First you will need to have an idea of the types of clothing that are appropriate for Missionaries and get a preview of the type/quantity of clothing items that you will be expected to bring. You will receive this information in your mission call letter, but if you want to start planning and purchasing, you need to know the basics now. (PS- a list of mission-specific items that you will need will come soon after your mission call in an email or letter from your specific mission President).
APPROPRIATE CLOTHES:
For information on what types of clothing are appropriate for missionaries (including photos of suggestions), see the missionary section of lds.org (click on the photo below to link to the page!). There are sections for each type of clothing, but don't miss the "General Guidelines" section which gives more general information about modesty, professionalism, etc) and the "Frequently Asked Questions" section which covers standards about fabric type, nylons, nail polish, skirt/dress length, etc.
GENERIC PACKING LIST:
You can find a lot of sister missionary packing lists on Pinterest (just search for LDS Missionary packing list), but they vary because most include items that the person has decided to add themselves. You can find MANY lists with every single thing they are taking, right down to which color of post-it notes they are packing. To plan your pre-call clothing purchases, you'll need a more basic list.
Here is a pretty standard/basic list (I'm listing basic clothing only for this post, nothing weather-specific like coats or boots):
6 - 8 Outfits
6-7 Blouses
6-7 Skirts
1-2 Blazers
1-2 Sweaters
2-3 Dresses
Underclothing
8-10 Garments
White Bras
White Sports bra(s)
White Slip
7-8 Layering shirts (for more coverage under lower-cut or sort-of-see-through shirts/dresses)
Shoes
2-3 pairs of comfortable walking shoes with good support
1-2 pairs of dressier shoes for Sunday/meetings
P-day Shoes
Exercise Shoes
Exercise Clothing
1-2 Shirts
Pants (no spandex or yoga pants)
Knee-Length Shorts
Socks
Athletic jacket
P-day/Service
Jeans
Sweatpants
Sweatshirt
1-2 T-shirts
Pajamas
Slippers
Pajamas
Misc
Shower Sandals
Belts
Jewelry (conservative)
Inexpensive Watch
MAKING A PLAN:
Our "purchase plan" (for our soon to be missionary) has been to determine which items can be reasonably purchased ahead of time (meaning before her mission call arrives), figure out exactly what items she would like to have (1 navy skirt, 1 black skirt, etc), estimate the cost of each item (i.e., create a budget), and plan exactly when we want to purchase each item (or items) within the time frame that we have left.
For example, if we want to buy 8 skirts, 8 shirts, and 2 dresses before her call mission arrives, we could estimate the price of each of these items...
Just for our example, let's say we're estimating that we will spend $20 per skirt, $20 per shirt, and $50 per dress... (8 x $20) + (8 x $20) + (2 x $50) = $420 for 18 items
Of course, you will be able to find some items for less than you have estimated (hooray!), and some items will be higher than your estimate. Just be careful that it evens out (i.e., if you buy one skirt that is $15, then buy another skirt that is $25, you have broken even)...
Next, plan out when you will actually make your purchases - Since we don't know exactly when my daughter will get her mission call (and of course we also don't know when exactly she will actually leave), we need to estimate.
If her availability date was October 1st, I would plan to have ALL of her mission shopping done by October 1st (since it would be likely that she would receive her mission call before that and we would have time to purchase everything, including mission-specific items like coats or boots). Since we won't know where she will serve when we start purchasing clothes, we would plan to purchase only missionary clothing basics between now and June (then make the purchase of any mission-specific items between June and October). It happens to be February when I am writing this, so if I were expecting her to receive her mission call in June, we ould have 4 months between now and then to purchase the "no matter where you serve basics"...
If I were to plan on purchasing just the 18 items mentioned in my example above (8 skirts, 8 shirts, 2 dresses), I could divide that by 4 months or 16 weeks, or however I wanted to break it up. I prefer to plan purchases by payday, so that works out to be 2x a month for us. So if I will have 8 pay periods during the next 4 months, I would know that I could budget @$53 per pay period/payday to make our planned pre-call purchases:
$420 total pre-call budget / 8 paydays = $53 average per payday budget to make pre-call purchases
Alternatively, you could do the same sort of thing in a variety of other ways. You could plan to purchase a certain number of items per month, one item per week, 5 items per pay period, etc in the remaining time that you have left. It all depends on what you feel comfortable with and how much time you have.
I'm only using the skirts/shirts/dresses as examples for this post, but please remember that there are many more clothing items that you will need (slips, shoes, exercise clothes, pajamas, sweaters, blazers, coats/jackets, socks/nylons, belts, jewelry/scarves, garments, bras, service/p-day clothes, etc) and also other non-clothing items (alarm clock, towels, cosmetics, hair products, bags/purses, camera, etc) that you will want to plan ahead for. Many of these things could be pre-call purchases. I know it seems like a lot of things... Don't panic - you are planning ahead and can make your carefully planned purchases over time! And you might already own a lot of these things - you don't have to buy a new exercise clothes or get brand new pajamas if you already have some that are appropriate. You don't have to get everything new. Use what you already have or can borrow. And checking out garage sales or thrift stores doesn't hurt either. You might find a great alarm clock or a perfect skirt for a fraction of the price of new. Everything you buy brand new will become used as soon as you get to the MTC, so don't get hung up on having brand new everything. This can save you a lot of $!
In summary, make a plan and start making some well-planned purchases as you prepare for your mission! For tips on what kinds of things to buy before you know where you are going, see my post "Why you should buy your mission clothes before your call arrives", which goes into specifics on what types of clothing you can buy for any mission.
Stay tuned for more posts and tips about things that you can buy before you receive your call!
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