Welcome to Receipt Reality, where real women get real about their shopping habits, and reveal the financial impact of life before and after RTR Unlimited. We asked Rent the Runway members to share how they spent their money on clothing and clothing-related services (goodbye, dry cleaning!) before subscribing to fashion.

Kim has always been a master of shopping within (and sometimes below) her budget, seeking out the coolest designer dupes from stores like H&M and Target. For the past few years, she satisfied her clothing cravings on a bi-weekly basis but spent only between $50-125, on average, each time. In the period of five months before she joined Rent the Runway, she spent just over a $1,000 — a number that was slightly higher than normal due to a few upcoming weddings.

A lot of the lower-priced pieces she sprung for, however, were poorly made or too trend-driven, lacking the closet longevity she had hoped for as she got older. “Some of the pieces I purchased, I would never wear, while with others, I would wear them maybe twice and eventually donate them,” she says.

“The thought of going into a store now is – honestly — overwhelming.”

Kim

When she started a cushy new job last August, she decided it was time to graduate from the usual jersey cotton pieces and upgrade her closet. RTR made that possible without breaking the bank. In her first five months of subscribing to Unlimited, she spent $887, only $212 of which was spent on items outside of her monthly subscription. When Kim does order pieces from outside of Rent the Runway, it’s usually a nice pair of shoes to match her upgraded outfit game, and so far, their cost-per-wear has paid off.  

But when it comes to clothes and purses, for example, “I basically don’t shop now, so I waste so much less time,” she says. “The thought of going into a store now is overwhelming.”