I was born into a secondhand-loving family. When my dad started his own business, it would get hairy at times and second hand was just how we rolled. It’s amazing what people will just give away.
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Thrift. Love these places! Salvation Army, Goodwill and local churches usually have at least one around. The church I grew up in was where a lot of the city’s aristocracy went on Sundays, so consequently the thrift house run by that church gained their castoffs. You could find lightly used high-end items most times. This is an awesome option for kids, especially the older active set that spill and tear while playing. The drawback is that you have to spend a great deal of time sorting through the clothes or things that are crammed onto shelves. I’d make sure everyone used the bathroom and was fed before going in!
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Resale/Consignment. If you like to know that you won’t have to dig through five stained shirts to get to the first non-stained item, go here but don’t expect to pay thrift prices. Sometimes they only take high-end, like the boutiques, and sometimes they’ll be more lenient, like Platos Closet. These are also where I sometimes take my things for extra cash. The children’s resale store isn’t great, you leave feeling like you need to file a report but Platos Closet once gave me an extra $15. Since then I’ve significantly cut back on buying clothes.
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Craigslist.org I love Craig. You can buy or sell many things here. I sold Mia’s changing table, exersaucer, our unused electric blanket… Even what I thought was an ugly useless video shelf. My husband put it up for $30 and I balked at it, saying no one would pay more than $10 for it. Not even an hourlater someone called and bought it! We found my beloved Subaru on Craigslist and our beater for husbands commute.
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Ebay. Okay. If ever there were a double edged sword, it was Ebay. You have to be uber careful since you can’t physically check the items out. I fell into the Ebay Trap when I first started using it and ended up with a lot of crappy buys, mostly cheap foreign made clothes that fell apart. But I won it for.99 darnit! I have since limited myself only to buying brands I know. Some kids clothes like Hanna Andersson and Gymboree I have found tougher than cockroaches, so I have no problem plunking some PayPal on them. I only buy shoes whose sizes I know, same for jeans and other clothes. It’s a great place to buy high-end for cheap, but you need to be careful and know the items you’re buying. Jeans are an easy ripoff. I adore the fit of Joes Jeans, so I have familiarized myself with what an authentic pair looks like in comparison to a ripoff, same for Seven For All Mankind. Most important, I try to onlyuse what is in my Paypal. I get my paypal funds from selling on Ebay, but you should be careful here as well. Research what you want to sell. See if anyone else is having luck with it before you list. Sometimes people simply hear, “you can make money on ebay” and they just list everything they see. Nobody wants to pay you to ship them a piece of junk. I urge you to look at their selling guides first.
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freecycle.org This is a yahoogroup that has grown to insane proportions. The initial idea was to keep usable objects from the landfills. You join and receive emails from people offering or asking for an item, or you can do the same. I have cleared many “junk” items out of my house to people who thought they hit the jackpot. I have also made scores from other people’s unwanted, like the screen door and my daughters crib mattress. You’d be surprised at what people are willing to give you. I have stopped my husband from buying things after asking for and receiving them on freecycle.
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other yahoo groups. There are actually loops out there where people resell their kids clothes. I found a very nice group of moms who are all about some gymboree and hanna. They offer very fair prices for clothes that are often very gently used.
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Just ask!Sometimes you don’t even have to buy or look at ads. My husband and I were going to look at a pulk to pull Mia in while I snowshoed or skied, and it would have set us back about $250. While at her occupational therapy, I was telling her therapist about it. She looked at the other therapist in the room and asked “Hey, do you still have that pulk that you wanted to get rid of?” Voila. Free pulk. Just get the word out that you are looking for something but be willing to offer something in return. We got super lucky on this one!
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Wheel-N-Deal. This is the term my husband has given for barter and trade. We bartered some help with our flooring by offering a friend a case of beer. I’ve traded babysitting and sewing skills as well. Our Man Cave (aka The Garage) is host to heaps and piles of “junk” that he has picked up for free or cheap and plans to use to “trade up”, or get something better. He has outfitted much of his manly Jeep doing this and it has kept a lot of purchases from going onto the credit card. The mini fridge that I was critical of got something pretty pricey for that Jeep!
