of cotton in the entire world is insane like you know you had some really great stats before about how much goes to landfill and the fact that every 10 minutes so much is thrown out what was my i have a stat sorry on the cotton train it takes 2700 liters of water which is the equivalent of three years worth for a person to drink to create a cotton t-shirt oh my god how weird is that it feels so wasteful like i don't agree with that at all but like that just kind of is what it is but the way that we can impact that

is actually by purposing our dollar like georgia i've said this before on the podcast but like our money has power and we can channel our power and i maybe it's a little bit hippie of me but i say money is energy and we get to choose where that energy flows right so like if we get to choose where our money is going we are choosing to invest in something like that yeah and now i'm not saying that you know that means we all can't buy from came out or don't buy from target or don't buy from places that have mass production but like do you actually need to buy five singlets because they're so cheap or do you just need one that you'll look after so i think that we can just be more conscious with our spending and maybe jump up and down less at sales because we're looking

for a bargain well it's like a marketing tool isn't it yeah i mean and they've put a lot of money into that right like there is literally a science which is the science of consumerism and people are paid millions of dollars a year to make us buy more so i think we need to be aware that that exists like marketing is a legitimate study like people have degrees in this purely so that they can sell more stuff to more people yeah so i think we need to be kind of aware of what's going on so that we can just make more conscious decisions 100 another good one is of course shopping in op shops i do love a good op shop georgia albeit i'm gonna go against the grain for a second and say that like op shops are really fun and our friend emma over at the broke

generation does an incredible job of op shopping in fact if you check out her story highlights you'll see that she has like entire series rating different op shops and like her ventures but i just don't have the time to trawl through op shops it's very time consuming i just don't no but i am a massive fan and a big big big advocate of buying second hand so you'll find me online i buy things on ebay i buy things on facebook marketplace i'm in a facebook group called high end where i can purchase a little bit more bougier items yeah um that are one discounted but two second hand so i think that you know it's a really great thing to do if you've got time for op shops literally please tag us and show us what you are purchasing because i love it i

just personally do not have the time so my way of i guess op shopping or shopping second hand is being able to look up specific items online so for me that works really well georgia i know you're pretty good an op shop though i love an op shop yeah i've got a lot of time right now as well let's be honest i love that though yeah you always find some winners i love that though have you got any suggestions you'd like to add to the mix while we're having this discussion yes another one that comes to mind for me is clothes swapping oh yeah so like getting together with your girlfriends or your boyfriends or whatever friends or bringing clothes that you no longer want and just having a little swap i love that my friend's clothes are much cooler than mine

So I would really like to shop their wardrobes. Yeah, 100%. I'll give you my clothes that are in the corner of my study. You can do a trade. Yeah. We could do a little close-up here. We are totally not on the same page, fashion-wise, Georgia. We're a little bit different, aren't we?

You are way cooler than me. Really? Yeah. What's my style? Your style is cool. Mine is pencil skirts and corporate outfits. No, you're business chic, man. Oh, thank you.

It's gorgeous. Do you know what? I'll take this. Thank you for the compliments. Let's end it there before we realize that I just buy stuff because it makes me look corporate. quickly to wrap it up markets are another great way to shop sustainably waiting before making a purchase okay yeah we talked about that last season yeah i think that everybody should be putting 24 hours between them and their spending yeah what's the psychology behind that because we

want instant gratification like we are absolute slaves to instant gratification like there are so many studies on this and i think it's actually really interesting like we suck as as a human race at delayed gratification and that is the ability to discipline ourselves to delay gratification in the short term in order to enjoy bigger and better rewards in the longer term and it's actually just like the indispensable prerequisite for success so i think it's really important that we do not make split second decisions we actually go all right well if i really need it i'm gonna be happy to purchase it tomorrow yeah and i think that it's really important to put 24 hours between you and you're spending because sometimes even though we think we are rational humans we aren't and I do

this to myself all the time like I will give myself every reason why I need to purchase that new pair of shoes yeah oh it'll go with all my outfits it'll do this it'll do that like I'll feel really good yeah and then 24 hours later I'm like look they're beautiful shoes do I need them no yeah so I think it's more about just put 24 hours between you and your spending and we spoke about this on the after pay episode in season one if you guys haven't listened to it definitely go back and have a listen to that because it was a really great episode just on you know how we actually spend our money especially on things like buy now pay later schemes like they allow us to purchase things in the here and now without actually feeling the pain of sacrificing our

money so i think it's really important to just you know put some time between our spending and ourselves and I know that that can be hard but the longer the better if you can put a day a week a month even a year between buying something that is really important you are going to make better financial decisions for yourself in the long run yeah and then when it comes around if it has been a month and you've waited and you still really want it then like girl you deserve that yeah yeah love that um okay so now it is time for the community to have their say I'm sure you guys have heaps of ethical brands that have come to mind ways that you save when it comes to shopping sustainably so we're going to start a thread and we would love you to share any ideas tips

or tricks that you have yes i love that i can't wait to read hi there it's been a while you've reached the she's on the money mailbox do you have a money problem you want help solving to have a money dilemma you just want to chat about victoria is here to help every week we'll be playing your questions to help make sense of a money mess you may have found yourself in make a quick recording on your phone and send it through to podcast at shoesonthemoney.com.au and you might even find yourself on the show. But for now, here's today's listener question. Hey guys, bit of a money confession and question here. I think I'm addicted to shopping. It feels like the pleasure I get from having a new bag or a

new pair of shoes or whatever it may be is one of the main things keeping me entertained at the moment. I also just tend to shop online whenever I'm bored and it's really impacting my savings, which until now i have been working so hard to create so i'm just wondering if you have any tips on how i can break this addiction once and for all thanks so much guys what tips and tricks have you got victoria oh my gosh this is such a hard one especially at this period of time i think that all of us are a little bit guilty of shopping online there's not been a lot else to do yeah look no there hasn't but i think that i'm just going to jump right into this one and be a little bit brutal. Often when we have a shopping addiction, we are covering up something else that we feel

is lacking from our lives. So I think it's important to sit down and actually have a look at our lives as a holistic picture. Go, well, what's going on? What are my goals? Like it is so easy to shop when you don't have bigger goals in play. Because it's that gratification that we were talking about. Exactly. You're just going for instant gratification. Shopping, let's be honest, makes us feel really good who doesn't love a new pair of shoes or a new bikini or you know whatever we are purchasing so I think it's really important to just maybe have a think about why we are shopping and what that actually is a repercussion of right I know a lot of people because I have been having these conversations very recently are spending a lot on online shopping you'll see the

stats for retail haven't dipped like retail is absolutely booming at the moment because we're all at home shopping online but a lot of us are doing that because it makes us feel good and it makes us feel in control at a time when we don't really feel like we're in control at all so I think it's worthy of having a look at why we are doing that and potentially finding a habit or finding a hobby that you can replace that activity with because often if we are shopping online as well what is it it's a time wasting activity yeah like we jump on asos like i'm good at it i've got the net-a-porter app on my phone and i just like forever scroll like i never buy it's too expensive but i spend so long looking at their shoes and filtering by like size and just you know

wasting a little bit of time doing something that isn't that constructive on that v i reckon a good tip as well would just be to delete those apps get rid of asos get rid of net-a-porter as you say i it was Net-A-Porter so I'm a little bit of a bogan over here um but get rid of those we both grew up on the peninsula also another app to delete is Instagram from your phone I did this for a little period during the last three months just because I was getting sick of it and I found that I just wanted stuff less because influencers weren't selling me stuff I just wasn't tempted by all the big brands there's so much targeted advertising that you don't even really understand is happening to you so just getting rid of that I think is a huge plus go on a digital detox yeah exactly

actually pick up your phone and remove those apps and just remove them for a week yep like honestly disconnecting ourselves from socials is sometimes really good yep and I know I probably let's be honest Georgia I probably shouldn't be saying delete Instagram what at the same time as I'm gonna say yeah just keep shoes on the money honestly sometimes regardless of the fact that you know you're gonna miss out on some stuff like we all need to be really comfortable with missing out on things because it is actually a really good learning. Like we can't have everything all at once. And I think that sometimes social media is a really overwhelming place to be. And I've done that a number of times as well. Like obviously it's a little bit different for us because we've

got a business that we need to like check in and make sure our community is comfortable and happy and safe. But I have removed my personal profile a number of times from my phone because I just don't want to spend my time scrolling through stuff that makes me feel bad about myself another feature i love on instagram while we're on that conversation georgia is the mute feature okay and you can actually mute brands without unfollowing them so that their posts don't come up on your feed and you can actually hide them so that they're not in your face all the time but you don't have to unfollow them because maybe one time you want to go like look in what you're following to find something that you wanted ages ago yeah so i think it's really important to just

be really sensible about our social media usage because sometimes they're impacting our mental health in a way that we hadn't actually thought about yeah and way more than we and way more than we thought it was so let's jump back into wrapping this question up yeah i think a shopping addiction at the end of the day is a marker of a bigger issue at play and we need to be kind to ourselves but also do a little bit of reflecting and work out maybe why we are feeling the need to do this and have a look for some hobbies or some activities that you can do that will replace that activity that you're doing. So just break the habit. I think it's really important to be in a position where we are actually back in control. So sit down, write down your goals,

write down your values, have a think about what you're trying to achieve. Because often if we're towards a bigger financial goal, it's easier to sacrifice those short-term goals or those shopping addictions or those small purchases because you know how much it could add up in along yeah all right you've got this girl okay now for the fun stuff what good would a money podcast be without the pervy bits it's time for money diary i'm calling myself final financial hurdle because i turn my finances around but there's one final thing i need help with two years ago my relationship with money was not good i was thinking about it a lot stressed about it a lot. It actually made me pretty emotional if people asked me about it so I kind of knew I

needed to put a plan in place and yeah get on top of it because I didn't want it to distract me from the important stuff. I think the biggest problem was I wasn't aware of my money if that makes sense. I'm thinking about the bills and the stress but I wasn't like cool let's look at what I've got coming in, what I'm earning, what I'm paying bills for and then kind of working out what if any I can put away I guess the turning point was I split up with my ex-partner some of the arguments we had had had been about money and I guess I really just wanted to know that I could feel like financially independent not rely on somebody else you know whether I was in a relationship or not wanted to have that for myself and myself only yeah and I also didn't want to I guess complicate

any future relationships I have with people with money like if I can do that myself and that doesn't have to factor into a relationship that's that would be great I earned $50,000 a year doing an office job um when I broke up with my partner two years ago I had about $200 in savings but now I'm on track to have uh saved $20,000 by the end of the year I'd say like the best habit that I've gotten into is just doing a budget like just not making it complicated but just being aware of what I've got coming up that I need to pay for, what I've got coming in, you know, if there's extra pay coming in, what I can do with that money to make the most of it. So the reason I'm on the podcast is I need help from Victoria. I'm doing a lot better than I was a couple of years ago,

got my finances on track. There's just one thing that I haven't quite got under control. I haven't actually done a tax return in about five years. To be honest, I don't know why I haven't done it in five years, not on purpose and not thinking that I would go five years without doing it probably a combination of I found it too overwhelming and complicated especially because as part of my employment I have some shares and also previously I'd had money to pay back from previous tax returns so probably the combination of the two kind of overwhelmed me a bit and one year turned into two years turned into three and yeah in my mind the best case scenario is money back from the tax office, which is great. Worst case scenario, I'm on the run from the law

because I haven't paid enough tax and I don't really need that right now. Two years ago, I'd probably give myself an F and now I'd probably give myself a B plus, maybe an A plus when my taxes are done. I'm final financial hurdle and I need Victoria to help me stay out of jail. what did you think about that one victoria i thought that was a really interesting one actually a lot of elements to it yes but i also thought it was really interesting because she's so concerned about not having done her tax what's the go with that is she going to go to jail straight out no she's not going to go to jail thank god but i think it's really important to do your tax every year but if you are in the same position and i have met a number of you from our

community who haven't done your tax in a few years yeah just get on top of it it is not the worst thing at the end of the day the ATO like they know that you haven't lodged it they absolutely can come forward and ask you to do it but if you haven't done it get in contact with your accountant or find a really good one who can help you out and they can wrap it up for you I promise you it will not be as scary as what you think it is just get it over just get it over and done with accountants are actual legends who will be able to clean that up for you and let you know exactly what the deal is and if you're a salary and wage earning employee like it's very likely that you're not going to owe massive amounts of money to the ato unless you're you know a sole trader who's been

you know generating heaps of taxable income and you haven't paid tax on it yeah so i think it's really important to kind of just get it done swallow the pill like make the call yeah because at the end of the day you could hear that she was quite stressed about that and it's not something you should be stressed about and sleeping well at night is really important so i think that you can help yourself sleep really well at night just by calling your accountant if you're in that position yeah like no one wants to be in a position where we start talking about tax or money and you get that like lump in the back of your throat yeah but in saying that yes she needs to get her skates on and go and talk to an accountant and get those tax returns wrapped up but lots of other good

yeah can we also celebrate the fact that she has you know nearly twenty thousand dollars in savings and how how she had a hundred dollars to her name a couple of weeks now that yeah weeks ago i wish imagine if she could save twenty thousand dollars in a couple of weeks oh my god victoria um but she had a hundred dollars to her name when she came out of her relationship and now she has nearly twenty thousand dollars in the bank that is absolutely worthy of celebration woman independent woman but also look how much power she has exactly imagine if she can keep those habits up for life my gosh she's gonna be filthy rich she's going to be wealthy georgia and have financial freedom georgia i say in a really condescending tone that is absolutely not

warranted i'll take it yeah thank you what did you what did you think of her grade i thought it was interesting i i think that she's absolutely worthy of you know an a plus but i also never want to argue with people's grades of themselves yeah because i genuinely think that people grade themselves less than a plus when they genuinely know they've got room to grow and I think that it's really beautiful to know that she's got you know things that she still wants to achieve that in her eyes you know will make her more financially literate will make her more financially stable and secure and I think that that's a really good thing 100% like as you know I'm never going to argue with someone's grade unless they're grossly underestimating themselves but I think

that she's on the right track she's doing the right thing like she's definitely on the money that whoa i did not mean to say that did you not mean to say that that's slightly embarrassing but i genuinely think she's on the right track and i think that she's doing amazing yeah so she's on the money and she doesn't need to do a tax though she needs to get let's make sure that never happens again that is all we have time for today sadly but before we head off let's quickly wrap the boring but important stuff 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. And stress less, we promise Victoria Devine is an authorised representative of Australia Pacific Funds Management, Proprietary Limited, ABN 34132 463 257 AFSL 339 151. And of course, thank you to Ryan John for whipping today's chat into the podcast that you guys love. we would also before i just like we would love georgia you whipped out that abn and afsl so smoothly i started a little bit yeah look you're back on track it's the first one back yeah first

one back congratulations all right guys we would love it if you joined our facebook group where our community shares money tips and tricks every single day free of judgment georgia there are more than 80 000 people in that that is ridiculous even i am you've created a monster a beautiful search she's on the money on facebook and join us if facebook's not your thing or you want us on multiple social media platforms you can find us on instagram we're at she's on the money a us it's good to be back guys it is so good to be back we will see you next week