Clothing Woes

When you have a kid, you learn how expensive clothing is for kids. It is amazing how little humans a tenth of my size can have a pair of jeans that cost as much as mine! In-con-SEE-thable (Princess Bride for some reason is on my mind).

So what do I do? Of course I get the best deals I can.

One thing I've been trying to do is sell the kids' clothes, and use the money to buy them new ones. Here in Tulsa 2 ladies started a franchise called Just Between Friends. It's the biggest consignment sale you've ever seen and it's only twice a year for one week.

*Confession* Last time I sold at JBF, I used the money for new shoes for myself...EEK! Don't worry, the kids didn't suffer. And I have worn the shoes ALOT.

I'm not gonna lie, 2 things that I don't like about JBF is the amount of work it takes to consign your items, and in my personal opinion most people want too much for their items. But you have to realize the flip side as well, you get your money much faster than if you were to go to a regular consignment store. And if you don't sell it all, you have the option to donate the leftovers at the end of the sale without having to take them there. Also, the last 2 days are sale days. 25% for the first sale day, 50% for the last sale day. My favorite days!

There are pro's and con's to every situation.

I took a bunch of the girls' clothes to The Children's Orchard yesterday and they offered me $27 for half a bin. All of the Gymboree dresses and outfits, most of the Chilren's Place clothes and a whole lot more. Um, no thanks. I could make more than that having a garage sale for pity's sake! At least I know, now, about what they value the clothes at. I was thinking it would just be easier to sell it to them, not do any work and have my money that day.

Sure. For about 25% of what I can make. A little work can pay off.

So today, while it's raining outside, I'm tagging and prepping clothes.The above is but a small portion. If you don't hear from me in a few days, I've probably been buried by clothes.

Send help.

RetailMeNot

Shopping with all three of my kittens in tow can sometimes feel like I'm taking toothpicks to my eyes. I'm not being dramatic. If it weren't for my wonderful husband, I'd never get any shopping done at the mall. Here he is with our kittens. He took them on their bikes while he ran. Such a good daddy.

Over the past few years, online shopping has become more and more enjoyable. If I'm on the company's e-mail list, then I get discount codes in my inbox. Sometimes free shipping offers on top of the discount code. Add that to a sale, and my budget dollars are going to go so far!

I have discovered a wonderful site called RetailMeNot. When I'm shopping online, and close to checking out, I'll head over to this website in another tab. When you get there, you simply enter the website you're shopping at and it will bring up any coupon or discount codes that other users add to their database. To the left it will tell you how often it has worked for others.

Before Christmas, I wanted to get something at an online store for women with the initials VS. I hopped over to RetailMeNot to see if there were any current codes I could use and I hit gold! I got 2 pair of underwear and a perfume set for free. Nearly $70 of merchandise for free! So after shipping and tax I paid $24.

Gymboree does a lot of one time use coupons. People sometimes post their codes on RetailMeNot and it's first come first serve. I haven't ever gotten to use one, but that doesn't mean you won't. So before you check out online, head over there and see if you can stretch your dollars farther.