How to Be A Savvy Sales Shopper

It feels like we were barely out of the January sales and then suddenly the world came to a standstill for many of us. No places to go, no people to see, as we ended up in our homes a lot more than usual. The decorating aisles in the shops that were open were completely bare. We were making our spaces nicer places to be.

There was a lot of sorting out and decluttering going on, wardrobe weeding and moving winter clothes to storage. Getting out the summer shorts and dresses as we had gorgeous weather and time to sit in our gardens sipping the Brockmans and Fevertree or experimenting with cocktails for fun.

If you were still working and on full pay you probably had disposable income burning a hole in your pocket as the coffee shops were no longer an option. No midweek chat in the pub over a glass or two of Sauvignon with the girls. The online stores and supermarkets that sell clothes were the only way to get a fashion fix if you wanted to update your wardrobe after the big wardrobe weeding sessions.

And then the non-essential shops opened…if you do feel like venturing out at the moment, you’ll notice it’s full on sale season again across all the High Street stores (and of course online too). It’s tempting to buy stuff because it’s at a knockdown bargain price but I’m inviting you to read my tips first before you get your card out to pay or click on that PayPal button.

In terms of sale shopping my top tip is to ask yourself this ‘would I be loving this quite so much if it was full price?’ If the answer is no, then you might want to just put it back on the rail. On the other hand, if you see something you really love but don’t want to pay full price for you could take a gamble in it being reduced later in the season.

DO NOT be lured by the ‘WAS’ numbers on the price tag i.e. was ￡113 now ￡27. This is when you are in danger of impulse buying because it seems like a bargain. This can also be compounded by the ‘it might not be here next time I look’ mentally. Your shopping focus should not be on how much you’ve saved, flip it and think about not how much you might be spending on stuff she doesn’t need.

Also, do not be tempted into buying things that don’t even fit. That dress that will be ok if you lose half a stone or have the leg length or the sleeves shortened – seriously? Will you get around to doing either of these things? That bargain price isn’t so much of a bargain anymore because it’s ￡113 worth of a pair of trousers that you only paid ￡27 for to just gather dust in the wardrobe.

Consider having a plan or shopping list when you go shopping, whether it’s in real shops or browsing online. Think about the stuff you already have and what you might need to fill a gap. This helps prevent the ‘never having anything to wear despite a wardrobe full of clothes’ syndrome. For example, it might be that by adding a navy blue jacket to your collection of clothes all of a sudden you are able to wear it with several other items and they all then become outfits suitable for work.

If you have a plan of what you need when you go shopping in the sales it helps prevent the mish mash of clothes in your wardrobe that you end up never wearing too. Instead of having all kinds of styles and shapes of dresses, skirts, trousers, jackets etc in all sorts of fabrics and colours that just don’t go together you can be more focussed. Really tune in to whether or not things will actually suit you or fit in with your lifestyle. Don’t be too blinkered by getting a bargain and the thrill at the till of getting something at a reduced price regardless of the suitability.

Another top tip is to use the Cost per Wear calculation to see if something is worth it or not.

For example

If you spend ￡100 on a pair of shoes that you know you’ll wear at least three times a week for work all year round, they work out at ￡1.44 per wear.

￡100 / 144 days = ￡1.44 per wear assuming you have 4 weeks annual leave

Spend ￡40 on a pair of party shoes that go with a particular dress, wear them just 3 times and they work out much more expensive than the ￡100 ones at ￡13.33 per wear.

If any of this is resonating and you have a wardrobe full of clothes but are only probably wearing 20% of them 80% of the time imagine if you only bought things that suited your colouring, body shape, lifestyle and personality, all of which you could actually wear, you might not have a load of cash tied up in unworn items in your wardrobe.

Many of my clients comment on how much money and time they save when they go shopping once, they’ve had their colours ‘done’. This is even more so if they know their personal style and which shapes of clothing suit their particular body shape. You can literally scan the rails in a shop (even in the sales) and pick out colours from your palette. You no longer consider the items not in your palette to be a bargain because you know that you’ll probably never wear them. You don’t buy things that don’t flatter your body shape despite the knock down price because you know it won’t do anything for you.