How to Cut Dry Cleaning Costs

One of the biggest areas of cutting monthly home expenses is usually involves omitting the extra trips for cappuccinos or lattes. Looking even deeper, we find other entertainment avenues to save a dollar or two. One expense item that is often overlooked and puts a serious crimp in the household budget is the dry cleaning expenses. Dry cleaning shirts, pants, coats and linens run into the thousands for some households. I do not spend that high of an annual amount, but I do spend quite a bit for my shirts and slacks to be cleaned and pressed. I have learned a few ways to keep costs lower and take fewer trips to the dry cleaners.

Limit Trips to the dry cleaners

One way to cut dry cleaning costs is to limit trips to the dry cleaners. I had developed the nasty habit of wearing shirts once and sending off to the dry cleaners along with the rest of the pile that was worn only "once". This policy is very unnecessary unless a shirt is actually soiled or stained from wear. My attitude of the wear once policy was based on not wanting to iron or press the shirt myself. Hanging a shirt immediately after wearing allows the user to wear a second time. If the sleeves or front get slightly wrinkled, bring out the ironing board and straighten out.

Another way to cut down trips to the dry cleaners is to purchase dress shirts made with fabric that is wrinkle resistant and machine washable. First of all, I don't personally believe there are wrinkle resistant pants or shirts. There are articles of clothing that manage to wrinkle much less than those with traditional material blends. Try and purchase khakis or skirts made to be machine washable. You will save yourself tremendous amounts of money on these items.

Look for Deals

Several dry cleaners pride themselves and their profit margins on customer loyalty. Once a dry cleaner ropes in a customer, they know they can secure them for years. Convenience and habit will force many customers to ignore competing dry cleaning establishments located throughout your home town or near your work location. Experiment by taking a few items to a competitor. You do want to be careful about rate shopping since the cheaper price may come at the expense of poor cleaning.

Some dry cleaners also send out monthly mailers or coupons attached to dry cleaning receipts. I always seemed to throw these away to avoid paper and junk mail clutter. Spending hundreds of dollars a year in dry cleaning is good enough reason to hang on to these great dry cleaning cost savings. My regular dry cleaner offers up 10% dry cleaning when I accumulate at least $200 of dry cleaning receipts. This can turn out to be decent deal when considering all the bigger ticket items I get dry cleaned such as wool coats, linens, and dress coats.