How To Buy Quality Clothing On A Student Budget
Tags: Lifehacks, Life Hacking, Winter Clothes, Save Money, Clothes

A freshman just started college and is so excited to start a life full of partying, school, new friends, independence, you know it. But independence as a student comes with the cost of a tight budget. With that, she meets an obstacle. Every time she goes to campus, she sees girls dressed up nicely, while she’s wearing the same outfit for the 100th time. She would wonder to herself how on earth can she manage to find stunning, quality clothes without breaking her budget.

Well, I’ve got great news! With the right mindset, she can. And you can too. Here are some useful tips that I use myself when buying clothes; I still have garments (especially winter garments) from when I was 16 years old (and I’m 20)!

1. When buying clothes, you have to separate two things: trends & long-term styles.

When shopping for quality clothes, your safest bet is to stick to long-term thinking. Try to find basic designs that you can see yourself wearing in 5 years, and fill in the rest of the gaps with trendy fast fashion clothes that will last you for just as long as it’s trendy (hopefully).

2. Set yourself a strict mindful budget

Just having that number in front of you, whether that’d be in your notes, set as a reminder, or added on an excel sheet, will make a huge difference during shopping. Even after you’re done shopping, you wouldn’t freak out about spending a fortune on clothes that won’t be wearable in a year.

One of the most important questions you have to ask yourself when shopping is: “Is it worth spending part of my budget on this?”

3. Look for clothes that will last you a long time

I know cheap, fast fashion clothing may seem like the perfect answer to keeping your bank account from breaking, but trust me this works.

Picture this: you find a winter hoodie for $12, you immediately think it’s a bargain and go running to buy it. For that price, chances are you will have to get rid of it next season, and then go hunting for another one. But if you buy a hoodie that is $35, chances are that hoodie will last you for at least 4–5 winters. Then you can even consider reselling which you may have no problem with because the hoodie is still in good shape (if you properly take care of it, of course!).

4. Wait for sales

Shopping for quality clothing with a budget can require some patience, dedication, and time.

Most brands have sales almost every month to two months, so if you find something that you fancy but it’s out of your budget, you have to be patient and give it time for the price to go down. One thing you can do if you’re shopping in a store is looking for the same product online; sometimes you can find them cheaper/discounted. You can ask the workers in the store for the date of the next sale. Sometimes they do want to help you out finding a cheaper deal, sometimes not.

5. Recognize quality clothes

If you know the difference between clothes that are made to last you a while and clothes that will not, you’re already saving yourself a lot of cash in the long run. Here is a video that I recommend watching by Alyssa Beltempo that explains how to identify high and poor quality clothing:

To conclude, finding quality clothing on a budget is a journey, but an exciting one. You have to be patient, you have to go by the book, and you have to trust the process. You will thank yourself once 5 years have passed and you still have some of the same clothes, along with having saved some cash.

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