I Saved Over $1,000 On Shopping Last Year Without Compromising On Style—Here’s How

When I was in high school, my favorite way to spend every other Friday afternoon was alone at our local mall, leisurely strolling from store to store and carefully spending every last dime of the paycheck I had just received. These days, we’re calling that “self-care.” And while some things have certainly changed now that I’m a semi-responsible adult, I never lost that truly absurd love for fashion. Curating the perfect outfit for each occasion is something that sparks joy for me. Wearing something that I absolutely adore makes me a happier, more confident person, and the results genuinely show on the outside, leading to a better day overall (my husband can, unfortunately, attest to this). 

Since I discovered my obsession with fashion at the ripe age of 10 years old at the iconic Limited Too (to the detriment of my mother’s wallet), I’ve been chasing that high of shopping. While I’ve learned some secrets to thrifting that have made it a lower-cost option for me, I still can’t help but look to online shopping for fresh, trendier items whenever a new season rolls around. I can’t be the only one who can’t imagine attending a special event (like a fall wedding or rehearsal dinner), much less going on vacation, without purchasing a few new looks. 

Because of this, I found myself one morning deep down the rabbit hole of clothing rental service research. Over two piping hot coffees, I learned everything I could about the options available – from Rent The Runway to Stitchfix, and finally Nuuly. And, after going off on one of my tangents during our Monday morning meeting, I discovered that one of my fellow Evie team members had been using Nuuly for a couple of years (okay, gatekeeper), and since she has impeccably beautiful and feminine style, I couldn’t help but fork over my credit card and give it a shot myself. 

Two days later, I received my very first Nuuly order filled with athleisure, casual dresses, and a versatile blouse, and now, over a year into my journey, I feel like I’ve gathered enough experience with the rental service to give my totally unfiltered, honest opinion. Let’s get into the good, the bad, and the ugly of the popular rental service Nuuly. 

The Good

Moms everywhere will appreciate this one: With Nuuly, you don’t need to worry about getting your rentals stained or ripped, and if your toddler accidentally yanks off that pretty, embellished button on your sleeve, it’s truly NBD. Game-changing, right? That means no more ruining your own nice clothes when you’re out at lunch with a baby on your lap or at the park sitting on a rain-soaked swing. They have an in-house dry-cleaning and repair service, so you don’t even have to worry about washing the clothes before shipping them back. A truly ideal situation for breastfeeding moms, women with kids, or ladies who are just particularly messy. 

On the topic of shipping, Nuuly provides you with free 2-day shipping both ways. The return label is already printed out for you and included in the bag when you receive it so you don’t even need a printer. All you have to do when you’re done with the clothes is zip up your bag, slap the pre-printed label on the front, and drop it off at your closest UPS store to get scanned and shipped. 

Want to keep your clothes for longer than the month provided? No biggie. There are no late fees or penalties for extending your rental. This has been helpful for me several times when I’ve had a trip that fell in between subscription dates, so I didn’t have to worry about shipping the items back before I was done with them.

Or perhaps you feel ready to turn in your items for some new picks early. That’s totally fine too! I’ve also taken advantage of returning items early when they lost their luster or I simply needed something new for an event that popped up at the last minute. The only downside to returning your items early and swapping them out with new pieces is that you have to pay your monthly fee then and there rather than waiting until it would naturally be due. It makes sense, but it could potentially get more expensive than you’d like if you’re swapping Nuuly orders out every 10 days or something like that. 

Another bonus to using Nuuly is that you can skip months whenever you want without any penalties or fees. Got nothing on the calendar for September or your budget is already a little tight? Skip. Easy as that. 

Next, let’s discuss the reviews on Nuuly. One of the biggest tips I will give you about ordering clothes to rent through this service is to make sure you’re taking your time and actually reading reviews from real customers and looking at the photos of them provided. These aren’t influencers or celebrities with special posing skills or flattering ring lights – they are actual photos of real people in the reviews, and they have no incentive to sugarcoat their feelings about the clothing item they received. This is super helpful for sniffing out cheap fabrics, unflattering silhouettes, and sizing differences before using up one of your precious rentals and trying the piece yourself.

Reading reviews is also a great way to find out if a brand you’ve been eyeing for a long time (for me, LoveShackFancy) is truly worth the price tag when buying from the store (hint: it’s not). After admiring LSF for many years, I got the opportunity to try out several of their pieces via Nuuly and found that, while cute and appropriate for the occasions I needed them for, I would have been sorely disappointed if I had spent upwards of $350 on one of their dresses. On the other hand, I’ve also discovered countless brands I had never even heard of or considered prior to using Nuuly that have much higher quality dresses that I ended up buying through the service. Which brings me to my next point: If you find that you fall in love with something you’ve rented from Nuuly and don’t want to send it back, you can buy the item at a fraction of the price from Nuuly directly. Another game-changer. 

You know what has been arguably the most life-changing for me since using Nuuly, though? It’s that I don’t feel the urge to buy things on a whim or build shopping into my routine anymore. I don’t feel pressured to buy items on Instagram or TikTok, and I’m better able to resist being influenced to purchase when I’m out and about in a boutique or mall. Whenever I feel like buying something new, get invested in a new trend, or am just bored on my phone, I spend the time going through Nuuly’s new arrivals and adding items to my "Closet" for my next rental cycle. It’s kind of like window shopping on my phone, except that I get to wear the clothes. The Nuuly monthly subscription fee costs about $104 per month which is a whole lot less than what I was spending previously in our monthly budget for shopping. I’m also getting the opportunity to wear high-quality designer clothes that I would have never been able to afford otherwise, rather than filling my closet with fast fashion junk. 

Throughout the past year, I have tried out countless trends through Nuuly, like the denim maxi skirt, milkmaid dress, linen vest, oversized bows – you name it. Some of them I fell in love with, and others, well, we’ll just say I’m so glad I didn’t spend $200 to permanently buy a denim maxi skirt. Using a rental service like Nuuly allows you to take fashion risks and try out different styles and trends without marrying them. If you’re not sure what silhouettes look best on your body type or what colors look flattering for your skin tone, then this is a great way to experiment and nail down your personal style while having fun. 

The Bad

Okay, now that we’ve discussed much of what I love about Nuuly, let’s get into some of the honest drawbacks of using this rental service. As much time as you may spend scouring reviews, looking at photos, and identifying whether your body type will look good in something, the truth is that sometimes the item you ordered simply doesn’t fit or doesn’t look cute on you. In those cases, well, you’re just screwed, to be frank. There’s nothing you can do about it except count it as a loss for the month or reach out to their customer service department and file a complaint. Every time I’ve done this (maybe three times total), they have offered a free bonus item in my next month or a refund on that portion of my subscription fee (around $17). However, in every month that I’ve used Nuuly so far, there has been at least one item that I haven’t worn either because the fit wasn’t flattering on me, the item was totally impractical for what I was doing that month, or I couldn’t find anything to pair with it. To be honest, though, the last two are my issues and can’t be blamed on Nuuly. 

Next, let’s look at the shopping and check-out process. Even though I have a “Closet” within my Nuuly account that I add items to every few days for when I’m ready to place my next order, I still tend to feel rushed as I’m checking out because it seems there are so few of each item that another customer can (and often does) snag the same item you have in your cart, making it unavailable within seconds. It’s almost like when you’re at a secondhand shop, and the sales associate brings out the new, cute clothes that haven’t been picked through yet, and with the adrenaline pulsing through your veins, you grab every item that remotely looks like your style before the girl next to you does. It’s stressful, and it leads to buyer’s (or renter’s) remorse nearly every time. Stop this, Nuuly. Pitting girls against each other is so 2000s. 

My tip for combatting this until Nuuly gets more inventory for each item they offer is to curate more specific lists within your “Closet” like “fall vacation” or “family photos,” where you can narrow down your picks to around 50 items that you really love, have researched well, and would fit your needs for the month. This way, when you toggle the button to “Available Now” when you’re ready, there should still be plenty to choose from that you’ll be happy with rather than rushing through 500 saves from your “Closet” list. 

The Ugly

Theft. Let’s unpack it. Or rather, let’s talk about how some thieves who handle your Nuuly package – from the UPS store to the warehouse – have the audacity to unpack your bag themselves. I’ll be honest, this wasn’t totally surprising to me after I received my first Nuuly order and realized that I was looking down at a simple zip-up fabric bag on my doorstep. No security measures, no attempt at hiding what lies inside. Just a quick zip to uncover hundreds – sometimes thousands – of dollars worth of designer clothes inside.

Nevertheless, I trusted the process, and after wearing my second month of Nuuly, I brought it to the UPS Store, returned my order as usual, and a few days later was met with an email that said, “Looks like something is missing!” It turns out, someone had removed three items (out of five) in my bag, and Nuuly had assumed that I just didn’t include them because I wanted to purchase them myself. Imagine my shock when I added up what the total of purchasing those items would be – over $450. I couldn’t have typed faster into the Nuuly support form that I absolutely would not be paying for these items because I had, in fact, returned them as usual. Thankfully, they responded almost immediately that they’d be removing the charges from my account and that it would be reported to their incidents department. Phew. New fear unlocked for sure, though. 

Now every time I return my order, I find some way to disguise it or make it more difficult for the thieves to get into. The last package I returned I used nearly half a roll of packing tape to secure the zipper and increase my chances of it getting there intact. Nuuly didn’t charge me last time for the theft of someone else, but how many times does that have to happen for them to either charge me or cancel my subscription because of it? This burden shouldn’t fall on Nuuly’s customers, which is why it’s my number one issue with them at the moment. Thankfully, I haven’t had this issue occur again and I’ve been using Nuuly for over a year, but the fear still sits at the back of my mind every time I return a package. I’m sure that my order isn’t the only one that has been tampered with. They need to either add a lock to their zip-up packages or reimagine the way they are sending out items altogether. 

My Overall Review

Now that we’ve covered the good, the bad, and the ugly, would I still recommend Nuuly to the girls in my life? The answer is a resounding “yes.” I just placed my order for the month this morning, and I’m not sure the excitement of hitting the “checkout” button on a package stuffed to the brim with gorgeous, high-end designer clothes for less than one new dress will ever grow old. 

Feeling convinced? While I’m certainly not getting paid to promote Nuuly in any way, I do have a link (here) for $30 off your first month’s subscription. Happy browsing, my fellow shopaholic!  

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