It’s crazy how expensive life has become! With inflation, import prices rising, and the cost of living becoming a stressor, shopping for clothing can often end up last on the list. But clothing is not a luxury, it’s a necessity! Yes, there are some items that aren’t strictly 100% necessary for survival (like those adorable sparkly mittens or that belt that perfectly completes your outfit), but hey, what’s life without a bit of splashing out? Splashing out can be expensive and bad, but what if splashing out didn’t HAVE to be expensive this year? You can buy your necessities like Dune London boots to keep the cold away and splash out on extras like a new pair of leather pants without breaking the bank, it’s true!
Shopping for clothing on a budget is doable; we know this because we’ve done it. Check out our budget shopping tips and put them to use, and you’ll see that it’s not as difficult as you think.
Sales
We’ll lead with the tip of all tips: shop the sales. There are so many kinds to choose from that really if you’re careful, you’ll never have to pay full price for clothing again! The trick with shopping sales is to be steadfast in sticking to your personal style and not to chase trend items if they aren’t completely in line with what you like to wear in general. If you buy for trends instead of according to your style, you’ll struggle to shop sales because you’ll always be months behind the trends. If you know that you like a classic cut and neutral colors, for example, you can buy a black one-piece swimsuit at 50% off in an end-of-season sale and be confident that you’ll still love it when next summer rolls around and you get to wear it.
You’ll need a little tenacity and a lot of self-control to shop the sales, so be prepared. End-of-season sales are nothing compared to events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. You’ll need the tenacity to wait in long lines, either online or in real life, and self-control to avoid buying things that aren’t practical, or that you don’t really need, just because they’re cheap. You can get a large selection of high-quality items to contribute to a wearable wardrobe if you plan ahead. Sign up for mailing lists that might offer early access to sales so that you get the first pick of the best items. Know which items you’re after but also have backups in mind in case someone else gets to your favorite items first. Something that’s extremely important here is to create and stick to your budget shopping tips so that you don’t spend beyond your means, even at sales prices.
Outlet stores
Shopping at outlet stores gets a bad rap as the less glamorous option, but ask yourself: are you shopping so that other people can see you shopping at the hottest boutiques, or are you shopping to get yourself some garments that you really want or need at the best possible price? If you chose option A, we probably can’t help you. If you chose option B, then outlet shopping is your new best friend. Here again, you need to want items because you like them, not just because they’re on trend because collections take some time to move from flagship/ brand/ boutique stores to outlet stores, whether online or in person. You have to be patient! You can get incredible deals with these budget shopping tips if you just wait a while to get the items you really want.
Coupons
Lucky for us thrifty shoppers there are entire websites and apps dedicated to offering shoppers coupons and coupon codes to get their most coveted items for a lower price. Sometimes you might be lucky if you do a Google search for free coupon codes, but more often than not you’ll need to subscribe to a paid service or sign up for an app that will offer you a range of websites and stores. These fees aren’t usually very high, and what you get in return can save you a lot of money and get you a lot of high-end garments that you might not otherwise have had access to. Some of these might be seasonal, some might just be surprise coupons that the sites offer to their customers in collaboration with brands they work with.
Wrap up
Shopping on a budget is completely do-able if you’re willing to put in a little work ahead of time and do some extra planning that wouldn’t normally be required for an everyday shopping trip. Follow our budget shopping tips and use these tips to save yourself money and keep stress to a minimum when shopping for clothes.
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