Where to Buy Inexpensive Clothes

First off you need to establish your own style, if you just follow the trends you’re going to end up buying a lot of stuff you never wear, or wear once and then keep it in the closet, and it’s also important to get clothes that are comfortable, you can be stylish and trendy while comfortable, and lastly clothes that make you confident, that hide the parts of you that you don’t like, confidence is the number one accessory that will make any outfit look good on you. Now with the basic laid lets talk about how to get this rocking wardrobe.

Thrift stores- some thrift stores are down right gross but don’t let that stop you from shopping around, you’d be surprised with the quality of some thrift stores, and shop around for pricing, my fav thrift store here in bend is the humane society thrift store, it helps fund an animal shelter that I LOVE and every other weekend they have a half off everything sale- so their already low prices are even better, the humane society store is great because they have flat pricing, meaning all shirts are right around the same price weather it’s a no name or an American Eagle, where some thrift stores are brand conscious, they’ll price according to the brand.

Yard sales- this is a seasonal thing where I live but I absolutely LOVE yard sales, I’ve found more treasures that I could tell you about, for such great prices, in fact the purse I’ve used for most of the last year I got at a yard sale for 1$. Most yard sales have a blanket on the lawn or a table piled high with clothes they want to get rid of, you might find a pair of tennis shoes or a purse, a pair of great jeans or a whole bunch of clothes, and the best part is that you never know what you might find.

EBay or CL- the online market has gotten quite sophisticated these days, you can find anything! EBay even has hundreds of stores, and a lot of them are strictly clothing, you can find stuff that no-one else has and for pretty good prices. When shopping online you run the risk of the item you buy not fitting so I’d recommend making sure that you know their return policy or order something simple first to see where you fit in their sizing.

Clearance- yup I’m talking a real live clothing store here, and most of them have a rockin clearance section, you might be shopping last seasons clothes or the left over’s from a few seasons back but you just have to think ahead to the next season. Some of my favorite in-store clearances’ are sears and old navy. Then you have whole stores dedicated to bringing you big brands at smaller prices like TJ Max or Ross or Burlington Coat Factory- and again you’ll have to search through a lot of stuff but you might be pleasantly surprised with what you find.

Personalize- I’ve got an old beat up wooden briefcase style book full of iron on’s and fabric pens, buttons, Velcro and a ton of needle and threads- I call it my t-shirt design box and I use it quite a bit, to fix tears and such but also to jazz up a plane t-shirt or put a funky patch to cover a whole- this makes my clothes one of a kind and makes me proud to wear them, when someone says, cool shirt, where’d you get it and I say “oh actually I designed it myself” it’s a really cool thing to see peoples responses- and it’s a great fun thing to do on a rainy day or a late night, specially if you get your kids involved or your friends, just have a designing party!

Freecycle- freecycle is a yahoo based online group that gives people a place to give and receive things free, and just about every day I see a post for someone giving away clothes- you can’t pick and choose, you’ll have to take the whole bag or box or whatever but you might find a treasure among the other stuff and what you don’t like you can give away yourself or save for a clothing swap—

Clothing Swap- plan a day and send out invites, have everyone bring the clothes that they don’t wear anymore and you have each person one-by-one hold up each item and if there’s interest pass it along to someone else or into a pile in the middle (which will be ransacked inevitably) no cost to do a clothing swap but you might want to have people bring a snack and the host should take care of the left over clothes so your guests don’t have to take it all back home with them, donate it to your favorite thrift store or even put it on freecycle (see my article on clothing swaps for a more complete description)

And with the above venues you’re bound to get more for your buck and you’re helping to keep the world green- reusing and recycling clothes! And I wish you all luck as you hunt for that prize wardrobe, just make sure you’ve got room in your closet!