19 Tips for Saving Money on Clothes
Source: http://voices.yahoo.com/19-tips-saving-money-clothes-181850.html
Clothes are often one of our biggest expenses, particularly if you have children, or a job that requires you to wear business attire. So, how can you save money on your clothing bill?
Here are 19 tips for saving money on your clothing bill:
1. Have a list of everyone’s clothing sizes, and their preferences for colors and styles which you can carry with you when clothing shopping. This way you don’t buy something that a family member won’t wear.
2. Have a monthly or yearly clothing budget. This can be difficult at times, but if you have a set amount of money set aside for clothing, and make it clear that the family cannot spend over this, you will save money.
3. Shop at thrift stores. Thrift stores don’t have the stigma they used to, in fact most people shop at thrift stores at one time or another. There are even chains of thrift stores now such as, Value Village, and Goodwill. Also, some thrift stores have new clothing items. These may have minor defects, but even if they do, the defects are rarely even noticeable! Another benefit of thrift stores is that there is much more variety; no racks of the same clothing over and over, just in different sizes.
4. Shop at garage and estate sales. You can often find some of the best deals on clothing at garage and estate sales, quite a bit of it high quality, and since the people often just want to get rid of stuff as well as making a profit, the clothing items tend to be cheap.
5. Purchase clothing out of season. Buy sweaters, coats and other winter clothing in the Spring and Summer, and buy summer clothing such as sandals, and shorts in Winter and Fall. You will be most likely to get the best price out of season because no one else is buying at that time.
6. Remember that you may not find what you are looking for immediately when shopping second-hand. Don’t purchase clothing just because it is on sale or cheap. Only buy a clothing item if it is in a color, size and style that you know you or a family member will actually wear, otherwise this is money wasted, not saved.
7. Shop at the clearance racks. Most stores have clearance racks of some kind, often with high quality clothing marked way down. Be careful though, particularly if you are shopping for children and teens. Steer both you and your kids away from fads, and don’t buy fad clothing that is fading fast from the clearance racks. Also, check the clothing items closely for stains, rips, missing buttons or any other possible problems. If the problem is easily fixed and you know you and/or your family member will do it, then go ahead and buy the item, otherwise don’t, because it will just sit in a closet and never be worn.
8. Shop for kids and teens in August. Many stores have back-to-school sales that include clothing at this time of year, you can often find very good deals on new, high quality clothing.
9. Sell your and your family’s good used clothing to a consignment shop. This way you make money on your used clothing, and you are also recycling.
10. Purchase iron on patches for the knees in pants. This works especially well for kids who are hard on their clothing. Iron them on the inside and that way it will be harder to wear a hole there and will save you money on replacing pants for the kids.
11. Purchase one of those fuzzy ball removers for your family’s sweaters. It will help your sweaters to last longer if you remove these little balls periodically.
12. Buy underwear and socks for your entire family in August before school starts, you can get some really great bargains at this time of year.
13. Accessorize. This can be one of the best money saving tips there is because you can change the whole look of an outfit or piece of clothing just by adding different jewelry, scarves, or even ties.
14. Purchase clothing in colors and styles that can mixed and matched with other items in your closets. This will give you more variety and save you money.
15. Shop for clothing at discount stores such as Kmart, Ross, and Marshalls. These stores often have good quality lower priced clothing, and some even have clearance racks so you can sometimes get double the savings.
16. Stop purchasing clothing you don’t need. This applies if when inventorying your or one of your family member’s closets you find clothing items that you or they only wore once or twice or never wore at all, and now you are asking yourself, “Why did I buy this?”
17. Get together with your friends, (and encourage your girls to do this as well) and trade clothes each of you don’t want. Sometimes one person’s cast off is another person’s treasure.
18. Shop online for your clothing. The only real draw back with this, particularly if you are shopping on e-bay where the clothing may be used is you cannot try it on, nor check the item out visually to be sure it doesn’t have defects you cannot see in the picture. Just like in regular stores, online stores have sales too, and when they have a good return policy as well, you can save considerable money.
19. Take care of your clothing and teach your family members how to take care of their clothing. Treating stains right away, and sewing on popped off buttons and small tears immediately will help clothes to last longer.
We all need good quality clothing, however, there is no reason that you or your family members should have to pay a ton of money buying clothing. I know if you utilize these tips you will begin to see savings on your clothing bill right away!
