Save Money On Clothes & Accessories

There’s no denying my love for clothes & accessories but I also love not spending money mindlessly on fashion, despite it being one of my biggest passions.

Prior to launching FEEL BE LOOK, I offered an in-store and online shopping service. Needless to say, I’ve learnt a lot about shopping and how to shop successfully with a strict budget in tow. In this article, I’m going to share some of those money-saving tips with you because the only thing more enjoyable than clothes & accessories is knowing they’ve been purchased strategically and with purpose.

Shop Online

I spent the first years of my styling career shopping in centres and bricks & mortar stores and personally I've found that shopping online is much more efficient for so many reasons, especially in the long term.

It's actually impossible to source the same number of potential options in a shopping centre as you can online, so the chances of having to settle for an outfit that is "less than perfect", is much higher in a physical store and can often end in regret. It also heavily reduces the risk of impulse buying which as we all know, is 100% guaranteed when a sales assistant has KPIs to meet. To add to this, finding the best possible price and sticking to a budget is 10x easier online when you can filter your search to suit your budget.

Also, trying to locate exactly what you want (I’m talking specific clothing styles and colours) can be very difficult when shopping centres & stores are flooded with clothes & accessories that are more ‘trend focussed’.

Now I know what you’re thinking - what about returns?

Shopping online is much more efficient long-term (key word being long-term). It does take time to master the skill of online shopping but it can be done if you are willing to have some returns when you first start out. To shop online successfully, I find it works best to have a handful of brands or stores that offer a good selection of clothes & accessories that you love and stay loyal to those brands and stores. 

After placing your first few orders, you might need to return a few things but eventually you will start to understand how each brand fits on your body shape and whether or not their clothes are true to size or if it’s best to go up or down a size. This takes a few orders to work out (orders that also include different clothes as well such as tops, dresses, pants etc.) In the long-term though - you’ll be better off for it and be able to shop with little to no returns in the future. 

Once you know how to navigate the web and can shop online with confidence, the benefits far outweigh shopping in a centre or store. 

Browser Extensions/ Money Saving Sites

There are 3 extensions/ websites that I use when online shopping -

HONEY - Honey is a browser extension or add-on, that can save you money by automatically searching for discounts on most of your favourite shopping sites. It's available for all of the major web browsers (such as chrome, firefox, internet explorer, safari) and it's a lot easier than manually sifting through coupon sites. As you go to checkout and buy your item, a little pop-up appears and asks if you’d like Honey to track down all available discount codes. If it finds a discount code, it will automatically apply that discount to your order. I have saved so much money by using Honey. 

SHOPTAGR - Shoptagr (now known as Karma) is another good browser extension. It works a little differently to Honey in that you just let it know which item you are looking to purchase and it notifies you the instant there’s a better price available on the product you can’t stop thinking about. I use this one mostly for investment buys that I’m happy to sit on until the price drops which let me tell you, ALWAYS does. 

SHOPBACK - Shopback is another favourite of mine. I use it mostly for online grocery shopping but I do use it when shopping with The Iconic, ASOS, Myer & David Jones - there are literally hundreds of stores available on Shopback. Shopback works in the exact way the name suggests - you shop online as you would usually and are given cash back after your order is confirmed. Each brand/ store offers a certain % off your total order. For instance, The Iconic offers 3.5% cash back so just say your order total is $100, you’ll receive $3.50 back. I know this doesn’t sound like a lot but it all adds up. After 12 months of grocery shopping, I received $155 (AUD) back. Some stores offer quite a high percentage back too, so check this one out if there are certain brands/ stores that you shop with on a regular basis. 

Re-Purpose Clothes

I honestly wish more women re-purposed what they already own however I do understand how easy it is NOT to do this and just go out and buy something cheap and cheerful. If you follow @feelbelook, you may have seen my post about some of my favourite products for re-purposing my go-to’s (go-to’s being the clothes I wear the most). I invest time & effort into planning what I buy, so I do get quite attached and therefore like to put the same time & energy back into restoring pieces to their original condition. 

A few things that I do every 6 - 12 months is to re-dye my black clothes black. I wear a lot of black but regular washing and general wear and tear can make them fade so I just re-dye them and they always come up as black as when I first purchased them. Another little tip to prolong fading is to hang your black clothes inside/ out when drying so the sun doesn’t speed up the fading process. 

I also like to brighten my whites to make sure all of my white clothes are stark white and I don’t hang my whites inside/ out because the sun actually works in your favour to brighten whites. 

Two other things I do more regularly are to remove spot stains when needed with good old-fashioned elbow grease and I wash my swimwear by hand using swimwear wash. Seafolly has their own solution and Suit Saver is another great product too which I’ve found at Baku. This helps to remove chlorine, extend the life of your swimsuit by keeping the elastic in tact and keeps the colour as is. 

Re-purposing clothes is often overlooked or simply just forgotten about but spend a few dollars on restoring items back to near-new condition and you can easily get an extra few years of wear out of them. 

Wear Your Clothes

Women are notorious for wearing 20% of their clothes, 80% of the time - that’s a huge percentage hanging in the wardrobe collecting dust. Reduce the cost per wear of your clothes & accessories by wearing them repeatedly until they are unwearable. Don’t buy clothes & accessories that you don’t absolutely love and regularly wear the clothes & accessories you do own - what’s the point in hanging onto them if not?!

Prioritise Wardrobe Staples

Stocking up on Wardrobe Staples before buying shiny & fun pieces should be the priority for all women. Wardrobe Staples are the foundation of your wardrobe. Without them, your wardrobe will lack versatility, you’ll struggle to create outfits and you’ll waste money buying new clothes when a few Wardrobe Staples will allow you to wear your existing clothes in a different and more exciting way. 

What’s a Wardrobe Staple? I’ve created a list of items that I believe every woman should own to save money and increase the versatility of their wardrobe. To download your copy of Women’s Wardrobe Staples, visit www.feelbelook.com/wardrobestaples