As part of our de-cluttering process we had a good old sort through Miss Frugal’s wardrobe at the weekend. We were pretty ruthless and got rid of anything that hadn’t been worn in a while, anything that she no longer liked and anything that was past it’s best.
After we’d sorted through every single piece of clothing that she owns, we ended up with two full black sacks to take to the charity shop which seems like a lot but we haven’t been through her wardrobe since the start of Winter. Even then, we were much less ruthless that time as we kept lots of things that we probably shouldn’t have done back then just in case she ever wanted to wear them again.
Now there’s nothing in her wardrobe that she wouldn’t wear for whatever reason so in theory I could literally walk into her room and choose an outfit for her and know she would like it – although knowing her, she’d probably not wear it on principle because I picked it out. 😉
The problem is that by the time we weeded out all the clothes she’s grown out of or doesn’t like for whatever reason (the reasons she had made me laugh – too long / too short / too tight / too baggy / awful colour / too babyish / too grown up) she doesn’t have all that many clothes left. Which means, added to the fact we go on holiday in three weeks, that we need to get her a few new essentials.
Clothes aren’t necessarily cheap though, are they? We popped into TopShop the other day for a pair of skinny jeans as one of her friends had been wearing a pair she liked and they were almost £40 which is ridiculous if you ask me. Needless to say we didn’t buy them but the fact remains that she needs some new clothes so we’re trying to get everything we need without spending a fortune.
I thought I’d share a few of the places we use to buy bargain clothes now today although if I’m honest, the photos from the first few from at least a year ago as Miss Frugal isn’t keen on wearing second hand clothes any more. They’re still great places to look though and until she started secondary school these were her favourite places to look for clothes as she liked more individual clothes back then and these were the places to find what she wanted.
Charity Shops
Charity shops are a great way to buy cheap clothes and every now and again we have a good wander around the charity shops in our town. As I said, Miss Frugal isn’t as keen on second hand clothes but you’d be surprised how many things are around that still have the tags on – we donated a fair few ourselves this weekend. Here’s a few of our charity shop bargains….
Car Boot Sales
We’ve had some great bargains from the car boot sale before and it’s one of my favourite places to buy clothes for the kids (although it doesn’t always go well ;-)). This is our favourite car boot sale bargain, it cost us about £2 if I remember rightly and was brand new with the tags still on them which meant it passed the Miss Frugal test. More often than not there are clothes at our local boot sale that I’m pretty sure she would love if she actually looked at them.
eBay
eBay is great for second hand bargains and for new clothes and you can still get some brilliant bargains on there if you look hard enough – just be careful of the postage costs as they can be ridiculous. I do sometimes check for people selling bundles of clothes in our area as the postage costs of bundles puts a lot of bidders off so if I can collect then there’s the chance of a bargain! Lots of Miss Frugal’s favourite clothes brands are on there so it’s a good way to get new clothes for a little less.
Facebook selling groups
We’ve had some great bargains from our local selling pages – last year we got a huge bag of clothes including two dresses, two hoodies, jeans, leggings, t-shirts and more for £10 before so they’re always worth checking.
Customise what you’ve already got
If you’re particularly crafty then you could have a go at customising what you already have. There’s some great ideas on Pinterest if you just type in ‘Customise clothes’.
Shops like Tesco, Asda, New Look and H&M
These are our four favourite shops for essentials like shorts, t-shirts and things like leggings as they’re well made, long lasting and fashionable. Most importantly, they’re usually quite cheap!
Primark
Miss Frugal loves Primark – it’s unbeatable for fashionable and affordable clothes and she could spend hours in there! Their sales are ridiculously cheap too so it’s well worth looking out for them!
Outlets
We have a couple of retail outlets near where we live but my favourite one is the York Designer Outlet. They have some great designer shops where I can get reasonably priced clothes for Miss Frugal. Don’t get me wrong, they’re still not cheap but I’d much rather pay £20 for a Ralph Lauren Polo shirt than £50+ and whilst I don’t indulge her in many designer brands, I have bought her a few key things knowing that she can mix and match them with her other (much cheaper clothes).
(I had a big long paragraph here about the pros and cons of designer clothes but I’ve deleted it as I’m going to write a separate post all about my thoughts.)
Have a clothes swap party
Not something we’ve ever done but I’ve had friends who’ve done this and they’ve been really pleased with what they came away with so it might be worth setting one up between you and your friends.
What are your secrets for clothes bargain clothes shopping?
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Image credit: Shutterstock, iprachenko
