When you have bills piling up; rent, telephone charges, transportation costs, utility bills, and other bills staring you in the face, your clothing budget might be the first to suffer if you are one of the pragmatists out there.

But a lady has got to look trendy, and it doesn’t take much introspection to realize it doesn’t take a million dollar budget to look your best. Here are a few tricks to make the best out of what you’ve got.

Keep an Eye on Sales Windows of Department Stores 

Its amazing how blind you can be to amazing offers when you have a lot of money at your disposal. Take advantage of discount sales, and all other knockdown offers scheduled within the year at most of these shops. Ask the shop attendant, mark your calendar, save up a little and save a lot of money.

Shop Alone

If shopping on a budget is what you want to achieve, research has proven shopping with a pack of friends is probably a bad idea. Shopping with friends is akin to accomplices in crime! They can egg us on to making purchases that we don’t want or need, and can have their own (sometimes unconscious) motives for encouraging us to shop. If you want to go shopping as a social activity, that’s okay – but make it a purely social activity with no purchasing allowed. Window shop, or have a bite to eat together, but don’t buy until you can go shopping on your own.

Carry a Structured Bag

The right bag just has a way of making up for every other perceived deficiency in styling. When you see a woman who looks poised and polished, she almost always is carrying a structured bag.  This type of bag completes the “expensive” look.  It’s simple lines and hardware gives an outfit a “finished” look.

Use Sunglasses

Wear sunglasses and you’ll look cool and collected!  Perhaps the images of celebrities wearing beautiful sunglasses have been an influence on us to wear them.  The fancier the sunglasses help make your outfit look expensive.

Looking Clean and Smart Goes a Long Way

There’s really no point wearing expensive stuff and looking unkept, it diminishes everything! Make sure your hair is clean and have a nice hairstyle.  Keep your skin in good condition.  Wear makeup that looks natural and wear lip color.  Make sure your nails are kept trimmed and/or painted.

Wear Lipgloss

Avoid looking drab ladies!! Put on some color, it has a way of laying up your looks, and giving you a glamourous appeal. 

Wear a lip color that has a colored tint, like red, coral or pink.  Red is a classic lip color.  It goes great with black and white.  Wear a shade of red that looks good with your skin tone.