Students used to have a monopoly on the musty, fusty interiors of charity shops and the likes of Primark and New Look. But in these difficult times student shopping meccas are overrun by newly converted bargain hunters. As the recession sweeps the country, charity and bargain basement shops are thriving and students are having to compete with the crème de la crème of canny shoppers.

Cancer Research was forced to launch a campaign earlier this year urging people to donate more clothes as demand outstripped supply. Mary Portas, the shopping guru, has not made the situation any easier by sprucing up the outlets in her TV show Mary Queen of Charity Shops and drawing in the fashion crowd.

We travelled to Oxford, Brighton and Sheffield to check out student shopping habits and found that students are experts at looking good on a budget. Few opted for designer gear, making do with home-made clothes, five-year-old high street buys and many a charity shop find.

That is not to say that they were slipping in the style stakes. After roaming around the campuses we found that their thrifty attitude to clothes shopping had produced individual and trendy results.

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There was the odd ripped jean and many outfits were well worn but none of the students had let it all hang out and reverted to Nineties grunge. Some used the trick of one “investment” piece to make an outfit look fashionable — a pair of slightly pricey sunglasses or a good leather bag that will last for years.

Others relied on Topshop for their up-to-the-minute pieces. There is a magic ingredient to this fashion recipe. With some courses clocking up just nine hours of compulsory lectures a week, students are cash-poor but time-rich. They have time to rummage through racks of clothes at TK Maxx, time to try on four different outfits before leaving the house and time to spend four hours shopping and come away with just a pair of tights.

Pia Bramley, a third-year illustration student at Brighton University, advises students in search of a bargain to look off the beaten track.

“It’s difficult to find nice clothes in the charity shops here as the good stuff is sold really quickly. I go home to Kent to shop, it’s much better,” she says.

Other students have found innovative ways of saving money. Alicia Awad, a performance and visual arts student from Brighton, makes all her own clothes: “I buy clothes that are too small and adapt them because the fashion industry does not cater for people my shape. I spend about £30 a month on clothes, including fabrics. You can get a whole roll of fabric from the market for £3.”

Meanwhile, Sheffield student Robert Bigio endorses the “wear it until it falls off your back” approach. “I haven’t really had any new clothes in two years,” he says. “I dress mostly in hand-me-downs from friends and family and charity shops. I have had the same wardrobe for a very long time.”

Almost all the students agreed that when it came to campus style, anything goes. Sheffield student Alex Webb says: “Some people turn up to lectures looking like they are wearing their pyjamas.”

So how can you bag a bargain? Skip the vintage shop and go straight to the charity shop. Fashions are so fleeting nowadays that people often donate this season’s styles to charity.

Go with a shopping list. Make up basics from the high street and find your cool pieces second hand. Look out for designer collections created specially for high street stores — Jimmy Choo shoes will appear in H&M this autumn, for example.

If you insist on designer labels visit shopping outlets such as Bicester Village or go online to www.theoutnet.com, the latest website from Net-A-Porter’s Natalie Massenet. And look for nearly new clothes and discount designer items on eBay.

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