I love to shop for new clothes, but the cheapskate in me doesn’t enjoy parting with my hard-earned money. So, when it comes to shopping for clothing and accessories, I like to implement my “price per wear” rule. Basically, I break down the cost of the item to see if it’s a good deal or not.
Here’s what I do:
I take the price of the item and divide it by 100. This is the number of times I plan to wear an item for me to consider it a smart purchase. For instance, a $350 winter coat might seem expensive, but if I wear it all winter long, year after year, I will easily wear it 350 times, which works out to be $1 per wear. In this case, the investment is totally worth it.
On the flip-side, I spend much less money on trendy items that will go out of style in a season or two. I love Target and Kmart for fun, fashionable finds, but I rarely spend more than $20 on them.
The same thing goes for trendy accessories. They can instantly jazz-up an outfit, but they typically go out of style pretty quickly, so I don’t spend much money on them.
Looking at my closet, I’ve learned that some of my most expensive purchases were actually the most reasonable (i.e. black pants from Banana Republic that I’ve worn at least 100 times) and some of the items I thought were a bargain were not such a good deal after all (trendy wedges from Payless that went out of style in one summer). Now when I shop for clothing and accessories, I always consider the price per wear before I buy anything.
How do you save money on clothing and accessories?
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Love that idea! At this point, I usually only shop in the sale section, everything is on sale these days!
This is a great way of calculating your value! I actually do something similar but without the precision; I consider how often I’ll wear an item, how versatile it is, compare it with the price, and then decide. I’ve often made mistakes in judgment, but hopefully I’m getting better at it!
Wei-Wei
You make some really good points! I also factor in washing instructions when I buy clothing. If it needs to be dry cleaned, I consider the additional cost of that as well. I look to places like Forever 21 for trendy pieces, too. Their clothing isn’t very well made, and it often falls apart in the wash, but if it was cheap and I was only going to wear it for one season anyways it’s not a big deal. Retailmenot.com is a great place to find discount codes when shopping online. I also love places like Filene’s Basement and outlet malls to find nice pieces for way cheaper than you’d find in the regular stores!
i make it a point to spend more on classic items, white tshirts, jeans, jackets, and anything else i know will last more than one season. oh, and GOOD shoes. but i buy trendy stuff at target, tjmaxx, marshalls, etc. i almost always buy stuff on sale!
I think it is a great idea to spend less on trendy items, and I do like your trendy items by the way!
Shopping vintage! You can find great bargains on really great stuff. Recently I found a Bloomingdale’s trench coat at a consignment store for $40 – a steal!
I’ve implemented this price per wear strategy for several years now, and I feel like I have a well-balanced wardrobe because of it.
Thanks for mentioning Kmart. Fun! I have no idea how they stay open, but they have some really cute throwaway pieces–tanks, silly sundresses and such. Kmart gets no love!