Expedition

My boys seem to be growing so quickly!  In September, I had bought them new school clothes, all around a size 5 or 5/6.  But these past few weeks, I’ve noticed that either the clothes or shrinking drastically or my children are growing an inch per day!!  I like buying the kids new clothes, especially for the beginning of the school year. More than that, though, I like buying them used clothes!!

When Little Miss was younger, I bought most of her clothes brand-new.  But then another family started handing me bins and bins of clothes for her that had been used by their girls.  We had so many beautiful outfits for Little Miss.  She barely wore the same outfit twice.  And as she grew out of them, I stuffed them back into bins to save for our next child.

It was pretty helpful to have all of those bins of clothes when I found out I was pregnant again…with twin boys! 😉  But seriously, it actually was.  Because I needed a way to make some extra spending money and here I had bins and bins of adorable, sweet little baby girl and toddler clothes.  The best part, was that Little Miss rarely made a mess of her clothes, so all of these beautiful outfits were in excellent condition.  I was able to sell them at a children’s consignment sale and I made quite a bit of money, actually.  At just one of the sales, I made around $1,000!!!!  Who knew you could make that much money off of a bunch of old clothes?!?!

So after the boys were born, I was anticipating being able to sell all of their clothes to make some extra cash, too.  But, well, boys.  They’re gross, disgusting, messy little creatures that like to dive into ketchup and make mud pancakes! They blow their boogies on their sleeves, smear poop all over their pants, and bathe in ranch dressing.  YUCK, YUCK, double YUCK! Long story, short…I have not been able to sell much of anything from their wardrobe! 

When you have two messy, yucky,  but adorable, sweet boys, the last thing you really want to do is to waste a whole chunk of  money on brand new clothes they’ll only be able to wear ONCE!  But, just for shits and giggles, let’s say that some of those new clothes remain spotless (or spot-few) through several wearings and washings.  And then, let’s say that, what seems like all of a sudden, the boys look like a combination between the Jolly Green Giant and Frankenstein in said “new” clothes.  What’s a momma to do??

Shop the thrift stores!!!!  Garage sales, consignment sales, and Craigslist are other awesome ways to save on clothes! Lately, I’ve had some really great luck at thrift stores!  This one store right around the corner from me sells children’s clothes for 50 cents each piece!  I have found Gap, Children’s Place, abercrombie (for kids), and Ralph Lauren items in near-perfect condition lately!  I’m a lucky lady!

Another great way to get more clothes for next-to-nothing is to send your sons on an expedition, complete with headlamp, into the back of their closet. Because, oh crap!  I TOTALLY FORGOT that we had an entire bin filled with spot-free, name-brand, gorgeous, stylish clothes that are just their current size!!  Palm to forehead! 

You see, a little over a year ago, I had been extremely fortunate to be at the right place at the right time and had been given several garbage bags filled with all of these super-adorable, ultra-cool, totally CLEAN clothes! But only half of them were the right size at the time.  The other half, I diligently packed away in a bin to save for later.  J  Well, later is now!  And thank goodness we found them!  Holy moly there’s a ton!!!  Well, enough for two boys…for at least a little while…until they spill chocolate down the fronts of the tops, anyway!

I was totally smart to remember the bin and send the boys on that expedition, amiright?!  Yeah, well, truth:  I had NO clue they were there.  The boys just happened to decide they wanted to explore their closet for the first time ever and they stumbled upon this great treasure.  Chub-Chub was thrilled!  He’s such a clothes horse because he loves to dress like a “handsome guy”.  Lucky me!!!!  Now I don’t have to dump money down the trash!

Stylishly yours,

MM