If Your Boobs Are Bigger Than Your Budget...

This is just part of my bra collection—as you can tell, I own way more bras than just the basics. Since I’m obsessed with lingerie, I tend to buy a lot of it, order a lot of it, return a lot of it, and keep a lot of it.

Unfortunately, as a student, I don’t have the biggest of budgets for this activity. And as you might have noticed, bras in bigger cup sizes have a nasty habit of being quite expensive at full price. So I sustain my lingerie buying partly by budgeting more in other areas, and partly by shopping around obsessively for the best available bargains. Here are my tips to get as much as you can of what you want while spending as little as possible. I've listed most of the prices in UK pounds, but my tips include what to do in the US.

Brastop.com is a great source for bargains, especially if you just want a bra and don’t really care which bra. They have a range of prices, but everything is always discounted, and there are always at least a few bras under £10. The best thing about Brastop is that they have a huge number of styles and colors available even in very high cup sizes and very low back sizes.  Brastop is best for fashion colors of Curvy Kate bras from past seasons--the continuity colors don’t make it onto Brastop. If you want black, white, and nude, try their own brand, Flirtelle, which has the same fit as Curvy Kate. There are also some options from Panache, Freya, etc. They don’t sell out of sizes quickly, so you can really mull it over. And to get the most out of Brastop, you should wait for periodic free shipping or half-price international shipping. Unfortunately, you will have to pay your own return shipping costs, which is a major drag especially if you’re not in the UK.

Amazon.co.uk is a good source for discounted prices on current-season Curvy Kate bras and some sale prices on past-season bras, including Panache and Cleo. For some reason, the current collections of Curvy Kate always seem to be marked down to £18-£20, so if you can’t wait to have a new color or model, check here. They also have some crazy bargains on older stock, which will occasionally beat out Brastop—it’s worth comparing both. The best thing about Amazon is that they usually have free shipping and free returns on bras for UK addresses. But sadly, if you’re in the US, you can’t buy bras from Amazon even if you log onto their UK site—I don’t fully understand why, but some legal issue prevents them from shipping to the US.

Debenhams.com is another decent source for random sales on current lines. They don’t have a huge number of items in the upper size ranges, but there are a few, and I’ve found some good bargains on Cleo bras from them. They also offer free shipping in the UK. They do ship to the US too, but that will cost £10, which will probably cancel out any bargain you find.

Ebay.com is always a great place to check. If you’re in the US, this is the site that will save you the most money on bras, even though most of the time you’ll still have to ship from the UK. Ebay sellers nearly always offer cheaper international shipping than you’ll find anywhere else—often just about £3. To get started, just search “bra” and your size—for instance, “bra 28J”. If you don’t want something used, look for items with “BNWT” (brand new with tags) in the title. You’ll usually find a selection of Panache, Cleo, Freya, and Fantasie bras, occasionally with some Curvy Kate thrown in there. These are generally sold by well-rated, established sellers and are either overstock, styles that never ended up getting produced, or factory seconds (bras that are slightly inconsistent in some way, but not damaged or useless). Keep in mind that certain bras seem to cycle through, so you might come up with six sellers stocking a red Freya Estelle but none stocking a purple Jolie, and then if you check a month later there will be nine purple Jolies. If you have a very small back/large cup, you will probably find mostly boring Panache styles in uninspired colors. But if you are willing to put up with this and keep searching, you can usually get bras for around £12-£15. There are also sellers who are just regular women like you, selling bras that don’t fit them right. These bras more often require bidding rather than Buy It Now, so I personally steer clear of them, but if you like bidding on eBay you can sometimes get a great bargain this way.

Edited to add: Leia Lingerie's Outlet section is usually the best place to buy Freya bras, often at really amazing discounts--some are under £10. Sometimes you can even find the matching panties for £3-£4, meaning you can ignore my warning below. Leia Lingerie also has Fantasie and Fauve items. Unfortunately, they only ship to the UK and because of the form you have to fill out with your billing address, it can be tricky to use a US credit card even if you're living in the UK, so it's best to have a UK card along with your UK address.

My final tip for a low-budget lingerie obsession is to not buy the matching underwear. Even on deep discount, these undies are usually never less than £6. If you’re willing to poke around you can get at least 2 or 3 pairs for that price. In the US, Victoria’s Secret 5 for $25.50 panties are amazing, especially the ones with lace around the waist. You can save even more if you buy single pairs at Marshall’s, TJ Maxx (that’s TK Maxx for you UK ladies), and those somewhat trashy-looking mall clothing stores with neon lighting. I know some people like to have sets that match perfectly, but if you don’t mind trying something new, it can be quite fun to do some shopping around for fun colors and patterns that coordinate and nearly match. Since underwear is a wear-once-before-washing type of item, you might find that it’s more fun to favor quantity over quality here.