Frugal Living

I am still learning the ropes and trying my best to live life frugally. One of my biggest mistakes early in life was using shopping as a means to unwind and relax. Ofcourse there are more reasonable ways to relax than spend thousands on clothes we hardly need and wear. Sometimes looking at my closet and shoe rack gives me the guilty pangs and headache… Nevertheless, I am learning and continues to thrive using frugal means to survive during hard economic downturns. If you have growing children, buying clothing can be a hurdle and a challenge.

Mend and alter when you can. Fix small tears, broken hems immediately. I do minor alterations myself. For major alterations, I like to take it to my nearest mananahi, who does alterations for me at a discounted price.

Always Shop for Quality Clothing . I have always stressed that being frugal doesn’t necessarily mean you have to by cheapest thing in the rack. More often, buying the cheapest thing in the rack will not necessarily save you more. If you like buying clothes during a sale, sometimes, stores like to include produce with some minor imperfections, like missing buttons, zippers that don’t work, and even uneven hems, and imperfect collars.

Give or sell unused clothing. Do you have tons of unused clothing in your closet? Perhaps it is time to segregate your clothing and give away or perhaps even sell some of the clothes you have not used for over a year.

Buy basic or classic style clothing. I am not really into fashion clothing. If anything, I like to buy classic style clothing that I can wear all year round. I have a pretty healthy closet and keeps classic cut clothing which I have been wearing on and off for years. Like jeans, I keep 3 blue jeans bought several years ago from Marks and Spencers and 2 blue jeans by Levis. For formal wear, I have 3 black bootleg pants from Marks and Spencers. I also own several plain black blouses, including classic cut white blouses. I do the same with my children. I do not buy them those fashion bottoms but buy them durable blue jeans from Guess. I have found Guess jeans for children to be durable and long lasting.

These goes the same for shoes. Like alot of women, I just adore shoes and I buy only quality and branded shoes. For almost 2 years now, I am still enjoying the use of my Nike Cross Trainers. I simply love Nikes and one thing I know, to make your sneakers last long, you have to constantly use them lest their soles begins to crumble like dust. I also have a very durable Coleman hiking boots bought almost 5 years ago, which is still looks new until now. I spent almost P6,000 for that but heck, the shoe still rocks!

Encourage the use of hand me downs in your family. This is something I can really vouch. I have 4 children with 2 years gaps in between. I keep their baby clothes in good shape so the other siblings can still use the clothes– this is one of the reasons why I live by buying only quality clothing for my children.