shopping on a budget.

[kariann330]

So at one time or another you really need a new outfit but are almost flat broke. Where do you turn for great deals?

I go to nomorerack.com or Goodwill.

[Hideyoshi]

Clearance racks at any store are good

[Antonia J]

Goodwill is good and I also rotate through other thrift stores.

[Silvermist]

It depends on your budget. In my experience, the best deals on nice clothes can often be found on eBay. I have nearly 40 dresses, costing about $1000 total. But the original MSRPs are much higher, so the value of my dresses (based on MSRP) is more like $3000-$4000. eBay deals are great because the supply is far higher than the demand; therefore, bidding wars are rare, and the majority of auctions (for clothes) fail to receive even a single bid.

You can occasionally find great pieces for cheap at Ross. For the absolute lowest prices, go to yard sales.

[Oriah]

garage sales and thrift stores are where it's at....especially for vintage clothes

[Cassandra Hyacinth]

Charity shops FTW

[Yukari-sensei]

Goodwill and many other thrift stores are the way to go! Best of all, there are so many of them and the inventory is always changing. All of my jeans, skirts, and most of my tops were purchased at thrift stores.

Although in all candor, I like to make road trips to more affluent areas to find the best deals on the best goods. Where a thrift store is, determines the quality of the donations that make it onto the showroom floor.

[StellaB]

I'm another one who prefers e-Bay.

[vegie271]

There are a variety of thrift stores throughout town - I hit them all except for the salvation army - they are known for their discriminatory treatments of people in their shelters so I will not go into their stores. or make donations

[Madison Leigh]

My roommate and my wife have always loved hitting the thrift stores such as Goodwill - mostly for non-clothing stuff, but we've found me some nice things there that I really like.  The obvious downside here is that quality of the items is going to fluctuate greatly and with my size I don't tend to see as much as they do - although that varies by thrift store around here.

That being said, my favorite spot is DEB at the mall.  I don't have the sizing issues that I would at a thrift shop as they carry plenty of clothes in my size.  If I had to guess, probably over half my wardrobe has come from there and all on clearance over the last year.  Normally if we get by there I'll try and grab a thing or two on clearance - usually only things under $10 depending upon what it is and how far it's been marked down.  However, our last visit (which was by accident as we were dropping my wife's ring off to be cleaned) they were having a huge clearance and we walked out of there with 23 items - about 2/3 of them mine - for $98.xx (about $90 before sales tax) so about $4/item.  At that point it's priced in the thrift shop range and hard for me to pass up.  I had a *tiny* bit of buyer's remorse as I hadn't really budgeted for that expense - as I said I normally confine my shopping to less than that for any given outing; but we made it up elsewhere so it all worked out.

As far as eBay goes, I've gotten a few items from there, but I normally prefer to avoid that since if I hit the clearance sales like the one above I can usually get by cheaper plus I get to try it on then and there and make sure it fits.  However, there are bargains to be had on Ebay and there are a lot of neat things that I don't necessarily run across at the mall so I do keep an eye out.

[justpat]

  Another vote for Goodwill here ,my wife and I have never met one we did not like.We have even found dresses and tops with the original store tags still on them.Our local store even gives a frequent buyer card and has senior Wednesday 50% off.We qualify!
Tip is , look for the colors you like then check the size saves a lot of time on the tops.There are lots of them and no order to the placement on the racks. Happy shopping!

[kariann330]

So am i the only one who has discovered nomorerack.com? Just to show there deals i got queen size 1600 thread count Egyptian Cotton sheets that retail for 198.99 for $30

[vegie271]

So am i the only one who has discovered nomorerack.com? Just to show there deals i got queen size 1600 thread count Egyptian Cotton sheets that retail for 198.99 for $30

I have friends who keep posting places like this, they are always something like a 19 hour deal and I never have the money available or they never have the color or size I need.

[kariann330]

I think rack has items for 2 weeks or until sold out.

[Alaia]

I usually shop on eBay as well. I like it because I can filter the results easily and also because many of the auctions have exact measurements so I can know whether it will fit or not.

[vegie271]

In my city, Goodwill has a "LAST CHANCE" outlet.  As the name implies, it is the last chance to buy something before it goes permanently to the dump.  Most of what they have there is clothes which they sell by the pound.  The more you buy, the less it costs but the the price ranges from $1.59 per pound for less than 10 pounds to $0.89 per pound for over 25 pounds.  It sure isn't a fancy place but there are some totally incredible bargains to be found.  Smaller items like camis and socks cost essentially nothing, while a pair of jeans or a skirt might cost up to a dollar or so.  The turnover is fast where I live, nothing stays in the store for more than a few hours.  I suspect that a great deal of the material there has never even been to a retail outlet, They get just too much stuff and don't have time to correctly process all of it through a store.

We had one of these - they were doing a booming business - someone complained about the -"illegals"  and other undesirables there, they closed it