When considering starting a family, many people are intimated by the cost of raising a child. My husband and I were, too. During my final two years of work, we lived off his income and saved a good portion of mine to prepare for losing an income and adding a child. After Anna was born two years ago, we began tracking baby expenses as a separate line in our budget. What has surprised me is that although there’s usually at least one child-related purchase that we enter into that category each month, except the month we paid the bill for her birth the cost of adding a child to our family has never been significant. Having a baby and raising a toddler have not been nearly as expensive as we’d heard it would be.
However, I realize that having a child could be very expensive. We make choices so that we don’t have the burden of huge child-related expenses on our budget. One choice we make is to purchase most of our daughter’s clothes used at garage sales. There are several options for buying high-quality, used children’s items including thrift stores, consignment stores, consignment sales (read more about consignment sales here), Craigslist and garage sales. Although there are pros and cons to each option, I buy the majority of Anna’s clothes at garage sales because there are several in my area of the city so I can usually find clothes that will fit her fairly easily and because the prices are generally less expensive than anywhere else.
I thought it would be fun to do a little photo comparison to show how much money I’m really saving when I spend time shopping at garage sales. Pictured in this first photo is a set of Carter’s pajamas, three pairs of jeans from The Children’s Place and a winter hat, new with tags, from Old Navy. Here’s the cost breakdown for how much these clothes would have cost if I’d purchased them new:
Carter’s pajamas $14.00-$16.00
Children’s Place jeans $14.00-$16.50 (x 3)
Old Navy hat $12.50
Total cost: $68.50 or more plus tax for five items
Bargain shoppers never pay full price so let’s just say all items were purchased new with a 25% discount. The total cost would still have been $51.38 plus tax. That’s a lot of money for not a lot of clothes!
Here’s what I bought at one garage sale last weekend. Included are all five items pictured above:
6 sets of pajamas ($1.00 each)
8 long-sleeved shirts ($0.50-$1.00 each)
2 short-sleeved shirts ($1.00 each)
1 dress ($1.00)
1 skirt ($1.00)
1 sweater ($0.50)
5 pairs jeans ($2.00-$3.00 each)
4 pairs pants ($1.00-$3.00 each)
2 pairs shorts ($0.50-$1.00 each)
1 pair shoes, new in box ($2.00)
1 hat, new with tags ($1.00)
Final cost: $42.00 for 32 items
That’s what I call a good deal! All clothes are in great condition, free from stains or wear and tear and all are brand name from stores like Gap, Old Navy, The Children’s Place, Gymboree, Osk Kosh and Carter’s.
Anna should now have enough clothes to last her through the next two winters and we have plenty of hand-me-downs plus a few garage sale finds to get her through next summer so we’re set! I think the only thing we’re missing is a dress suitable for Easter. So that we don’t forget what we already have, we store the too-big clothes in labeled, clear plastic bins in our closet and I keep a notebook to record all the clothes and sizes she already has. I don’t hit the jackpot at every sale I visit, but when I do, I stock up and it makes the effort of hunting worth it.
Coming up, I’ll share some tips and tricks for getting the most out of garage sales so you can score the best bargains and save yourself some money.
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