New Clothes

I just had my surgery 8 days ago and had a question about buying new clothes.  When I first started preparing for surgery I weighed 339 lbs.  After my 3 month diet for my insurance approval I lost 30 lbs.  Well since my surgery I have lost another 12 lbs cause I am on clear liquids till the 16th.  My question is I will have to start buying clothes soon but can"t afford to buy any thing expensive cause I will need to replace with smaller sizes soon.

I bought clothes as I went long.  I continued to work in a professional job and it required a professional wardrobe.  At some point I realized this was ridiculous as it was like throwing money away.  I started shopping at used clothing stores and saved a lot of money this way.  My weight started at 250 lbs. and I am now 136 lbs.

I also bought clothing from used clothing stores and consignment shops or bought clothing lots off of EBay  I have been able to get name brand, quality clothing for a fraction of the cost of new.  

 Thrift shops, especially those in upper-income areas, are great places to shop.  I found great bargains in very gently used clothing in all the sizes I needed as I went down in weight.

Thanks everyone for the feedback, I will look at some thrift stores and see what I can find  I knew I could ask here and get great advise

Depending on your resources and what type of job you have you might also want to check out GwynnieBee.com. It's a clothing subscription service - sort of like Netflix for clothes. For a monthly fee you get a certain number of garments at a time and can exchange them how ever often (or not often) you'd like. You log in and build a virtual closest from their selection then they start sending items. It has sizes from 10-32 and has been a godsend as I've lost weight but still needed to dress nicely for work!

I also show at thrift I was surprised when I went they actually have nice clothes if you threw them. The other day I bought 2 sweaters and a pair of like new jeans for $25.

For me, salavation army and good will.

And you know what, I ADMIT it to people when I get a complement. And you know what they do? They admit that they shop at those stores too, and even tell me the names of their favorite consignment shops.

So we are all happy and frugal together!!

Another interesting thing happened too. Some people have LOADS of clothes that don't fit them anymore. so when they ask "What size are you now?" I told them.  Then clothes in the size I was "traveling through" would just magically appear on my desk at work.  Basically, they were cleaning out their closets and giving their beloved clothes to me and enjoying how I wore them. 

I kept a list of what came from whom, and when the clothes got too big, I would tell the person that I appreciated it, would they like their garment back? Often I was told "No"  and to just donate the garment (which leads to tax write offs).

It is odd, but clothes magically appear from the oddest areas.

Today, for example, I am wearing Ann taylor equestrian riding pants with a J crew black sweater.  I did not buy this outfit but a colleague went to the dry cleaner. The dry cleaner was giving away all unclaimed clothes that day. She remembered that I am a size 10 and grabbed a size 10 skirt and riding pants for me. She also grabbed 7 medium sized sweaters and shirts.

Seriously, it was just dumb luck, but people are generally nice and like to do good turns for others.

I coupon any and every purchase I make. Target will probably get the bulk of my shopping dollars because on top of the sale price I can use a paper coupon and their Cartwheel (on the phone) coupon. New York and Co is another store that offers coupons. I plan to take that coupon to the outlet where the prices are MUCH cheaper than the mall store.

Another posted started wearing skirts because they could be worn longer than pants. 

The nice thing is that with the colder weather, looser layers are in so you can stretch your sizes a little longer for a bit and plus sizes have some wiggle room between sizes.  The bad news is that once your size drops below size 16, you'll be replacing your wardrobe every 6 weeks.  I did it on the cheap by scoping all of the consignment and thrift stores in the expensive neighborhoods.  I would sell what I could at the consignment stores to help fund my next size, and what they wouldn't take would go to the thrift store, where I would also find some fabulous deals on very nice clothes.  I was able to replace my entire wardrobe (casural and work) for under $100