Thrifty fashion finder Ashley Siebels is a poor graduate student who can be found most nights at the Savers on Tropicana. During the day she is a stylishly clad fiction writer and UNLV instructor. Here are her five thrifting tips:

• 1. Go often

  Find the best thrift store close to your home and go once a week (at least). What constitutes the best? Lots of turnover in merchandise and high-quality clothing.

• 2. Lists

  Keep a mental list of the things you want most. For example, skinny jeans, dress for a friend’s wedding, leather belt, luxury purse, puffer coat. Don’t expect to get everything on your first outing. When you find something on your list that is of good quality, buy it. If you find something better on another outing, buy it again and shed the first one. Being a good thrifter should mean having the best stuff, not a lot of stuff.

• 3. Limit yourself

  If you don’t have a mental list and want to keep your budget in check, try to limit yourself to the best item in the store. This is especially helpful on 50-percent-off days when your cart is completely full.

• Understand store pricing

  Make sure you understand your thrift store’s pricing system and sale days. Often if something is even a little bit damaged, you can ask for 20 to 30 percent off.

• When donating clothes, remove the tags

  Before you drop your clothes off at a clothing drive, Savers, Buffalo Exchange or homeless shelter, take the tags off. If we all took the inside tags off of our clothes, thrift stores wouldn’t be able to jack up the prices on luxury items. And, for the most part, true thrifting aficionados would find the good stuff at a quarter of the cost.