positivelyBLEAK Grinning back into the abyss.

How To Shop Like You’re Broke

Wealth of Pennies by r-​z

Full dis­clo­sure: I am fre­quently low on funds. It’s the economy or the field I chose for my dayjob or the fact that I’m not always the most respon­sible with my “fun money.” (Come on, who hasn’t spent a day or two eating rice and beans due to con­cert tickets or a beau­tiful jacket? As long as the rent is paid and my retire­ment fund stays untouched, I’ll live.) I didn’t always have a dayjob, though, and there were some times when I was def­i­nitely just scraping by…and, thanks to my sale-​savvy mom, I learned some real hard-​and-​fast lessons about staying well-​dressed on the tightest of bud­gets. Here’s how she taught me to shop:

♠ First, assess your wardrobe and figure out what you have, what you need, and what you have too much of. If your entire closet is filled with black tunics, write down a rule that you will buy no more black tunics and carry it with you. Also write down some ideas for what you think will work with what you’ve already got — you have a great skirt that needs a red top? Write it down. Got some­thing in a difficult-​to-​wear shade? Take a pic­ture and bring it with you to find some­thing that matches.

♠ Take an after­noon and try on every single item of clothing in your wardrobe in front of a full-​length mirror. Invite someone whose taste you admire to judge with their most cruel eye. If you find that a piece doesn’t fit or just doesn’t do it for you any­more, put it all together and take it in to a con­sign­ment shop. Look around the shop and see if you can exchange your pieces for store credit — most will give back more money in credit than they will in cash. Or donate your clothes to your local women’s or youth shelter, Goodwill, or other pro­gram. Alternately, round up your friends and family for a clothing swap!

♠ Channel your crafti­ness. Look at your local library for books about restoring or altering fashion — bring them home and make pho­to­copies of the styles you like before returning the book. I cannot hand-​sew for the life of me, and I don’t own a sewing machine, but a lot of the projects in the Generation T books have been easy after­noon projects for me. Something as simple as cut­ting a new neck­line into a jersey shirt can make it much more wear­able. Create sten­cils out of recy­cled card stock and spray­paint, or DIY screen­print, or embroider designs on your shirts. (A friend of mine has the best DIY Iggy Pop shirt ever.) Add screw-​on spikes or hammer some studs into heavier mate­rial. Paint your leather jacket. Cut the designs off of pieces that no longer fit and stitch them onto a plain item that does. Caveat: I’ve had no luck with iron-​on trans­fers, they always flake off in the wash.

♠ Start at the least-​expensive venue. I like to kick off a day of shop­ping with a trip to the thrift shop — usu­ally my local Goodwill. (I’m much too blas­phe­mous to give money to Salvation Army, but you may feel dif­fer­ently.) You’ll see plenty of gently-​worn or even new-​with-​tags items to be had. My local Goodwill sorts items by color, so it’s easy to fill up on black and gray sta­ples, the most preva­lent shade in my wardrobe. Learn to run your hand over the racks of hangers to find fur, silk, cash­mere, leather and other luxury fab­rics without sifting through every single item. Search through the men’s T-​shirt sec­tion; I have found plenty of awe­some tour sou­venirs in huge sizes, per­fect for T-​shirt surgery projects! Some Goodwills restock as often as every other day, so make short trips to see what’s new as often as you feel like it.

The ONE week YARD SALE by ChazWags

♠ I’ve never had luck with finding clothes at yard sales, but they can be a gold­mine for acces­sories and home décor. Costume jew­elry, vin­tage leather pieces, fur­ni­ture, 70s style elec­tronics and kitchen­ware are all extremely common finds in my expe­ri­ence. I’ve found wine crates for a quarter — they are a great grungy orga­ni­za­tional piece and ripe for a fresh coat of paint in a funky color.

♠ Off-​price resellers and depart­ment stores. My home state of Massachusetts is the birth­place of my favorites: TJ Maxx, Filene’s Basement, and Marshall’s. Every area seems to have their own, like Ross or Gordman’s, but these three are the holy tri­umverate of New England bar­gain fashion. When I move to a new neigh­bor­hood or go to a new store, I make a point to ask an employee about what days they receive new ship­ments, and when items are moved to clear­ance — most are happy to help you out. Show up on or around that day to find the best stuff in the widest stock of sizes. Check the tags on unique items of clothing and figure out what brands are in stock — if there’s one item from a line you like, chances are you can find more if you keep looking. (Last time I went to a TJ Maxx, I walked out with six We The Free tops at $3 a pop.) I always start at the clear­ance rack and work my way out­ward through the rest of the store.

♠ The out­lets and the mall. Brave the crowds and head over on a week­night, when you’re most likely to be able to get retail employee’s atten­tion. (Bring a friend and giggle at the pre­cious baby mall­goths!) Get your­self an Orange Julius and check out the teeny­bopper shops, even if you hate the window dis­plays — you never know what gems might be hiding on their sale racks. For instance, I live in my black skin­nies from Pacific Sunwear; they’re on sale con­stantly, and made in an enor­mous range of sizes and washes. Buy off-​season items for the next season and you’ll save a bundle. Make a pact with your shop­ping bud­dies that you will never breathe a word about where your finds came from. (“Oh, this old thing?”)

♠ Get up early and patrol upper-​crust neigh­bor­hoods and col­lege cam­puses on trash day, or watch your local Freecycle. I’ve res­cued about half of the fur­ni­ture in my apart­ment from the side of the road on McMansion Lane, and every­thing that made the cut cleaned up in under an hour. (My all-​time favorite finds include a 60s-​era barber’s chair, com­plete with foot pump, and the wiz­ardly bent­wood rocking chair that my mom and I chased down during a visit to sub­urbia.) The key here is to scrub and ster­ilize the hell out of your finds, go over it with a keen eye to figure out why it was tossed out in the first place, and fix any prob­lems as best you can. A little wood polish and a screw­driver on hand can go a long way! Skip trash­picking when it’s been wet out or if you find uphol­stered items, though — they are noto­ri­ously hard to clean and may have insect pests or mold hiding inside. I’d also advise against trash­picking clothing or shoes, but I did find a great leather police jacket in a dump­ster once!

(I highly encourage doing this in corpse­paint, if only to see the horror in the home­owners’ eyes when they see what’s out there, dig­ging through their garbage heap…)

All that’s left is to figure out what to do with all the extra dough you’ve got lying around!

Also of note: the ever-​rocking SteffMetal fea­tured Positively Bleak as one of her 10 Metal Blogs to Read in 2010 — her list goes to eleven and it fills me with wicked pride, one of my favorite deadly sins. Thanks, Steff!