Cheap Thrills - Where's the sale section?

This is the fourth post of a series on cheap fashion, Cheap Thrills- Where's the Sale Section?  The following posts will continue in showing you how I find good deals-- it's a long read so I split it up over a few posts.  I'll also later detail some of my most triumphant steals.

My favourite part of a store is the sale section.  Sometimes I feel bad for the sales staff, so I browse around half-heartedly in the new arrivals before drifting to my real destination-- the sale section.  It's usually in the back, it's usually messy, and often it's weird stuff no one wants anyways.  

(c) JMGRIFFIN via sxc.hu

I often read about the great deals people get when thrifting, but I feel like I'm never particularly enthused about thrifting myself, and I think this is because I can often get almost as good a deal on new items.  How, you ask?  By learning how to shop sales.  Most of this is trial and error, but here are a few things I've learned.

Cheap Thrills - Shop Like You Mean It

This is the third post of a series on cheap fashion, Cheap Thrills- Shop like you mean it.  The following posts will continue in showing you how I find good deals-- it's a long read so I split it up over a few posts.  I'll also later detail some of my best steals.

So you've got your plan in hand, and are ready to go spend some money.  Or are you?  The next step is indeed to head out to the mall, but hopefully you're not going to spend a cent--yet. 

In order to determine what is available and at what prices, you need to get out there and browse.  I probably head over to the mall every 1-2 weeks to just look at things.  Its important that you go mostly to look, not to buy, as that defeats the entire purpose of being cheap.  What you're looking for is what's available in stores.  For example, sometimes I am looking for a particular item.  From my list in the previous post in this series, for Spring, I've been looking for coloured denim/pants and plain metal cuffs, but since these are very trendy items, I didn't want to spend too much on them.