I found as my son progressed throgh elementary school that he needed to be dressed up for quite a few assemblys and other programs. He grew like a weed and was always out of a suitcoat before before he needed it a second time. Soooo, I discovered the thrift shop (GOodwill, salvation army, church clothing stores) and was able to always have my son in great looking suitcoats and suits for usually less thatn $5.00. The clothes never get worn out because the kids jsut aren't in them long enough!

I love thrift stores. I have bought a lot of my kids clothes there - practically new, well-washed, and cheap. What could be better? I'd rather put money into their college funds than spend $20.00 on a pair of jeans for a 3 year old.

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I have never really shopped in there, but I should take a look. I find a lot of things very cheap at Walmart and Kmart on the off seasons. If you can guess there sizes you can get great prices

jaescafe - I think you'd really be pleasantly surprised at what you find. Especially in the infant sizes, the quality of clothes is so great because the kidis grow so fast, there's just no time for wear and tear! I agree with you on the walmart and kmart - they do have great clearance items as well and when you get the clothes at the end of the season, it's even better.

I've found several items with the tags still on them. It was great shopping for me when I was nurshing as well. I looked for easy access shirts (ones with zippers where my favorites). There should be consignment shopes and thrift stores all over where you live. In my tiny town of 7000 there is three consignment shopes and two thrift stores. I love shopping out of season there. You can walk away with an entire wardrobe for $50

I forgot to mention,m although most probabl already know it, there are great things usually besides clothes as well. Toys (always check over very carefully to make sure they are in good condition and safe), dishes, appliances, books....the list can get pretty extensive. We've also utilized the thrift store for a lot of my son's halloween costumes and wardrobes for plays, etc. You don't even have to find the exact item, sometimes it is just the material you need and it's so much cheaper than the fabric store!

Thank you all for the information. I think it pays to take into note where the thrift shop is. I have been to thrift shops before, but have never shopped in there because the stuff seemed really old and it smelled in there. I think maybe in a different town or area I might find newer and cleaner items. I will have to keep it in mind.

Yes, jaescafe, a lot of the thrift shops do have an old smell in there, as I find, dollar stores seem to have their own unique smell as well. I would just always recommend washing anything you buy first, but I'm sure everyone would already do that.

In our place, there are really many thrift stores. We are just lucky that we can find them almost everywhere. Also, some department stores have 'sale' days during paydays and so there are discounts on most items.

We need to do some school shopping for our son, he will be in Kindergarten. Is that a hard age to find clothes for in a thrift shop? Boys are so active and rough on things, could I possibly find nice clothes?