I planned to share this post a few weeks ago but then I didn’t feel like writing it. Then I lost track of time sooooo here we go. I know a few people (myself included) are attempting no/(s)low buys this year. I said I would do that after an absurdly expensive fashion year, where I went a little overboard. I quickly failed at that mostly because I did not actually want to do it. Instead I have a new method that’s healthier than an all or nothing approach because even though I did overspend last year I do not have many clothes and I am still trying to rebuild my wardrobe after years of not buying anything. I also know that I am capable of doing a no buy because I did them before they were really a thing and went on a no-buy for years for environmental reasons. Finally, even though I did go overboard in comparison to my previous years I not spending, I got some absurdly good deals and this is how I did it. This will probably be one of my most unglamorous posts but no matter your budget these tips are helpful!
- look everywhere! you never know where you will find things. i am truthfully embarrassed to admit this but im like fifty buy/sell/trade groups for various brands on facebook. sometimes you luck on there and there are groups for nearly everything. it’s as simple as searching [brand/designer] bst/buy. Normally not a lot of trading happens in these groups and I would recommend using paypal business for any transactions to protect your purchase.
- second-hand sites (ebay/poshmark/vestiaire collective/thredup/ mercari/vinted/therealreal). i love buying secondhand for a lot of reasons. i enjoy saving money but also seeing first hand how much textile waste the West produces keeps me up at night, it’s so much and so sad. so i will always buy second hand and always try selling something before donating it for this very reason. is it a little more inconvenient? yeah but somethings gotta give and i’d it rather be me than the earth. i love all of these sites because you can really luck out either in terms of finding exactly what you’re looking for at a lower price or finding something you wouldn’t have noticed before. the big downside to searching on these sites is people can be lazy with listing things so you will have to hunt oooor you can use my final big tip which is the one i use the most now to save time.
- google (and bing) reverse image search (google calls this google lens). this is one of the best tools for second hand shopping or finding some long lost item. i was able to find the louboutins i wanted for less simply by using this lens. i found the dress i wanted for years with lens (granted it was on the realreal but it didn’t show up immediately in my saved search). i found some shoes i wanted for a while today with lens. i hate sharing this because I want to gatekeep but i also believe if it is meant for me it will be. i recommend clarifying the search a bit by adding a keyword like a brand to really weed out unnecessary images. occasionally i will use bing too because bing is actually better at finding the source of an image (i.e. you found something on pinterest and want to find the first place this image popped up, you might need to use bing).
- okay i lied my final tip is beni, which a chrome plugin that will essentially do the google search for you and automatically find second options of most of the thing you shop for clothing-wise. it’s great and honestly i forget about it a lot of the time until it pops up and then i remember to use it. highly recommend it because it will find you the things you’re looking for in your size and you can save pieces to. so say it’s not currently on a second-hand site it will let you know when one becomes available so you can purchase it.
i will get into this more in the next post but i check every single day for certain things in order to find them because if there is one thing i’ve learned you can buy pretty much anything second hand but you might only get one chance to get it depending on the item.
