Welcome to April. And welcome to our new semi-regular column, Ask the Shoebloggers, wherein you get to send us your burning shoe-related questions, and we’ll do our very best to answer them. Think of this as the "Dear Abby" column of the shoe world.

Our first Ask the Shoebloggers question comes from a determined shopper looking to add some comfortable shoes to her wardrobe.

I’m trying to put together my first real wardrobe. Unfortunately, I am still ridiculously poor. I recently learned that shoes can be comfortable and have since vowed to only buy comfortable shoes. Unfortunately this means I have to get rid of all my shoes and start over. I was wondering what are some brands (relatively reasonable) that are known for having comfortable shoes. I’ve heard that Nine West shoes are comfortable and when I tried a pair of Nordstrom wedge sandals on I was shocked at the comfort. Could you recommend some pumps that are wonderfully comfortable, stylish and affordable?

An excellent quest! Who doesn’t need a basic pump? I totally feel your predicament. Unfortunately, the "premium" comfort brands do tend to be pretty expensive. But here are a couple ideas on finding more affordable comfortable shoes.

First off, and I really can’t stress this enough, be a sale hunter. You can find some amazing discounts at online shoe stores like Zappos.com, Shoes.com, Endless.com, which all have great selections and plenty of comfortable brands. I’m a firm believer that everytime you can find a pair of shoes that’s normally outside your budget for a discount that puts them within your reach, it’s a chance to up the quality of your shoe collection.

And on a related note, I’d highly recommend buying the most expensive shoes you can reasonably afford. Don’t break your wallet or go into debt, of course, but rather than finding something that’s quick and cheap and gets the job done, take some time to try and find something that’s made from higher quality materials and with more attention to detail. Sure, that usually means the price goes up, but like I said above, if you can find those expensive shoes at a discount, you end up spending the same amount you would have on a cheaper brand but getting something of a higher quality.

Now, on to the brands. Nine West does indeed make a line that’s particularly geared toward comfort. It’s called Cloud 9, and their shoes do tend to be a nice hybrid of style and comfort. Also, Aerosoles makes shoes that are quite comfortable and affordable. And they’ve upped their style quotient bigtime over the past few seasons. Check out the Envy pumps.

Same goes for Easy Spirit… once known only for comfort and pretty aggressively style-less, they’re now making some really nice looking shoes. Like the Impulso pump

and the County pump, which is on sale right now for only $40! (well, if you’re an 8 or 9 Narrow).

Kenneth Cole Reaction also makes some comfy and stylish shoes that tend to be more affordable than the Kenneth Cole line shoes.

So, happy shoe shopping, and may you enjoy the discovery that shoes can be both stylish AND comfortable.

If you have shoe questions you’d like to put to us, send an email to jitterbugbaby@shoeblog.com and shoesense@shoeblog.com.