I love gorgeous designer shoes and own half a dozen pairs.

If I’d paid full-price for all of them, they would have cost thousands of dollars.

Since I don’t have thousands to spend on shoes (no matter how lovely they are), I’ve found lots of tricks for finding them for a great discount.

For this week’s shoe-themed Fabulous! Festival at Individual Chic, here’s my tips on how to find fabulous discount designer shoes.

Tip one: Shop often, buy occasionally

Finding fabulous shoes for an even more fabulous discount takes time and effort. Check out all your likely sources regularly (I’ll tell you where to look in a second), because you won’t find a great deal every single time.

Tip two: shop where the fabulous shoes are

Some shoe shops stock many more pairs of fabulous shoes than others. High-end department stores, great shoe stores and some of the best boutiques are chock-full of gorgeous shoes… and yes, many of these places are usually expensive.

If you have the self-restraint not to buy beautiful expensive shoes every time you see them, great shoe shops are worth visiting regularly. These stores have sales, just like every other store, and because the markups are bigger often the markdowns are too.

Also, even when the average price in a shoe store is high, not everything is un-affordable. Shoes made from cheaper materials, like rubber rain boots, cost much less than leather shoes… and some designers do whole ranges of cheaper shoes (like the range Stella McCartney does for Adidas). These are well worth looking out for, because they usually sell out quickly.

Tip three: check clearance outlets too

If any of the stores I just mentioned (i.e. the ones that stock lots of great shoes) have a clearance outlet, that’s worth checking regularly too.

While it can be slim pickings, when you do find something fabulous in your size, the discounts can be fantastic — up to 95% off retail.

Tip four: check eBay too

Occasionally you’ll also find fantastic designer shoes on eBay for great prices. Take a look regularly, and you’ll occasionally get a great surprise.

Just be careful. You can’t try the shoes on before you buy them, so make sure they’re going to fit! Also, be aware that there are a lot of fakes on eBay and make sure the seller is reputable.

Tip five: shop at the start and end of sales

At the start of a sale, you get the best selection, which is important for shoes because you have to find just the right size. My hot tip for the post-Christmas sales is to go in late on Christmas Eve when the staff are marking everything down, ready to open on Boxing Day.

At the end of the sale, there’s much less selection and some of the stock is quite battered from spending weeks in big sale bins. To entice people to look, stores will often have huge markdowns (e.g. 75% off already reduced prices) — so if you’re lucky enough to find something gorgeous, in the correct size and undamaged, you’ll get an amazing deal.

Tip six: if the shoe doesn’t fit, leave it

So you’ve just found a gorgeous shoe, for 90% off. It’s almost your size… just a little big, or a little small.

Don’t buy it.

Shoes that are too small will be agony to wear, so if you don’t love pain, you’re never going to wear them. As for shoes that are too big, they’ll be hard to walk in and possibly fall off at inconvenient times. Do you want to pay money for either outcome?

Tip seven: think twice about unusual styles

Prada shoes that fit you perfectly for an obscene discount. Bargain, right?

Possibly.

If those shoes are a really unusual style, which a lot of discounted shoes are, they’ll either become your signature… or you’ll never wear them because they don’t work with anything else you own.

Think twice before you buy an unusual shoe to be sure it’s something you’ll wear.

Tip eight: when it’s perfect, buy now

For a shoe to be perfect, it has to be:

1. Gorgeous
2. Good quality
3. A perfect fit for your foot
4. Marked down to fit your budget
5. A style that works with the rest of your wardrobe

That’s a lot to fit in a shoebox!

When you find a pair that you can honestly say meets all those criteria, buy them.

Tip nine: only buy the bargain

When you do find a great bargain, take it to the register straight away.

Retailers know that once you’re in a ‘buying mood’ (say, because you just found the bargain of the century) it’s easier to convince you to buy a few extras as well. Ignore all those tempting displays on the way to the register and your hip pocket will be much happier.

Tip ten: save your budget for the good stuff

Special-purpose shoes are often ugly, so I see no reason to spend big on a marginally more attractive pair.

For example, I find sneakers really unattractive, but I still wear a pair almost every day for a brisk walk around the block.

I spend as little on these as I possibly can. When I find a cheap pair that fit well and provide good support for walking, I snap them up, no matter how ugly they are. If they do the job, that’s good enough for me.

Bonus: my bargain shoes

Here’s some of my recent shoe bargains:

• Two pairs of designer heels for $73
• Two pairs of Marc Jacobs shoes for $200
• Two more pairs of designer shoes
• Two pairs of walking shoes for under $67

(Yes, I tend to buy shoes in multiples. I just love ‘em!)

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