If you follow me on Insta, you may have spotted my story from last month about how I scored these Tibi heels for 1 cent. Yup. Brand new Tibi. For a singular penny. After doing a bit of research, it seems I stumbled upon Nordstrom Rack’s elusive one-cent deal. And as a compulsive deal hunter (must be my Asian nature), this is like reaching shopping nirvana — no retail experience will ever come close to being the same.

If you too enjoy being obsessively frugal, here are a few sale shopping strategies I’ve honed over the years to hunt down designer items at the best possible price — you may not score a one-cent deal very often, but you’ll definitely save big:

1. I start by researching my wish list item and jotting down key words, including the designer, the exact style name or number, and the season it was released. Then I do a quick Google search using a combination of the above key words to find all the retail sites the item is sold on.
2. I set up sale alerts for those sites on platforms like Shopstyle, which email me when the price drops.
3. I scour sites like eBay, The Real Real, Vestiaire, or Poshmark daily for a secondhand version.
4. I search for the item during an off season, whether that means looking for a pair of popular designer shoes a few seasons after its debut or looking for a winter coat during summer.
5. Once I’ve found the item at its lowest price and am ready to purchase, I source possible promo codes from resources like RetailMeNot and Honey.

Obviously, this all takes a bit of patience, but it’s always worth it when I end up with a dream designer piece for 60% off the original price. I’d love to know if you have any other sale-hunting techniques!