It doesn’t matter how practical you are with your clothes shopping, or how many outlet shopping tips you use, if you don’t try on clothes before you buy them, all the good clothing advice we can give you goes to waste.
If you’ve ever shopped at a thrift store and found clothes with the tags still on them, chances are the person that donated the item purchased it without first trying it on. Anyone who has a closet full of clothes with nothing to wear certainly made a few clothing purchases without first trying it on. You don’t want to fall into this category.
For the thriftiest shoppers who tend to purchase clearance sale items, making the mistake of not trying on clothes before you buy it is an even bigger problem. Clearance items are typically on “final sale” which means that you can’t return it for any reason. Not only do you need to try the item on in the store, but you also need to fully inspect it for quality.
Another important perk of not buying anything before you try it on is that you will be tempted to purchase less. No one I know wants to try on more than 3 or 4 outfits in a cramped changing room. Knowing that I only have the patience to try on a few pieces helps me to edit my potential purchases long before I get to the register.
As you are trying on the clothes, you need to look at more than if the zipper on the dress will close or if the shirt is the right size. You need to put the item on, look at it in the mirror from all angles, sit down on the bench, bend over, raise your arms, and do any other kind of gyrations you can think of to make sure the outfit really looks and feels good on you.
Of course you have to keep in mind that not all things are going to fit perfectly, and that alterations may be in order, but alterations must also be simple, and you need to follow through or you are wasting your money.
Read: Frugalista Fashions: Get Your Maxi Dress for Less
Andrea Hermitt writes for parenting (specifically teens), the home blog, and also the frugal blog, and homeschooling at families.com.