Shopping on a Budget in 2023: Good Intentions & Outside the Box Thinking

I struggle a lot with trying to shop for the “tight budget” crowd.

I see you. I am/was you (my spending abilities have moved up a bit over time, and I don’t take that for granted). So I am regularly feeling guilty that I am not managing to provide ethical & stylish content for you.

As a content creator & personal shopper in 2023 with a commitment to sustainability & ethics, the odds are firmly stacked against me. The industry of “influence” exists entirely upon the fast fashion food chain of regular spending and frequent trends. How do ethics & quality compete? Well, there are those incredibly stylish influencers, whose content resembles a fairytale daydream of a revolving door of high-end quality clothing & gorgeous interiors with invisible eye-watering price tags (and flush trust funds). I always sarcastically chuckle at the “under $200” round ups they post on Instagram - like somehow $200 for a shirt isn’t the equivalent of some people’s food budget or electric bill. Like with most societally virtuous behavior these days - its so much easier to be good when you are rich. But how to check off all the ethical, sustainable, durable, small business-supporting, and stylish boxes when you also have a budget of under/or well under $50??? Well, you “under $50” people are one of the reasons I founded NWS. The struggle is real for you guys, and no one is trying to reach your budget/audience, except for those who are dead set on using you to perpetuate the fast fashion cycle. Well enough of the outlining the problem, lets dig into some of my learned experience & fashion industry-trained tips for how to navigate the fashion landscape with a commitment to being an ethical consumer…on a budget.

Good Intentions: making an effort to do better

One of the first things you can start to change both from an ethical standpoint & from a durability/value-for-money standpoint is: BUY NATURAL MATERIALS.

Now, it’s really easy to type those words, but I know it is much harder to put that consumer ethos into practice. This is made particularly difficult, since brands learned to dribble in tiny percentages of petroleum-based, synthetic materials into more affordable garments. It is extremely common now to find a sweater, check the tags and see “59% wool, 20% cotton, 1% alpaca, 20% viscose” or some similar list, attempting to disguise their cost-cutting measures at the expense of you & the planet. So this is my advice - buy as much natural fiber content as possible, even if you end up buying a blend. Cotton, Linen, Wool (and specialty wools, like cashmere & alpaca), Silk, and the only natural material man-made fiber, Viscose. I know that there are some very good sustainability experts who would hate me saying that, but they aren’t the ones stuck on a tight budget, are they? I talk to people all the time who say they can’t afford to care about sustainability, and as a result end up not trying at all to lessen their impact. So let’s focus on DOING BETTER, EVEN IF WE CAN’T DO BEST.

For example:

“80% polyester 20% cotton” anything is going to be hot garbage, bad for you & bad for the planet when you throw it out. Why? Because these two fibers don’t blend well anyway in those proportions, so the imbalance of the polyester to the cotton is going to make for a scratchy fabric that won’t breath, or function well in any type of fabric style/garment (and will not decompose when thrown out).

However, say you see a summer dress and the tag says “50% linen 30% cotton 20% viscose” - this is doable. Why? Because the majority of the fibers are natural fibers (will decompose/wear well), and viscose is a man-made fiber made from wood pulp (so it too will decompose).

My goal with explaining this is to provide you with a guide for how to read these labels, and buy these cheaper/more affordable items more sustainably. So even our 1st, more ambiguous example of “59% wool, 20% cotton, 1% alpaca, 20% viscose”, would still ultimately be a better choice, than something that has large amounts of polyester or nylon.

think outside the box: Get comfortable with resale & off-season sales

You all have probably noticed, I don’t actually buy “new” clothes very often - that’s not exactly normal for a fashion blogger, I know. You probably have also thought I have a lot of nice clothes too. So how do I manage that?

I UTILIZE RESALE & OFF-SEASON SALES SHOPPING, WITH AN EYE ON COLLECTING PIECES I LOVE & THAT HOLD THEIR VALUE.

This method of shopping is extremely affordable & pays you back in dividends, but requires a willingness to do some hunting and shop for items in the off-seasons. The glossy advertisements that show up in your mail box or on your IG feed - those aren’t for you, “under $50” crowd, or at least not right now. Treat those “New Arrivals” ads as window shopping for when they run sales or everything goes to clearance.

I am regularly scanning the resale & clearance opportunities for deals on the things I am shopping for. I keep a running list of things that I potentially want or need, and then snap the right item up when it comes available.

Above is a side by side example of a purchase I just made in August - the Ebay listing & price I paid for a brand new pair through resale, and the full value cost of the same boots from the brand itself - a savings of over 500%!!!! Handmade Italian leather boots, from a top notch brand, FRYE - a lifetime of value, purchase.

There are 2 key take-aways from this example:

• First, I was shopping for leather boots in the summertime, the off-season. This is a good tip to follow even if you are buying resale, because people tend to discard or resell past-season items during the off season just like retail brands. Resale platforms like THREDUP actually lower the prices of off-season items during these times as well, so for example, a 100% wool sweater that was $50 in January will be lowered to $30 in June.

• Second, know your brands. I knew FRYE from when I was working as a fashion publicist, the agency I worked for repped them, so I handled all their shoes and already knew the quality of the materials & construction. However, you don’t need specialist knowledge like mine to simply shop well. Browse the higher end brands, and learn what brands/products you might want to invest in if it comes available at a price you can afford. If you are looking for a serious investment item like a boot, go into a high-end retailer like Nordstrom or Neiman Marcus and try some boots on and see how the fit/feel on you. Then you can know for sure what you want and can set up alerts on Ebay or THREDUP, or simply wait for a good sale.

***As a side note, this “try on shopping session” is exactly what I do with my styling clients!

Lastly, just know that sometimes this resale & off-season shopping game WILL TAKE TIME. I have been quietly shopping for high quality brown leather boots for 3 years, and I just now landed a pair at a price I was comfortable with. These are boots that will last my lifetime, and I am very comfortable with the savings I made (though I had told myself my budget was $150). I am still on the hunt to update my wool winter coat, but I am willing to wait for the right item to come along. My current coat was gifted to me by my parents over a decade ago, and is a superb, lifetime product. However it is a dark grey color that has always felt a bit depressing to me, so I’d like to update it with something in a more cheerful color but in the same high quality. This is an item that will likely take some time to find, but I’m OK with waiting for a resale option OR saving to invest in new.

I hope that my personal tips for shopping on a budget help you to feel like you can shop well, and shop sustainably, no matter what your budget is. If you have any questions or if there is any part of this post that you’d like me to elaborate further on, just drop a comment below!