Although I am retired now, I spent many years in an office environment where business dress was required. We didn’t have to wear suits, but hose, heels, blazers, skirts and dress pants were everyday wear.

A lot of people I worked with spent a ton on their clothes. I didn’t, and I think I looked every bit as nice.

There are three parts to dressing on a budget: planning, acquiring, and maintaining a wardrobe.

Planning:
You have to know what you have in order to know what you need. I inventoried my clothes on a regular basis. I didn’t write everything down, but made a mental note of what kind of clothing I had in good supply, and what was lacking. What made this task easier was keeping my clothes sorted by type, and then by color. Yeah, very anal, I know!

When I felt something specific was needed, like a navy blazer, I wrote in down in a little notebook I carried in my purse. I didn’t necessarily buy it right away, but watched for it to appear at the right price while I was shopping.

Acquiring:
I shopped at the mall, or at any retail clothing store, VERY RARELY. I acquired most of my clothes at garage sales, Goodwill and a resale shop which deeply discounted clothing due to “expire” at the end of every month. I used my list, of course, but I also bought clothing that was in good shape, the right style, and the right price, even if it wasn’t on my list. I would say I bought 90% of my wardrobe this way.

Some things I just never could find secondhand. I usually had to buy shoes, boots, casual coats, and, of course, underwear at retail stores. For these I haunted the 50-70% off racks at stores like Macy’s, where the quality was good. Again, if I saw a sale that was terrific, I would buy outside of my list. But I was careful never to buy in categories in which I was “overstocked.”

I have to add, I was also very gracious in accepting any clothing people offered to give me. I couldn’t necessarily use everything I was given, but I got some real gems this way.

Another point – I tended to stick to a certain color spectrum. I look good in black and white, light pastels, jewel colors and primary colors, so I stuck to those. I never bought beige, except for pants, or heathery colors, for instance. So almost everything I had worked well together.