Frugal Does Not Equal Cheap

I like to clarify that frugal does not necessarily equal being cheap! Quite the contrary. To myself anyway. To me, being frugal just means getting the most bang for your buck. That being said, lets move on to clothes shopping.
I love new clothes and especially shoes. Yes, I'm one of those, a shoe freak. I have to be a bit particular about my shoes though. I've had a foot surgery, and I've learned the importance of a good supporting shoe, the hard way. I can get away with a less supportive shoe, but only for a brief time My favorite shoe store is Famous Footwear. They don't always have something that I'm looking for, but sometimes I can hit the jackpot there. They periodically have a buy one, get one half off sale. Which by the way, includes their clearance items. That's where I get lucky. The thing is though, you can't go looking for a specific thing in the clearance section and always expect to find it. I usually just "check" it to see what they have. If they have something that I "just can't live without" and the price is just right, I'll buy it. I've bought several pairs of high dollar, name brand shoes for $15 or less this way.
For me, clothes shopping is a game. I try to see how much less than the original price I can get an item for. But you have to be willing to buy that sweater either a little later in the season, or much later in the season and save it for next year.
See, I know that some department stores are going to lower their prices close to Christmas time. That is usually your first discount time. Then of course, you have your after Christmas sale, and then your year end clearance sales. It just depends on how long you want to wait, and if you are willing to take the chance that the sweater will still be there.
So...sometimes I don't wait on one certain item. Instead, I just wait on the sale and see what they have. Unless of course it's something so so cute! For instance last year, our local JC Penney's had these really cute short sleeved car sweaters. Love them. They had them in brown, cream and burgundy. When they first appeared in the store they were retailing for $40. Well, just before Christmas, they were on sale for, get this, $15! So, I grabbed a brown one. Got home, wished I had of grabbed the cream one instead. Still liked the brown, don't get me wrong, I just realized I would of preferred the cream. Oh well.
Well, not long after Christmas I was in Penney's again for something else, and voila! Those sweaters were discounted again! This time though the quantities were limited, so I grabbed the cream one. The price tag read $11.99, but guess what? It rang up for $8.71 instead.
So...That's just a brief explanation of how I shop. I always always always hit the clearance racks first. Always. This years school clothes shopping for my son was primarily done at Kohl's clearance racks. I hit them at just the right time. For right under $200 I bought him 6 shirts, some t-shirts, some button ups. He got 3 pairs of jeans, one pair of Levis for only $7.99, skinny ones too, and I think 4 pairs of shorts. Not bad eh?