How do you ensure that you always have clothes that fit?

For most of our marriage, my wife has shopped at Value Village, Salvation Army Stores, and other non-chain gently-used clothing stores to outfit the whole family. My only new clothes for the last decade have been socks and undies.

I have a mile of dress clothes and casual clothes, half a dozen leather and suede jackets, and shoes and boots until the cows come home.

Google all the second-hand stores you can find and add a weekly hunt to your fun time. It's amazing what you can find.

Good question.....I shop often.

Someone suggested to me to shop in a resale/thrift shop until I reach goal. New clothes was my reward to reaching goal.

Ebay

thrift type stores for sure! I love places like platos closet or the buffalo exchange... goodwill and the others can also be great.

Also, every few months I do a clothes swap with my friends and family and whoever else wants to come. its really fun cause you get to be with your friends, try on clothes, and get new clothes

I pick on my husband by telling him he is "renting" clothes from the Goodwill. He'll buy a pair of jeans in his size and after losing weight he has to donate them back and buy another pair, etc., etc. It's ok tho, because he's buying them at $5 a pop. And shirts, the t-shirts are $1 a piece. In a pinch, it can help flesh out your wardrobe.

Tops I'll wear longer than I should, jeans I have in several sizes, but when these outgrow me (haha) I'll hit the Goodwill. Now the bras I'm investing in every 15 lbs lost because a bra that's too big is a crime.

But other than that, I'm asking family for money for xmas and birthdays so that I can throw that into my clothes budget. Luckily your shoes usually keep fitting.

You've reminded me that I need to have the does-it-still-fit-me closet fashion show to donate the next pile of clothes. Congratulations on all your hard work and success. Seeing other people do well is what keeps me motivated because we're all just ordinary people making extraordinary changes. If so many others can succeed, I can too.

Or as they say, 50 million Elvis fans can't be wrong!

I shop at thrift stores and buy just a few clothes here and there in different sizes. I have clothes in my closet that are just a tad too small to too big. I also shop sales at the end of the season for the next year.

I really like having clothes that fit though...shopping too small gives me the boost to lose just a few more pounds so they fit!

You could sell your clothes instead of giving them away. There are second hand shops that buy and sell name-brand clothing like Plato's Closet or Buffalo Exchange. Or yes, check ebay.

Like everyone else has said, thrift stores are your friend right now. I'd also suggest buying leggings and adjustable dresses (like wrap dresses) so that you can just tie the dresses tighter and the leggings stretch well.

the hard part for me was clothes for work.
the pants part mainly. things were just to big - even with a belt on it looked silly. so I slowly incorporated sizes that fit and when those didn't fit i'd get them taken in as much as I could, but if the pockets got to close together it was time for a new pair.
it was too much to buy a whole new set of pants. so i did it in stages.
and I actually donated all my bigger size pants because I didn't want them. I had to tell myself I wont get back to that again.

I shop at Goodwill, garage sales, and other consignment shops and buy a few good pieces to get me through to the next size. I am donating all my fat clothes so I am not tempted to just gain it all back... It's the right thing to do but it hurts to give away the clothes that I adore. As someone else said its fun to shop at the 2nd hand stores to see what deals you can find for yourself. I refuse to buy anything new until I hit my goal weight/size.

So far I am just wearing the bigger clothes with belts. I know it's not that flattering but, like you, I can't affoard a new wardrome at every loss. I am going to try to keep doing this for as long as possible and then go look at marshal's and ross.

I also hear from a friend that worked at American eagle that if you bought a pair of jeans there, they are for a lifetime so you can exchange them out for different sizes. I would ask about it before buying but if that's true, it's AWESOME

p.s. I am seriously so excited for a new wardrobe when I get to my goal

Thrift stores - Goodwill & Salvation Army (we call it Sally's Boutique LOL)
TJ Maxx & Marshalls
Watch for sales - maybe even sign up for emails from your favorite stores if you don't get mailings from them (or fliers in a newspaper)

ETA: consignment shops

I like shopping at winners. Not as cheap as value village, but if you like new stuff for a fraction of the price, it's a good place to shop.

Dresses are a great way to go for clothing that spans several sizes, though my "regular" size dresses that were good to keep me from having to buy stuff in bigger sizes are now too big

My sister and I are working out, eating well, and losing weight together. (It wasn't planned that way - the timing just worked out well.) She is about 25 pounds behind me, weight-wise, and so basically I pass all my clothes along to her as they get too big for me. However, I am hitting the point where I'm not going to be dipping into many more smaller sizes. My tops are already size S, and since I have boobs I can't imagine I'm going to hit XS in much. I am in size 8 jeans, but I still have another 30 pounds or so to lose, so I imagine I'll need to pass those on as well! My sister also has a co-worker who has given her some clothes that are too small for her, and she has sold basically all of her old clothes to another co-worker.

So that's one way to do it - find someone who needs to get rid of smaller clothes because they're either too big or too small. Otherwise she and I will pick up pieces here and there at Goodwill or at places like TJ Maxx or Marshalls. I don't have the income to be able to do often that right now, but basically if I can find something for less than $10 that is well-made and versatile enough, I'll snag it. (I also am lucky in that I've been on the smaller side before, so I have a fair amount of clothes left over from then.)

A few months ago I purchased an awesome pair of Levi's jeans at Belk on clearance ($50 jeans for $11) in a size 16. I think I got to wear them 3x before I passed them on to my sister, and thankfully she got more wear out of them than I did. She and I both loved the style so much (since we have similar builds) that we scoured the internet for smaller sizes of the same jeans. She and I both ended up buying two pairs each off of eBay. (Just a note on Levi's - they tend to run small compared to other brands. For example, my Levi's 10s are slightly tighter on me now than my NY&Co 8s. I basically consider my Levi's 8s as a 6.)

My sister also found some people on craigslist who were selling clothes and has sold some clothes that way. She bought a new winter coat on clearance at Banana Republic, but she sold her old coat on craigslist to fund the new coat. I think all in all she ended up spending $15 on the new coat when you take into account what she sold her old coat for.

To sum up my little novel here - trading or purchasing from people you know, craiglist, eBay, Goodwill and the like, TJ Maxx and the like, and clearance sales at other stores. You should have a lot of luck with sales once Christmas passes, but you can also sell your bigger clothes, even if it's just as a lot on craiglist, to fund some new clothing purchases.