As I am cleaning out my closet, and looking through all the clothing I own, I realize I waste a lot of money of clothes that were cheap in quality that I did not end up wearing much.

Instead of buying 10 pieces of clothing that costs only $15 but might fit weird or color is a bit off, I really should have bought 4 high quality items that were on sale at $40 each (where original price was $100+).

But then fashion is whimsical and so is our shopping habits, and I do need those random “trendy for the moment” $15 pieces of clothing that are fun to wear for a few times.

Still, one of my new year’s resolution is to keep my purchase habits contained in the high quality deal category, and not the “wow, it’s only $4 so I must have it even though I probably would never wear it” bucket.

Quality vs quantity… quality vs quantity… Must keep my brand new elfa closet looking pretty…

It was only a year and a half ago when I was walking by a super crowded Louis Vuitton store and wondering, who are these people and where are they finding all this extra cash for thousand dollar purses all of a sudden?

I think we know the answer now… their homes (and maybe stocks). It was the best of times where your home value was going up and stock market was doing well. Refinancing lets all these people take cash out of their home which was worth so much. Money was limitless it seemed as the upward trend continued.

What are you going to do with all the money and money “you earned” in your home? Splurge on stuff for yourself! Flaunt your wealth!

Well, that was pre-credit-crunch era. These days, the opposite is happening. Home prices coming down. Stocks plunged. People’s “piggy bank” shrunk. And even though the 30 year fixed mortgage rate right now is historically low (Wells Fargo has it at 4.75% with 1 pt right now), this still doesn’t allow people to “cash out” unless they have a lot of equity built in to their house. Banks are getting stricter having learned a recent lesson in loose lending policies, and now taking the “fair market value” of the house, and then requiring you to have at least 25% down, before they let you lock in those juicy low rates. So all in all, most people can’t cash out, but might even have to put money in to lock in low rates.

And now with the economy where it is, people are worried about getting laid off. Stock markets going sideways and not rallying. Home prices flat or still declining. All making it harder for consumers to spend and part with their money.

So what does this all mean? There’s less money to spend.

When will it get better? When the factors above improve.

What does this mean for retailers? A tough time this holiday season and 2009. Look at the stock charts of some of the major retailers like Nordstrom (JWN), JC Penney (JCP), Liz Clairborne (LIZ). It’s painful, but probably already discounting a bad 1H09.

But we all are still wondering, when will things get good enough so consumers are spending like they used to? Even if housing bottoms in 3Q09 as experts like Jim Cramer predicts, how many more months before people can use their house as a piggy bank again? (or will they ever now with the tougher lending standards?) Maybe hope and pray the stock market would rally and that would help consumer confidence?

What’s notable this year for the weekend before Christmas shopping at the mall:

• Things are on sale like they are the week after Christmas in previous years
• Traditionally expensive gift giving items like cashmere sweaters at Banana Republic are over 50% off ($35 ish) and really cute wool jacket only $130 (about half off too)
• Christmas items at places like Pottery Barn are already 50% off, and the Christmas inventory looks almost untouched
• High end places like the Kate Spade store having 30% off everything sale
• Bloomingdale’s extra 40% off all already on sale purses and wallets
• Williams-Sonoma having a 20% off everything in the store sale the 4 days before Christmas

Will see what happens after Christmas. Still lots of inventory everywhere…

Since I am a crazy bargain shopper personally, and I also see a fair amount of deals, I put together a short list of tips on bargain hunting online and offline.

• Always check for coupons/discounts if you are shopping online, there are extra off or free shipping codes that can save you some good money
• Avoid the malls during the crazy big shopping days (Black Friday, etc) and go online! Online retailers have some amazing deals during those peak sale days (extra 20% off, free shipping, special deals)
• Go to the outlets! The high end retailers are suffering from this economy and all the high end goods are making their way to outlets. Check out Nordstrom Rack, Loehmann’s, Off 5th, Neiman Marcus Outlet, and the retailer specific outlets.
• Check out the clearance racks. Because they are FULL these days and offer some steep discounts. I was just at Target the other day, and all the clearance apparel were an extra 30% off! And half the items were already 50% off or more.
• Check out the high end department stores and designer stores, because they area actually having some good sales and the prices are sometimes surprisingly within reach when prices are 75% off

Now DealDivine.com users can browse through all the top deals in a cool slideshow mode!

Check it out here
http://www.dealdivine.com/deals/all/popular-recently?format=slideshow

We all love pretty pictures and this is a great way to look at the deals in a pretty format, and if you like the deal, just click on the picture or “go to deal” button to get all the details.

Go pretty pictures go!

We’ve all been there, when we have one hour at the mall to find something before we need to leave with a thoughtful and tasteful present to someone we care about.

After walking around for about 40 minutes, we start getting desperate. Time is ticking! We have to leave with a present in 20 minutes or we will be over half an hour late to the party!

Since it’s someone whom we care enough to get a present for, we end up getting pressured into just throwing money at anything remotely appropriate. Will they use it? Who knows. Was it over-priced and more than I would typically spend? Probably.

The Solution: Buy early and store it away!

See something you like on sale? Buy it, and put it away! Unless you are buying something super personal, most gifts are semi-generic anyway. Buy those Christmas plates after Christmas, and give it the following year! Don’t get pressured into buying full-priced gift ever again.

This will save you lots of money, your return on investment on this buy low give high technique will be better than anything you’ll see in the stock market these days.

Buy it and Store it!

Woohoo! We were mentioned in Wall Street Journal’s on the back page of Personal Journal today! It’s not just online but also in print, which I will frame as a commemorative item as DealDivine’s first big publicity.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122835605840678269.html

Very exciting

WSJ Style article image

How do you turn a block of gold into a lump of coal? By buying gift cards to a retailer that goes bankrupt in a few months.

I just finally tossed the Sharper Image gift card in my wallet after realizing there is no hope of ever getting even a penny out of that.

It’s easy to pick up gift cards instead of picking up a gift, but it’s a risk to receive gift cards these days, as retailer bankruptcies are on the rise.

If you are thinking of buying a gift card, buy one for the local mall that your friends and family shop at. I guess even for gift cards these days, you need diversification in your portfolio!