About this time last year, I wrote a post that sounded like my own personal advertisement for consigning clothes.
Here it is. As my friends Maryanne says, "If you are going to buy clothes for your children, why not find things that you love?" Her children always look adorable, and she only spends pocket change on their outfits. Here's how I do it. I hope if you have a tight budget like I do, you will see that you can have beautiful clothes on
any budget!
My consignment sale shopping tutorial:
1. Always volunteer for a shift and get a pass to the pre-sale. All the good stuff will be gone by Friday!
2.Take a laundry basket, or even better, a rolling cart if you have one.
3.Make a list of what you need and memorize it. But stuff it in your pocket anyway.
4.Get to the sale early, there will be a line.
5.When the doors open, make a bee-line to the area you deem most important. Have a game plan.
6.Don't panic. Start with a loud outfit, maybe a crazy pattern. Look at everything around the rack quickly, but one by one until you make it back to crazy printed outfit.
7.Throw everything you like into your basket. Check prices later.
8.Go to a quiet corner of the room and look at each item carefully. Are there holes, stains, picked fabric, funny smells? Look at prices now.
9.Return your rejects to the proper place.
10.If you love something that is priced too high, come back on Saturday. Prices are usually 50% off on the last day.
11.Pay and leave with a smile. Enjoy the satisfaction of investing well for your family!
Here's what I got today (a total of 43 items) with $100 (I chose this amount because it is what I predict to make from the clothes I am selling.):
6 new books, 2 for each child
2 puzzles, 2 games
Two pairs of shoes for Lydie...those pink GAP tennies were 75 cents!
An early Christmas present for Lydie
9 clothing items for Jaybird. Those GAP vests were $3 each.
8 clothing items for Toot...Gap, Polo, Gymboree brands- mostly $2 or $3
8 items for Lydie- that pumpkin Gymboree set in the bottom left corner was $8 for a dress, 2 tights, striped turtleneck and striped leggings. All sweaters were $2. That cream one will be adorable with a chocolate "L" monogram.
So now with hand-me-downs, birthday gifts, these clothes, and a few other good finds along the way we are ready for fall/winter. In all, I have temporarily invested around $75 per child for the season. With the exception of rare, impulse buys I only spend what I make on their clothing. (This is my second sale this season and I made $230 at the last one and predict around $100 at this sale.)
Hope this encourages someone to keep their standards high, even when their budget is low!
2 comments:
SO FUN!!! WAY TO GO!! Think of all the money you saved! :) What wonderful treasures!
Great job capturing the essence of consignment sales!
It's a funny thing, my mother-in-law just bought the same vacuum for our boys on Friday at a garage sale! :) They LOVE it!
Because of your finds last year I did a local church consignment sale this year. I had a blast. I got to shop at the pre sale and got wonderful Christmas presents for the boys. I worked on the last day of the sale and was given quite a few pieces of clothing before the rest were given away to charity! Thank you for posting about this!
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