Dress Your Children for FREE?!?!?

There is a great post here today about how to dress your children for free. I think there's a lot of really, really useful information in it. The article is specifically geared towards Gymboree, but there are lots of ways to use this same principal at any store that offers great clearance prices or "rewards" as Gymboree does. Because we live in Cumming, I do most of my shopping for our kids at the Dawsonville Outlet mall. I almost NEVER spend more than $5 for an article of clothing. I do quite a bit of my shopping in the off season and I just assume what sizes my kids will be in (the older they get, the easier this becomes) and I stock up. Right now I have a TON of stuff for school for NEXT year all stashed away in their closets. Once the weather warms up, all this year's spring/summer stuff will start to go on clearance and you can stock up on warm weather stuff then. It's all very cyclical and it's really pretty easy to find good deals. Another tip for those with younger kids is JC Penny. They often put their store brand of separates (knit shorts/sweat pants and tshirts) on sale for about $4 apiece. I usually stock up on the "basics" when they go on sale. Granted I have boys and I'm not at all overly concerned with "fashion" but when places like Gymboree put their stuff on clearance, you can RACK UP the "cute stuff" and then you don't feel so badly when they have paint spilled on them or spaghetti spilled down the front or they get torn in the yard "working with Daddy" or whatever (can you tell I have boys?!).

Finally, if you do buy name brand clothes from Gymboree or Baby Gap or the Children's Place or wherever, they sell exceptionally well on ebay. I've sold quite a few "lots" of clothes on ebay and had great success. It wasn't complicated, the transactions were straightforward and a lot of other people got some great use out of clothes my boys had outgrown. Most of the clothes that I've sold on ebay have actually been worn by both of my boys and they're still in good enough shape to get a pretty penny out of online. The benefit of buying the name brands is that, in my experience, they do tend to hold up better.

Okay, enough of my yapping. Go read the real article. I just got some Gym-Bucks the other day on the boys' Easter outfits, so I'm going to try my hand at this whole "rewards" process in April and see how it works. I'll keep you posted!