Consignment Clothing & Outfitting Your Children: Buying New Clothing Versus Buying Used Clothing

As a parent of young children, you certainly know what a big bite new kid's clothing can take out of your household budget. Because your kids outgrow their clothing so fast you may be wondering if you should consider finding a way to get clothing for less money. You certainly are not alone as parents all across the U.S. are wondering the same thing: if they should continue to buy new clothes or if they should instead buy second-hand clothing. Read on and then decide for yourself what to do.

Obviously buying used clothing will save you a lot of money. But where do you find decent used clothing for kids that is in good condition? It is much easier if you think, but first we will discuss buying new clothes at 'end of season' sales in retail stores. If you were to get into the habit of buying off-season kid's clothing, you could be lining yourself up for some incredible savings. Most retailers have end of season sales and it is here that you can find cheap, new clothing. Costly items like winter coats, snowsuits and bathing suits can be purchased very cheaply from clearance racks at the end of the respective seasons. You will have to devote some time to finding these clearance sales but the legwork will definitely pay off in the end because you can most often find inexpensive, top brand name quality clothing this way.

Now we will move on to disclosing where you can find good quality used clothing for your children. Surely your area is one in which many garage sales are happening. Just pick up your local newspaper and look through the classifieds for upcoming yard or garage sales. Of course there are not many garage sales during the winter months but they abound during the spring, summer and fall. You can easily pick up shirts for a quarter and pants and jeans for about a dollar a pair at garage sales. You often can find shoes as well that are in great shape because the previous owners probably grew out of them in a few months. Garage sales also are great for finding brand new clothing items, complete with their original tags. You should definitely get into the habit of cruising around on Saturday mornings to visit the garage and yard sales in your area.

If your town has a consignment shop, it would be worth your while to stop in and have a look around. You can even take along your old children's clothing to see if the owner would be willing to take it and give you store credit in return.

Consignment shops often are full of gently used pieces of clothing so do take the time to check them out as the clothing on sale in these stores is less expensive than new clothing.

Do you have friends who have kids older than your children? If so, you might want to speak to them about giving you any clothes they are thinking of donating to charity. If they are planning to sell their used clothing at a garage sale or consignment shop, offer to take it off their hands for a reasonable amount of money. You also could organize a clothing exchange party wherein you and a group of friends with kids gets together to swap kid's clothing. This is a win-win situation for everyone who attends as each person will be going home with something 'new' for their kids to wear.

You should not feel guilty about buying gently used clothing for your children. Many people are struggling financially these days and are looking for good ways to save money. As long as the used clothing you buy is modern and in good shape your children do not even have to know that it is used and they will most likely be very happy to have something new to wear! It pays to use the options out there when it comes to buying clothes for your children so explore the above possibilities and save yourself a good deal of money doing so!


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