You’ve been in the shops together, drooling over the beautiful black-leather bustiers and gorgeously crafted paddles, yet everything was out of your price range. Hell, even the feather tickler was thirty bucks. Fetish parties can be pricy too. What’s a kinky couple to do?
This subject comes up over and over—the high cost of kink paraphernalia. It’s almost as if kink and fetish is a special interest category for the elite.
I get that it might seem that way, but here’s the reality: all those products were created in response to a scene that was already there, already thriving.
As with any market, you’ll find an exclusive, top-of-the line array of products, but you’ll also find stuff at the dollar store (where I got my fuzzy pink handcuffs, lol!)
Here’s how to deck out your dungeon and enjoy your fetish if you and your girlfriend are kinky, but you don’t make the big bucks for fancy whips and chains.
Tips for Kinky Fun on a Budget
Use Your Imagination
It’s all a matter of learning to see possibilities. Long before anyone had specialty shops or artisans, they were enjoying BDSM and all kinds of kinks.
The dollar store is a playground, and so is the hardware store.
A black hairband can make a perfect blindfold. The kitchen aisle is all you need for your sexy maid role play. If the dollar store stuff is too cutesy, or too flimsy, upgrade for the real deal at the hardware store. Heavy duty rope and twine, vinyl, rubber, and chains—you name it.
Get Handy
If you’re in construction, you can have the kinkiest, most crazy dungeon of anyone with a little planning. If you aren’t particularly handy, why not try a kinky DIY project anyways? It could make for a fun date night with your t-girl, since you’re in this together.
Be Thrifty at Thrift Stores
You don’t want to wear anybody’s discarded underwear, I get it. And it’s unlikely you’ll find leather chaps, but what’s really fun about shopping at the Sally Ann or Value Village is that you never know WHAT you will find!
Here’s what I did see poking around a few yard sales and thrift shops recently: a giant metal pole for three bucks which will be handy for Festivus, or dirty dancing; cheap Halloween costumes that are pure gold for role playing; a huge array of horse tack, including a beautiful real saddle; stunning vintage jazz-age dresses and ladies’ gloves galore, black biker butch boots, barely worn—you get the picture.
Save to Splurge
If there’s something in particular you both want badly, but can’t replicate or make do with bargain versions or imagination, start a coin jar. Seriously. We save for other things that matter to us. Make it playful—whenever one of you has a five dollar bill, it goes in the jar, or all quarters until they add up.
Maybe every time one of you puts ten bucks into the joint-saving space, you get to make out for ten minutes. Whatever fun rules you choose, the fastest way to get there is to get started.
If you’re flying solo, check out these tips to meet kinky trans women online!
What are your go-to spots to find props and accessories for your kinks?
Tell us what you think