I bought a new suit today.  I have two weddings to attend this year.  Blue nailhead pattern.  And the cool thing about it, the slim fit.  But I also had to bring with me a handful of suit pants for alterations.  I don’t travel to customer sites like I used to, so most of my suits are several years old.  The pants all need to be taken in.  I should be happy with that but it’s a bit annoying financially.  My suit jacket lapels are still within style so it made sense to keep the suits and to spend some money on tailoring the pants.  It doesn’t stop there.  People talk about losing an inch in their waist.  I’ve lost an inch in my neck.  So I need new dress shirts too.

Then there’s the gear for the sport itself, in my case running.  I don’t need any more shirts, shorts, hats, gloves, jackets.  I’m good.  But I did have to recently replenish my supply of running socks.  Besides wearing unmatched pairs, most of my socks are also cotton.  My feet have been wet all month due to slushy snow and as you can imagine, I’ve been suffering from blisters all month too.  Wet cotton socks are stupid.  I finally broke down and ordered a ton of non-cotton socks all at once online from the Running Warehouse.  I’ve wasted money trying to buy cheap socks online many times and highly recommend the Running Warehouse for well-priced, quality gear.  Socks shouldn’t cost as much as a suit.  I really don’t understand pricing for clothes.  It clearly has nothing to do with the volume of fabric.

What else cost money?  Race registrations.  I sign up for less events nowadays.  Marathons are the most expensive and I might focus more this year on 10Ks.  And I’ve stopped purchasing race photos for most events.  Pictures can cost as much as the race registration.  I like pics for my blog but it can quickly become too much.  The best approach is to run events with friends so I have someone to take free photos.  Although I’ve learned that certain family members suck at taking pictures and cannot be trusted.

At least I don’t waste my money on supplements.  I take vitamin D regularly.  Doctor recommended and I will say that I noticed the improvement within a few weeks of starting that supplement.  I buy other vitamins occasionally but I’m mostly into real food.  I do buy a bunch of organic, but I also believe the argument that you tend to eat lower amounts of organic than less nutritional foods.  I learned to save money on smoothies by purchasing frozen fruits.  Frozen saves a small fortune actually, and it obviates the need to add ice cubes in the blender.

This blog would be incomplete if I don’t talk about running shoes.  You can easily drop $100 on shoes.  Easily more.  I paid well over $150 on my Hoka Ones – the most I’ve ever spent.  I think they were originally $180 but I bought them at a discount.  And I don’t even like them.  Their soles are so fat, I regularly clip my calves – drawing blood.  I do save money by not renewing my shoes every 500 miles, which is the industry recommendation.  I go about 2000 miles.  I find the waterproof feature of shoes extremely tempting.  I’ve bought a couple.  But that particular feature drives the cost up like nothing else so I generally opt for non-waterproof.

I could go on.  Not sure why this subject even has my attention.  Oh yeah, the need to pay for suit pants alterations.  I guess there are worse things.