To be honest, my first choice when shopping for clothing is yard sales. In my area, yard sale clothing prices tend to be obscenely cheap. Unless it's a suit or set, you can usually find everything at under a dollar in price. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to find some sizes. For example, my husband is 6'4" and it's extremely hard to find his size (or more appropriately length) at yard sales. My ten year old daughter is short (like her mom) and it can be difficult to find her size. When it comes to me, it depends on whether I've just had a baby or not. My regular size (8/10 bottoms, 12/14 tops) is fairly easy to find, but my size varies quite a bit if I've just had a baby. Of course, I can always find baby clothes (infant sleepers at ten to twenty-five cents each is quite a bargain), toddler clothing and clothing for my six year old. Another problem with yard sales is that they only occur during half the year in our area because we have definite seasons (it's snowing in the winter & sunny in the summer). We usually buy half of our clothing at yard sales despite the short season for them. Part of the reason is that we know one of our four kids will eventually fit into the item if we can't use it immediately.

Our next stop when shopping is the thrift store. We happen to have three of them in a nearby town (two run by charity organizations, one run by a church). Prices can range quite a bit from store to store, but in the majority of cases you save at least 75% over retail prices. My biggest secret to thrift store shopping is to take advantage of the specials. They all run different promotions, which can range from; bag day (everything you can fit into one bag for one price), half off a certain tag (example; all white tags are half off) and/or percentage sales (example: all senior citizens receive 25% off on Thursdays). If you don't know what the specials are, simply ask. Most thrift shops are more than happy to tell you. When I add on the discounts, I almost always save at least 85% over retail on thrift store items. Of course, it has one of the same disadvantages as yard sales. It's still hard to find clothing for my tall husband and short oldest daughter.

My next stop for shopping is Value City. You may or may not have one in your area, but if you do you can find major bargains...especially if you make it a point to look through their clearance racks. If Value City doesn't have what I need, I head to WalMart. We have a supercenter and the clothing section is pretty large and varied. We can usually find something there if nothing else pans out. They also have "end of season" clearances, which is when I try to shop as I can find many things for under ten dollars. If you don't happen to have a WalMart in your area, many people opt for stores like Kmart and Target instead.
This article is copyrighted by Rachel Sanfordlyn Shreckengast of GetFrugal.com and WedFrugal.com
I don't generally visit consignment shops for regular clothing. My reason is that most of them are priced higher than clothing I can find at Value City or WalMart. Despite this, I have to mention consignment shops in this article as it's not true of all areas. In many areas, consignment shops will have better prices than discount department stores. In many cases, the prices will fall somewhere between thrift shop prices and discount department store prices.

I then look for clothing at outlet stores. I'm lucky enough to live right in between two large centers; the Reading Outlet Center and The Crossings Factory Stores. By looking for clearances, I can often find clothing for really good prices at the outlet stores.
This article is copyrighted by Rachel Sanfordlyn Shreckengast of GetFrugal.com and WedFrugal.com
Of course, there are always catalogs. Nearly all of my work clothing (suits, dresses, slacks, etc) was purchased from Chadwick's of Boston about 10-12 years ago. Throughout the years, their prices have remained affordable. My current favorite though is bon prix, which is even more affordable on most things.

If all of those resources don't pan out, I then try department stores such as Sears, JcPenney's, Boscov's and Kauffman's. Since I only visit the mall about once a year (to visit Claire's for Xmas presents for the girls), it's very rare for me to buy clothing from these sources. I consider these types of stores to be "regular priced" clothing stores, which basically means that I won't buy anything at them unless I find a really good sale or clearance. One of my tricks here is to visit the junior department. The junior clothing is often trendier and will get clearanced more quickly than regular clothing. In between all of the trendy selections, you can often find very good basics at a lower price than you will find in the women's departments. Since I'm short, I can get away with it, but this tip won't work for everyone.
This article is copyrighted by Rachel Sanfordlyn Shreckengast of GetFrugal.com and WedFrugal.com
As you can see, there are plenty of options to consider before you ever get to the option of "regular price" clothing. While the particular stores may vary in your area, it's very likely that you have equivalent stores. You can dress very nicely for a much cheaper price. In a future article or two, I'd like to show this by using my own clothing (including prices I paid for them) to illustrate different wardrobes that you can create with affordable clothing. Until then, I encourage you to try it on your own and start saving on your clothing costs!