Over the summer I had money from my paycheck so I decided to go shopping a bit. Turns out that I bought 14 shirts and 2 pairs of shoes for less than $90! Now that I finally found some time to work on my page (weird that I have time during school and not during the summer), I am going to be an angel and give you guys some tips on how to get some great deals. Therefore, I entitle this piece:
how to get the cheapest fab wardrobe
Seriously, I’m considered one of the best dressers in my class if you’re wary of whether you should take my advice or not.
1. stick with the basics
The deal with this is that you don’t want to buy what’s hot at the moment and spend a great deal on that only to throw it away after six months. There are two hard parts about this one.
- Knowing which items will last and which ones won’t (examples are peasant shirts and peddle pushers)
- Resisting the urge to fit in with everyone else and wear those fads
These fads tend to be expensive when it’s “in” and then are crazy cheap when it’s “out.” Besides, you don’t want to fit in and wear all those fads because you tend to just blend in. You want to stick out and be you, not what the media wants you to be. So buy what looks good on you and what you like. Who cares about brand names? It’s more important to look good on you.
2. clip coupons
After choosing your free day to go all out shopping and after saving up about one or two hundred dollars (depends on how much of a shopping spree you want/how many great deals you plan on finding), open up the newspaper and check out flyers to find coupons that can be used on that day. Only cut the coupons to the places that you plan on browsing through and only cut the coupons that pertain to items you plan on buying. There’s no point in cutting a coupon for men’s Carrhart clothes if you are not going to buy any workwear items, obviously.
Go online to the sites of some stores that you plan on hitting and look to see if they have any coupons. If you want, you can sign up to those sites because some send you coupons via email.
Some stores, like New York & Company (called Lerner New York in some places) and Express send you gift certificates. The good ones are the ones where you don’t need a minimum purchase. It’s great because I got 2 $15 gift certificates from Express so I bought two tanks for 50 cents each. I also had a $20 gift certificate to NY & Co. way back when and I bought the warmest sweater for 37 cents.
Also hit up on those sites that have coupons or free things like teenfreeway.com and check out for coupons to your stores.
3. set a limit
To be successful at this shopping spree of yours, you need to be strong. Set a limit for yourself and DO NOT indulge! My limit happens to be $8 for shirts and $11 for pants. Sounds impossible, right? It’s not. After coupons and sales, if the shirt is more than $8 then I say no. And believe me, shirts and pants that cheap exist, AND they’re still incredibly stylish.
4. get dirty
If you’re still here with me, try to manage through this one. You’re going to have to not be afraid to do some rummaging. So roll up your sleeves and ignore the regular priced items. Scan the signs on top of the racks, looking for signs that say prices within your limit or signs that say a good percentage off. This’ll save you some time. These racks don’t tend to be good in arranging everything by size, so search through all the racks. If you can’t calculate the prices in your head, bring a calculator unless your cell phone already has one. Also, you need to try on ALL the items. It wastes gas money and time to try it on and go back to return it.
5. stores to check out
- department stores – Macy’s and Filene’s are two of my favorites – not only do they tend of have great sale or clearance prices, but there’s a greater chance you won’t be found in school wearing the same outfit as someone else because there’s such a variety at the clearance racks in department stores
- off-price stores – PayHalf, Ross, Marshall’s, and TJ Maxx – their prices are cheap, but the clearance racks are even cheaper
- others – if you live in the northeastern region, Bob’s Stores is absolutely wonderful and Rainbow has some great prices too – check out the not-amazingly-popular stores because they tend to have low prices too
Avoid stores that sell only their brand name (there are some exceptions, of course) because you’ll be wearing the same thing as everyone else and also their prices are pretty high up there. These include American Eagle and Abercrombie & Fitch. Buy at Old Navy and Gap sparingly. I had to cut up my sweater at Old Navy because I saw four other people wearing the same thing; it was awful. Sometimes Delia’s is good, but so many girls shop there that I’m always afraid of wearing the same thing.
If you follow these tips, you will rack up the clothes in your closet so quickly and getting more of your money’s worth because you will have bought clothes at great prices and you will be able to keep them because they won’t go out of fashion. The clothes I end up throwing away mostly are because they become too small for me or are faded. I think it’s more fun if you get more clothes than if you get fewer clothes for brand names.