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Why I’ll never buy men’s clothing in NZ again

How to save money on men's clothing in NZ

Know what’s always been next to impossible to do here? Shop for clothes for my husband.

I swore the next time we needed to buy anything for him, we’d buy online from US sites, since we know they actually cater to his size.  

Although a lot of retailers won’t ship to New Zealand, or charge an arm and a leg to do so, NZ Post has this service called YouShop that gets around this. Basically, you sign up for an account. You’ll then get a US address that you can tell retailers to ship your order to. That address is a giant NZ Post/YouShop warehouse. Once your package gets there, NZ Post/YouShop will notify you, and tell you exactly how much it will be to ship over to NZ (and repack the parcel if, say, it’s been lazily/wastefully packed).

Making use of this, I ordered a few things from Dickies and a few things from Target (with help from Sarah!). Here’s how it shook down, roughly:

  • 3 x Dickies pants, plus a bunch of packs of socks to get the order over the limit to qualify for free shipping within the US
  • 4 x T-shirts from Target – the corny kind T loves, eg Batman, Star Wars, Flash and Iron Man

Total: approx $NZ150 for the items, plus $70 for shipping = roughly $220 in total.

If we were to buy 3 pairs of Dickies in NZ, that alone would add up to about $210. They are about $70 a pop! On the US Dickies site, they are US$30 at full price (we got them on sale at a discount), or about $NZ35 – literally half the cost.

And that’s before accounting for shipping within NZ, either.

So for the price of 3 pairs of pants, we got a bunch of shirts and socks as well, delivered to our door.

You may not be perfect, America, but you sure do cater to people who need to buy stuff.

14 thoughts on “Why I’ll never buy men’s clothing in NZ again

  • Reply Newlyweds on a Budget August 28, 2014 at 08:48

    That’s insane!! DOes it really cost $70 to ship??? Girrrrrrrllll, anytime you need something shipped, you are MORE than welcome to send things to my address and then I can ship them to you NEXT day. I seriously work right across the street from the post office. I bet that will save you even more money.
    I’m not joking, it is not a hassle at all and I’d be happy to help you out.

    • Reply eemusings August 28, 2014 at 09:15

      LOL, it was a big box – Dickies are bulky! But yeah, it’s a long way to ship stuff. Thank you for the offer and I promise I will take it up next time we order something 🙂

  • Reply Genie August 28, 2014 at 08:51

    We’ve used YouShop a few times and have loved it. So many US websites do free shipping within the US and no international so it’s perfect for those situations.

  • Reply Tracey August 28, 2014 at 09:01

    I agree. Though even women’s clothing I’ve largely stopped buying here as the quality is poor. The exception being Merino wool products.

    Only problem with shipping stuff from overseas is our terribly low duty limit, which includes the cost of freight in the calculation. So if you go over the limit you have to pay not only GST, but import duty which can have a huge impact on the final cost.

    • Reply eemusings August 28, 2014 at 09:14

      I think it’s about $250? So I don’t imagine we’d ever go over that in a single package.

  • Reply Kassandra @ More Than Just Money August 28, 2014 at 10:18

    Wow, definitely not a frugal friendly way of getting things in NZ! Mind you, we use a similar system to YouShop called Skybox in order for us to ship things to my step-son and other family members in Trinidad. I still find Skybox expensive but it’s way better than the insane prices of USPS.

  • Reply Mrs. Frugalwoods August 29, 2014 at 02:32

    Wow! That stinks that clothes are so expensive in NZ! There are certainly deals to be had online–I can’t really imagine having to shop without online options. We bought my husband’s suit online (custom tailored) for far less than a budget, off-the-rack suit! Glad to hear you’ve found a solution!

  • Reply Will ~ First Quarter Finance August 29, 2014 at 08:49

    NZ does have such high prices! Must be why you guys charge us so much for your kiwifruit! But seriously, nice lifehack by using a US address!

  • Reply Stefanie @ The Broke and Beautiful Life August 30, 2014 at 00:05

    I was shocked by the price of clothes while traveling in The Netherlands and Germany this Spring. One thing we Americans have is cheap prices on “stuff”.

  • Reply Melanie @ Dear Debt August 31, 2014 at 06:47

    That’s crazy! Glad you were able to get some help and got those clothes at a more affordable rate — even with shipping. Nice work. Frugal win!

  • Reply maria October 19, 2016 at 19:44

    Hi i know this is quite an old post but can you tell me if you have any tips for me im trying to order from target using you shop but target keeps cancelling my order ? thankyou

    • Reply eemusings October 19, 2016 at 21:18

      Any chance you’re using a gift card? I think I had that issue once – if I remember right I had bought a couple of Target gift cards, and then I later tried to use them to pay from a purchase from that same Target account. They kept cancelling my order so I made another Target account with a different email and successfully used the gift card in that account.

      But if that’s not your situation, no idea sorry.

      • Reply Maria October 19, 2016 at 21:34

        Thanks so much for getting back to me I was trying to use my credit card I wonder if I should try and buy a gift card and pay that way ,😀

        • Reply eemusings October 19, 2016 at 21:42

          Ha I wouldn’t recommend it, they seriously cancelled my order like half a dozen times when I did that! I’ve paid via credit card and had no issues before, so – weird. 🙁

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