What do you do when you have a constraint budget to do your shopping? Li Chuen is a self-proclaimed shopaholic who spends most of her time shopping and surfing the net for the latest fashion. She has the tendency to buy things which is unnecessary and would end up broke by the end of the month.

Shopping with a budget

The ever changing world of fashion makes it impossible for us to keep up with the trends at times. Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter season is when most of the designers will come up with new collections that will influence the fashion trend worldwide.

Purchasing many apparel at once is a common habit of women and we would sometimes regret splurging so much yet we still repeat this cycle every single time without fail. At the end of the day, piggy banks will be emptied, coins will be fully utilized to support our daily expenditures such as food and petrol.

Being caught in such situation, a budget would be the best idea to help us manage our money. But will it? Some of us might think it does not help at all and in fact, it might make things worse. By setting a budget, we have more control of knowing what we can or cannot afford. 

Here are some pointers for managing your budget.

• Have an additional bank account or have a petty cash box that is solely for your shopping expense.

Do make it a habit of setting cash aside so that you'll be able to live through till the end of the month without surviving only on bread and water. By doing so, we can learn to control our spending and buy what is necessary.

• Buy what you NEED not want

Hold your eyes rolling for now. I'm sure that most of you have heard this phrase repeated everywhere but I couldn't help myself to reinforce it once again. Seriously, deciding which apparel you need is important as it can affect your whole wardrobe. Like everyone else, we would end up buying things that we want instead of what we need thus making it hard to find a particular accessory or apparel to match the outfit.

• Go for SALES!

Although it's a gimmick to attract customers and boost sales, we still benefit from the discounted prices as we pay a cheaper price compared to the usual marked up price. You could also get more in terms of quantity than paying twofolds for things such as a simple top. Besides that, vouchers offered during sales season can be saved to purchase more items in future.

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Sneak peek for next week: What to do with clothes sitting in your closet?