Ross and Plato's Closet for Clothes shopping

I have a large family and do a fair amount of clothes shopping as a result. I am always looking for bargains. You can catch sales at Macy's, Dillard's, Kohl's and JCP but if you do not want to wait and you are looking for bargains then Ross and Plato's Closet are the places to go.

• Ross aka Ross Dress for Less is an "off-price" (i.e., deeply discounted) department store.

• Plato's Closet buys and sells gently used clothing. They have a huge selection of trendy, designer styles as well as those every day basics.

Ross has been my go to store for shoes, socks, caps, t-shirts, fitness equipment and household items. You get great name brand sneakers and other goods for discounts of 50% or more for popular brands. I recently bought a pair of Jordan's for $35 and a pair of Nike for $32. I like getting fitness gear from Ross. The equipment are usually small items like ankle weights, kettle-bells, boxing gloves and etc.

You are not got to see a weight bench in there. One of the drawbacks for some people when it comes to Ross, is that they usually never have the same items twice. They get what they get. So you cannot really go in the store expecting to get a certain brand of anything. Therefore, you will tend to do a lot of browsing. So go in the store with the expectation of say finding sneakers but not necessarily Jordan or Nike sneakers.

Plato's sells slightly used designer clothes and shoes. The prices are unbelievable and you cannot really tell they are used clothes most times. and you can get some great items of designer clothing in there for under $10-$15. I have looked at the shoes but would say meh...they are usually too worn for my taste and plus Ross has great deals on shoes. Plato's buys slightly used clothes of course but I cannot really provide a critic on that side of the business. However, given the low prices they charge when selling I cannot imagine them paying a whole lot for the clothes they buy. Happy Saving Money.