Capitalism is hell so thought it be best we all have a space to both rant a bit and also give each other some insight on how we best get by. Remember that you don't wanna put anything too incriminating or personal since wreckers are always looking for dirt but maybe you can tell us about your "friend".
Mind you this isn't a neoliberal "pull yourself from your bootstraps" comm poverty will not be eliminated by simply making "better" individual choices instead think of this comm as a safe place to vent about surviving under capitalism and a place to share whatever hard earned knowledge you wished you knew of earlier.
Guess I can go first in recommending thrift shops when hunting for clothes :deng-drip:. May not always have what you like but I'm in the opinion if it made it to a thrift shop it's probably gonna last you a while. Also learning how to sew is super handy for making clothes last.
Going off that if you normally wear men's style clothing thrift stores tend to have poorer inventory when compared to women's style clothes. If you are fairly skinny then women's pants are usually fit fairly well, but shirts and jackets tend to not fit at all. Additional thrifting tip: spend the extra time (if you can) to go to the thrift stores in the rich areas every so often. They tend to have better quality and nicer looking clothes. It isn't totally uncommon for clothing stores that close to donate the dregs of their stock to thrift stores. It's still fairly good quality stuff though. One more thrifting tip: Goodwill and comparable chain thrift stores often have special "high end" and "low end" stores. The low end stores tend to sell in terms of weight of items sold, and the high end stores are likely to have designer or high end clothing. They also usually have nice suits if you are looking for something to do a job interview or the like in.