Being a fashionista is fun, but it can also put a serious strain on your wallet. Clothes aren’t cheap and most of us don’t have the privilege of not having to worry about money. Thankfully, there a number of ways to enjoy fashion on a budget, from shopping for deals to cutting back on monthly expenses for more shopping money.
If you want to boost your monthly shopping budget a bit, check out our money-saving tips. You don’t even need to make drastic changes to put extra money in your pocket each month—anybody can be high-fashion with these tips.
Make a Budget
It sounds simple, but you might be surprised at the number of people who try to save money without sitting down and making a budget first. Most people make roughly the same amount of money each month and have to spend about the same amount on bills from month to month. By comparing your monthly bills and other expenses to your monthly income, you can get an accurate picture of how much money you have left over each month.
So what do you do if your budget says you have nothing to spend on clothes? This is when it comes time to cut back on some things. Everybody spends unnecessarily from time to time; the trick is figuring out how much of your money you can freely spend while still keeping some for shopping. You might have to make your coffee at home or skip the movies once a week, but it will be worth the savings.
Negotiate Your Bills
When you think about cutting back your spending, bills are probably the last thing that comes to mind. Fortunately, there are actually a lot of things you can do to lower your bills a bit. Simply taking steps to conserve energy can save you a considerable amount on your monthly power bill, and getting quotes from various local insurance agents can help you find a more competitive rate on your home or auto insurance. You aren’t going to cut any bills in half this way, but there’s a good chance that you can squeeze enough out of your bills to afford an extra pair of jeans or shoes each month.
Cook at Home
As tempting as it can be to head over to your favorite restaurant for a cheeseburger and fries for dinner, you’ll save a lot of money if you cook at home. You can make a lot of dinners for $10 or less and still have leftovers for the next day. If you want to make things even easier on yourself, you can set one day aside each week to prep all of your meals so you won’t have to cook every night. Meal prep works great for breakfast burritos, stir-fry, salads, and just about anything else you might want to cook.
Shop Smart
Okay, so this isn’t exactly a money saving tip, but it’s still a great way to stay fashionable on a budget. There are so many different ways to find great deals on the clothes you love, whether you simply shop the clearance section of online stores or buy secondhand clothes from eBay or thrift stores. You can even use a browser extension called Honey to automatically find coupon codes for the sites you’re shopping on. You don’t even have to lift a finger to use Honey; all you have to do is wait for the app to find a coupon code that works for your order.
Another good way to save is by purchasing second run clothing. This clothing may have small issues that kept it from being sold in stores, but these issues are often very small or even unnoticeable.
