Guest Post - Alternative Sources for Back to School Clothing

You can tell it is back to school time when the Staples commercial that proclaims it’s the most wonderful time of the year where the kids are dreading going back to the classroom and the parents are ecstatic about having the kids back out of the house during the day is airing. Back to school shopping can be expensive, so the important thing is finding some items that complement that back to school shopping on a budget.

Some of the best places to find deals are under the radar, and one suggestion would be to go to consignment stores/shops. These stores offer a lot of stationary items, clothing for extremely cheap prices, children’s games/toys, as well as all sorts of great miscellaneous items like tennis and dress shoes.

If you are trying to find a local consignment shop you have a couple of options. You may use the traditional phone book to browse around, drive around the main streets in your town until you come across a store, or you can use the internet sites like Garage Sales Tracker which have a directory of consignment shops as well as garage sales on the web as well as well as turn by turn directions via their iPhone application.

If you are looking in the phone book for sales, you can either go to the shopping part of the phone book and then go to either the C’s for consignments or check out T’s for the Thrift Store directory as well. Some common places around the country such as Good-Will Stores and Salvation Army may have their own alphabetical listing.

If driving around to find shops is your preferred method, then check out the main streets in your town/neighborhood as often consignment shops will reside on the corners of strip malls.

If the internet is your chosen medium for finding a local store, then you can either Google consignment shops in (your city, your state) or utilize the search feature with Garage Sales Tracker where you can simply input your zip code and distance that you are willing to travel and then, voila, you will receive turn by turn driving directions and a map from Google.

No matter how you find your local consignment stores, the point is that it’s a different way to find, shop, and save tremendously right before the kids go back to school. These days clothes, shoes, notebooks, and accessories are getting more expensive, so I’m always glad to look down at my brand new Nikes knowing I only spent $25.00 on them thanks to a consignor!

This article was produced by Rich of Garage Sales Tracker who has been frugally bargain hunting since he was a kid attending flea markets, consignment/thrift shops, and yard sales and has helped turned the hobby into a website that allows people from all over the country to find all local sales in an easy to use manner born from the frustrations of not having a central resource for all of the places he loves to shop.

Frugal Finds - 7/6/10

I am starting a new feature on this blog, Frugal Finds, where we can share our less than retail finds.

My youngest is growing much quicker than I would like—she has gained 7 pounds since her birth 11 weeks ago! I had this crazy idea that she would fit into her sister’s clothes that she wore when she was a baby, but that just isn’t happening. So this weekend I hit a few garage sales and found some great stuff!

For my oldest daughter, I found an Elmo outfit (she LOVES Elmo), a pink track suit, a monkey costume perfect for this Halloween, and two pairs of white sandals.

At the same garage sale, I found 4 outfits for my youngest daughter. (I could only take a picture of three of them because she was wearing one.) Since she is still so young, we prefer to dress her in one piece outfits, and these fit the bill perfectly.

I got all of these items for $10. Not bad considering the Halloween costume alone would have cost at least $20, probably closer to $25.

Do you have any recent Frugal Finds? If so, please link up!

Utilizing Craigslist

One resource I have just begun to utilize again is Craigslist. This site offers all sorts of items for sale and also offers a way to advertise garage sales. I used it last year to buy my son his bike for his birthday while we were having a no spending month.

I hadn't used Craigslist since then until recently. I used it just last week to find a crib for my youngest daughter (more on that coming later).

This past weekend, I went home to see my mom and wanted to hit some garage sales, but there were no good ones advertised in the newspaper. I decided to check Craigslist and found several advertised that were not in the newspaper. They also offered better descriptions than the newspaper of what they were selling, so I was able to target several that were selling kids' items.

I highly recommend utilizing Craigslist to find good quality used items. It works for me!

I shared this post at Works for Me Wednesdays.

My Garage Sale Find

I didn't grow up going to garage sales. A friend introduced me to the concept when I was about 24. I remember being slightly embarrassed going to other people's houses rummaging through their things. However, when I got ready to go to grad school a few years later and I needed to furnish my apartment, I realized how much I could save. I found a blender for $3 that still is working for me today.

Now I love garage sales! A few weeks ago, I found these sheet sets (one for my son and one for me and my husband) for $5 each. Honestly, this is the only way I buy sheets now. I just can't part with all the money required to buy them new. My son's other sheets are a fighter plane print I bought at a garage sale when he was just a baby. We each only had only one set of sheets, but now, thanks to this recent purchase, we have two. We will throw them in the laundry on hot, dry them, and voila! we have a second set of sheets.