To follow up on my post yesterday A whole new wardrobe for under $100? (…and a jeep!) about bargain shopping and money saving tips, namely consignment shopping for kids toys, clothes, and baby items…

Since the “great recession” has hit home hard for many working families, the stigma once attached to goodwill shopping has vanished.  But how do we help disintegrate that stigma with our teens and tweens?  That proves to be a bit more difficult, but I found a couple tricks that worked beautifully with my daugther.

1.  Green is IN!   While many teens or tweens may not be too excited about goodwill shop hopping, they are excited to get green!  Earth friendly, earth-loving, eco-friendly, recycling, tree hugging…many kids are proud to be part of the green age right now – it’s a big deal.  When I mentioned how “green” it is to shop consignment and goodwill stores, my daughter’s eyebrows went up – got her interest.  She was still not totally sold on it being a cool idea though.

2.  Next move was to simply bring home some clothes for her – quietly.  So, one day when she got home from school, there a couple nice Abercrombie T’s, a pair of American Eagle jeans, and nice pair of Old Navy jeans sitting on the table.   She immediately started going through the items, smiling, “are these for me?!”  I just replied, “Yeah, if you like ‘em…”  …and how couldn’t she? 

Next thing I knew, my daughter casually suggests, “maybe if you have time, you can swing by the goodwill and see if they have any cool clothes for me?”  (though she didn’t say she wanted to go with me…)

Well what a great idea, hun!

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He's happy!

In the last week or so, I’ve noticed that my handsome lil man (3 mos. old) has been wearing high water gear…not cool.  He needed new clothes.  Of course, I need more money.  So, for the budget savvy mom (or budget-forced mom as the case may be), we need good deals and bargains to keep our young ones looking their best as they quickly outgrow last year’s clothes (or last month’s clothes in our case with a new baby).

A couple of years ago, one of my sisters-in-law told me about a great little local consignment shop for kids and babies, which buys and sells gently used baby and children clothes, toys, and items.  This was a great discovery given the turn of the economy and the need to spend less money.  On my first visit, I realized that I can get very cute clothes, practically new (and in some cases, they are new), for a fraction of the price that I’d spend on new clothes.  With a household of six children, this is an important money saving tip when it comes to clothes shopping…and when the economy threw us for a loop, it was not only important, but necessary finanical money saving tip.

This past summer, my other sister-in-law told me about another similar consignment shop for kids – Kid to Kid.   We picked up almost everything we needed for our new baby at this store, by bringing in and selling some of our gently used girl items (our girl is now three years old so doesn’t need her pink swing and pink baby sleepers), and receiving our payment as store credit there, to purchase our little baby boy items and clothes.  We were able to pick up his swing, carseat, clothes, and more – for very little out of pocket when compared to buying new.

Best thing about quality consignment shops is:

1) it’s green to recycle clothing and items in this way

2) the items and clothes are “gently used”, not abused – so you dont’ sacrifice cute or quality

3) they will buy your gently used items to help stock their store (of course they have their rules…such as seasonal, no stains and tears, etc)

4) and best of all, you get like 4 or 5 times the amount of clothes and items, for the money spent

So, yesterday I took a trip to Kid to Kid, to look for a walker type toy for my baby boy.  I gathered up a few of my baby’s best outgrown clothes, along with some of my best pregnancy clothes – no longer needed – and headed out.  By the time I was done with my shopping trip and small store credit for the items they purchase from me, I had over a dozen new outfits for my baby boy, a couple of outfits for my toddler, a “Jeep” walker, and a playmat.  The Damage?  Under $100.

New consignment shop wardrobe!

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