We have always been very blessed in clothing our children. When we lived in Florida, we had friends with a son who is two years older than Scott, so we regularly got bags full of clothes for him. My sister’s son is a year younger than Scott and a year older than Jeb, so we shipped clothes to her and got them back again.

This is all good, because we also have Kaylee. Kaylee, my gem, my jewel, one of the lights of my life, can be described by many many words. But, minimalist is not one of them. We all love shopping, including Gregg, so our seasonal trips for Kaylee clothes is something we all look forward to. But it’s not cheap or easy to keep a fashion-conscious girl in clothes.

We are finally to a point where there are no more hand-me-downs coming for Scott and we have to actually purchase clothes. I realized as I looked at pictures from our recent trip to Chicago that his pants were too short and that there isn’t a big bin of clothes in the basement waiting for me to sort through!

So, yesterday he and I went out alone and had some Scott-Mommy time. The first stop was a children’s consignment store.

Scott is very skinny. We chronicled his first bath in the NICU with pictures, and Gregg sent very humorous email out about this traumatic event. One of the pictures (pictured here to the right) said, “The nurses assure me that he will grow a butt soon. I was relieved just in case hip huggers are still “in” when he hits his teen years.”

Unfortunately, there is still no rear end. Size 18-month shorts fell off of him when he was in 2T pants. Wearing cloth diapers has been our only saving grace for pants through the years because they are much bulkier than disposables, and clothes are typically designed to accommodate disposables. Now he’s potty trained and there’s no hope. At least, not until I discovered this:

Adjustable elastic in the waist of pants! How incredibly clever is that? I love this. I can put pants on Scott and they don’t fall off of him!

So at the consignment store yesterday, I went through all of their 3T pants and bought every pair they had that had the adjustable elastic waistband. I found seven pair!

Consignment stores are such a godsend. Because we’ve never really had to buy clothes for the boys, they’ve never been anywhere on my radar. But when I told Gregg that I needed to get Scott new pants, he’s the one who suggested that I check out the consignment store first.

WOW – what a big difference in prices! And, most of the items still had tags on them!

You’ll never guess what I paid for the following finds (8 pairs of pants, two sweaters, two turtlenecks, one blanket sleeper, two ties):

$69. Yes. $69. That includes tax.

I found this in Jeb’s size. It’s brand new, never been worn.

A Christmas sweater, turtleneck, and a pair of courderoy pants. List price, $38. Guess what I paid for it?

Yep – you’re reading that tag right. Even the cashier was surprised at how cheap it was.

All in all, it was a very successful trip. Size 2T shirts still fit well, so I have a few weeks before I need to go back and find what deals I can find in the shirt department.

Kaylee has told me about a consignment store for clothes her size. I’m going to try to take her next week and see what we can find there!

Hallee

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This post is linked to Beauty and Bedlam for the Frugal Fashionista Fashion Show.