Shopping for new clothes

Sales are your best friend when you're still on the road to your goal weight/size. I'm spending as little as possible at the moment because nothing fits for very long at all - some shopping still required though to avoid looking like a slob.

You should go for it, even almost fitting into a new size in jeans can be a good motivator to keep on going!

Well, I waited far, far too long. I waited until basically every single thing I owned didn't fit and I started getting comments about looking sloppy. The second mistake I made was not saving any money for the entire new wardrobe I apparently now need! I guess I was so focused on the loss that I didn't really think about it (I'm not a huge shopper to begin with). So I had to go out and buy just the essentials and now I have a very empty closet and an even emptier wallet!!

I second (third? fourth?) the comment about thrift shops. I like to get rid of my clothes as soon as they get too big, the nicer ones I sell on eBay, and the rest I donate or throw away. That gives me a little money towards new clothes.

Shopping at thrift stores I can sometimes score a really expensive pair of designer jeans or even a coat/jacket - the problem is you never know what you are going to find. So it takes persistence, usually a couple of visits to find what I need. But it's a HUGE money saver. Once I needed to find a couple of dresses. I visited 2 thrift stores and managed to find 3 plus sized dresses that fit me, for only $15 total - one of them was new with tags!

I also scored an adorable Ralph Lauren black jacket/coat in a size 2X, for only $2...I'm still wearing it several years later. Can't wait until I shrink too much to wear that though...

*Edited to add that I do laundry once per week so I find that I don't need too many clothes when I'm in between sizes - a nice pair of pants or jeans, maybe 2 pairs, and a few shirts I really like, and maybe a skirt, can go a long way, plus the clothes I have in my closet from when I was a bit thinner...I work from home so don't need a fancy work wardrobe however.

Definitely use thrift shops and clearance racks and resist the temptation to get too much until you hit your goal! Happy losing!

I was just thinking of this today. I reached goal (or a bit below) in February. In the spring, I was hesitant to buy much--partly because I knew I wanted to gain a bit of weight back, and I just started a heavy lifting program. So when I saw winter clearance clothes, I didn't stock up as I otherwise would have. As summer started, I bought quite a few things. While I still wasn't sure what size I would end up ultimately, I decided that I didn't want to wear baggy clothes all summer. (Unfortunately, I bought a lot of really cute dresses that I barely wore--in some cases, never wore--because it was such a cold summer!) Anyway, now it's fall, and I realized today that I'm really comfortable buying clothes, and stocking up, in my current size because I feel confident that this is about where I'll stay. And I figure the more clothes I have--and the more fitted they are--the more likely I will stay this size because I won't want them to go to waste, I'll notice more if things are getting tight, and I'll feel good looking cute in clothes that actually fit!