Welcome to The Budget Fashionista Learn How to Shop Guide. Here you’ll find our best strategies for shopping like a pro and saving money at your favorite fashion retailers. You’ll find store-specific tips for many retailers including ShopBop, Ulta Beauty, Dillard’s, Bloomingdales and more. Also see our tips on shopping thrift stores and trendy stores.
We also love the “shopping list” post. Posts like “Best Occasion Dresses under $75” give you an easy set of trendy pieces to make your shopping uber efficient.
One overlooked side of shopping for clothes is returning clothes. After all, it happens sometimes that you buy a piece and then your opinion changes when you get it home. Some of our most popular posts cover return policies, from Payless to Saks.
If you’re not sure where to start reading, try these posts and topics:
How to Shop Marshalls ● How to Shop New York & Company ● Return policies for your favorite retailers
For the Gorgeous Bride to Be on a Budget! 12 Things Your Wedding Can Do Without
Weddings are ridiculously expensive and have been for ages. Unfortunately, there’s a whole huge industry whispering in your ear from a young age, about what the perfect wedding entails. But this isn’t a post...
Road Trip on the Calendar? What to Know: 6 Best Luggage Brands on a Budget
Maybe you’d rather spend every last dollar on a vacation you can’t afford and carry your things in a garbage bag, but that’s just not practical. Even for a road trip, which is about...
Target + High Design = Budget Fashion Perfection for Decades
If ever there was a retailer synonymous with the now beloved designer collaboration, it’s Target. Target designer collaborations have earned a cult following, thanks to the brand’s knack for linking up with big-name brands...
Show Yourself Some Love: Luxurious Silk Pajamas You’ll Want To Wear 24/7
Now that we've closed the books on another holiday season, we're all ready for some quality sleep. And sure, we can get by sleeping in old gym shorts and a t-shirt, but it's decidedly...
Make This Year Your Best Yet: Stylish Tools That’ll Help You Stick to Those New Year’s Resolutions
If you’re over the age of oh, I don’t know, 10 years old, you’ve likely experienced the demise of a New Year’s resolution or two. The more serious and lofty the goal, the faster it...
Get ‘Em While They’re Hot: Must-have Kohl’s Clearance Picks
I have a love/hate relationship with Kohl’s. What I love? Trendy, wearable styles for less. What I hate? The inconsistency. One day, I might load up my cart with options and the next, I...
Where to Find Cheap Designer Shoes
Let’s talk about designer footwear. If your budget doesn’t quite align with your high-design tastes, you might feel a pang of sadness when Shopstyle shows you those $1,200 Fendi boots or $6,000 Ralph Lauren...
How (and Why) to Shop Everlane
Few retailers are as committed to providing a combination of high-quality fashion and transparent business practices as Everlane. Their approach relies on three important principles: audit factories around the world to determine the fairest...
20 Hot Picks from the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale (Under $50 Each)
If all of your girlfriends have gone silent, they may be immersed in the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale. It’s Nordy’s biggest sale of the year, and Early Access Week of the event has already started....
What Gloria Vanderbilt Did for Women’s Jeans
To sum up the life of Gloria Vanderbilt in just a few words would not do her justice. Indeed, her story is one of true starry-eyed enigma: she was a mother, an actress, an...
Swimwear Questions, Answered
For such a tiny garment, it’s amazing how complicated the swimsuit can be. I mean, we get swimsuit questions on everything from swimsuit fabrics to swimsuit shopping to swimsuit care. Read on for answers...
The Best Swimsuit Styles & Where to Buy Them Under $50
It’s swimsuit season fashionistas. That means you get to flaunt your figure (and your fashion) in your teeniest, tiniest ensembles. But who wants to spend a $100 or more for a little strip of...
Spring’s Best Beauty Gifts For Mom
Spring has sprung (finally!). And with the season of renewal comes a whole slew of enticing beauty gifts that are sure to put a smile on anyone’s face. We love beauty gifts for mom...
No Time to Shop? Try These Online Shopping Hacks
Staying stylish can seem impossible when you’re running your own crazy schedule — let alone an entire family’s on top of that. Finding the time to get out and shop for yourself is tough...
The Best Swimsuits for Tall Women
Finding the perfect swimsuit is tough no matter what body type you have. But as a tall woman, your concerns are more than finding the silhouette that flatters. You might struggle to find a...
Flash Sample Sale Sites You Should Shop Now
You don’t have to live in New York or L.A. to experience the wonder of a sample sale. Even if you do live in the Big Apple, it’s probably still more agreeable to do...
Best Bras for Hard-to-wear Dresses
It may be the most frustrating of fashion quandaries — figuring out how to wear a bra gracefully underneath a dress with an open back or a body-hugging silhouette. Yes, you want to show...
Read This Before You Shop Post-Holiday Sales
For the battle-tested bargain-hunter, the true holiday shopping experience doesn’t begin until the day after Christmas. It takes a true warrior to spar in the parking lot, exchange those unwanted gifts and then jump...
The Famous Double G — All About Gucci
The name alone is enough to conjure images of the famed double G logo and sleek, timeless accessories. Yet Gucci is so much more. The Italian luxury fashion house is a Florentine dream, rife...
8 Holly Jolly Beauty Gift Sets $50 and Under
It seems you can’t navigate through a busy shopping mall or browse a single website this season without coming across something you have to have. It’s usually of the beauty gift set persuasion, and...
Save on Uggs! The World’s Favorite Sheepskin Boot and 6 Proven Places to Snag Them for Less
Looking for cheap Uggs? Bracing for cold weather here in the Northeast with thoughts of a warm, fuzzy feeling for your feet that Ugg boots might provide? Or perhaps you have bunions and these...
About Me
Thanks for stopping by! I'm Catherine, your Budget Fashionista style editor. I'm a bargain shopper at heart, as I love nice things but hate paying for them! I'm also a personal finance writer who's been featured on USA Today and MSN Money.