- Assess clothing in terms of quality as well as price: An inexpensive shirt or coat is a poor bargain if it wears out in less than a year. Consider fabric, stitching, washability and other quality related factors in your selection of clothes.
- Assess clothing in terms of care: Avoid clothing that requires dry cleaning, special washing that your washer is not capable of doing or must be ironed to look nice.
- Simplify your wardrobe: Don’t buy clothes that will only work as one outfit. Look for clothes that you will be able to wear with many other things, creating multiple outfits. Instead of buying that green and purple striped coat that will only go with one or two outfits, you could get a solid color gray that will work most of what you wear. Spend less money on the trendy items that won’t be in style long, and spend more on quality items.
- Clean clothes inexpensively: Wash and iron clothes yourself. If you use a cleaner, compare prices at different establishments. A 50 cent difference in cleaning a shirt, for example, can add up to $100 a year.
- Hang Up & Air Out: Americans wash their clothing more frequently than any other nation. Washing breaks down fabrics and thread so the more we wash something, the less it lasts before needing to be replaced. If you hang up and air out that shirt, skirt or pants immediately after any light use, you will not need to wash it each and every time it is worn.
- Consider purchasing previously-used clothes from Good Will, second-hand stores, or school or church thrift sales. With a little effort, you can find low-priced, high-quality used clothing items that can be worn for many years.
- Mend and Repair: Don’t toss out a shirt because of a broken button – sew a new one on with some closely-matched thread. Don’t toss out pants because of a hole in them – put in a patch of some sort and save them for times when you’re working around the house. Simple sewing can be done by anyone – it just takes a few minutes and it saves a lot of money by keeping you from buying new clothes when you don’t really need to.
- Learn how to dress minimally: Buy clothes that mix and match well and you’ll not need nearly as many clothes. If you have five pants, seven shirts, and seven ties that all go together, you have almost an endless wardrobe right there just by mixing and matching.
- Look for sales at discount outlets: There are huge price differences between clothing on sale at discount stores and that sold regularly at many department and specialty stores, though keep in mind that prices at the latter are often deeply discounted.
- Go through your clothes – all of them: Go through everything that you have in your closets and dressers, and see what you might find. Get rid of anything you haven't worn in the past year and will not wear in the next year, along with anything that no longer fits and is not of sentimental value. You can have a yard sale with it, take it to a consignment shop, or even donate it for the tax deduction – all of which turn old stuff you don’t use any more into money in your pocket. This is often a huge psychological load off you mind. Take the clothes at the back of the closet and bring them to the front and suddenly your wardrobe will feel completely different. Take the clothes buried in your dresser and pull them to the top.
Next week we will cover ways to save with family and friends