Work shoes used to be footwear you could wear to slog through the mud to retrieve newly laid eggs from your hens and fetch fresh milk from the cow.

For the WORK SHOES purposes of this essay, it’s safe to assume that “work shoes” means shoes that are appropriate for a corporate office and that the job is a traditional one, not one at a startup where you can wear sneakers, a hoodie, and a skateboard to work.

If you are still reading this, you likely work at a location with a coffee station that serves subpar coffee, a refrigerator that has a sign warning against eating colleagues’ food, and a supervisor who you may or may not like.

Why not look amazing while spending at least eight hours a day in this place? You need to get the most for your money, but you don’t have much. You need genuine value.

You’re going to need a pair of black high heels as your first pair of shoes. Your own choice will determine how high the heel is. But you want a simple black pair of high heels that you can wear with everything. If you want to wear them with a pair of black tights, you should avoid buying anything that has a snakeskin design or patent leather. You may get them in either black suede or standard black leather. If you are a wise buyer and search for discounts, you may get shoes of reasonable quality for less than $100. Shoebuy.com, Yoox.com, Nordstrom, Dillard’s, 6pm.com, and Amazon.com are excellent places to browse both online and offline for shoes. Because you’ll spend $100 on them and wear them more than 500 times, the shoes will cost roughly $0.20 each, which is not a terrible deal.

Next, you need a pair of boots that are knee-high. You could get these boots in brown, tan, or grey because you’ll already have the black high heels. You may dress up a boot with a heel to offer yourself more adaptability, but you can also select a boot with flat heels. You’ll want to spend a bit more on the boots, but the cost per use will be absurd since you’ll wear them so often. Stores like 6pm.com, Nordstrom, Dillard’s, Amazon, Shoebuy, and therealreal.com are excellent places to get fantastic deals.

And last but not least, a straightforward wedge will provide the most value. Some people could argue that it would be a ballet flat, but a wedge can be a far more fashionable alternative that offers adaptability and can even be considered to be more fashionable than a ballerina flat. You may be a little more daring with the black wedge and perhaps get it in patent leather, suede, a cutout design, or with an exposed toe. You should set aside around $100 for this, which is the same amount you spent on the black high heels. Given that you’ll wear them more often than high heels, let’s assume 150 times. Your cost per item will be $0.67. Given their adaptability, those work shoes are not a terrible deal if you plan on using them nonstop. Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Therereal, and Zappos are excellent places to get wedges at great prices.

The three work shoes mentioned above are excellent investments, and you can always find offers, discounts, and bargains on them. They will be a wonderful bargain since you will wear them so often. The actual benefit, though, will be how fashionable you now seem at work. Additionally, you’ll seem much tougher if you kick someone in the behind for stealing your tuna sandwich from the office fridge.