Baby fashion: How to save money on brand name baby cloths

I live on a limited budget and one day I realised that I was able to dress my kids better then my friends who do not have limited budgets. I have better quality baby clothing and more of it then they have. I found it funny, but then realised that my limited budget forced me look for those bargains and I got very good at finding them.

How to save money on new brand name baby cloths. It is always a good feeling to get a bargain and have some thing new.

End of season sales are great if you don’t mind taking the chance your baby will be to big for it when the season comes around again. Not a big problem in mild climates.

You can always go to the discount, and outlet stores. You can often find name brand baby clothing, however you have to be careful as the clothing is usually seconds or damaged, sold as is. You get the brand you want but not always the quality you expect.
Stores like Winners, liquidation world, and the Dixie value outlet mall, full of large discount and outlet stores.

Store liquidation/closing sales are a good way to buy for less. These are hard to find and most stores going out of business will sell off the name brand items to other retailers and then sell the rest at or below wholesale price to you just to try and get some money back. The sales are often very crowded.

Discount online retail sites and auction sites are a good source as well. You can get some very good deals from the very same people who just bought up seconds, not perfects from the manufactures, or bought the name brands from the store closing. Though some times you do have people who sell good product at a lower price because they believe in a quick nickel over a slow buck. Look at Ebay, Blujay and Kijiji to find some of these retailers.

You will find a bigger savings on second hand brand name baby clothing.

Second hand shops are a good place to look. There are good and bad second hand shops. Some only take items on commission, they have to be name brand, in perfect condition and dry cleaned before they are put out for sale. Others take any thing and every things and the condition it came in is the way it goes out for sale. It takes time to go through all the clothing, but if you take the time you can find almost new name brand baby clothing. You end up spending pennies on the dollar for that item, $6.00 for a $60.00 item is not unusual. There are also some great online second hand shops as well, but you have to keep in mind shipping cost.

Garage sales – This takes time to find good garage sales, but you can get some great name brand baby clothing. People just want to get a bit of money and if they don’t sell it they are usually donating it to the second hand shops. I have bought boxes and bags of clothing for a few dollars only to find it full of name brands. Once you know what families have the good clothing in the sizes your kids need you make sure you keep an eye out for when every they have a garage sale. A few cities and towns down here have a once a year city/town wide garage sale day. The one held in Caledonia is organized by the city counsel and is held on the same weekend every year, it is so big people come from all over from hours away with empty trucks and trailers. It is a great place to find families with kids just a little older then yours and you have a good source of clothing. I have been able to get some great clothing from 25 or 50 cents to $2.00 apiece.

Mom-to-Mom sales – I just love these. You have to get to them early to get the name brand clothing though. There is usually quite a few people selling clothing at great prices, they had to cart it there, they don’t want to have to take it home again. I have been able to find name brand boys jeans for a $1.00 or $2.00. Mom-to-Mom sales can be hit or miss though. I find that there is ether a lot of clothing available in the sizes I need or no one has that size at all because some one just bought it all.

Flea markets - You can find new and used name brand clothing at flea markets. You will not get the same deals as you do at garage sales, or Mom-to-Mom sales because that is where most of the flea market vendors buy it.

Free ad sites – people put lots of clothing out on kijiji all the time. I know that there are other free ad sites out there that people use. You just have to find the ones that are for your local area. It is a matter of timing though, you never know when you will find some thing.

Auction sites - There are more auctions sites opening up every day, you just have to find ones that people are selling on. EBay is the most common one, and you can get some great deals on new and used name brand baby clothing. You do have to be careful about shipping costs, they can eat up any savings and if you are buying internationally you may be hit with brokerage fees and all sorts of other unexpected fees.

Clothing exchanges – community run clothing exchanges are an interesting way to get clothing. The idea is that the local community centre or church has a room that is open one or two days a week. People in the community bring the clothing they no longer need and drop it off, and they can go through what others have dropped off and take what they want. You would be surprised at the quality of the clothing. Most of the people who take the time to do this also care about their clothing. I have dropped off and picked up name brand baby and kids clothing. I just moved and my new neighbourhood does not have a clothing exchange and the one I used to go to is only open for people in that area. I miss it already, I have boxes of clothing my kids just grew out of. Now I have to decide, do I hang onto it and have a garage sale next year, or just donate to a charity that will sell it to a second hand store.

Is there a secret way to get clothing straight from the designer/manufacturer/retail store that will help parents save money. I run my own business so I have an advantage over most people, I have a venders permit that allows me to buy from designers, manufacturers and wholesalers. I can also keep items for my own use as long as I pay the taxes on those items. The only problem is that you have to do a minimum buy, usually the same items in bulk. It works great if you have a group of people with kids the same size, you can buy the clothing, every one pays for the clothing plus the tax. Every one wins. Is it fair to every one else, no. The one thing you have to be careful about is that you have to sell the clothing to your friends for more then you paid, even if it is just a few dollars. Other wise you can lose your venders permit. Now the real question is, do I do this. No, the savings are not enough for me to go through all that work, unless I was selling it on my web site.

The joy of Christmas sales shopping at the Mall or on the Internet.

I am always hunting for the right Christmas gift. I love it when I can find it on sale. Every one seems to have sales after Christmas, not before. I love shopping, but not around Christmas. The malls are always full of people all trying to get the same thing I am at the same time. If there is a sale it is even worse. The stores always seem to run out of the sale item just before I get there, but they always have lots of the more expensive item that is not on sale. So I have been shopping on the Internet.

I have done the eBay thing. Finding items for less then in stores, even with shipping and handling costs. You can even find some one-of-a-kind pieces at good prices. Other times I have been able to find the holly grail of Christmas gifts. The ones all sold out in all the stores. You always end up paying a lot for it, but at least you got it. As any parent knows, some times filling your kids Christmas wish is worth paying extra. For the most part eBay is good, but only if you make sure you buy from some one with a high rating. Otherwise you take the chance of not getting the gift in time, or at all.

All the big chain stores have web stores now, the Bay, Sears, Chapters, Wal-Mart and more. Some times it can be faster and cheaper to order online from them instead of going into the physical store. There has been quite a few times when I was unable to find an item in the store, but found it on their web site. I could order it, have it delivered to my home, or pick it up. What ever works best for my schedule.

When I shop on line I can have the items shipped directly to the person I am getting it for. This saves me money and time. Some of the online stores will even wrap gifts for me. When I run out of time to mail gifts I can order gift certificates that can be emailed before or on Christmas day. This comes in handy when I get an unexpected gift from some one or have an unexpected quest. I can actually order and print off a gift certificate in minutes. I have a gift and no one knows I did not have it 10 minutes before.

There is much more competition on the worldwide web then the mall. I can find larger selections, great pricing and occasionally some great sales. One site that always has unique gifts and good pricing is http://www.medievalmagic.ca/. They are having a 25% to 50% sale on every thing even the one of a kind pieces and sterling silver jewellery. They also have gift certificates for that last minute gift. No matter if you shop in a physical store of online it is always fun to hunt for and find the right Christmas gift.

Hidden treasure

If you were hunting a hidden treasure what would you expect to find. Probably gold coins, gems, jewellery and such as that is what we think of as treasures. Yes in some cases you would find some thing like that, but a lot of times the treasure would not be what you were expecting. What was valued in the past is not what we value today for the most part. Sure some things would have been a vast fortune, valued and treasured, and hidden. Today they may only be valued for there age. A necklace with amber would have been worth a lot in some places as it was vary rare, now amber is not a high valued gem. Ships full of vast treasures would more likely hold spices, silks, oils, ceramics from china, and wines then gold jewellery or gems. People would hide trunks full of spice, and cloth because they were of great value, they may be found today but as dust. It was a treasure to them. Also people forget that $10.00 went a long way 100’s of years ago, and $100.00 of treasure was a lot. Today we think in $100,000 or $1,000.000 when we think treasure.

What we value today and see as vast treasures may not be seen as of any value in the future other then its age. Many people spend / invest fortunes on collectables, not because they are of great value but because they are of value to them. What value could my husbands and sons Pokemon and YuGiOh card collection be in the future, if they survived the time, or some ones Barbie or transformers or salt and pepper collections. Think about what we spend our money on today, things we value, computer games, DVD’s, CD’s, special dishes, pictures, paintings would they be considered treasures a few 100 years from now? Same with money, cash, and such, they would more then likely be dust, but if they did survive what value would $50.00 be. Think about how our money devalues all the time. $50.00 a 100 years ago was a lot, now it buys me milk for the month. Think about that CSI show/story where a couple of people killed to find the cargo of a plane that went down 4 years before. Its cargo was insured for a $1,000.000 so it had to be some thing of great value. They found the plane full of obsolete computer chips, no value today as computer technology had changed so much. What do you value today? What do you think a treasure is?