(I should preface this entry with the fact that I am a Banana Republic JUNKIE. I love their clothes, and love their shoes even more.)

So I cleaned out my closet. And donated probably 2/3rds of my wardrobe. Half the stuff I just don’t wear, and half of that I never wore(!), some doesn’t fit, some never fit, and some is just OLD and RATTY. I analyzed my wardrobe, mapped out exactly (and only!) what I needed and have been filling in the gaps over the past 3 months. I have not purchased a single full priced item. I haven’t even touched something that wasn’t at least 50% off. Last week I bought a $200 pair of Banana Republic Monogram slim fit, plaid suit pants. FOR $10.49. And I had an ELEVEN DOLLAR STORE CREDIT. So I basically got a $200 pair of pants for free.

My shoe shopping scores have really taken the cake though. I have honestly been repairing the same 5 pairs of shoes for at least two years now. Three weeks ago, my shoe guy told me enough was enough, he could NOT repair my black pointy toed stilettos after this time. So it was time to invest in a new pair. My only criteria: they had to be cute, and they had to have a THICK heel (that would be a lot harder to completely destroy).

Let’s examine my scores:

Two weeks ago I purchased these babies at Banana Republic – original price? $155. I got them for $35.

This weekend I purchased both of these hotties at Banana. The flats were originally $98, I got them for $17.

And the ultimate winner – these pumps were originally $160 and I got them for $18:

.

In the past two weeks, I have spent a total of $80.50 for $612 worth of stuff.

……..

!!!!!

I don’t do math. (I’m not a numbers person.) But that is pretty damn good.

All I can say is, do not buy anything full price right now. You don’t have to. I’m lucky to have the added luxury of working within spitting distance to a Banana (which is probably why I love it so much), but that means I get to check out their inventory and sales often. If you want to get the best deals, learn to do this. You don’t buy every time you go, but just get to know what a store has and how their discounting works (plus you get in with the employees and they’ll tell you when to buy and when to wait if a sale is coming up!).

Another tip: if you have store cards put your purchases on that instead of using a regular credit card or debit card. Just for using my Banana Card I got an EXTRA 10% off in store yesterday and a receipt with a survey link. If you complete the survey you get a code which gets you 20% the next time you shop for a full price item. If you don’t have a card, but shop that store often – it might be worth opening one. Most stores offer anywhere from 15% – 30% off on your purchase on the day you open a card (some stores have extended this to the first three days or even a whole WEEK). Having a store card gets you additional benefits: the last two times I got my bills I got at least $10 in rewards Banana Cash, and I recently got $20 for my birthday. The rewards cash is good for 6 months – stock up enough of these and you have a free item of clothing! You’ll also get emails updating you on all the sales if you’re not working on top of a physical store location like I am. And some stores have even more added benefits if you rack up enough points with them. (I know Banana offers free shipping and free tailoring!)

Also if you are looking for a particular item and don’t care where it comes from, use sites like Shop Style. You type in an item description (for example “Black Pencil Skirt“) and it will pull up pages and pages of product that you can easily do price comparisons. It will pull high end items from Neimans and Barneys and more wallet friendly items from J. Crew, Express and even Forever 21. I created a log in and use the Stylebook function to save pieces/outfits I like. This made it really easy to rebuild the staple pieces in my wardrobe without going overboard or missing a single deal. You can search other users Stylebooks to get ideas or find better deals as well!

I’m also a fan of the blog “The Look for Less” which is basically a blog version of ShopStyle highlighting specific items daily.

So there you go. If you desperately need to replace something, now is the time if you’re smart about it.