Not Made Of Money

I have a friend who has a baby daughter. Her older children are boys so she has been trying to find ways to use their baby clothing but would prefer that her daughter be dressed in something more “girlish”. She has come up with a really nifty way to get more use out of their old clothes that are still in good condition. Basically she uses appliques or adds decorative trims to the plain shirts or overalls which then make the outfit more feminine looking. I have taken her example and done the same thing for a few of my son’s old polo shirts. I added nice appliques to the front which makes them much more tolerable to my 4 year old daughter. A nice way to use those hand-me-down clothes that are in great shape!

Besides using hand-me-downs, here are a few other frugal ideas for finding kid’s clothing:

Sign up for your local Freecycle and monitor it closely:
For the past 6 months I’ve watched my local Freecycle list for clothing for the children. Every once in a while I will see an offering in the sizes we need. I’ve received literally bags of clothing for free, and my children are well set with a variety of clothing items. Since clothing items seem to go pretty quickly, make sure you are keeping up with the offerings on a daily basis.

Arrange a clothing swap:
We have a large group of friends with kids in the same age ranges and clothing sizes. Every so often we arrange a clothing swap or simply bring bags of clothing to play dates and let people know what we are willing to swap.

Garage Sales:
This is a little bit more of a hit or miss method. You never know when you may strike gold on a garage sale expedition or be bummed out by not finding appropriate sizes. However, you can increase your chances of finding good items by going to neighborhood sales where there will be many sales going on instead of just one.

Shopping on Ebay:
I like this method but it can be a bit competitive, especially on the name brand offerings. This method is best combined by selling your own clothing items and then using the proceeds to purchase needed items. I have been using this method for a while with my Pay Pal account and it is working well.

• How To Dress Well For Less - Frugal Clothing 101
• Frugal Ideas To Start The Week

• Money Saving Tips: 122 Ways To Trim Your Budget A while back All You Magazine offered to give away...
• Top 10 Ways To Green Your Children. photo by ogimogi I get individual questions from readers all...