How To Get The Most Out of Your Baby Clothing Budget

My child is a bit of a spoiled diva. You see, she can only wear any outfit once. 

I'm kidding. She can wear an outfit more than once, but girlfriend has so much clothes, that she barely gets to wear anything more than once before she outgrows them. I have a bit of an addiction when it comes to baby clothes. I just can't stop buying. 

[ Top - Old Navy second hand $1 || Bottoms - Old Navy second hand $2 ]

My biggest money saver is the fact that 98% of Chloe's wardrobe is second hand, with items being $1-4 each. Compared to paying $10-30 a piece in stores, you would think that I'm saving a fortune. In reality, I think I spend even more on clothes just because I know everything I'm buying is so cheap. 

If you follow me on Instagram, you'll see that I almost always post a daily photo of what Chloe's wearing. It's not because I think we're so fashionable. It's because she might not get to wear that outfit again. And because she's cute. 

So if you think you're better at controlling your spending than I am, here are some tips on how to get the biggest bang for your buck when it comes to clothing a small child. 

1. Local Buy and Sell Groups and Websites. 

Like Craigslist, Kijiji, or a local Facebook group. Most of my clothing comes from a local Children's Buy and Sell Facebook group that a couple of mothers threw together. Check to see if you have one in your area, if not maybe you could be the one to create one. I live in a really small city, and the group has over 2000 people now. 

All of the following clothing was bought second-hand, either through Facebook or another buy and sell website. The most expensive was the pink Winnie the Pooh jumper outfit, which was $4 for both items. 

2. Browse the second-hand shops. 

You never know what you're going to find at these stores. I found a onesie that says "Too cute to play with your ugly ass kid" at a thrift store not long ago. It's so wrong, but so funny. I also got a ton of shirts for $0.99-$1.99, and a lot of brand name jeans for $1.99 each. Five pairs of jeans for $10? You can't get those kinds of deals buying brand new. 

3. Always check out the sales.

The following items were all bought brand new on clearance. 

Photo 1 - $3 pjs from Wal-Mart that went on clearance over the summer, and fit Chloe in the fall/winter. 

Photo 2 - Snow suit (regular $49) that I paid $14 for this week, because she just outgrew her other winter coat, and I know it will fit her for the remainder of this winter, which around here will probably until the month of April. After that, it'll still be in good enough condition that I'll be able to get most of my money back when I sell it. It's hard to find a coat and snow pants for $14 anywhere. 

Photo 3 - Bathing suit bought brand new at The Children's Place at the end of June for $4. It was good for all of July and August before she stopped wearing it. 

Photo 4 - $3 dress from Wal-Mart. This was an impulse buy, bought too close to the end of summer so she only got to wear it once. I still love it, and have it stored away in case my next baby is a girl. If not, I'll probably be able to sell it for at least $2 anyway. 

Sometimes seasonal items go on clearance when there's still a lot of time left to use them. 

4. Re-sell your gently used children's clothing.

I make most of my money back on everything I buy by re-selling. It takes a lot of time, patience and effort some days, but it's worth getting the money back. Some things get stained and are not fit to resell, and usually I'll donate those items or give away for free.  

5. Shop ahead. 

It usually pretty easy to figure out what size your child will be in when the next season rolls around. Buy stuff ahead of time. If you know you'll be taking your baby to a pool during the winter, buy bathing suits when they go on clearance at the end of the summer. 

Before Chloe was born I bought three bathing suits - 6 months, 12 months, and 24 months. I paid $3 for each, when the regular price would've been $10 for one. I've already got a bin of stuff for Chloe to wear this summer. Sure, I'm taking chances that some of it won't fit, but when I'm paying $1-2 an item, I can just re-sell them in the summer to someone else in need. I also bought her a small inflatable pool last year when they went on sale to use this year for $4. 

Chloe will always need indoor shoes for daycare. She just got a pair of size 4 sneakers, and I'm on the lookout now for a nice cheap pair in the next size up. 

6. Don't go overboard, like me

Chloe's closet and dresser are full of clothes. The same goes for Madi. I also have four bins in our basement - one filled with 12-24 month clothing, one with summer clothing of all sizes, one with size 2 clothing, and one with a little bit of size 3 and 4 clothing (mostly gifts in that bin). 

It's great to be ready - because we've got two girls that fit in clothes ranging from size 12 months to 2T, but I'll be the first to admit that I've got maybe a little too much. 

Just keep track of what you're buying and what you need. No one needs 15 pairs of size 2 pjs. Not even our two girls. 

Do you shop brand new or second hand? Do you have any money saving tips when it comes to children's clothing? 

You Know You're a Mom When...

You accidentally take your baby's doll 

to work with you in your purse. 

My child got smarter

There are not enough words to describe how happy I am to have my baby home. After spending a week at her grandmother's, and the week before that in the hospital, she's like a whole new kid. 

Well, maybe not new, but new to me because it's been so long since she's been herself. 

I just couldn't stop kissing her and hugging her all weekend. But she didn't seem to mind too much - she likes kissing now, too, complete with the 'mmm' sound. 

I didn't mean for this post to be a Chloe update, but what better time to document all the new things she's been doing lately? This is Chloe at 16.5 months.

While sick, she was starting to get mean. Really mean. A lot of slapping people in the face, pinching, and scratching. As she got less sick, she got less cranky and violent, but my mom also unintentionally taught her to be nicer. Anytime she would be rough with Mom's cat, mother would tell her to 'Be nice to the kitty' and show her how to pet him. Now? When she hits me and I tell her no, she rubs my face and says 'nice', which sounds more like 'niiii', but it's still adorable. 

She started waving 'bye' a little while ago. Now? She says bye. 

She knows where her nose is every time. She's also learning eyes, ears, hair, mouth, tongue, belly and fingers, and she sometimes gets them all right without help. She also says nose, eyes and mouth.

She understands so much of what I ask her now. If I ask if she's hungry, she goes to her highchair. If I ask her for her baby, she brings me her doll. 

She says 'baba', and is she ever addicted to the thing. She gets it at night, and for her nap then it needs to be immediately hidden, or she'll just carry it around in her mouth sucking on air. Now that she's better, the first step is switching her to milk, and soon after that it's bye bye baba. 

After being sick, her appetite was basically non-existent, and she would barely eat a bite of solid food. Mom had her eating mashed food and baby cereal all over again. This weekend I managed to get her hooked on blueberries again, and eating pasta, cheese, bread, broccoli and cauliflower. Her newest addiction is regular old saltine crackers. As soon as grocery day comes, her diet will be expanded a lot, if I have any say in it. 

Moving on...

This weekend we had a storm, and got a TON of snow. I believe it was about 30-35cm. It snowed and blowed all day Saturday, and most of Sunday. 

Boyfriend tried to get out to pick up his daughter Saturday with no luck. He got stuck and gave up. Sunday, he finally managed to get out and get to work, after an hour of shoveling. 

This morning, we let Chloe sleep in while we dug my car out. That took another hour of shoveling, car pushing, and flying snow. We checked that Chloe was still asleep every now and then, and lucky for us I still had to wake her up when we were done.

Luckily, she's back to being a great sleeper.

But back to Sunday. For the first time ever, I bundled up my little bundle of joy, and we went outside to play and shovel a bit. I knew boyfriend's car wouldn't make it back in the driveway with the mountain of snow that the plows made at the end.

Chloe watched me shovel and laughed every time I threw the snow. She wasn't interested in playing at all though. She just stood an watched, until she finally got sick of it and we went inside.

Our shovel broke Sunday morning

The snowbank next to our driveway was almost up to my shoulders. 

So that was our weekend in a nutshell. 

To recap? I love having Chloe home. We got a lot of snow. 

Silent Sunday: A Messy Confession

I'm almost embarrassed to post these, but here is my basement. I still haven't gotten much organizing done since we moved in at the end of November. Hopefully these are just the 'before' photos and someday soon I have 'afters'. 

10 Things I Did This Week

1. Chloe spent the entire week at my mother's house - from Monday afternoon until Friday night, so I didn't do a whole lot of parenting. 

2. I celebrated the one year anniversary of the day boyfriend and I officially started dating. After dropping a whiny hint the night after, I got a little surprise Thursday night when he got home from work. On the actual night of, we used a coupon to go our for appetizers at Boston Pizza. I got him this card from JulieAnnArt. 

3. I was featured on The SITS Girls blog, which means I got a ton of comments, and some new followers. 

4. I made these Snickers No-Bake cookies, and they turned out so soft and amazing that I'm lucky if there's any left at home. 

5. Boyfriend and I got a lot of boring activities done: Got caught up on How I Met Your Mother, started watching season 6 of The Big Bang Theory, played some video games, and got some cleaning done. A week without children is weird. 

6. Work was painfully quiet and boring for most of the week. 

7. I pretty much stopped drinking coffee! This is a huge one. I didn't feel good for a couple of days last week, so I didn't drink any. I got one when I started feeling better, didn't finish it, and I haven't had one since. I don't think I'll actually give it up, but this is huge, because for the past month or so I've been buying it and drinking it daily. 

8. Sold a bunch of books and baby clothes. Yay for cleaning out the basement. And if you want to know what I'm talking about, tune in tomorrow for some nasty basement pictures. No, we're not hoarders. 

9. I got my first massage! It was a half hour that went by really fast, paid for with the gift certificate boyfriend got me for Christmas. It was enjoyable, but I probably won't go out of my way to pay for one for awhile. 

10. I barely took any pictures this week, so enjoy a photo of the 'I love you' balloon boyfriend got me, a snapshot of my desk at work at I write this post on Friday afternoon, and a picture that I did not take of cookies. My cookies looked better!