as of November the 6th i will have been on a CoP FrEeZe for one year, as i approach this date i thought i'd break down the the journey and what i have learned
overall i have GREATLY enjoyed the experience but here are some specific thoughts:
I think I genuinely enjoy clothes. They're fun, interesting, practical and provide and extremely low effort artistic output while also letting me nerd out about random stuff, be it social or design. I took the extra time and money I had to try other stuff, travel, food, other consumer items and so forth and other than rediscovering my love for video games with the help of rainbow six siege, I don't feel I'm missing out on other activities if I buy some clothes I like.
This no cop has allowed me to slow the rate at which I tire of clothes by reducing the amount of content I consume, as such be found I've enjoyed stuff longer and been less swayed by "bad people" who may surround a certain style or look (dont @ me like "that shouldn't bother u any way" because if u think it doesn't ur lying 2 urself m8)
It's allowed me to rediscover old clothes or ones I didn't wear enough, work them into new outfits and old ones. Some of my favourite outfits I wear now are of clothes I had forgotten about or written off.
I enjoy collecting things and as such feel I used to buy items to complete sets and so forth which is fine for microtransactions in video games where it costs at most a fiver, but with hundred pound coats it's not very sensible. Because of such I have made extra effort to be aware of this in the future.
I've become a lot more apathetic towards buying clothes as I just wear the same thing daily (marks and sparks jeans, baggy tee and a sweatshirt with some AirMax) so any clothes I do buy will have to excite me a great deal as my daily outfits are not breaking anytime soon.
price tags mean something again so no longer a supreme shirt for £100 a "bargain because other brands which excite me to the same degree cost 4x as much", it is a "£100 shirt that's like a lot of money for something i have many of"
Related to this all the money I would have spent on clothes I have stashed in an isa, for me, it's reached quite a high amount and it's shook me into realising how much I did spend. I spent 1.3k on stones coats a year before this no cop, 1.4k on acronym coats. blows my mind. I don't think I could do this again ever, that said I do not regret the purchases, I wear them all the time and enjoy every bit of them.
I'm less scared of clothes breaking and buying more out of fear of wearing my favourites into the ground, I have worn the same 10 supreme and maha tees for a year and they're fine, cracked, but fine and that comforts me.
Marks and Sparks straight cut jeans are fucking boss. Comfy. Stylish. Practical. Practical. Buy some.
I started this no cop wanting a grey hoody, black Marks and Sparks jeans and some variety of airmax, I still want them.
Admissions:
Over the period of this year I have received 3 clothing gifts from my girl friend: Marks and Sparks light wash jeans, Marks and Sparks checked shirt and a head porter manbag. I do not count this as breaking no cop. I would say I've worn this jeans at least 4 days a week since I got them, often 7 (gross innit), I thourally love the shirt and the bag is great. I've also enjoyed only having a few new items, I hope to imply this tactic in the future.
i have tried mixed methods over the duration of the cop freeze, towards the start i was extremely puritan and went full saver mode to get the ball rolling. for about 2-3 months i'd limit myself to £10 a week for everything that wasn't bill related, many weeks i'd spend £0. this was doable as i had a lot of school work on, as i progressed i relaxed a bit more and was open to spending on stuff as long as it wasn't clothing. i'd save 1/3 of my pay slip and anything outside of that was fair game.
I have not been free from aesthetic purchases during this time, I started playing rainbow six siege in January and have since put in 600 hours which is quite a lot in between work and uni, and I have quite hooked on the cosmetic skins which I will detail and review now
I don't worry about this addiction, I've probably spent £200 max on the game and over the course of 10 months that's no biggie, considering what I used to spend on clothes
Now
The skins
hibanna:one of the first i purchased and kick started this addiction, her regular skin is very tasteful, blue jacket with some brown trousers but that looks like GARBAGE compared to this fine example.
ash:the first ash skin is objectively the best, it's the only skin for her in which her gloves change colour and since that's the only part of her you see in game it wins in that regard.
that said however when the farmer ash bundle appeared i couldn't resist being the ash which runs around and harvests elo, the checked shirt and marks and spencer jeans. perfect
sledge:i saw this skin set up up used by kixstar one game and i thought "wow this actually makes sledge look cool enough to play", his elite skin is garbo so this works out well
thatcher:if you play rainbow six this is THE thatcher main skin, and let me tell you, if we're playing ranked i am on that thatcher, ar33, l85 it don't matter im tapping heads and fucking up your bandit
smoke:i like playing smoke and i like bpm camo, so this works out great. i just wish they would release a good headgear for him!
pulse:i'm not a big pulse player but damn this skin tilts so many people, the dumbass mohawk, the dumbass mvp animation just gets people wild. worth the £12 just for that.
castle: castle only has helmets available (no the blood orchid skins do not count) and this is the most luxurious helmet, also it's from blood dragon which is a fantastic game.
update: he now has a green uniform which i bought for renown so it's not on this list.
Valkyrie:i play a lot of valk as she has a fun gun and i have the sickest cams (paypal me £10 ill give u some hydrating ones), when i saw this proleague set the body was horrible but i saw the potential in this sandstorm level headgear B)
jager:jager and ash get the most, and best skins and here is one of the best. the lovely tonal green and those camo adidas! this could easily be a bigbee fitpic
i dont care for the skin, what a care about is this cute ass fucking seal and the only way you could get it is if you bought the bundle. fucking paying £7 for a charm!!! £7!!!!
bandit:this is a fun skin for bandit, it's not a huge change but it makes you look different from the pleb bandits
doc:for some reason i love this skin, it just makes doc look so good in game, don't know what it is. just love it.
rook:the first skin i bought for rook was his buzz lightyear elite. the real star of the show with this is the reskin you get to your armour bag, looks really good in game, also that you look like buzz light year
i thought i'd never buy another rook skin after that but when i saw this released! i thought it looked equal parts dumb and funky, like a road traffic officer to stop the speeding ash's
and that's all. i will update in the future if i buy more
in concluding thoughts i recommend this process to everyone, it takes a bit to get in the rhythm (about 4-5 months) but once you're in it is extremely freeing and you really do save a fair bit of cash even if you're a modest/ seasonal spender. but more so than the money it's a good reset on perspective and helps you climb out the rabbit hole. maybe you'll find something else you enjoy more with your time, maybe it'll reaffirm your love for clothes, who knows!
i dont think i'll be rushing out to buy clothes on nov 6th, but there are a couple of things i have my eye on.