Financing Your New 'Adult' Style. . .

Besides thrift and consignment shops, places like the Salvation Army and Goodwill can also be places where you can occasionally come across a choice piece or two of menswear that, with dry-cleaning and minor alterations via your tailor, can take their place of pride in your wardrobe.

As I've mentioned here before -- and a number of other great blogs discuss in considerable detail. See especially An Affordable Wardrobe. -- you can easily kick up your style several notches into the realm of tasteful, adult menswear by visiting thrift shops. But even on those days when the pickings are slim in your particular dimensions, don't ignore picking up thse gems that can be flipped and resold for quite a bit more.

These funds can then be plowed back into your own clothing, shoes, and accessories budget for use at a future date. Outlets like e-bay make this a very easy prospect. For instance, this morning, I came across three pairs of men's Zanella dress pants in wool, priced at US$1.50 each at one of my local thrift outlets that are almost like new. Typically, these pants retail for about US$295-$395+ at places like Nordstroms. Sadly, the waists are just a bit too generous to have altered to my own 32" waist without throwing off the proportions of the pants. But, I can probably more than recoup my minimal cash outlay many times over. And who can complain about that?

So, there you go. One more way to finance your new-found classic style without breaking the bank.

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