I never went to the Mall with Jacob, partly because I was terrified of RSV and partly because I was not a huge fan of little boy clothes. I am pretty good now at finding cute outfits for Jacob, but at first I had no desire to dress Jacob in anything other than onesies because everything available had the same sayings splashed across the front like "Mommy's Little Monkey". Now whenever we are within 50-100 feet of the parking lot Jacob starts screaming "MALL!!". It's pretty embarrassing if anyone other than Ian is in the car, but I assure you we do spend lots of time outdoors playing and not shopping when his leg isn't broken! We just haven't had much else to do the past 6 weeks.
I prefer to shop at babyGap mainly because they are one of the few places that have adorable kids clothes without sayings and cheesy characters all over them. I do have pieces from Gymboree, Target and Carter's mixed in (I am not a clothes snob), but the majority of their clothes these days is from babyGap because I have found their quality far surpasses that of any other children's clothing retailer out there. They wear well, wash well and I can get great deals on them by shopping during sales and using coupons.
People assume that you can't get inexpensive clothes at stores like babyGap, but that is not true! In fact, I have never spent more than $10 on any one item for either of my children and sometimes I even *gasp* get their clothes for free! I have had friends call and e-mail me asking how I manage to get clothes so cheap so I thought I would do this post to share with you what I am able to purchase and for how much during a typical seasonal sale.
I am usually pretty good at predicting future sizing so I also buy ahead. For example, this past weekend I bought clothes for Jacob in 18-24 months, 2T and 3T. For Grace, I bought some 12-18 months, 18-24 months and 2T. The hardest season to buy ahead for is Summer because you can usually get away with being off in the sizing with t-shirts (short and long sleeve) and pants, but you can't wear shorts or sandals in the Winter if you're off by a few months with your guess.
Below are pictures of all the deals I scored during my last shopping excursion. All of these items were bought during the Give and Get Sale at Gap over the last weekend in August. This coupon gives you 30% off of your entire purchase including sale and clearance items:
The first picture is what I was able to score for Grace: 1 cardigan, 2 dresses, 4 skirts, 2 onesies, 1 pair of crawler leggings, 1 long sleeve tee, 1 tank top, 1 headband, 2 pair of PJ's, 1 winter hat, 1 pair of gloves, 1 baseball hat and 2 pair of sneakers.
In the second picture I bought Jacob: 1 jacket, 3 pocket tees, 4 graphic tees, 3 polo shirts, 1 long sleeve thermal, 1 baseball hat, 1 winter hat, 1 pair of gloves, 1 pair of PJ's and 1 belt.
Every piece in the picture(s) above was LESS THAN $10!!! In fact, the most expensive piece I bought were the polo shirts at $6.30 each and the cheapest item was the hat for Grace at $2.09!! I now have shoes for Grace in sizes 3 (which she is just starting to wear FINALLY), 5, 6 and 7! After I find her a pair of size 4's I won't need to buy her sneakers for awhile!
The total retail value of everything I bought was almost $600! I only spent $150 on BOTH kids! It definitely pays (literally!) to shop the sale and clearance sales!
No comments:
Post a Comment