Consignment store & thrift shopping.

Let me begin this post by saying that there is nothing wrong with spending the money at fancy stores geared specifically for baby clothes. Nothing wrong with it at all, IF you have the money.

It just so happens that we do not.

I have always been a lover of thrift stores, mostly because I am 1 part crafty and 2 parts eclectic. I collect tea pots, not just the plain ones, but the interesting ones that are all shapes and sizes. Thrift stores are an excellent place to find these. I also love to re-vamp things. Examples include 5 total lamps that I got for about $5 total that I spray painted black and then touched up with gold smudging paint. Total cost of everything needed was under $10 and now I have 5 new lamps that rock my world. Often you can find the most awesome things, like paper plate holders for $.25 (set of 5) or baskets to hold all those kid's toys and books for less then $1 each.

When I got pregnant, I was firmly against spending full price on any maternity clothes. I was livid at the outrageous prices for things that I would literally wear for maybe a month and less then that if I got bigger more quickly. There are 3 thrift stores in our area and several Goodwills. I scoured them, and pretty soon had an entire maternity wardrobe for a fraction of the cost. The stores I go to are very well run, very clean, and have the nicest people that work in them...always willing to help. We were extremely blessed and very fortunate to receive tons of clothes from my oldest brother. He has 3 kids and they are not able to have any more, plus he just recently relocated to Germany so he needed to give away everything or risk paying out the ear for storage. Unfortunately, he has 3 summer babies and Sophie was born in January. Therefore, a vast amount of the clothing we got as hand-me-downs were just the wrong size for the wrong season. Don't get me wrong, 80% of her clothes are from her cousins and I love that...but there are just some things that we couldn't use and were in desperate need of. Because of this, I started going to thrift stores and gearing myself more towards infant clothes and less towards the crafty/collectible stuff. I also started frequenting my local consignment stores.


Here's what i've learned from my experiences:

- It's ok to shop at these places. Some people will look down on me when I say that i've pretty much never paid full price for any of her clothing that i've purchased myself. I felt guilty at first, then I walked into a kids clothing store and almost cried at the $24 they wanted for a sweater. 
- Sometimes, you have to walk away from a good deal. I'm not an expert on kids clothing by any means...but I know that sometimes things are overpriced, especially at a consignment store/sale. If you don't think it's worth it...walk away.
- Get on any email/mailing lists and get any loyalty card they offer. Get to know the people that run the stores. I formed a great relationship with the manager of our consignment shop...One of our thrift stores supports CHKD, a local hospital that Sophie frequents due to her skin issues. I always ask them to round up my total to the next dollar and then put the change in the donation jar. Because of this, the women there often tell me of sales they know of in the area or shops that just opened that I should check out...plus I truly enjoy helping a great cause and I know they run their shop with gentle hands so I enjoy shopping there often. The consignment shop I go to offers a stamp card, every $10 I spend/sell with them I get a stamp. When my card is full, it's 20% off my whole order. Because i'm on the email list, I was able to hear about the grab bag sale early and scored over $80 worth of clothes for $15 flat. I also went in during St. Patricks Day and got to choose a 'gold coin' and ended up getting 40% off my order right there on the spot. 
-Never be afraid to buy the next size up. If you find something that is a fantastic price, but it's a bit too big...take it. It may not be there when your little one grows into it. I can't tell you how many puzzles i've gotten for less then $1 even though Sophie is nowhere near working puzzles yet. 
-Spend time shopping. If you look hard enough, you can find gems in the rough. I have found so many things that still have the original tags on them. Basically, a baby outgrows something like a gift before they can even take the tags off of it...so it ends up donated/consigned. In turn, it's sold at a fraction of the price. A lot of times these come with higher price tags to begin with, but if I can get that same $24 sweater for $4.99 with the tags still on it, i'll take it.
-It's not much, but take time to thank whoever it is out there that donated these items..and remember that when it comes time to get rid of your own things. You may want to have another child and that's fine, I want to as well so right now i'm not getting rid of anything just yet save a few items that I probably will never keep and have consigned or donated. I always say a little prayer of thanks to those mothers that donated their items...and in turn have allowed my baby to have new jammies or a new jacket for the winter. 
-Make a day out of it...and understand that you may not find anything at all. Learn where your stores are and make a day off out of it. Pack snacks for little ones so they are kept happy...know which ones have bathrooms and which don't so you can stop somewhere for lunch that has a changing table/potty break. Learn ahead of time when new items come into the store. If you go within a couple days of the last visit chances are that you are going to be looking at the same store. Don't be afraid to ask when the store puts out it's new rotation of clothing/etc. I usually plan a day i'm off on the weekend and go to all my local stores in one fell swoop. 
Go Early and never around the first of the month. The first of the month is when a lot of people get paid, same with the middle of the month. Try to avoid these times simply to avoid the crowds. Start your day early, because once everyone is up...you'll find a lot of people have a plan just like you do. You'll also have a better pick of things. This rings especially true for yard sales. I know from experience that yard salers hate early birds (well, most do) but look through the classifieds the week before and find ones that say 'early birds welcome'. That could be the differance between scoring a bunch of kids toys and finding out they sold everything kid related before 9AM. This is my plan for yard sales, I go through and map each one and then make a huge loop. By the time that you are done with the last one (if you are going to quite a few) then start over at the first one. If it's nearing the time that the sale is supposed to end, they will WANT to get rid of things. I did this and scored 3 bags of soft blocks for Sophie for .50...the woman just wanted them gone, and practically loaded them into my car herself.


It sounds like i'm exceedingly desperate, but I'm not. I'm a couponing mama and unfortunately have fallen into the credit card debt that is so sadly common in this day and age. We sometimes get caught living paycheck to paycheck, especially with Sophie being born and her hospital stays since. Because of this, sometimes I find it neccesary to shop at my local thrift stores and the point of this entire post is to pass along the fact that it's OK to do so. Sometimes I wish that I had extra money to buy her everything new and pristine and never worn..but I know that it's just not what we are in the position to do right now, especially at the rate my baby girl is growing. I just can't see spending $200-$300 for so few outfits when I can use that money for groceries or other things like that.

No matter what you do, everyone is going to have an opinion. I've had a lot of people give me the side-eye when they compliment me on a shirt and I mention it's from a local thrift store. I always feel a little sad that a few seconds prior to that information, the shirt was pretty and "looked great on me" and then it goes to pitying looks because the truth comes out. I firmly believe in not lying about where I got the clothing. I did that once, and backed myself into a corner because a friend was adament that the shirt I was wearing wasn't carried at any Old Navy that she had been to (she went to 4 stores looking for it!) and I felt bad when I had to tell her that it wouldn't be because it was probably a couple seasons old =/ I find there is absolutely no shame in mentioning where I purchased something. I save us money, and Sophie gets some awesome clothes...what's so wrong about that?

If you aren't comfortable with thrift stores or goodwill yet, that's ok too. There's still some awesome ways out there to save money on your growing kid's wardrobe. My biggest advice is to shop dept. or chain stores when they have their past season clearance.  Using this method, you will most likely have to buy a couple sizes up for the following season. This actually works twofold, you have clothing already stored away for when they get bigger and if they end up going through a massive growth spurt (like my daughter has recently) you have something to dip into a little early instead of frantically running around trying to find stuff they can fit into so they aren't running around in a diaper. The two main sales that i'm talking about concern Spring/Summer clothing and Fall/Winter clothing. The sales happen in the opposite seasons, so at the end of the summer, most stores will clear out the tank tops/short sleeves/shorts/slacks as they try to make room for the new clothes. Let's use today's finds as an example. My father-in-law gave us a gift card to JCPenney for clothes for Sophie, because I had mentioned that with her larger head we were having trouble getting things to stretch over and fit her properly. I've been pretty good at sticking to sales and such, and today after I left the house I realized that Sophie has pretty much hurled all over my shirt and the stain was right over my boob and already dried. Fantastic. So I asked Luis if I could use the card to pick up a shirt so I could change and continue my errands without smelling like old formula and sweet potatoes (pleasant, right?) I hit JCPenney and immediately saw the 80% off red tag clearance racks. Score. What follows are examples of what I mean when I say 'end of season clearance'

yes, it's upside down...ignore that for me. This is a picture of what I got...1 shirt for me that will work for day/date/work and 2 shirts for Sophie. Both of the shirts are 3T, but cut small...and she will probably fit into them next summer at the rate she's growing

This is the price tag for my shirt. The original price is listed at $36. I'm sorry..but realistically I cannot afford to pay $36 for a shirt. Granted, I will use it...but imagine needing 4 of these shirts to interchange during the work week. That's $144 on 4 shirts and you haven't even gotten pants yet. If I had the money, I might deal with it every once in awhile...but I can take that $144 and on a good clearance sale walk away with at least 10 different outfits that i can mix/match and dress up or down. 

This is the tag for Sophie's shirts. Original price was $15.99, I scored them for $1.97 each. Does this make sense now as to why I purchased them in 3T? When she's in that size in the future and say I needed shirts for her, I would have paid $32 for 2 shirts that she pretty much would outgrow in no time flat. 

When you shop the clearance racks, you'll notice repetitions. The reason for clearance is to clear out the back shelves to make room for new shipments and new seasons. Therefore, you'll see a lot of the same shirts in different colors and maybe a plethora of one size. It could mean a number of things. The shirt didn't sell well (maybe no one wanted to pay $36 for it?) or they overstepped their goal and ordered more of something expecting it to sell quickly and in the end, it didn't. Their loss, your gain. Pay attention to door buster sales too, especially around back to school. Lots of department stores focus on juniors, but at the same time they will run doorbusters on other departments too to draw people in. Pair this with clearance sales going on and you can make out like a bandit.