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Master the Stock Market

Fashion Friday: 4 Stores where you should never pay full price

As someone monitoring her budget, I hate paying more than I have to. I’ve shared this mentality with my approach to stocks, and try to show you how I capitalize on companies trading lower than normal due to earnings reports or other temporary bad news. But since the weekend is coming up I thought I would make today’s post a little lighter and talk about finding a great deal on clothes rather than stocks.

I almost never pay full price for anything. Even when I splurge, I splurge on a discount. To achieve this I sign up for emails at my favorite stores – Bloomingdale’s, Gap, Piperlime, etc. – and wait for an email with a coupon to come out before I make my purchase. Stores send out coupons so regularly now that you don’t have to pick between buying something on sale or in-season.

To help you all with sticking to your budgets, I thought I would pass along four stores I would never buy items from at full price:

Gap/Old Navy/Banana Republic/Piperlime

Fun fact, all of these stores are owned by the same company, GAP (GPS). It’s one reason I like Gap as a relatively safe long-term buy – they manage to hit multiple age ranges, price points, and trends.

I feel like I get an email with a coupon from at least one of these stores every day. Checking the site, today Gap’s site is 25% off, Old Navy’s is 20% off, Banana Republic’s is 40% off, and Piperlime has 30% off one item if you sign up for emails. Point proven.

FYI if you’re starting your Fall shopping, these waxed jeans from Old Navy are one of my favorite buys ever and less than $30 today:

Bloomingdale’s

While Bloomingdale’s is not the most budget friendly of stores, it does have fantastic sales. Once a quarter Bloomingdale’s hosts a “Friends and Family” sale, where the entire store is 20% off. In between, Bloomingdale’s has plenty of other sales on random items like jeans or shoes. You may need to be a member of their rewards program to get the savings, but it’s free and easy to sign up for.

Today for example, Bloomingdale’s homepage features this discount structure:

Saks Fifth Avenue

Saks is even less budget friendly than Bloomingdale’s, so feel free to skim past this one. But if you ever want to really go crazy on an item, during the Saks Friends and Family Sale is the time to do it. Then the entire store is 25% off, which can mean huge savings there.

Ann Taylor

Ann Taylor is a great place for stocking up on business casual wear and suits. Although it has a bit of a stodgy reputation, it’s become a lot more on trend and focused to a younger clientele. This is another store that is worth signing up for email notifications from, as they almost always a running a sale on one piece of clothing. Right now they’re in the middle of a series of coupons featuring one article of clothing a day. Today, dresses and skirts are 50% off.

There are a bunch more stores that feature these types of sales, and by keeping track of coupons and sales you can guarantee you’ll look great without banking the bank.

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