One of my mini-goals in life is to have a closet full of awesomely cute shoes. Much to the dismay of my boyfriend, I'm getting mighty close!


This is a small snippet of my very favorite shoes. To give you an idea of just how many shoes I have, take the number of shoes in the picture and multiply it by 3. YOWZERS! While I do love buying shoes (and wearing them - yes I do wear them too), I don't like paying sticker prices for them. Frankly I don't like paying more than $20 for shoes unless they're (1) made of leather, (2) sports shoes, or (3) knee-high boots. Each pair of shoes in the picture cost me less than $15. Satisfying my shoe fetish while keeping most of my hard-earned money in my pocket is challenging but rewarding. There are 3 guidelines that help me conquer this challenge.

Have patience

A good pair of shoes is worth waiting for. I never settle for something that only comes close to that perfect pair. Not only does it keep me from spending ridiculous amounts of money on pairs of shoes that I may end up not wearing, but it also makes it that much more rewarding when I do find that perfect pair. Once I find that perfect pair I always wait for the sale. I never pay full retail price for a pair of shoes. Those shoes aren't going anywhere! There was one time that I waited so long for a pair of shoes to go on sale that eventually all the stores stopped carrying them. But lo and behold, I searched online and they were listed at a lower price with shipping included.

Buy brand name shoes online

I am not big on brand names and that helps keep the costs down, but I can understand the appeal of buying brand name shoes. One of my very good girlfriends has a huge shoe fetish and loves to buy brand names. Her way to find the best prices for shoes that regularly sell for well over $100 was to buy them online. First she would try on shoes in a physical store. When she found a pair she loved, she had the stamina to walk out of the store without them and look for them online. She always found amazingly great deals for new shoes on E-Bay or Zappos. Although she had to spend more effort to fight off the vultures on E-Bay, she was always able to get shoes for half the price of retail. One thing to keep in mind when buying shoes online is to always calculate the shipping price into the actual price of the shoe. The best online stores are ones that offer two-way free shipping and free returns. My favorite online store for shoes is cutesygirl.com

Raid other people's shoe closet

I am lucky that my mom and I have the same shoe size and she has good taste. Now that she has gotten older, she no longer wears high-heeled shoes as often. With her permission I raided her shoe closet and found gold. My favorite pair of boots came from her closet.

The best part about it is that I know that none of my peers have the same pair of boots. The same concept can apply to close friends too. One man's trash is another man's treasure.