How I Help My Mum Find Better Clothes on Vinted

It actually started with a scarf.

My mum sent me a photo of a scarf she had bought on Vinted for €12. There was nothing particularly wrong with it. It looked nice, she liked it, and €12 isn’t exactly a huge amount of money.

But then I realised it wasn’t made from natural materials, and my immediate thought was:

Mum, I could find you something so much better for €12. 😀

If you’ve read my other Vinted articles, you’ll know that I spend quite a lot of time there. I’m constantly buying, selling, searching, comparing and probably looking at far too many fabric labels. 😂 In fact, I shared 12 Things I Always Search for on Vinted, because I’ve gradually developed a pretty specific idea of what is worth looking for second-hand.

One of the things I’ve learned is that a low price doesn’t necessarily make something a good buy.

There are so many clothes on Vinted that if I’m going to buy something, I want to find the piece that makes sense for the money. I look at the material, condition, brand, shape and, most importantly, whether it’s something I—or in this case my mum—will actually wear.

That €12 scarf gave me an idea.

Instead of my mum scrolling through Vinted and buying whatever happened to catch her eye, what if I helped her find the things she actually needed?

And that’s how our little Vinted experiment began.

We Started With What My Mum Actually Needed

I think this is where shopping can go wrong very quickly.

It’s incredibly easy to open Vinted without looking for anything in particular and suddenly discover 15 things you apparently need. 😀

That’s also why I’ve become much more conscious of shopping for what my wardrobe actually needs rather than simply buying something because I like it. It’s something I write about throughout my Fashion section.

So rather than starting with What’s nice?, we started with:

What is actually missing from Mum’s wardrobe?

The first answer was an autumn coat.

And I found a beautiful one.

1. The M&S Autumn Coat

The coat I found is from Marks & Spencer, and it’s 80% cotton.

I personally think M&S is one of the best brands to look for on Vinted for women over 40. That’s simply based on my own experience searching second-hand: I often find classic, wearable pieces from the brand, and the quality can be excellent.

This coat was exactly that.

It’s a beautiful neutral colour, the shape is classic, and it doesn’t feel like something that will suddenly look dated next year.

But I wasn’t looking at the brand alone.

I checked the material too.

That’s something I do constantly when I’m shopping on Vinted. A beautiful photo can get my attention, but I want to know what I’m actually buying. It’s also one of the reasons wool, cotton, linen and other quality fabrics are some of the first things I search for on Vinted.

For me, this was already a much better way of shopping for my mum. We weren’t buying something simply because it appeared in her feed and looked nice.

We knew she needed an autumn coat, and then we looked for a good version of that coat.

There’s a difference.

2. Then We Realised She Needed Something Casual

Once we started looking properly at my mum’s wardrobe, we noticed another gap.

She needed something casual and easy to throw on.

I found this neutral Stella Milani piece for €7.

And once again, one of the things that made me stop scrolling was the material.

It’s 98% cotton and 2% elastane.

This is where I get slightly obsessed with fabric composition. 😀

I’m not saying everything in a wardrobe needs to be made from 100% natural fibres. It doesn’t.

But when I’m looking through hundreds of second-hand listings and there are so many choices available, material becomes one of the easiest ways for me to narrow them down.

This is something I pay attention to whether I’m buying second-hand or new. I actually wrote a whole article about How to Spot Quality Clothes Before You Buy (Even in High-Street Stores), which you can find in my Fashion section.

For €7, I’d much rather find my mum something that’s 98% cotton, in a useful neutral colour and a shape I think will suit her than buy something simply because it’s cheap.

And I really think this one is going to suit her perfectly.

3. Then I Looked for Boots to Wear With the Coat

This is another thing I think about when shopping:

I’m not only buying individual pieces. I’m thinking about outfits.

Once we’d found the autumn coat, we needed to think about what my mum would actually wear with it.

She wanted low boots, and I completely agreed.

My mum has fuller calves, and I think ankle boots look particularly good on her. So rather than searching for whatever boots happened to be fashionable, I was looking for a shape that I thought would work for her.

Eventually, I found a pair of suede ankle boots for…

€6.25.

And she is in love with them. 🤍

I also really like that they have a small heel. On her, it creates a slightly longer, more streamlined look through the leg, but they’re still practical enough to wear as everyday boots.

This is probably one of my favourite things about shopping second-hand.

You don’t necessarily need a huge budget to be particular.

€6.25 doesn’t mean I have to settle for “good enough.”

I can still think about the material, shape, heel, her proportions and whether the boots will actually work with the coat we’ve already chosen.

4. A 100% Cotton Top for €1.16

Finally, my mum wanted some simple tops.

Nothing particularly exciting. Just useful basics she could wear with different things she already owns.

I found this simple white top.

[PHOTO: white cotton top]

It’s 100% cotton.

And it cost…

€1.16.

Yes. One euro and sixteen cents. 😀

I love this example because it shows why shopping for better materials doesn’t necessarily mean spending more money.

There are so many inexpensive clothes on Vinted. If I’m already going to spend time searching, I’d rather look a little longer and find something made from a fabric I want, in a shape my mum will actually wear.

This top isn’t the most exciting thing we’ve bought.

But that’s precisely the point.

A wardrobe doesn’t need to be made entirely from exciting clothes.

Sometimes the best purchase is the €1.16 cotton top that gets worn over and over again.

5. And Finally… Something She Didn’t Actually Ask For 😀

After being very sensible about wardrobe gaps, fabrics, boots and practical things my mum needed, I broke my own system slightly. 😂

I found these cosy slippers.

They were €11, and I bought them for her as a little gift.

My mum’s feet get cold during winter, so the moment I saw them I thought of her.

They weren’t on our carefully considered shopping list. They weren’t filling some major wardrobe gap.

I just knew she’d enjoy them.

And honestly?

I’m slightly jealous because I really like them myself. 🤣

I think there’s room for purchases like this too.

Intentional shopping doesn’t mean turning every purchase into a serious decision-making exercise.

Sometimes you find something lovely for someone you love, you know they’ll use it, the price makes sense, and that’s enough.

What Helping My Mum Shop on Vinted Taught Me

What I enjoyed most about this wasn’t finding incredibly cheap clothes.

It was working out what would actually make sense for her.

We weren’t trying to replace her entire wardrobe.

We identified a few gaps and searched for pieces to fill them:

• an autumn coat she needed
• a casual cotton layer
• low suede boots that would work with the coat
• a simple cotton top
• and one little treat from me 🤍

That’s very different from opening Vinted and asking:

What can I buy today?

And I think that’s the biggest thing I’ve learned from shopping second-hand.

Vinted gives us access to an enormous amount of clothing. That’s wonderful—but it can also make it incredibly easy to buy things simply because they’re inexpensive.

That’s why one of the things I always search for on Vinted is actually whatever my wardrobe needs at that particular moment.

I’d rather ask:

What do I actually need, and what’s the best version of it I can find for my budget?

Sometimes that means searching longer.

Sometimes it means ignoring something beautiful.

Sometimes it means looking at twenty listings before choosing one.

And sometimes it means finding a €1.16 cotton top. 😀

I Don’t Just Search by Price

There’s another reason I wanted to share this little experiment.

When I’m looking for something on Vinted, I’m rarely thinking only about whether it’s cheap.

I’m looking at:

Material. Is it cotton, wool, linen, leather, cashmere, mohair or something else I specifically want?

Condition. Does the price still make sense once I look closely at how worn the item is?

Shape and fit. Will it suit the person who’s actually going to wear it?

Their existing wardrobe. What will they wear it with?

Price. Is it genuinely good value—or does it only feel tempting because it’s inexpensive?

Need. Are we solving an actual wardrobe problem, or did Vinted simply show us another nice thing?

That last question is probably the most important one.

Because buying something second-hand that you don’t need is still buying something you don’t need.

It’s one of the biggest themes running through the way I approach fashion and second-hand shopping on Simple Ways Living: I don’t want the cheapest wardrobe possible. I want clothes I genuinely love without wasting money on things I don’t need.

We Shop for Individual Pieces, But We Get Dressed in Outfits

This is something I’ve been thinking about more and more.

Shopping platforms are very good at showing us what else we could own.

They’re much less interested in reminding us about everything already hanging in our wardrobes.

That’s why, when I was looking for my mum’s boots, I wasn’t thinking about the boots alone.

I was thinking about Mum wearing the boots with the coat.

When I looked for the casual piece, I wasn’t simply asking whether I liked it in the listing.

I was asking whether she would actually wear it.

It’s a small difference, but I think it changes the way we shop.

The goal isn’t to build the biggest wardrobe possible.

It’s to build a wardrobe that works together.

If you’re trying to do the same, you can browse all my Vinted, wardrobe and affordable fashion articles here.

Want Me to Search Vinted for You?

Helping my mum made me realise something else:

I genuinely love doing this.

I like the bit that some people probably find exhausting. 😂

I like digging through listings, checking materials, comparing prices, thinking about what will suit someone and trying to find the hidden gem amongst everything else.

So I’m trying a little experiment for Simple Ways Living.

If there’s something you’re looking for on Vinted, I’d love to help you find it — completely FREE.

Tell me:

• what you’re looking for
• your size
• your approximate budget
• colours or styles you like
• materials or brands you prefer, if you have any
• and anything else I should know about what you’re trying to find

It can be very specific:

“I want a wool camel coat under €50.”

Or it can be:

“I need some jeans and I genuinely have no idea where to start.” 😀

I’ll personally search and send you the options I think are worth considering.

I’m looking for a small number of people to test this with while I explore the idea. There’s nothing to buy from me; I’d simply love your honest feedback afterwards.

📩 Email me at anna@simplewaysliving.com

Because sometimes the difference between a €12 scarf you quite like and a €12 find you absolutely love is simply knowing what to look for. 🤍