If you’re tired of expensive kids’ clothes, you can’t miss these four budget-friendly places to shop for children’s clothing!
When I was pregnant with my firstborn, I read an article about how expensive it is to raise a child. While it alarmed me a bit, I felt sure there had to be ways to shave dollars off of this cost.
And there are.
In my experience, saving money on raising kids can start with finding budget-friendly places to shop for children’s clothing.
There are so many tips and tricks to comfortably dressing babies and toddlers while sticking to your budget. There are free options, like using hand-me-down clothing or organizing a clothing swap, but these aren’t always accessible to everyone.
Finding budget-friendly places to shop for children’s clothing has been key for our family.
4 Budget-Friendly Places to Shop for Children’s Clothing
1. Yard or Garage Sales
You will find the very cheapest kids’ clothes at yard sales, and most sellers will even let you negotiate because they want to get rid of things.
There are some downsides to finding kids’ clothes at yard sales, though.
They are usually hit or miss.
In order to find the very best deals, you have to wake up super early on a Saturday morning, and you could potentially drive around all day and not find anything worth your while.
You cannot return things you buy from yard sales.
And yard sales are only seasonable events. If you’re in the market for children’s clothing in the dead of winter, you will be out of luck when it comes to yard sale finds.
Many times yard sale clothing is already very worn, so they probably won’t last you through several kids. As the mom of three girls, this is definitely something I must consider.
Despite some major downsides, yard sale shopping is your very best bet for finding cheap children’s clothing if you are living on a tight budget.
2. Thrift Stores
Depending on the vendor, many thrift store’s offer prices comparable to yard sales. And in some affluent neighborhoods, you can even snag some new-with-tag, brand-name clothing at thrift stores!
My dad’s hobby is to visit thrift shops each Saturday. He’s found some really great stuff–particularly shoes. The red leather cowgirl boots my 6-year-old is wearing in many of my Instagram pics came from Goodwill!
Thrift stores have some downsides, too, though.
Many will not allow returns. Some thrift stores are unclean, disorganized, and come with a distinct “thrift store smell.”
Depending on the store, their selection can also be hit or miss. Although you can score some great things, most of the time you have to wade through really worn-out clothing in order to find them. This can make thrift-store shopping time consuming.
But thrift stores are the vendor of choice for some. Our contributing writer Shannon outlined her very positive experience as a thrift-shopping novice a few months back!
3. Consignment Sales & Shops
Up until the past year, we purchased the majority of our girls’ clothing from a bi-annual children’s consignment sale. A family friend organizes our favorite sale, and she holds them each spring and fall.
One benefit of consignment sale shopping is that most sales have very strict quality control. I have volunteered at ours, and the owner of the sale does not allow sub-par or overly-worn clothing into her sale.
A these sales, we’ve found some great boutique and name-brand clothing for our kids–in addition to school uniforms.
I also really enjoy that these sales just come twice per year. If you’re a regular reader of my site, you know that I hate shopping. Really, I do.
Sticking to these bi-annual consignment sales have eliminated the need to shop year round, and they have served me well.
You can even earn money at these sales by consigning the clothing your children have already outgrown.
Although the prices are usually more affordable than what you might find at retail stores, clothing at consignment sales are typically significantly more expensive than what you find at both yard sales and thrift store.
Another downside is that the clothing, although of quality, wears out faster than brand new clothing.
Some communities do not offer seasonal children’s consignment sales. An alternative is to shop at free-standing consignment shops or online consignment stores.
4. Retail Stores
This is the only place where you are guaranteed to find brand new clothing.
When shopping at discount chains, like Walmart, etc., you can sometimes spend the same amount on brand new clothing that you would on second-hand clothing at consignment sales! When shopping sales and clearance racks, you might even spend less money on brand new clothing!
Although consignment sales were our favorite place to shop when our girls were younger, we are transiting more and more for buying brand new clothes for our oldest since we pass her clothing down to her little sisters.
We have found that brand new clothing simply lasts longer, and we need our clothes to last through three girls!
One brand we have loved is Garanimals. I was excited to recently discover that Garanimals now offers 365Kids: the latest styles for bigger kids, up to size 8. This little commercial for them features a cute redheaded girl who reminds me of my daughters:
What are your suggestions for budget-friendly places to shop for children’s clothing?
Top image from pixabay.com
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Garanimals. The opinions and text are all mine.
Janet
Like you I’ve noticed that often it seems Walmart “undercuts” the kids thrift stores on price. We have many garanimals garments that are still fully in tact after being worn by 3 boys! I still love finding bargains at the thrift store. Old navy also can have great deals.
Erin
That is awesome that they’ve lasted through 3 boys!!
Jaclyn
Facebook garage sales! We live in a super nice county and so many people will buy stuff for their kids and their children don’t wear it and we but it for cheap!
Erin
Oh that is a GREAT one!!!
Heather @ My Overflowing Cup
I’m so thankful that those statistics on the cost of raising children aren’t set in stone.
Thanks for sharing your tips, Erin. These are excellent for kids and adults!
Erin
Me too!!
Kristen @ Smithspirations
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone to the thrift store and thought “I could get this at Walmart on clearance for a whole lot cheaper!”
Hand-me-downs are a favorite here since we have five littles, with four of them being girls.
And try as I might, I haven’t found a place to get inexpensive pants for our boy that don’t rip in the knees after a few months. So… he ends up with a lot of holes in his pants. But at the rate he grows, I have to replace them often anyhow.
Julie Weight
I shop at Children’s Place a lot. There is always a coupon or promo code floating around and they let you use those with sale prices and clearance items. I often get new clothes there for cheaper than our thrift stores.
Erin
Awesome! I have heard their promos are great!
Kristi
I shop almost anywhere for a good deal on clothes for my kids. I have also found that The Children’s Place has great sales and also $9 jeans. Their quality is really good, so you almost can’t beat that for a brand new pair!