Shop at thrift stores and used clothing stores. Buying thrift isn’t as cool as it once was, but those who still do will tell you that it’s worth it! You can find a lot of quality clothes with plenty of wear left in them. This is especially true when it comes to dresses, as people tend not to wear them as much; therefore, they are often in much better shape when it comes time for the person to part with them.

The trickiest thing about shopping for dresses at thrift stores is the fact that it is kind of hit or miss, meaning sometimes you find something really great and other times you don’t find anything at all. However, if you know your local thrift stores well, you can quickly go in, thumb through the dresses in your size, and leave without spending a lot of time if there is nothing that interests you.

Yard sales can also be another way of shopping thrift, but in general they are even more hit or miss, not to mention it uses up a lot more gas to drive from sale to sale. Unless you know the person holding the sale, not to mention their tastes in clothes, you may want to save your time and your gas for a more productive method of bargain shopping.

Shop at discount stores. There are stores nationwide that sell name brand clothing at discount prices. Often these stores buy clothing with small flaws from the manufacturer at a steep discount so that they can pass on some of the savings to the shopper. Other times they buy out overstock or merchandise from chains that are closing.

Like with thrift stores, this can be rather hit or miss, though it is not as bad. One of the advantages to shopping at discount stores is that you will often see the same dresses in several sizes, whereas at a thrift store the size you see is the size you get.

Shop online. Believe it or not, online outlets can be excellent sources for finding name brand dresses, both previously used and brand new. Used clothing is pretty self-explanatory: Either the seller owned it and is now passing it on, or they buy up used clothes from others and sell them on the Internet.

There is a lot of brand name clothing and jewelry selling on e-commerce Web sites. Typically the sellers buy overstock, returned items, and irregular clothing in large quantities and resell everything separately. Therefore it is not difficult to find exactly what you want for a much lower price than what you would pay in a department store or a pricey clothing store.

Shop outlet stores. Many big clothing companies sell off overstock or last season’s stuff via outlet stores. Your area may have an outlet mall or a shopping center full of outlet stores where you can shop brand name stores at discounted prices. Although the dresses you find here may be last season’s, there’s no reason why you can’t buy a few and put them away for next year!

For a dedicated bargain hunter, it is actually pretty easy to find great dresses at even better prices. It’s all about knowing where to shop!