It happens almost every year: homecoming comes up out of nowhere and you scramble last minute to find something to wear. All the stores have been picked over, so you end up paying way more than you should for an outfit you will most likely wear once in your entire life. Here are five ways to save money so that homecoming can be a stress free experience.

• Ask older siblings/friends if they have any old dresses you could borrow

Before running out to be a new dress, first look in the closets in your own home. If you have older siblings, check out dresses they once wore to homecoming because chances are they wore them once and then the dresses stayed in their closets. If you don’t have any older siblings, ask upperclassmen that you are friends with. It may not seem as exciting to borrow a dress instead of buying a new one, but think of it this way: with the money you saved from not buying the dress, you can buy some new accessories.

• Rent it!

Since you will probably wear this specific homecoming outfit once in your entire life, save yourself some cash and rent it. Apps like Rent the Runway allow you to get the designer look at a fraction of the cost. The best part is that they send you multiple sizes so you know for sure that you will have something to wear (no one wants to wear safety pins to homecoming).

• Be careful when ordering clothes online

When you order clothes from online, be sure that it is from a reliable website. Claire Ramsey, a junior at Nazareth, learned this lesson the hard way when she ordered a dress through the online shopping app Wanelo. “Usually when you order from them you are sent to an actual store’s website to order and it’s generally pretty reliable,” Ramsey explained. However, this time was different for her, as it took the dress 14 days to come, and when it finally did, “it was jammed into a bag about the size of a softball…and it looked very cheap.”

• When online, always go from low to high prices

When shopping online, do yourself a favor and always change the settings so that you are shown the items in order from low to high prices. Because if you don’t, chances are you will see something that is absolutely perfect, but is way out of your price range, because that’s just what always happens. If you start from the bottom and work your way up, the items within your price range will look a lot better to you.

• Shop online

Don’t feel the need to go to certain stores or get brand name clothes, if you find something you like, just go for it.  Try to avoid shopping in stores like Nordstrom, because if you buy a dress from their store, there is a 99.99% chance that someone else will be wearing the same one as you. Shopping online, however, offers a much wider variety and even has a clearance/sale section.