I only buy them in the sales!

[Butterismylife]

Usually on topics about clothes, but it is becoming repetitive. Why does everyone who admits to purchasing from brands that have high price tags have to insist they ONLY buy in the sales? (white co, Toast, etc)

Is it some new kind of virtue signalling, to literally have to remind everyone that you never, ever pay full price? Who cares? It’s like insisting ‘I have impeccable taste but I am so terribly thrifty!’

So much bloody posturing around the virtues of thriftiness - surely this is designed to insinuate that the poster is of a certain class, whilst sheepishly insisting they don’t believe in it.

It’s a sort of extension of the repetitive class related posts that always insist they grew up working class but are (of course!)……middle class now! Every damned time. Are we a culture of clones?

Who days this crap in real life ?
For the record, fairly lighthearted rant .

@Butterismylife

Interesting. So many responses say it is because we can’t afford a £32 shirt. Yet MN is generally stuffed to the gills with people bragging about 6 figure salaries (marrying well, grrrrl pwr!) and owning several properties.

And remember, MN is also where you have to state that you were born poor but ARE REALLY MIDDLE CLASS NOW, because you worked hard and were ‘genetically’ blessed with intelligence. Because hard;y,anyone on here admits to remaining working class, 0h the horror!

There’s a curious disconnect. It’s fascinating. I suspect a lot of competitiveness and insecurity writhes beneath

But ignoring the other many many reasons that people have stated.

Imo, the only disingenuous thing here is you. Because the above post, is just really what you wanted to get out, isn't it?

You just didn't want to say it out right.

Mn is full of people from all different backgrounds. The 'what class are you threads' are full of people who aren't middle class. And being middle class alone doesn't mean you can afford to spend a fortune on clothes. Doesn't even really mean you well off or even comfortable in some situations.

You have made connections where there aren't any to prove a really odd, point that doesn't even make sense.

There’s a curious disconnect. It’s fascinating. I suspect a lot of competitiveness and insecurity writhes beneath grin

I must be reading a different thread to you. But as long as you think you're right that's OK. In the meantime I'll just admire the dress I'm wearing bought in the sale at 50% off.

@Butterismylife

Interesting. So many responses say it is because we can’t afford a £32 shirt. Yet MN is generally stuffed to the gills with people bragging about 6 figure salaries (marrying well, grrrrl pwr!) and owning several properties.

And remember, MN is also where you have to state that you were born poor but ARE REALLY MIDDLE CLASS NOW, because you worked hard and were ‘genetically’ blessed with intelligence. Because hard;y,anyone on here admits to remaining working class, 0h the horror!

There’s a curious disconnect. It’s fascinating. I suspect a lot of competitiveness and insecurity writhes beneath

There are people from all walks of life and all backgrounds on here. Maybe you only notice the posts from people with high incomes for some reason.

@Iamthewombat- I posted my comment because I am one of those people who will say that I only buy in the sale. I like to pass on my wisdom.

I was thinking about this thread again. I was reading something else about being wealthy enough to save money - having the resources and credit rating to shop around, being able to bulk buy etc. And there is an element of that in this.

I like the quality of boden basics. But I think they are over priced at full price. I do tend to only buy from them in the sales /when they do 25/30% off vouchers etc. But that means I'm often buying something I dont need now for later when my current thing needs replacing eg. Their jeans fit me well, so if my size happens to be in the sale, I'll buy a pair and put to one side until I need them. I will have a pair of jeans that were £80-90 full price for £20-30.

However if I didn't have the spare cash to buy what I dont really need now and had to budget more, if I waited until my current jeans needed replacing, id have to either buy a much cheaper brand at full price or hope that coincided with a Boden sale.

I currently have a summer dress from them hung in my wardrobe unworn, I could afford to buy a dress I didn't need immediately in October to put to one side until next summer. Those who have to wait until the summer and constantly having to buy just what they need now, would find the summer clothes at full price.

Always being able to buy inthe sales means always having spare money for clothes when sales happen to be on, and enough different clothes in your wardrobe that you don't need to spend any clothing budget on something specific you need right now.

I do it with some things: I have a particular handbag that I got for just over £100 when it should have been £400+

If I'm complimented on it (by someone I know) I usually mention that it was such a bargain as I don't want people to think I would/could spend £400 on a bag and misrepresent how much spare money I have.

I buy all my tops from eBay or in sales and happily say so, I'm not ashamed but I'd hate to be thought of wasting my disability benefits.. I'm frugal out of necessity

“The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.

Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.

But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.

This was the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic unfairness.”

― Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms: The Play