CHRISTIAN SINGLES DATING
GUIDE: DRESS FOR LESS
Now, you need to know when items with a certain color
tag go “on sale” or in other thrift stores, when they
mark down articles to get rid of them for new arrivals of
inventory. Just ask, and they will tell you when they
reduce prices, or sell them for a dollar. Some times you
can buy expensive two piece suits for only a dollar! They
sell the suit as a unit, so you don’t have to pay for
each piece separately. You will notice that some thrift
stores sell certain items cheaper than the others. With
some, its baby clothes and others, its blazers and women’s
suits that are much lower than other stores. In one church
owned thrift store I can buy a blazer in perfect condition
for only $3.00, no matter who designed or manufactured it!
Their price for blazers is $3, no more and no less.
When shopping at thrift stores, you could bear in mind
that you can buy better suits and coats because you may be
able to avoid dry cleaning them by hand washing with
Woolite or another gentle soap and cool water. Rinse in
cool water with a liquid fabric softener. Do not wring
out, but roll gently in an absorbent towel and let drip
dry. Use an iron and damp cloth to press all wrinkles out.
(Or you might like to try the new dry cleaner that works
in your clothes dryer. I’ve never used that.) I can’t
promise that you can wash everything in Woolite, but the
suits that are labeled Dry clean (as opposed to Dry clean only)
might come out O.K. If you can get a great price at a dry
cleaners, that is the safest way to clean your clothes.
If you could save money on dry cleaning by washing in
Woolite, you might feel that you’d rather get them pressed
by professionals. They have all the right equipment to do
a perfect pressing job. The problem with not knowing if a
suit could be cleaned at home is that you probably couldn’t
try the Woolite and water on a small sample of the
material, such as the skirt bottom, although its worth a
try. Professional dry cleaning is too expensive for the
frugal penny pincher, unless you limit it to necessary
business wardrobe or if you can find very reasonable
prices.
Another way to save money on clothing is to wear
sturdy, old clothing when working in the yard, washing the
car or rough housing with the kids or your dog. Have old
shoes as well to wear in wet or messy conditions, and save
your good shoes for times they won’t be getting dirty.
Shoes can last a long time if handled with care. The guy’s
or kids tennis shoes can be sprayed with disinfectant and
machine washed to remove odors, or you can try some dry
tea leaves wrapped in a Kleenex and leave this inside each
shoe for a day or two. They can also be sprayed with
fabric deodorizer like some of the knock offs similar to
Febreze (but cheaper!)
