Shop smart, look like a million

The Budget Fashionista shares tips on how to dress well without breaking the bank

It took a mountain of credit card debt and college loans to make Kathryn Finney rethink her spending on clothes.

Well, that, and falling in love.

"It took marrying someone cheap to understand how really in debt I was," says author Kathryn Finney. "I had a love of fashion, but a real lack of cash and my husband said, 'You've got to curtail your spending.' "

Today, the creator of the shopping blog TheBudgetFashionista .com, Finney is on a multi-city tour with her new book, "How to be a Budget Fashionista," (Ballentine Books, $12.95). It's filled with tips on staying stylish without breaking the bank.

This week, Finney took time out of her tour to share some top tricks of her trade. In an industry as high-brow as fashion, she says, the best-dressed always know how to snag a deal.

"I know editors in New York at major magazines who shop at Target. Do not let them fool you," says Finney, who lives in New Jersey. "Celebrities are beyond bargain shoppers. They want everything given to them."

This is not the career the Minnesota native envisioned while getting her graduate degree in epidemiology from Yale. But when her husband created a blog site for her three years ago as an outlet for her shopping obsession, bargain fashionistas from around the globe flocked.

Finney, who is just 30, feeds them with online coupons, trend forecasts, sample sale notices, and frugal tips for women with real budgets and real figures. This is one fashionista who mocks malnourished stick insects and isn't above sifting through Salvation Army racks for designer labels.

She also understands shopping addictions: "Telling a fashionista not to shop is like telling the sun not to rise. It's just not going to happen," she writes in the book....for more of the story