4 Tips on How I Put Together My New Years Costume For FREE!
Happy New Year, Queens!
I hope 2020 has been treating you like the Queen that you are so far.
My New Year’s plans can definitely vary from year-to-year, but this year my best friend from home, Kendall, decided to throw a huge rager in the spirit of the 1920s to celebrate our return to the 20s.
Our New Years parties back in 2017 and 2018. Click through to see more photos.
This meant that ya girl needed an outfit, and she needed one ASAP. I knew I didn’t want to be that one person who shows up out of theme to the party, but after breaking bank on Christmas presents, I really didn’t have the coin to spend on an outfit that I was, real talk, only going to wear for that night.
I did still go out thrifting the few days before to see what I could find. But I only returned home with nothing each day because it felt like even the thrift stores were marking up prices for New Years.
Lawd! What to do? What to do? What tew do!
Y’all not gonna believe this (I know I sure didn’t) but by the time 10pm on December 31st rolled around, I not only had 1 style option, but 2! And the best part was… BOTH options cost me NOTHING!
So for my first Broke & Bougie post I thought I would do a breakdown on I was able to get these style options together for FREE in just a few hours.
Tip 1: Always Put Out In The World What You Need
The night before New Years Eve I happened to be talking with my Auntie about how I still couldn’t find a dress, and that it needed to be 1920s themed. I was also really hoping to find a long dress as well since it was cold AF on this side of the country. She not only returned with the perfect dress, and shoes, but my baby cousin, Veronica, even let me borrow her little silver purse for the night. Then my sister let me borrow her lace gloves. And while my mom didn’t have much to contribute, she reminded me to take a peek in my grandmother’s closet, where I found another dope dress option (that unfortunately didn’t fit), the silver sequined headscarf and shawl, my original purse option, and that luxurious fur coat. By putting what I needed out into the world the outfit literally manifested itself over the course of a few hours.
Many of us when we have a need tend to suffer in silence because we want to believe that we’ll figure it all out ourselves-- that it is weak to let people know that you have a need. Or that it could lead to bad things happening. But not only is it not weak, it could be costing you more money than you need to spend.
By telling my Auntie and other people in my life what I needed, it not only got me a banging outfit, but it helped me to save my money for the more important things in life… An iced green tea latte from Starbucks (lol… well that and my student loans).
Tip 2: Be Direct About What You Want
Manifesting only works when you are clear and direct about what you want to happen. I knew I needed an outfit and I knew I didn’t want to spend a lot of money, and I held true to both of those two things, even when it was getting down to the wire.
Many people at this moment might have caved and just spent the money on a dress, or went to the party out of theme. But by staying true to what I wanted I was able to manifest an outfit because having full clarity of my wants pushed me to let people know what I needed. And even though there was a good chance that my family might not have been able to help me (like seriously the odds were so low), by being direct and intentional it pushed me to really discover what help they could provide. And just to my luck, the odds happen to be in my favor.
Whether you are aware of it or not, many people tend to kill a potential solution to their problem before they’ve even went out to discover if it was possible or not. Some psychologists would say that this behavior is attributed to our negativity bias. As human beings we have a natural tendency to lean into the negative over the positive because— believe it or not— it was actually evolutionarily advantages at one point. But in modern times, it usually tends to kill our natural curiosity and motivation to explore.
Instead of killing your next potential solution idea, why not actually pursue it and see what happens? Again, you still might end up with the outcome that you feared, which is that your solution doesn’t get you what you want. But, I’ve come to find for myself that it’s always worth it to try just to build the habit. And who knows? One of those times someone is bound to be able to help you (maybe even in a really big way). But you’ll never know if you don’t know how to handle your fear of being rejected.
“That bottomless pit of hesitation that you feel
are just false expectations appearing real.
So don’t let your fear get the best of you
because every part of you is the best of you.”
Tip 3: Have a Vision
In order to get what you want, you have to have a clear vision of what it is that you want so you know when you’ve found it. It’s crazy how many people (myself included for many years) will go after things that they have never thought about what success would look like once they landed upon it. But not having a clear vision of what you want or what success looks like could cause you to be working much harder than you need to and creating all kinds of unnecessary stress, anxiety, and tension.
Before putting out what I needed, I made sure I had a clear vision of what I was looking for by looking through Pinterest and getting an idea of what exact pieces I would need. By understanding what I needed up front it allowed me to know when exactly I had gotten everything I needed, and could focus my energy and attention else where. So I highly recommend before you put in any kind of search work for a costume in the future that you start with a clear vision in mind of what you’re looking for. It doesn’t have to be something that you strictly hold yourself to, but I’ve found that even just having a few images in my head of what I’m looking for can really get my creative juices going and help me to find or invent what I want much quicker.
Tip 4: Embrace Creativity
One of my favorite life philosophies to live by is the idea that true creativity presents itself when limits are present. Just because someone has the money to buy the perfect outfit doesn’t mean they have the creativity or the vision to make it look banging. That only comes from those who know how to think out the box, and when we are constrained but with a vision and a purpose, I believe that’s when magic gets created. Remember that you have limited funds not limited vision.
By embracing my lack of funds, my vision and my creativity, I was able to put together two style choices that I really loved for no money.
But only one could be the winner…
After deliberating with my Auntie and the babies, I decided to do my Arianna wig by Freetress with the sequined scarf as a head band and my luxurious fur.
But I’m telling y’all that headscarf look is definitely making another appearance in 2020 cuz I’m really feeling it.
Hope y’all had a great New Years and that you found this to be helpful! Let me know what you thought in the comments!
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