Before you head out to the mall or start shopping online, take stock of what’s currently in your closet and decide if you even need anything new. Give yourself 15 minutes to quickly go through your closet, dressers, and any other clothing storage. By doing this earlier this month, I found an off-white denim midi skirt that was hidden between other items that I now plan to take with me on my upcoming trip to Chicago.

By taking this initial step, you can save yourself both time and money if you realize that you actually don’t need another white T-shirt, little black dress, pair of sneakers, etc. By taking a few extra minutes, you can even use this as an opportunity to do a mini-closet cleanout if you see items that you know for certain you don’t plan to wear going forward. 

Shopping your closet gives you an opportunity to identify any wardrobe gaps. These wardrobe gaps are driven by your current lifestyle and personal style. It’s essential for our wardrobes to align with our lifestyle or personal style. Otherwise, we’re likely to end up with clothing that never gets worn because we don’t have any reason to wear it, even though we thought it was cute when we saw it online or tried it on in the store (this is how I ended up with half a dozen swimsuits when I never go to the pool and I go to the beach once a year at best). Once you’ve determined what items you actually need, stick to the list and don’t deviate to avoid impulse purchases. 

Besides having a defined shopping list, another way to avoid impulse purchases is to set a budget before you start shopping. By setting a budget, you are limited in the number of items you can buy and will therefore need to be more focused and intentional about what you actually do decide to purchase. The best way to get the most bang for your buck when you shop is to buy items on sale. Note that this isn’t always possible depending on the retailer as some retailers, like one of my favorites, Quince (online only), don’t offer sales often in favor of reasonable or affordable everyday prices. To take advantage of sales, I suggest setting up a separate email account to receive retail promotional offers only from your favorite retailers. When it’s time to go shopping, check your email to see what sales they may be offering. Many retailers, such as LOFT, J.Crew, and Talbots, have regular sales throughout the year, culminating in either end-of-season, annual or bi-annual sales at deep discounts (Nordstrom’s semi-annual sale is perhaps the most well known). Unless you need something right away for an event or occasion, do your best to never pay full price for anything. 

Another way to get the most bang for your buck is to sign up for the rewards (loyalty) programs, when offered, at your favorite retailers (not to be confused with the store credit card). By signing up as a rewards member (these programs are free by providing your email address), you can be eligible for additional discounts, early access to sales, birthday rewards, and/or free shipping. Rewards members are also generally able to earn points towards rewards vouchers that can be for future purchases.

While many may disagree with me, a third way to get the most bang for your buck is to sign up for the credit cards for your favorite retailers. You can earn rewards by using your card to shop both in-store and out of store. One of the retailer cards that I own is the Banana Republic credit card. What’s great about this particular card is that it can be used at any of the stores in the Gap family of brands (Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic, and Athleta) to earn or use rewards. Only get the in-store card if you plan to pay the balance of your credit card at the end of the month as the interest rates on store credit cards are often higher than the rates that you might see on cards through the major credit card companies. 

If you time your purchase just right, you can stack various discounts and rewards on top of each other. It’s like the television show “Extreme Couponing” with clothes! That’s how I’ve gotten an entire season’s worth of clothes for 50-75% off on many occasions!

When I shop for clothes, I look at the items that I buy as an investment. While this wasn’t as much the case when I was younger and more interested in trends and experimenting with my style, now that I’m very clear on my personal style, I believe in focusing on the quality of the items instead of how many I actually own. As an example, white and black T-shirts are a staple in my closet, and I have quite a lot of them (as my friend Cindy can attest to when she came to visit me recently in Richmond from Atlanta). In the last year I discovered merino wool T-shirts (both long and short sleeve). While merino wool clothing deserves its own blog post, I’ll summarize by saying that merino wool clothing is wrinkle-free, odor resistant (meaning they can be worn many times before needing to be washed), and temperature regulating, making it a great addition to any wardrobe. However, a merino wool T-shirt can be significantly more expensive than the average T-shirt from Amazon, Target, or Old Navy. My favorite merino wool T-shirts are from Unbound Merino. While the $88 price tag (pre-discount) per T-shirt can be sticker shock for many people, for the reasons mentioned above, I look at these high-quality T-shirts as an investment that I’ll have in my wardrobe for many years to come. I’ve already found that I reach for these T-shirts more often than I do most of my other T-shirts because I can wear them multiple times before having to thrown them in the wash. Essentially one $88 crew neck T-shirt is the equivalent of five $17.60 crew neck T-shirts in the same color. Now that I have white and black merino wool crew neck tees, I don’t plan to buy any new white or black crew neck T-shirts anytime soon. Here I am wearing the Women's Slim Merino Crew Neck T‑Shirt in Ivory on my recent trip to Portugal: 

For any item that you purchase, estimate a cost per wear to determine the true value of the item in question. By doing this, you can often justify spending more upfront on better-quality items when the long-term cost is actually lower. For example, if I buy an $88 T-shirt and wear it 300 times over the course of three years, then the cost per wear is $0.10. If I buy a $10 T-shirt and estimate that I can wear 50 times over the course of one year before it completely wears out, then the cost per wear is $.20, and the $88 T-shirt is actually a better value. 

Also, buying quality doesn’t necessarily mean having to pay more upfront. People on a budget may choose to shop at discount retailers because they believe that’s all that they can afford. However, by utilizing the strategies I’ve outlined above under “Set a Budget”, you can often buy better quality items at higher-end retailers (we’ll make the assumption that there’s a correlation between higher price and quality, which I believe to be true, at least up to a certain point) for the same price that you would have paid at the budget retailer if you just wait for a sale and stack those discounts. At minimum, you can get items at higher-end retailers to a price point where they are no longer out of reach of your budget. So don’t be afraid to follow brands that you may initially think are out of your reach from a price perspective, especially those with generous end of season sales!

One of the hallmarks of my fashion philosophy is versatility. I don’t believe in labeling a clothing item “for work”, “for working from home”, “for going out”, etc. Putting these labels on our clothes limits our creativity in terms of how we choose to mix and match items in our wardrobe. In order to maximize the use out of your wardrobe, shop for items that can be worn in multiple ways and/or for multiple occasions. I’ve featured this item in other blog posts, including my blog post “Unlocking the Benefits of a Personal Uniform”, but the Brooklyn Heights wide leg jumpsuit from Athleta is one of the most versatile pieces that I own. Here I am wearing it casually, for work, and for going out. 

If you can’t find at least three ways to wear a particular item, I would think twice about whether or not to purchase it. If you do decide to purchase it, I would recommend spending as little money as you can.

Smart clothes shopping is all about planning, budgeting, and making focused, intentional choices. By following these five strategies, you can build a wardrobe that reflects your style, meets your needs, and stays within your budget. Shopping smart is ultimately about buying wisely—choosing quality, versatility, and value while avoiding impulse purchases and spending the least amount necessary to look chic and uniquely you. 
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