Two weeks ago I attended my second swap event. While standing inline I started talking to a fellow fashion blogger who has embarked on an entire year of no clothing shopping. She’s not the only one attempting to quell a shopping habit. Over the last several months I have come across bloggers and non-bloggers who have gone on a similar shopping diet. Sometimes it is for a 30 day period. Sometimes it is a year or a season. Part of this self-imposed shopping ban is due to an addiction to shopping and part of it is due to the still tepid economy and increasing credit card bills.

Even those not embarking on a shopping diet have cut back significantly on what they buy and where they spend their money, as a result thrift store shopping has become the trendy thing to do. What was once relegated to low-income families and people without much fashion sense, has suddenly become the thing to do. Forget how much you spent on an outfit. It’s not about what you didn’t spend. Fashion on a budget.

But buying clothing from a thrift store requires a different shopping mentality than purchasing your clothes from the local department store. It’s a mental shift to dig through piles of clothes you don’t like or won’t fit to find that one diamond in the rough. Forget finding an item you like and then hoping the store has it in your size. Now you find an item in your size and see if it is something you can work with.

And as an additional bonus, urging your closet can now turn out to be financially beneficial to you. Trade your clothes in for credit at a local thrift store or bag them up to take to the next local clothing swap. It’s clothing recycling at its finest and it’s the wave of the future.