‘Tis The Season For Charitable Tax Deductions 2022

My husband and I donate 10% of our household net income each year; I’ve been doing so since 2016 as a sort of “secular tithe” and once we got married we both carried along along the tradition. Here are links to my 2017, 2018, and 2019 posts. We continued our donations in 2020 and 2021, but I was lazy and didn’t create posts those years (whoops).

Here are the areas we donated to in 2022

We don’t plan at the beginning of the year how much we’ll donate to each area, but we think this is more or less a decent reflection of our values.

Here are the organizations represented in each bucket:

• Environment. This is split between National Resource Defense Council, Terra Praxis, Clean Air Task Force and Green Wave. I would love to incorporate more direct action and climate change mitigation and resiliency charities in the mix, but not really sure where to start there.
• Social Justice. Local (state) bail fund and two local charities focusing on justice for incarcerated LGTBQ+ folks, women, and families.
• Food Security. This is for the small, local food rescue organization that donates fruits and vegetables to seniors, people with disabilities, and other food programs in our area. This is money I feel “proudest” to donate to each year (see: my deep emotional connection with food).
• International Development. GiveWell, GiveDirectly, Amnesty International. I’d like to give more to this area because of the higher impact-per-dollar, but not really well-versed in what charities are “good” and somewhat wary that the typical EA charities may be over-saturated.
• Immigration. Lots of money to IRC and RAICES. I hate the politics of immigration in this country and I am deeply ashamed for how impotent I feel on this issue. Money doesn’t feel like enough.
• Abortion. Threw a bunch of money at local abortion funds after the Dobbs decision. Tried to divvy up state-by-state to make sure we were covering the areas that had the most need.
• Housing. Sent money to our local mutual aid group to cover someone’s rent while they were in a limbo state trying to get assistance due to sudden onset of disability.
• Technology. This is all for the Electronics Frontier Foundation, because digital privacy is important!

What we didn’t donate to this year:

• Political organizations. This is probably “bad,” but I honestly have gotten fatigued by ActBlue’s emails. I’m happy to donate to races that are close or need funding to push a candidate over the edge, but I was getting so many solicitations from really high-name-recognition candidates (we’re talking Beto, Nancy Pelosi, etc.). It soured my feelings toward political donations quite a bit. We may donate to candidates for our local races next year, but I think we’re suspending how much we give to this category for national races right now.

Here’s how our donations have changed over time

I’ve been playing with the idea of boosting our donation rate to 15%, which I think we’ll start doing in 2024. Well, technically, we did donate 15% of our net income in 2021 and probably closer to 12.5% in 2020 (basically just throwing our stimulus checks into charity). But then we scaled it back to 10% this year because of inflation and layoff fears. Similarly, why not 2023? Well, next year is the year of the newborn and I think there’s a good chance I’ll be unemployed for part of it, so I’m being a little more cautious about our savings at the moment.

In terms of mechanics, we usually route our donations through our Schwab donor advised fund, which allows us to roll over capital gains as well as keep our donations anonymous. We may contribute more or less to our DAF depending on our tax strategy for the year, but we generally make sure distributions are 10%+ of household income. The one exception was 2017/2018 when I front-loaded our charitable contributions into 2017 to account for the Republican tax changes that were happening at the time.

What is your charitable giving philosophy? How much did you donate in 2022 and to what organizations? 

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All The Clothes I Bought In 2021

TW: body image, weight

The past two years have been rough on my body. I gained a decent amount of weight, then lost most of it. I lost a lot of muscle in my pandemic haze, then gained it back when I started daily exercise again. There are still some pockets of belly fat I don’t remember from before, and leftover stretch marks that are, incidentally, around the same places my clothes started developing rips and holes.

Because of the changes, for a long while I didn’t feel great about my body. When at my heaviest, I could feel how the extra weight was affecting my range of mobility and causing me to carry myself— walking, standing, sitting— differently. While I’d been proud of my figure before, particularly when I was at my athletic peak a year or so before the pandemic, in the past year it didn’t seem like something worth showing off. Not really something I’ve wanted to adorn.

I was nervous for a while to even think about clothes. I didn’t like that nothing I had seemed to fit anymore. I couldn’t handle sizing up when I bought new clothes. I tried avoiding my feelings by grabbing my husband’s outcast tees and defaulting to elastic waist bands more and more.

But I was doing a disservice to myself and, in doing so, inflicting more harm to my mental well-being. So I cleaned out my closet: what didn’t fit anymore? what probably would never fit again? I figured out my new sizing: I got jeans that actually fit my new body. I stopped buying things in my old size in the hopes it would fit, only to be disappointed when it arrived that my body could barely squeeze in.

And as I have gotten back to a healthy diet and consistent exercise, and loosened how much I clinged to my pre-pandemic physique, I’ve settled into a place that feels okay. I still don’t feel as “desirable” as I once did but I do feel like I am in my body, not something temporary that I can turn away from. I think it’ll be a few years yet before I buy nice tailored clothes again— between ttc and pregnancy and all the rest of it who knows what I’ll look like and when things will be stable. But I am making steps to feel comfortable where I am now.

Everything I Bought

J Brand Jeans – $60 (2 pairs)

New size jeans for a new size body. I still love J Brand, comfy and sharp. Glad to now have some jeans that fit me again.

Various T shirts – $100 (5 shirts)

A combination of work from home and being a few years in tech and out of consulting means I am ready to lean into the casual wardrobe. I bought mostly neutral-ish colors (black, blue, grey, clay red, mustard) on Poshmark from an assortment of brands (Everlane, Carhartt, Levi’s). All have been great. The Carhartt tees in particular are really thick and feel indestructible.

Cable Knit Sweaters – $35 (2 sweaters)

I wanted some sweaters for cozy days. I mostly wear a jacket while out, so I didn’t need anything super warm, just something to cover my arms on chilly days while indoors. I threw a bunch of stuff in my cart, but only a couple stuck: one is a forest green acrylic sweater from American Eagle (same cut as the one above), another an aquamarine cotton cable knit from LL Bean.

Mizuno Horizon Running Shoes – $80

Replacement running shoes. Mostly been working out indoors, so only one pair this year.

Donation Bin – $145 (6 pieces)

Lots of stuff I ended up buying that didn’t fit, was too constraining (bye bye button downs and silk shirts), had wool (allergies), or for some other reason ended up in the donation bin. This included: two Madewell silk tees, a Lucky brand chambray button down, a Universal Standard romper, and two cable knit sweaters.

Total – $420

Summary

I struck out on a lot of stuff this year, which pushed the amount spent higher. Overall, this was a comfort and replacements year. Because of my various body stuff, it’ll probably be a long time before I make a significant reinvestment in my wardrobe.

I have a few things on my wish list. Though looking at how infrequently I’ve splurged on clothing in the past, I expect these to be fleeting unfulfilled wants. Still, here’s what’s caught my eye:

• Sezane’s circular crocodile cross-body bag. Not that my existing bags aren’t totally fine, but just that the extra level of sophistication might be nice.
• Bottega Veneta woven wallet. Maybe these will go the way of braided bracelets, but I kind of love the woven leather wallet look.
• Resizing my wedding ring. So I can wear it, because it no longer fits. 😦 Or getting a silver chain necklace to keep it on my person.
• Frills and florals. For whatever reason all my pinned wishlist items are either very frilly or floral (which, if you’ve seen any of my roundups from the past few years, is very much not my usual style). I think I feel like I have enough good-but-basic stuff and maybe want to add a little more in the way of playful touches.

What clothes did you buy in 2021? Anything on your wish list?

All The Clothes I Bought In 2020

Late round-up, but this felt like the right time to go over my 2020 fashion spending before I start going wild buying new clothes as quarantine comes to an end.

Everything I Bought

J Crew Shorts – $17

At some point, I realized that if I was going to be home all the time, I should have more home clothes. Cue the elastic waistband shorts.

Adidas Grand Court Sneakers $47

I wanted to replace my old walking shoes with something basic but fun. These shoes fit the bill with the pop of yellow adding a little bit of flare to the plain white sneaker look.

J Brand Jeans – $30

Bought some extra jeans as I was starting to tear holes into my old ones. Unfortunately, these ended up being tighter than I wanted (even before I put on weight during the pandemic).

Entireworld Sweatpants – $75

I have mixed feelings about these sweatpants. On the one hand, even by sweatpants standards, they are comfy af. However, while the marketing makes you believe these may be good athleisure wear, I’ve found the cut of these to be baggy in a “not even a model can make this look flattering” sort of way. The website is whimsical in a way that put a smile on my face, but others may find it too twee and grating for their tastes. All in all, given the price, kind of disappointing.

Theory Linen Cropped Pants – $136 (3 pairs)

As the pandemic went on, I realized on the few occasions I did go outside that my pants were feeling a bit snug relative to what I was used to. In addition, wearing sweats kind of spoiled me to wanting to feel comfortable 100% of the time. These pants with their elastic waistband have been a happy medium— professional enough that I can use them as my work pant when we start going back into the office, but still very light and comfy. Plus they have pockets! I ended up getting these in three colors: black, sharkfin grey, and cream.

Total – $305

Summary

For a year I didn’t leave the house, I spent a surprisingly “normal” amount of clothing. $300 seems to be my magic number.

During the pandemic, I’ve felt zero pressure to look nicer or meet any sort of expectations of what I should look like. But now, thinking about going back out into the world again, I feel an urge to just round out my thirty year old yuppie wardrobe and be done with it: add a long-sleeve bodysuit, a neutral tote, a few loose fitting silk shirts, and a statement necklace, and I should be good to go.

I feel like I’m at an inflection point where I truly don’t feel young anymore, and I don’t know what that means for my sense of style. I don’t really care whether or not people think I look good so I’m kind of free to do whatever, but at the same time, don’t terribly have enough interest to double down on my own “personal style” so I just default to appropriate basics for my age, body, etc. Perhaps the best way to summarize it is: I’m too tired to care? I think these feelings are going to percolate into areas other than fashion too, as I feel more stable in my “identity” and less anxious about my place in the world. I’m interested in seeing where this goes in 2021.

What clothes did you buy in 2020? Do you have a budget for this year? What pieces do you have your eye on?