How to Be Fashionable on a Budget

February 18th, 2010 • Uncategorized

1.  Make two trips.  Let’s be honest – how many of your outfits are real winners and how many are blah? Probably a lot more of the blah.  Much of our purchasing, clothing no exception, is driven by impulse. You try on a sweater, it looks pretty good, sold! Fast-forward a year and you’ve worn that sweater maybe three times? A good way to stop impulse buying in its tracks is to make two trips. On the first trip, leave your wallet at home! Take your time to try on everything you like but resist the urge to buy (which is why you should leave the plastic behind) and then go home.  Come back the following day, or following week is better, then try on the clothes again. You’ll likely find that you will only be interested in trying on about a third of what you tried on the last time.  You’ll probably also find that you only really like about half of that.  What you waste on time and gas will undoubtedly be made for by not buying clothes that will never see the light of day.

2.  Stock up on the basics. Some things never go out of style:  A nice crisp clean white button-up, the little black dress, a basic belted trench, a pair of good-fitting jeans, the basic white tee, etc. They are such mainstays of fashion that they’re always widely available and usually won’t break the pocket book to collect. You can mix and match to create many different looks that will keep you from feeling dull.

3.  Compare online.  Chances are whatever you’re looking for is online. Sites like ebay or shopzilla are always good places to look for deals. You can simply try on the item you like to find the perfect size then find it on one of the shopping sites. Some obvious drawbacks are: having to pay for shipping, waiting for the item to arrive, and the hassle of having to mail something back that isn’t to your liking instead of the convenience of in-store returns.

4. Use your cell phone. If you have a smartphone with a camera you can download any one of many applications, such as Shop Savvy, which turn your phone’s camera into a virtual barcode scanner. You simply find the item you like, scan the barcode, then voila! You can instantly compare, in-store, prices against that store’s competitors.

5. Shop the outlets. Outlets are a great place to find a deal – as you can imagine. The thing to know about outlet stores, though, is that many actually produce a separate lower line of clothing specifically meant for the outlets. So while you may think you’re buying a great brand at a great price you are actually buying something cheaper.  Just be sure to take a look at the garment closely before you purchase to make sure there are no defects or that the quality is to your liking. To be sure, you can return these items, but there is a reason why most outlet malls are located an average of a billion miles from where you live…

Trackback URI.