Shop the best high street brands without breaking the bank
Words by Charlotte Burns, money saving blogger at Lotty Earns
If you’re plus-sized, shopping on the high street becomes complicated. Not only will you find you have less clothing options to choose from, but plus-sized clothes tend to be more expensive than standard-sized counterparts.
However, over the last five years, retailers have been listening to plus sized customers and are creating beautiful ranges for different body shapes, as well as making them affordable.
We’ve listed the best ways to get you plus-sized fashion fix, without breaking the budget.
Get a discount at ASOS
ASOS also has a loyalty scheme called ASOS A-LIST. Every time you shop you get five points per pound and you need 500 points to get a £5 voucher. Vouchers are issued in £5 increments and expire six months after the date they are issued, so make sure you use them up.
Get high-street brands for £5
Online fashion retailer Everything5pounds.com sells clothes, shoes, bags, homeware and more for £5. It sources unsold stock from high-street brands including River Island, Marks and Spencer, Next, Asos and New look - and most importantly, it has a plus size section.
It doesn’t tell you which store your item comes from, and if what you get is branded it's likely to be detagged. However, there are a couple of tricks to see where your item is actually originated. Check the photos very carefully because sometimes you can see a logo or other branding that can tip you off. It’s also worth scrolling through the reviews, where some buyers will say what the brand is or will just mention it's from a well-known high street shop.
Sign up to newsletters
Brands want you to sign up for their newsletter because they get to tempt you with discounts and sales right into your inbox. In order to convince you to sign up, the majority of them will offer you a discount in exchange for your email address.
Currently, you can get the following discounts:
- Simply Be: Free standard delivery on your order worth £3.50
- Evans: 20% off your first order
- Navabi: 15% off your first order
- Missguided: 30% off your first order
- Dorothy Perkins: 10% off your first order
Wide fit shoes
Finding fashionable, yet comfortable shoes for wide feet can be an absolute nightmare. Shoes made for comfort are often unattractive, while attractive shoes tend not to be made for wide feet.
However, there are a few places on the high street that sell shoes that not only won’t leave you in agony but won’t hurt your bank balance either.
- Primark Wide fit - Primark’s Wide fit shoe collection is always huge, up to date and comfortable. Being Primark, the shoes are cheap as well, starting from £3 for sandals.
- New Look is another store with a brilliant collection of Wide Fit shoes starting from £8.99 for sandals. It’s also worth checking that ASOS doesn’t stock the same New Look shoes and it has free delivery, unlike New Look.
- Clarks - You won’t really find fast fashion at Clarks, but if you want something classic, well made and incredibly comfortable, it’s worth checking it out.
Get a discount code
You don’t have to wait for a brand to email you with a discount code, you can go out there and find them yourself so you can bag a discount every time you shop.
The UK’s biggest voucher site is VoucherCodes.co.uk and has every big brand covered, with lots of discount codes you won’t find anywhere else.
Currently, it has an exclusive £5 off £50 spend at ASOS, 10% off first orders at Simply Be, Free £5 Amazon voucher when you spend £50 at Dorothy Perkins and Boohoo, and an exclusive 25% off orders at Missguided.
Shop at the plus size eBay outlet store
Not many people realise that eBay has an outlet section where high-street brands sell old stock or end-of-line products at super-cheap prices, including plus size fashion brands.
- Very plus size section where items are better than half price and go up to a size 28.
- Boohoo plus size section with thousands of items starting from £3.
- Littlewoods Clearance section on eBay which goes up to a size 30.
- Figleaves which has a selection of lingerie and swimwear from A-K cup.
Don’t rule out standard size brands
Being plus-sized doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t wear clothes that don’t cater to plus-sized women.
A plus-sized blogger favourite is Monki, with its oversized dresses and shirts which easily fit those up to a size 26. Monki has a sale section that is generally stocked throughout the year, where a lot of the items are less than half price.
Monki is also sold at ASOS, which means you can get the same items delivered for free rather than pay the hefty £9 delivery charge.
Don’t forget the supermarket
You won’t just find your weekly food shop at the supermarket, you’ll find they have some of the best plus-sized clothes out there, which are cheaper than you’ll find on the high-street.
- George at Asda goes up to a size 28 with the main collection sizing up to a size 22.
- Tesco’s F&F plus size range includes brands such as Lovedrobe, Junarose, Sienna Couture and Samya and goes up to a size 32.
- Sainsbury’s TU collaborates with designers such as Gok Wan and goes up to a size 24
- Aldi and Lidl both have clothing ranges that come into the store, some just plus size collections, while others going up to a size 24 in the standard range.
