Dress for Success, for Less
Of the major expenses that everyone must consider, clothing represents a very tough category to budget for. Clothing is a necessity for survival and as such, a major expenditure for everyone, but it’s also a way for people to express their personality and individual preferences. If you’re one of millions of Canadians interested in putting some effort into developing your sense of style, you probably have a tough time determining how much is an appropriate amount of money you can afford to spend on it. Many of us aim to keep our spending on clothing minimal, but clothing retailers are constantly releasing new items, there are always seasonal trends to follow and fast fashion chains make it relatively affordable for people to shop on a weekly basis. These kinds of factors can make it tough to resist the temptation to buy new clothing, especially if you’re interested in fashion.
On one hand, it can be easy to make a rush decision and decide you’re going to completely slash your clothing budget in an effort to save more money. However, it can’t be understated that dressing well and taking pride in what you wear on a daily basis can have an extremely positive impact on your self-confidence. Taking the time to put on a stylish outfit every day can really make you feel great about yourself; the old phrase “look good, feel good” is absolutely true! Dressing well also speaks volumes to the people around you, helping to foster positive impressions in your personal and professional relationships. Whether you consciously realize yourself doing it or not, you form impressions about everyone you meet first based on their appearance. In situations where information is minimal, such as a job interview, appearance becomes an extremely important determinant of how we perceive others; women in professional settings tend to experience this in a more exaggerated sense than men do. In research from 2017 by Univia, it was reported that 86% of respondents believed appearance matters in the workplace. A person who is neat and well-dressed almost always reflects as being confident, knowledgeable and is someone that others want to be around.
As such, putting some effort into developing your personal style is a great way to not only improve your chances of landing a new job or breaking in to a new circle of friends, but represents a great way to practice self-care. It’s good to remember that though spending on clothing can easily cross over into being excessive, there is real value in curating a strong wardrobe. If you want to up your style game while also keeping your bottom line in mind, here are a few tips to guide you as you shop.
Start Thrifting
This is the most well known way to save money on clothing, so we won’t spend too much time going over it. Admittedly, browsing through the racks at a thrift store can be an overwhelming experience that takes a ton of patience and a good eye. However, if you’re willing to put the work in, you can find some amazing items at your local thrift store! It may surprise you, but people donate items by high-priced brands all the time, and you can walk away from a thrift shop with designer items (even from brands like Gucci and Versace) if you’re diligent in checking back as new stock arrives. Even if you’re not willing to start making regular trips to the thrift store, an occasional visit here and there may result in some great finds.
If you don’t have great thrift stores close to you or you’ve had a hard time finding styles you like in them, there are now opportunities to buy other people’s lightly used clothes for cheap through apps or online stores. These kinds of methods are a great way to find cheaper versions of the clothes you want from a much larger pool of options (you’re essentially shopping at a Canada-wide thrift store when you shop online). A great example of one of these apps is Poshmark [please note: QUBER is not affiliated with Poshmark in any way]. You can buy from millions of Canadians and also list the items you don’t wear anymore for sale, meaning you may make a few extra dollars on the side to put towards your clothing budget.
Buy Neutrals
If you’ve got a limited amount of money you can spend on clothing, a great way to use it wisely is to work on creating a capsule collection of neutral items. A capsule collection is a mid-sized amount of different clothing items (tops, bottoms, jackets, etc.) that all match each other; in theory, you should be able to pair any combination of items in a capsule collection and it’ll work, just based off the colours and styles that comprise it. Clothes that are shades of black, white, brown, beige, olive green or grey make an excellent base for your wardrobe and never really go out of style, even as seasons and trends change. You can switch up the styles but still know that much of what you own matches, meaning you can make a ton of stylish, unique outfits out of a relatively small number of items.
Colours and prints are a great way to express your personality, and are sometimes just way cooler than plain, neutral clothing. We all have our own preferences, but just about everyone has had a moment where they saw a patterned item of clothing they liked so much they felt they couldn’t leave it behind! However, these kinds of bright items often tend to be tied to cultural trends, meaning they are more likely to go out of style and have a much shorter lifespan in your wardrobe than neutral clothing would (you’re going to be likely to stop wearing it long before it actually wears out due to use). Not only that, bright colours and patterns tend to be much more challenging to style than neutrals are. For example, you can wear a simple white t-shirt with a variety of other pieces and create a ton of stylish outfits using different bottoms, jackets and accessories. On the other hand, a bright pink t-shirt doesn’t lend itself to being styled in as many ways due to the bold nature of the colour. If you’re constantly buying brightly coloured or patterned items, you may be filling your closet with items that can only be worn in one or two outfits, meaning you’re spending lots on clothes but not getting much value for it.
With all that said, that doesn’t mean you should give up on wearing colour or fun patterns. Clothes with wilder styles are awesome, and are an essential component of any great wardrobe. However, if you’re trying to use your clothing budget wisely, stick to neutrals for the majority of your clothing purchases and buy a few bright, patterned items to mix in each season. You can also buy bold or colourful shoes and accessories to add a bit more of your personality to a neutral outfit and make it unique.
Use the CPU Formula
This is a strategy we mentioned in our recent blog post offering tips on how to avoid to urge to shop online (if you missed it, you can read it here). The cheap prices offered at fast fashion retailers can be hard to resist, as you can walk away with a ton of new items for a fraction of what you’d pay for the same elsewhere. It can be easy to forget that just because an item is on sale or is a great bargain, it’s not actually worth the price if you’re not going to get a ton of wear out of it.
A great way to determine if an item is worth its price is by using the cost per use formula. The formula operates on the basis that an expensive item you use all the time is much more valuable in your life than a seldom-used cheap item. To calculate an item’s cost per use, take the price of the item and divide it by a realistic estimate of how many times you’ll use it. If you’re trying to choose between two differently priced items and you’re unsure which is the better choice, you should aim to pick the item with the lowest cost per use. For example, a $100 pair of sneakers worn 100 times has a cost per use of $1 ($100/100 uses), whereas a $50 pair of sandals worn three times has a cost per use of $16.67 ($50/3 uses). Admittedly this strategy won’t always point you in the direction of the cheapest item, meaning it’s not always budget friendly from a short-term point of view. However, if you’re taking a long-term view and prefer to make investments in your wardrobe, this formula will consistently help you make strategic purchases that create a ton of value in your closet over time.
Clothes Swap with Friends
Do you find yourself envious of a few of your friends’ sense of style? If so, a great way to add some new pieces to your wardrobe is to have a clothing swap with them. If you think about it, you’ve probably got a good handful of items that sit in your wardrobe and go unworn, but for some reason, you can’t seem to get rid of them. They may still be in great condition, or you may have splurged on them and are now hesitant to donate them without getting much use out of them. Whatever the reason, you can bet many of your friends have a similar situation with their own wardrobes, and you may really like a few of those items they never seem to use!
With that in mind, you can either offer an informal item-for-item swap with one of your friends, or you can make more of an event of it and host an evening where your friends get together, bring their giveaways and you can choose from each others selections. Not a bad way to enhance your wardrobe for free!
Buy for Quality (Sometimes)
You’ve probably heard the phrase “buy quality, not quantity” a number of times when it comes to buying clothing. While this is a great strategy to take when curating a versatile wardrobe of pieces that you’ll wear for years, it doesn’t always align with trying to be budget friendly. High-quality items usually last longer than cheap versions of the same items, but if you’re on a budget, you won’t be able to afford to shell out the extra cash to buy the high-quality version every time you shop for clothes.
So, it makes more sense to take on a modified version of this strategy. Definitely buy with quality and long-term use in mind for big-ticket items such as winter coats. You’ll be able to get years of wear out of these kinds of items, and particularly in Canada, a warm, high-quality winter coat will pay dividends over the years. When it comes to cheaper items like t-shirts and sweaters, it makes more sense to seek out the reasonably priced versions of them. These kinds of items are likely to get worn out, fade, fall apart or get permanently stained over time, so spending $200 on a t-shirt doesn’t make much sense unless that’s well within your budget.
Make a List
Finally, in the same way you go to the grocery store with a list, you should have a clothing list to refer to when you need to buy new items. Replacing items or filling gaps in anyone’s wardrobe is a never-ending cycle, and in general, there are always tons of items we want and then items we actually need. If you’re not focused when you start shopping, it’s going to be extremely easy to get distracted and buy a bunch of pieces you don’t need (essentially the same thing that happens when you go to the grocery store hungry without a list!). You’ll still eventually have to replace the items you need, so you end up spending a ton of money in the long–run.
Instead, keep a running list of the items you actually need and update it regularly as new necessities arise. If you can prioritize and assign each item a timeline you need to replace it within, that’s even better. It makes sense to keep it in your phone so you’re likely to have it handy when you’re out of the house, but anywhere will do. When you do feel the temptation to shop, refer to the list and focus on using your clothing budget to cover the items on it instead of others (even if something flashy catches your eye). If you do happen to finish the list, or at the very least finish what’s within your short-term requirements, you can then use your extra cash to treat yourself to something you want.
Expressing yourself through fashion and clothing should be a fun experience for all, so remember to enjoy yourself as you fill out your wardrobe! Ultimately, we hope a few of these tips help you improve your style and make you feel great about the way you dress on a sustainable budget.
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