I tested a a clueless-style wardrobe app to stop shopping and save cash – here’s how I got on

IF you’ve ever been tempted to buy clothes online that you just don’t need, I may have found the perfect app for you.

In an effort to spend less, I turned to a new virtual wardrobe on my phone which catalogues your clothes just like in the hit 90s movie Clueless.

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You may have spotted the app, called Whering, and its founder Bianca Rangecroft pitching the Dragon’s Den panel – and viewers went wild for it.

“OMG she invented Cher’s wardrobe from Clueless,” said one fan at the time.

Another added: “It’s Clueless IRL [in real life] I’m obsessed”.

Despite having what I consider a small wardrobe (especially after a lockdown clear-out), I can easily forget what’s in it.

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There’s not an Instagram advert out there for a striped top I won’t click on – even though I already have more than enough of them.

But somehow, the attraction of something shiny and new on my screen makes me forget this entirely.

And I’m not the only one. Clothes worth an estimated £10billion are hanging unworn across the country.

Yet the average household in the UK spends £24.20 every week on clothes and shoes – that’s more than £1,000 a year.

And these days it’s easier than ever to click and buy, with millions of people turning to buy now pay later to fund their online shopping habits.

So-called “friction-free” purchases are just one way that retailers tempt us into spending money, along with nudges from shop’s apps and emails about items left in your basket.

According to Money and Mental Health, the charity set up by Martin Lewis, one in eight adults spend more than they can afford to online, and nearly one in four buys things they don’t need. 

On average it takes just 16 minutes from us seeing a product on social media to hitting the buy button, research by investment platform Wealthify suggests.

It estimates that around 1million people are in debt because of their social media habit, and nearly the same number unable to save money for the future.

Ellie Austin-Williams, a financial coach and founder at This Girl Talks Money, says: “The speed and ease of making payments has increased and it’s a near seamless process to go from seeing an item to having it delivered at your doorstep, whatever the cost.

“Cash is long gone and the absence of physical money makes it even more difficult to associate the shopping experience with the number in your bank account – all it takes is a couple of clicks and you get the excitement of knowing something new is on the way to you.”

Whering is here to help you catalogue your wardrobe, create stylish outfits and make the most of what you already own.

I wanted to see if using it could help me stop shopping and save cash. Here’s how I got on…

How Whering works

My goal was to use the app for a month to see if it stopped me from being tempted to shop.

I was hoping I could simply turn to my own wardrobe to recreate the looks in glossy Instagram adverts with clothes I already owned.

Downloading the app was easy and you can get it from App Store for iPhones or Google Play for Android phones for free.

The first step is building your digital wardrobe, which means uploading photos of all your clothes.

You can take a photo of the item and add it, but I found it easier to take the image from existing pictures on retailers websites.

I looked through my previous online orders to find them, and the professional pics look a lot better than my own efforts.

I took pictures of old faves and secondhand closed, but found many other items I hadn’t bought online by searching on Google for other items I hadn’t bought online.

In total, this took me about two hours.

The technology sorts your pictures into categories, like skirt, as well as colours and styles, for example A-Line or maxi.

It doesn’t always get these right, but you can easily amend this info yourself.

You can also add more details like where you bought it to get stats, like where you shop most often or what your most worn colour is.

Next, you can start creating outfits. You can put them together yourself from the items you’ve uploaded by tapping and dropping to create a look.

Browsing your wardrobe and the outfits you’ve built is easy and they’re put into an Instagram-style feed that you can scroll through.

But the Clueless-style magic happens when you press a button – like hitting shuffle on a music playlist – and it creates an outfit for you out of clothes you already own.

You can swipe to improve the suggestions yourself, for instance swapping a pair of trainers for some sandals.

Once this was all set up, I could check in regularly to browse my wardrobe and create outfits whenever I wanted.

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How it went

Every time I found myself adding an item to an online shopping basket I hesitated and instead turned to the Whering app.

This satisfied the itch of wanting a new look – but without spending the cash.

The Instagram-style feed Whering has for displaying your wardrobe and browsing your looks also satisfied my desire to scroll through actual Instagram fashion accounts.

Meanwhile, I am guilty of always falling for the same items – black trousers and those striped tops are my Achilles heel.

So seeing that I already had more than enough of these on Whering stopped me from buying more of the same – on more than one occasion.

Taking or finding pictures of all my clothes was quite a big time commitment up front, although that depends on the size of your wardrobe.

I did a bunch of items at once, which probably took an hour or two, and added to it over a few days when I had the time.

One unexpected bonus of this cataloguing was that I wasn’t spending time on my phone being tempted to shop.

And it was actually quite satisfying getting organised – I had more than one “oh I love this” moment after uncovering long buried items a the back of drawers

I also discovered a pair of trousers (black, of course) that I’d been meaning to get altered and had never gotten around to.

I’ve now got them ready to re-hem, so have ended up getting an entirely new pair of my fave style of trousers without spending a penny.

I also rediscovered two white shirts with stains on that I’d been meaning to give a good scrub, but never did.

And there were at least two items that still had tags on – a blazer (another fave style) and a slip dress – not to mention several other items I wasn’t wearing regularly that I forgot I had.

I’ve now worn nearly all of these newly rediscovered items at least once – and it’s like having brand new clothes, with zero price tag.

I also now use the Whering app several times a week when I’m deciding what to wear the next day.

Using the shuffle button gives me new ideas, rather than just pulling out the first thing I see.

Another feature Whering has is planning outfits. You can put together a look and assign it to a certain date.

I didn’t use this myself, but it could help avoid those last minute “I’ve got nothing to wear” panic purchases, especially for special occasions.

Plus, you can build up a picture of what you wear most often, either to avoid repeating certain looks or so you can mix it up a bit more.

One feature you should avoid if you’re trying to stop shopping though is the Whering marketplace.

While it offers “pre-loved” items for sale and rental, which can be cheaper than new, it could tempt you to spend when you weren’t planning to.

The verdict

At the end of a month of using Whering, I hadn’t bought a single thing, so you might say it was a success.

According to Snoop, an app which monitors your spending, I usually spend around £100 on shopping a month (bang on the UK average) and that’s mainly clothes.

So, over a year I could save £1,200 if I aim for zero clothes spend. But let’s be honest, I don’t think I can go that long.

I have continued using Whering and am spending less than usual, so I’ll still be saving money.

The first thing I bought since getting the app was a pair of trousers, but in bright green – something I’m 100% sure I don’t already have in my wardrobe.

For anyone looking for ways to cut back on their spending, Whering could be a useful tool.

It could be worth a go if you struggle with impulse shopping online or if you find you’re now spending beyond your means because of the cost of living crisis and need to change your money habits.

Being more mindful of the way my phone tempts me to spend also prompted be to make some more changes.

I turned off notifications for shopping apps, and put them all in a folder called “spending” – which makes me think before I go to open them. But you could just delete these altogether.

I’ve also added screen time settings, which mean I can’t look at these apps or social media at certain times when I’m most tempted to spend (early evening vegging out in front of the telly).

Austin-Williams also recommends keeping a list of items that you want, rather than hitting the buy button straight away to give you time to consider the purchase.

Plus, deleting your saved payment details is one of the easiest things you can do to slow down the process of buying new things on a whim.

“Even the short time away from your device that it takes to find your bank card can give you the chance to reassess your purchasing decision and avoid an emotional or instinctive purchase that you don’t really want,” she says.

Whering doesn’t cost a thing and it was also fun to use, as well as helping me save money. Let’s be honest, who doesn’t want to check out Cher’s Clueless computer in real life?

This post first appeared on thesun.co.uk