How I Shop on a Budget

Just like every girl out there I’m always shopping. The key to me not killing my paycheck on clothes every week is that I shop on a budget. I mix new with used and even when I shop new it’s usually sale. Here are my favorite ways to shop on a budget.

I buy used clothing all of the time!!! I would say about 70 percent of my closet is used but new to me clothing. Obviously when buying used I’m usually at a thrift store. Thrifting is something I’ve been doing since forever and I absolutely love it. I love going to a thrift store not knowing what I’m going to find and sifting through all the clothing and finding new things to bring home.

Other ways to shop used is at places like Plato’s Closet or Buffalo Exchange. These stores sell used clothing from all of your favorite stores that people bring in to sell. There will be an employee that goes through the items that someone brings and will buy from them so pretty much what you find in the store is usually more of what’s on trend at the moment. The good thing about these places is that since they buy clothing from you that means you can sell to them and make money (yes!!!) or even put the money you make towards a purchase.

My favorite app to use to buy clothes is Poshmark. You can also sell your closet here and set your own prices and accept offers from customers. It’s really easy to use but I usually use the app to purchase. Every order is priority shipping so you get your items fast! I love finding a good deal on this app and the offer feature makes it really easy to save a few extra bucks. You can search by brand or even by what you are looking for like “shoes” and then filter by size, color, type…all those good things. I’ve probably used the app the most to find pairs of shoes that I love and have worn out and want to purchase again. For a time being there were some black glitter flats that I loved and I purchased them three times. Same goes for a pair of black and nude block heels and the white and nude block heels you see me wear all the time.

Other fun ways that I’ve shopped used is buying from instagram closet sales. This is a little more hard to come by and I just happen to have a girl that I follow that wears my size that likes to sell through instagram…I’ll take it :) I’ve even participated in a clothing swap before which is really cool to do because you’re not spending any money. All you have to do is set up a place and time and everyone brings a certain amount of pieces of clothing and you swap with each other…easy peasy and you can make it really fun by making a girls night in with yummy eats and drinks.

When shopping new I love using wishlists on the stores app. I’ll go through and “window shop”, put what I like in my wishlist, and then check in when the store is offering an online sale. If I see something and I absolutely love it I will by it right then and there depending on the price but I really really have to love it. My go to place to shop online is Asos. They even have a priority shipping subscription that you pay $20 for a year and will get all your purchases within two days. This comes in handy because for whatever reason I hate paying for shipping and making a one time payment beats paying the regular price for ground shipping which is going to take longer to get in for every purchase.

These are the things that I’ve been doing to shop on a budget. If you have any other tips definitely let me know in the comments!

xoxo erica

Magnolia Market at the Silos

Over the weekend Chris and I went to Arlington to see the Texas Rangers play. We are both huge fans and didn’t want to miss seeing Adrian Bletre get his number retired at the ball park. Go #29! The Rangers won and we got to go to Texas Live for the first time and check out all the restaurants and bars. We drank, had pizza, and walked backed to our car at 2 in the morning…okay maybe Chris may have given me a piggy back ride part of the way back to our car lol The next day we went to Six Flags Over Texas and had the most fun. I love roller coasters so I had a blast and luckily Chris survived the day without getting sick. When we left from Arlington the next day Chris decided to take a different way back home than what we usually go. After pulling up the GPS I quickly noticed we were passing right through Waco and told Chris that we needed to stop by the Magnolia Market. I couldn’t pass up the chance since the Silos are just like two minutes off of the highway.

This was actually the quickest part of our weekend trip and we made the most our little two hour detour. We walked around at the shop and looked at all the pretty things…so much good stuff there I wanted it all! After that we headed out and ordered some grilled cheeses to enjoy out in the sun. They were good but Chris still said that my grilled cheese is better :) Hire me Joanna! The day was really pretty and there was a nice breeze outside so hanging out in the sunshine was kinda perfect.

They also had the cutest little seed supply store there. I don’t have a green thumb but I try. Chris has better luck than I do and we ended up bringing home some sunflower, bluebonnet, and aster seeds with us. Chris tried to convince me to buy kale seeds…maybe next time. For now I’ll just stick with buying it from the grocery store.

There was no way we would come to the Magnolia Market without taking home some cupcakes!! I had heard stories about the line to the bakery but we only had to wait about 15-20 minutes which I didn’t think was too bad. The bakery was actually pretty cute and they only let a few people in at a time so you don’t ever feel overcrowded and can take whatever pics comfortably. I ended up getting 3 cupcake flavors, vanilla with vanilla buttercream, strawberry with vanilla buttercream, and vanilla with chocolate buttercream frosting and sprinkles! Chris brought home an oatmeal cream pie and some sugar cookies. I was actually surprised that he didn’t get chocolate chip because I thought that was his favorite type of cookie and it turns out his favorite is a sugar cookie…like what?! How had I been wrong all these years? I guess you can still learn new things after 16 years together.

I’m so glad we decided to stop by here unexpectedly. It was a fun break from the car and we both enjoyed being at this pretty place. We didn’t eat the cupcakes or cookies until we got home and OMG they were sooooo good. Chris said he would drive the 3 & 1/2 hours just to stock up on more cupcakes and cookies lol

xo erica

Caturday at El Gato Coffee House

A few weeks ago my sis called me and asked if I wanted to go to El Gato Coffee House. A place where you can go have coffee and hang out with cute cats…you didn’t have to ask me twice. I’ve always been known as a cat lady so you could say I was definitely in my happy place. The best Saturday or should I say Caturday ever. All of the cuties there were adoptable and if I could have I would have brought them all home with me. The coffee house also does yoga and movie nights with the cats which I can’t wait to try sometime soon…sounds so fun right?!

Thankfully I have quite a few cat people in my family so going with my sis, nieces, and nephew made this little experience quite puuuuurfect. lol

xoxo Erica