One of the biggest hurdles to dressing well is having enough money to afford the latest looks or the highest quality clothes.  Recently, two fashionable women weighed in in the issue of money and fashion, with answers you may not expect.

First, my favorite financial adviser, Suze Orman, talked about the issue on her show.  While the clip was primarily about whether women should be allotted more money in the family budget to take care of their appearance, Suze also weighs in with some fashion advice!

While I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that Suze has a frugal approach to her clothes as she does with all things money-related, I was surprised.  I assumed that anyone in such a public role would require an enormous expenditure on clothes.  Now, I am certain Suze’s clothing expenses still dwarf all of ours, but it was interesting to know that even a celebrity can live on a clothing budget.

Second, one of my favorite fashion bloggers, Maegan Tintari, wrote a recent post on her blog . . . loveMaegan about how she spends money on clothes.  Maegan, who has the good fortune of looking like a beautiful, human Barbie-doll, posts photos of her outfits several times a week, if not daily.  While she achieves so many different looks, often she is recycling the same wardrobe pieces all the time.  She also adds in these really clever, simple, but very cool DIY projects that adopt high fashion runway looks for pennies.  Yet, in the post that was so interesting to me, she reveals that she is not necessarily about budget fashion and that she does spend a lot of money when she wants to and that she is picky about certain items.

Clothes are one area we try to save money on in our household budget.  When you are dressing children who are constantly changing sizes, you have a lot of clothes to buy–not to mention accessories like shoes, boots, pajamas and coats.  We haven’t had a lot of luck thrift store shopping but we do patronize a lot of discount stores, browse clearance racks, buy online, request clothes as gifts for birthdays and holidays, share hand-me-downs with younger siblings and sometimes I sew or knit things as well.  We also try to buy classic things in the off season sales to wear the following year.  I don’t have a set pattern for what I splurge on.  It’s more of an “I’ll know it when I see it” sort of test.

Where do you stand on fashion and money?  What items are you willing to spend a lot on and where do you try to save money?  Do you save elsewhere to splurge on fashion instead?  Please share in the comments.