The Art of Looking Good for Cheap

It's been said about my "style" in the past, "To people who care, you look like you don't, to people who don't care, you look like you do." This was a friend of mine's very polite way of saying that I have just enough fashion sense to stay above water in a fashion conscious/image conscious world. So, today I won't tell you what to wear, since I probably have no business giving anyone this kind of advice, but I will tell you how you can re-think your wardrobe a bit to save cash. I may not be the best dressed guy around, but I know a thing or two about being cheap. Let's say a thing or a million actually.

 

Take time to shop at thrift stores. Here's the deal, so many stores in the mall are selling you clothes that look faded and worn already. This trend has been around a bit and doesn't seem to going anywhere soon, so why not just buy clothes that are actually already worn a bit? Thrift stores have anything you can think of in this category, it just takes a while longer to find what you want and find it in your size. Plus, these places are awesome for finding dress clothes. I have hardly ever bought a coat, dress shirt or pair of slacks outside of one of these stores. Once again, just shop around to the different thrift stores near you and find your sizes. You can go brag about how you got a whole suit for 11 dollars. I do this a lot. Ladies, when another girl asks you, "Is that retro?" you can actually say, "Yep" instead of, "No, it's from Anthropologie." My fiancee loves that store, but let's face it, it's ridiculously expensive.

 

Check larger retails for similar styles that you like. I bought a shirt at Wal-Mart the other day (no, it did not have PopEye, Stewie from Family Guy, or The Cookie Monster on it) and wore it to church and a social function the next week. I got 6 compliments at church, and 5 at the event on this shirt. It was an Ocean Pacific button-up that caught my eye on the way out of the store. It cost a grand total of $5.00. $5.00/11 compliments = approx. 45 cents a compliment. Not too bad, right? What's your current fashion compliment/cost ratio? Remember to keep your eyes peeled for this kind of stuff when you're buying groceries, etc. No one will chastise you for buying clothes at bulky retail prices unless they're just jealous. We all know that haters are gon' hate.

 

Buy clothes out of season and on clearance. I probably am not telling you anything you didn't know already for this one, but the best time to buy clothes is at the end of the season when they're on clearance. Simply put, wait 'til it starts getting hotter or colder outdoors and buy what you need for next year. Guys may have an easier time with this since our fashion trends don't seem to change much per year, but I would like to encourage the ladies to do this and not be so worried what next year's big Summer colors might be. Let's let the celebrities wear themselves out with that nonsense, and us Young & Free will just look good in what we bought last year. What a way to fight the system!

 

Lee