Budgeting can be hard work. Especially when you’re trying to find room in your budget for things that may not be “essential”. Of course, clothing is essential but nice clothing – the kind doesn’t fall apart after three washings – isn’t necessarily an essential because yes, you can make do with clothing that falls apart (it’s the whole reason I learned how to sew by hand).
The majority of my designer clothing I earn for free. Call it guilt but I hate paying out of our budget for designer clothes for me. And my version of nice is name brand – like H&M, American Eagle, and even Express. Now, before you go thinking I’m a clothing snob, I have Walmart coat (seen in the picture below) that is my favorite and no one even knows it came from Walmart! So, you definitely don’t have to spend a ton to look great!
(In this photo the jeans [American Eagle] and shoes [Lucky Brand] I bought for free. The coat is from Walmart and was a gift for Christmas from one of my boys. They know their mama well. 🙂 )
And since I’ve talked about my free clothing hauls several times on my social media, I thought it was time for me write a blog post that gives the details of exactly what I do to earn those free clothes.
So how do I do it? How do I earn the majority of my clothes for free?
(This entire outfit was free to me – including the boots!)
Swagbucks
I can’t mention Swagbucks enough. I use my SBs for everything! We paid for our entire Christmas last year with the points I earned from Swagbucks. (You can read more on making a debt-free Christmas possible here.)
The boots in the outfit pictured above were purchased from Amazon (these are the ones here) with an Amazon gift card that I bought with my Swagbucks. These have quickly become my favorite boots and I’m convinced that all girls should a pair of sturdy boots in their closet!
(And yes, if you’re wondering I felt totally awkward taking all these photos. 🙂 )
ThredUp
This is another site that I mention often – because I use them often. I earn so many free clothes from there just by referring others and sending them our unwanted clothing (they accept kids clothes!). The entire outfit pictured above cost me $0.00. The jeans are American Eagle (different ones than the ones in the photo with the coat…apparently I like AE….), the striped top is H&M and the cardigan is J.Crew.
If you want $20 off your first order of $25 or more, you can sign up for ThredUp here and then start referring all your friends and family so you can earn $20 for each friend!
Ebates
Yet again, this is another site that I talk about often because I use them all.the.time. Ebates is a cashback site (Ebates is now called Rakuten) that offers cashback deals on many online retailers. I earned $3 back on the boots in the picture because I first went through ebates.com, clicked on Amazon, and then shopped like normal. I often use my cashback to purchase clothes for my husband (since ThredUp doesn’t have men clothes). So, I literally made $3 on my boots because my boots cost me nothing to buy. Awesome sauce. 🙂
These are the ways that I earn my clothes for free so I don’t have to come out of the budget for them. What are your ways of scoring free clothing or next-to-free clothes?
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The boots are adorable and AE jeans are my favorite too! They wear really well and last a long time and they fit great. When buying online they have odd sizes too so I know my size and can wear any style by them.
I have to try some of these ideas! I’m a budget girl too and often new clothes aren’t where I spend my money. I love FREE. Great post, will pin!
You are so cute! And thrifty – I love it. 🙂 I could learn a thing or two from you!!
Thank you darlin’! 🙂
Try Schoola too. I get free stuff for myself and my kids all the time. Also I miss Twice! I miss it so much.
I haven’t ordered anything from them yet but I keep hearing amazing things so I need to jump on that bandwagon! 🙂
Just ordered from thred up for the first time through your link. Got cute express jeans (my favorite!) and a cute summer Gap tank top for $6. 97 shipped. 🙂 Thank you!!
HECK YES!!!!!!! That’s an awesome haul Heather! 🙂
You look great, Jessi!
I use Ebates every time I shop online – I love it!! I also use Swagbucks, but I typically only earn a few points every day, so I cash out every few months. Like you, I use thredUP referral credits to purchase things for my daughter. Since I’m not paying for them, if they don’t fit her well, I just turn around and take them to the children’s consignment store in my area and make money off of them. 🙂 I do the same thing with Schoola. And when I sell things via the children’s consignment store, I can use my earnings to buy clothes for my daughter there.
I don’t buy a lot of clothes for myself, but I generally need to buy them in stores or from online sites with free returns. This is because I want to try things on before I buy them. Darn post-baby body…
Hello there!! Im Kate and I just to be a stay at home mom!! Ive tried the SwagBucks website,and I find that I don’t have a lot of luck with it. I tried to let the videos play all day, but they always seem to freeze..any tips? Also any other tips on going from a two income household to a one income household? This is all so new to me ladies and forgive me for begging but I NEED HELP. Much love to you all
Hi Kate! With Swagbucks it can definitely take a while to earn points so don’t fret too much if it’s slow building. If the videos keep freezing on you contact SB to tell them and they will more than likely fix it for you. When going from a two income to one income home I suggest developing a plan of action. For us, we started saving my paychecks while we adjusted to living off just my husband’s income. This allowed us to “test the waters” without really living on one income yet. And better yet, since I had my job just transfer my paychecks to our savings account versus our checking account we started to build up an amazing emergency fund while learning how to budget better and live off one income. I hope this helps! 🙂
Hey there Jessi, you really do know how to take advantage of the free things 🙂 I like the idea and how you use Swagbucks. I use Shoola and I have received quite some good freebies from the points that I have earned. Gonna try out swagbucks too. Thanks for sharing.
Cindy
I keep hearing about eBates and finally signed up last week! I’m excited to start earning. 🙂
YOU WILL LOVE IT! 🙂 Seriously, it’s one of my favorite sites! 🙂
Can you get rewards from both ebates and swagbucks at the same time?
I have! But honestly, I’m not sure how I managed to pull that one off – I think it was because I used a gift card that I bought with my Swagbucks at Amazon through Ebates.
Hi Jessie, other ways to get clothes is going to churches and other places that give out free clothing, sometimes you can score nice items. Other sites I like are listia, it’s an auction site that has a points based system and is free to sign up, best way to win an auction is to bid at the last couple seconds to maximize your chance of winning, some even have a get it now feature. I love swag bucks but I also like inboxdollars, similar to swag bucks with videos, search, radio that you enter a code every ten minutes, winit code like swag code, surveys and billys spin and win rather you qualify or not, sweeps, and paid emails you do in site along with tasks and shopping, you can request a check or visa card ($3 fee) or gift cards with no fee once you reach $30 or let it go. Please keep in mind, if you make over $300 a year, they report it to the irs and you have to pay taxes after $500 in a year. Inboxdollars sister site, sendearnings, just like inboxdollars but without the extra perks like radio and billys spin and win. I also like shopkick app (in the app store.) A pont based system you can redeem for gift cards. Open the app daily to earn 1 or 2 kicks, they give points for walking into stores and scanning items for that store, you can also link your card to make purchases at those stores, you will need to use the location on your phone when you want to use the app.
Hmm. I have found that there are many brands that are inexpensive that are actually made really well. I went to school for fashion. (Which is laughable because I literally live in cargo pants and t-shirts.) So, I know a thing or two about clothing quality. Walmart’s Garanimal brand for kids is actually made very well for the most part target clothes sometimes are. Kmart is typically made terribly. Again, these are all for kid’s clothes.
For adult clothing, when I still cared about what I wore, I actually found American Eagle to be made very poorly. Their denim is ok, but other things were really thin materials. Old Navy was horrible as was Aeropostal. Honestly, any of the trendier clothing lines for youth was cheaply made. It makes sense because items that are not classics need to be affordable so people can stay on trend.
I have found the best made clothes tend to be things from places that cater to only adult women. (yeah, I know that means they might not have anything super trendy!) For example- Ann Taylor, The Limited, CJ Banks, etc. I actually still have a pair of shorts from The Limited that I bought in college! They are finally starting to fray, but the seems must have been reinforced like crazy!
Express is usually good, too, but I have had some bad luck with them after they had all of those changes a few years back.
Anyway, just thought I would share. ☺
You look so cute in the photos & very fashionable! Thank you for all of your great tips. I use Ebates when purchasing almost anything online (some stores/sites do not use Ebates). I’ve sent clothes to Thredup and Swap.com (easy to do as you just ship unused items to them in their bag), but other sites will get you more mula if you have time to take photos and input listing info. Sites I love to sell from are Tradesy.com and Poshmark.com.
Thank you for sharing all of these great tips! I have boy/girl twins who are Freshmen in college and everything costs so much! Let me know if you would like me to share how I’ve saved money so far in that area.
Thank-you for an excellent new thing called ThredUP! I also used your referral link and placed an order. Best of luck to you in all present future endeavors. LB
Ooooooh. This is killer info! I almost NEVER buy clothes… cause I think it’s a waste of money–LOL, but who doesn’t need or want something different every now and then?
Thanks for all the great tips. I really need to make sure to use ebates all the time.
Of course its moderated, that’s why all of her are positive! !! You could easily be the next H. Clinton, lie to the public and delete the bad/honest
I’m sorry Cher, but I don’t understand your comment. Would you kindly give me a little more information on what it is you’re upset about?
Probably it’s all positive because she gave some really good tips, and most people in the world are generally nice. Honestly, there’s no reason to be mean on social media. Be more “social”. 🙂
Thank you Melissa for your kind words! 🙂
I love free or a sale. I have 4 grandchildren and their shoe size’s range from 3-4 infant (1 boy), 8-10 toddler (2 boys) & 13-1 little kids (1 girl). I can wear 3 little kids-5 big Kids & 5-6 women’s shoes. I recently got all the kids shoes and myself (which half the time I don’t wear) shoes & sandals in both boy’s & girl’s for around $0.50-$5.00. Plus shirts, shorts & pants for $1.00-$5.00 at Walmart. I also look for toys & stuff marked down from seasonal and shop at The Dollar Tree, 5 Below & Ollie’s Outlet. I’ve actually been able to get all the kids and grandkids and other family members Christmas shopping done and have earned 3 10% off coupons from Ollie’s, I use my pharmacy & CVS rewards bucks to purchase items along with printed coupons, Ace Hardware rewards bucks and Harbor Freight 20% off coupons along with free item coupon for the guys. Not to mention learning to do different DIY projects. I have gifts, clothes, shoes & wrapping paper (since I stock up on it after Christmas & look for the designs that could be used for birthdays, weddings etc) to last a few years. I always buy the shoes & clothes in multiple sizes when they are on marked down & put away for the family. So that saves us & helps out our 3 children who are all single parents. My husband complains that I’m cheap until he needs something and I go pull it out of one the containers. That’s including toiletries, air fresheners, etc. I even got 3 boxes full of Lil Swimmers that I got for $.50 each and about 25 or more bottles & cans of baby formula that I got for free or only paid $.38 for with coupons.
I saw your pin on Pinterest and had to check it out! Thanks for all of the great information! I DO have a couple of questions–Swagbucks vs. Ebates. Which do you use for what? Do you mostly do the side stuff like videos and surveys on Swagbucks, but when online shopping use Ebates? Or just a combo? I’m just trying to figure it all out and get the best value! Thanks for the info!
Yes, I mostly use Swagbucks for the videos and surveys. Occasionally I’ll shop through them as well but I have better luck using Ebates for that. 🙂
This. Is. Great. Unbelievable!! Thanks a ton for sharing all this information!
Church Rummage Sale are the best. Stuff is really cheap and usually the last day it is fill a bag for a dollar Yes a dollar. One of the last ones I went to I brought a friend who has 4 boys and 5th on the way she scored a booster seat a pair of North face winter boots 3 pairs of short and 2 shirts and 2 pairs of pant that were OshKosh B’Gosh for a $1.50 . In my area they usually have them twice a year in the spring and fall. If you want to make it free pick up something you can sale on ebay or another site I try and do that.
I just used your link to place my first order with ThredUP… I am so excited! I also requested a bag as I usually get frustrated and too busy to try and sell our used clothing elsewhere… but just putting it in a bag and mailing it off?? That is just as easy as donating… but I get money back! WooHoo! Thanks so much for sharing! With three kiddos and trying to look decent myself, it can do a number on our budget! Thanks again!
While I love Ebates, I don’t consider spending the money I earn there as getting the item I purchased with my Ebates money as ‘for free’. I calculate my Ebates savings when I purchase something into the price of what I am buying. Using Ebates on a purchase is no different than using money you earned from a job or were given as a gift. It’s still real money, right into you PayPal account.
I went to a seminar that my job has us go to. The lady giving us a seminar had a really nice red designer suit on, you can tell nice quality. She said she got it at her drycleaners and all she had to pay was the cleaner bill. She told us if we wanted to get some nice things, check in with your local Cleaners and see if they have any clothes left behind that people haven’t picked up ( my cleaners sold me a nice toddler coat for $5) and they wait 6 months and if no one picks up their dry cleaning, then its another avenue to shop and save. Just thought I would share that as it worked for me too.
That is awesome! Thank you so much for sharing that Eme! I’ll definitely give that a try. 🙂
I have never commented on any website before, but I had to express my opinion after reading this article. I want people to be careful when using the Three up website. I had a very bad experience with them. I sent in a lot of designer clothes in near perfect condition, as they were supposed to give me an offer for them. They gave me a $9 offer for all if my great clothes and a new leather tote bag that cost me $175. I said no way and that I wanted my clothes back. They informed me that I would not get my clothes back because I never checked a box on the forms saying I would like to get them back. Please be careful with this company. They’re not honest people. I have read so many consumer complaints against them. Thank you.
They can definitely be difficult when selling your clothes to them. I hate that you had such a terrible experience with them Marnie! 🙁