Financial Considerations of Purging

[Jayne44C]

Has anyone else to taken into consideration the financial component of purging? Depending upon your wardrobe, you can easily be discarding hundreds or even several thousands of dollars in clothing, shoes, makeup, etc. Or has the financial part been of no consequence and the decision was made upon your lifestyle at the time?

[kimdl93]

I am certain that two purges have cost me in the several thousands of dollars. Not that it was a serious financial hit, but still it was utterly pointless to donate several thousand dollars worth of clothing, wigs, shapeware, and very expensive breast forms and hip shapers?and end up buying it all back again.

[BLUE ORCHID]

Hi Jayne :hugs:, I have never purged , But I have Donated lots that I didn't want anymore over the years,

I am sure it was a FEW Dollars involved , But it is the cost of being in this Program, >Orchid**O:daydreaming:O**

[Stephanie47]

Purging has consequences other than $$$ spent. It's also potential dollars lost. Over the years of buying on-line I have maintained a record of my purchases. I print out the order form along with the accompanying picture. It's easily over $10,000; probably closer to $15,000. There are many articles of lingerie that cannot be replaced. I bought many articles of lingerie on ebay when there was little interest at the time. Now many are vintage. While there are reasonable prices for many lingerie pieces in smaller sizes, the prices/bids for larger sizes are nuts. It is almost a guarantee cross dressers are bidding up lingerie in 42, 44 and 46 sizes and L and XL.

If you're going to purge I would recommend donating your clean/launder garments to a local battered women shelter.

[Micki_Finn]

Well here’s the thing, you may have SPENT thousands, and it would cost you thousands to replace, but that stuff isn’t actually worth thousands. Clothes are worse than cars as far as losing value once you drive it off the lot. There are a few extremely high end designers who’s products retain their value better, but it not like you’d ever be able to sell all those clothes your purging and make back your money.

[Princess29]

from time to time, I go through my stuff and give things to charity that either no longer fit or I haven't worn in ages. I hold onto things that cost more to replace like wigs and shoes

[Karren H]

Be a great subject to bring up next time you talk to your financial advisor! Put purging every 5 years into the long range plan along with a large wardrobe expenditure in year 6, 11 and 16. On the positive side if you donate your things to charity you can get a tax deduction, assuming you exceed the standard deduction. Obviously if you have a financial advisor then wasting a few thousand dollars every 5 years isn?t a big deal. If your financial advisor also crossdresses maybe she will cut her rate to offset the purges?

[Pumped]

I don't have that much so the dollar amount doesn't bug me, but trying to replace items I can't find any longer really gets to me. I had a dress and also a few pairs of heels I just loved that I will never be able to replace.

[MonicaPVD]

Having purged many times over the years, I have learned to keep my inventory of stuff low. However, I think that every time I purged, I threw away more money in makeup and wigs than I did in clothes. Most of the clothes I buy comes from fast fashion shops or inexpensive online retailers. Decent makeup, on the other hand, is expensive any way you slice it. Same goes for decent looking wigs. Purging never solves anything, anyway.

[JennB]

Best advice I saw somewhere once was "instead of purge", "box it" and wait. If you really go 6 months or a year or more and don't re-engage with the boxes, maybe get rid of it. Otherwise, you will probably be glad you didn't just get rid of everything.

[AngelaYVR]

Good quality vintage clothes are now few and far between so if I lost my collection I most likely could not replace it at all, no matter how much I was willing to spend

[ellbee]

Meh, quitting CD'ing via purging is easy -- I've done it plenty of times! :heehee:


Oh, I've lost so much money from that in years past, it isn't even funny. :sad:

And to make matters worse? Suppose I had prudently invested all that money, instead? I'd be *soooo* much better off right now, financially speaking.

But that is neither here nor there.



Anyway, I just want to touch on a couple things...


First, this goes to show how much this CD'ing "affliction" can sometimes "bother" us, to put it mildly.

"Yup, I know I'll be losing $X by purging -- but I don't care... I just need to get rid of this part of me, any way I can!!"

Of course, it never works. One can somewhat liken it to trying to quit smoking by throwing out a pack of cigarettes. Ummm, you know you can simply just go to the store down the street & buy another pack, right? :p


The second point I want to mention, is that when you include the financial aspect? You're kicking yourself when you're already down.

Yup, the guilt & shame & what-not was already there from the CD'ing. And now you want to drive yourself down even more, by acknowledging how much money you just "wasted" on it all?

This just deepens the cycle, really, which ain't exactly healthy. Besides, trying to repress yourself (while it may "work" for a while) can be quite damaging & even dangerous, over the long run... Which can sometimes lead you to doing something somewhere down the road, that you otherwise wouldn't have done.


Anyway, it's only money. Go out & make more?

Plenty of it out there. ;)

[mbmeen12]

Has anyone else to taken into consideration the financial component of purging?
Yes, Ive considered it but choose not too because I am too frugal.


Depending upon your wardrobe, you can easily be discarding hundreds or even several thousands of dollars in clothing, shoes, makeup, etc.

Response: Quite obvious!


Or has the financial part been of no consequence and the decision was made upon your lifestyle at the time?
Ans: N/A

[Gi Gondin]

We should put together a crossdressing-purge-storage business. so you could get your things back after sometime.

If after a year or so you do not ask for your stuff back and declare yourself crossdressing-free, we would hold online auctions and have a lot of fun buying large sizes shoes and skirts!

[GretchenM]

Ah, Gi, you are a business woman, I see. Not a bad idea. :heehee:

As for my purges they had no financial consequences because all I had was packed into a small suitcase. But the emotional impact was difficult because I felt like I was throwing away a major part of me. The truth is, I effectively was doing that very thing. No more purges!! They do not work unless you find someway to fix what is inside you. But as there is very likely nothing wrong with you inside you can't fix what is not broken. The problem is you are adhering to a traditional and stereotypical concept of what should be rather than what is. And that is why it doesn't really go away. Change your concept of self and the conflict will go away. You will still be different, but that is better than tying yourself in knots to the point of symbolic self destruction and regrets over the financial impact.

But if you have so much that it is a financial disaster then maybe you should adopt the way women think. Have fewer clothes chosen to be able to create several different outfits. Coordinate your fashions. But if you have mountains of clothes then perhaps the problem is not with your identity, but is an addiction that is a secondary consequence of your identity configuration. It is the addiction that is the problem and not your sense of who you are in terms of gender.

[Cheryl T]

In after thought yes. I've tallied the cost.
At the time it didn't matter. It was an attempt to rid myself of the burden, the fear of discovery, the shame and the guilt, so the cost was irrelevant.
Now the cost would be much higher, not because of what I've spent on clothing, but what it would mean to me emotionally.