Thrifty vs. Cheap when it comes to kids' stuff (clothes, school supplies, etc..)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter wears Justice (a favorite among her friends) clothing, Gap, Nordstrom, Uggs, etc. all hand me downs from family. Who the hell cares where it comes from originally, after one use it is used. So it is only "new" the first time worn by the prior owner (to us). I love when we pass our used things on to someone else. My daughter is right now wearing clothes that three girls before used. My niece will wear the items next. Do you think any one of those girls care? I also get school supplies as inexpensively as possible. Again, who cares?

There are people who care. I cared as a kid and I still care as an adult. Most kids clothing (even the best brands) looks worn after a while. A pair of UGGs is pretty trashed after my daughter has worn them for a year or two. I hate how washed out older clothing looks and anything knit gets misshapen after a season or two. It is fine if you do not care but some of us do care and do notice. I guess you just have to hope your daughter doesn't care. I still resent my parents for not buying me more and better clothing growing up. My kids are like me. I spend money to buy them nice stuff (I still shop sales and outlets of course) and they are really into their clothes. People compliment them all the time. Different strokes is all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To me, here's the difference:

Thrifty:
- buy from Boden, Tea Collection or Hanna on sale
-buy from above w/ a Friends & Family discount
- receive hand-me-downs from older cousins/friends that are in good shape

Cheap:
- receive hand-me-downs in bad shape
- shop at Dollar Store, Target, Goodwill

Now I'm sure sixteen of you will chime in to brag about the Hanna Anderson $84 dress you found at Goodwill and how three daughters have worn it and it's held up beautifully with tights from Target and you've found the quality of Gap clothes to have nose-dived over the last decade.

You have got to be kidding me. No WAY can I afford to buy from Boden, Tea, or Hanna, even on sale. The cheapest skirt on clearance at Boden right now is $17. Tea dresses are $20+.

I can buy three to four dresses at the thrift store for the price of one dress from Tea. And that's what I do. It's harder as the kids get older though, as there is less selection.

I do spend more on things that get daily use like lunch bags and backpacks and I do spend more on one pair of decent shoes per season and fill in with cheaper shoes for dressy occasions, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter wears Justice (a favorite among her friends) clothing, Gap, Nordstrom, Uggs, etc. all hand me downs from family. Who the hell cares where it comes from originally, after one use it is used. So it is only "new" the first time worn by the prior owner (to us). I love when we pass our used things on to someone else. My daughter is right now wearing clothes that three girls before used. My niece will wear the items next. Do you think any one of those girls care? I also get school supplies as inexpensively as possible. Again, who cares?

There are people who care. I cared as a kid and I still care as an adult. Most kids clothing (even the best brands) looks worn after a while. A pair of UGGs is pretty trashed after my daughter has worn them for a year or two. I hate how washed out older clothing looks and anything knit gets misshapen after a season or two. It is fine if you do not care but some of us do care and do notice. I guess you just have to hope your daughter doesn't care. I still resent my parents for not buying me more and better clothing growing up. My kids are like me. I spend money to buy them nice stuff (I still shop sales and outlets of course) and they are really into their clothes. People compliment them all the time. Different strokes is all.

Line up 30 kids in an elementary school and I bet you could never pick out from 95% whether the clothes were used or new. For what it is worth, mt kids don't wear things with stains, rips, holes, misshapen items, etc. you seem to think not new means disgusting. Perhaps you don't properly care for your clothes, but we do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To me, here's the difference:

Thrifty:
- buy from Boden, Tea Collection or Hanna on sale
-buy from above w/ a Friends & Family discount
- receive hand-me-downs from older cousins/friends that are in good shape

Cheap:
- receive hand-me-downs in bad shape
- shop at Dollar Store, Target, Goodwill

Now I'm sure sixteen of you will chime in to brag about the Hanna Anderson $84 dress you found at Goodwill and how three daughters have worn it and it's held up beautifully with tights from Target and you've found the quality of Gap clothes to have nose-dived over the last decade.

You have got to be kidding me. No WAY can I afford to buy from Boden, Tea, or Hanna, even on sale. The cheapest skirt on clearance at Boden right now is $17. Tea dresses are $20+.

I can buy three to four dresses at the thrift store for the price of one dress from Tea. And that's what I do. It's harder as the kids get older though, as there is less selection.

I do spend more on things that get daily use like lunch bags and backpacks and I do spend more on one pair of decent shoes per season and fill in with cheaper shoes for dressy occasions, etc.

+1. I admit I've never heard of any of those brands. My kids clothes come from Target and thrift stores. The quality is fine. In fact, on the whole it's pretty good. We get great stuff from Value Village. The only poor quality clothes I've had that havent' lasted long at all have been school uniform polo shirts. I just can't find any that dont' look crappy after a couple of wears.

People must be made of money to just throw it away like this. My kids look adorable and have some great clothes and we spend very little. But you know, if folks want to work themselves into the ground so that they can buy frivolous things, that's fine. We jut have different priorities.

[Anonymous]

I think there are some things that I will settle on. I KNOW my son is going to wear holes in the knees of his school uniform pants so I buy them at a consignment shop. His uniform shirts, I buy secondhand from the school. His backpack, I got on sale at PBK as I couldn't stomach paying full price. It's a little dirty, but in perfectly good shape and will likely last through summer camp with no problem. Various school supplies, I mean pencils, pencil box, erasers, etc, I don't find a significant value in what I get at the dollar store vs Target. And cheap crayons, well, they're cheap. One thing I don't compromise on is shoes. I usually go for Keen. If they're on sale, nice. If not, my kid still needs shoes and a pair of Keens will last the entire school year vs trashing 4-5 pairs of $20 shoes. Used shoes is one thing I can't stomach.

At this point, consider it a lesson learned. Even backpacks from someplace like Target likely won't hold up. There are some things that are beat up daily and backpacks is one of them.

[Anonymous]

I can get fantastic, new with tag, or extremely gently worn items from Value Village thruft store at a great, thrifty price.

The good brands hold up well, whether they were purchased new, on sale, or practically new from a thrift store.

The difference is, you can't always find what you are looking for, when you are looking for it, at the thrift store. THrift stores are great for people who have more time than money. If you have more money than time, you will probably not do well at a thrift store.

Cheap is buying cheap new stuff from the Dollar Store. There's a reason the stuff is cheap -- it's junk.

[Anonymous]

I have two daughters but find that the only brands that I can hand down are tea/Hannah or boden. No way is an old navy tshirt going to last past one season but a Hanna tshirt will.

[Anonymous]

My kids wear a lot of target. They outgrow it before it's worn out.
Maybe as they get older that will change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids wear a lot of target. They outgrow it before it's worn out.
Maybe as they get older that will change.

I have 2 boys in preschool. They love character t shirts. We buy mostly clothes from Target or similar. I also buy them sweats and t shirts from the Ralph Lauren and Nautica outlet. I would consider myself thrifty.

I would consider people who shop at thrift shops poor, not cheap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids wear a lot of target. They outgrow it before it's worn out.
Maybe as they get older that will change.

I have 2 boys in preschool. They love character t shirts. We buy mostly clothes from Target or similar. I also buy them sweats and t shirts from the Ralph Lauren and Nautica outlet. I would consider myself thrifty.

I would consider people who shop at thrift shops poor, not cheap.

If you could buy the chacter shirts for one dollar each, used at a thrift shop, would you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I would consider people who shop at thrift shops poor, not cheap.

Please keep thinking this. Please also keep donating your almost-new brand-name stuff to the thrift stores. Because if you didn't, then I couldn't buy it. Thank you!

[Anonymous]

Im 22:03. Sometimes it's just the ease of target for play clothes too.
I do shop thrift stores at times and have scored great deals on gap dresses recently.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I would consider people who shop at thrift shops poor, not cheap.

Please keep thinking this. Please also keep donating your almost-new brand-name stuff to the thrift stores. Because if you didn't, then I couldn't buy it. Thank you!

+1

Our annual HHI is $200K but many of our clothes and household items come from Value Village.

[Anonymous]

I buy stuff that I want to last a long time (backpack, lunch bag, some select clothing) at places like LL Bean, because I know they use quality materials.

T-shirts, pants, etc. are mainly from hand-me-downs or places like target. If we didn't get so many hand me downs, I'd for sure check out thrift shops more often.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids wear a lot of target. They outgrow it before it's worn out.
Maybe as they get older that will change.

I have 2 boys in preschool. They love character t shirts. We buy mostly clothes from Target or similar. I also buy them sweats and t shirts from the Ralph Lauren and Nautica outlet. I would consider myself thrifty.

I would consider people who shop at thrift shops poor, not cheap.

I agree. I buy my kids clothes at a million different places and always a few items from Target. Target's cargo boys pants and shorts wear really well for my pre-teen son. There sweats and sports gear are decent too. I also buy both of my kids really nice stuff that costs a lot more. I mix it up. I shop sales, Zulily, outlets, and then some trunk show pieces too. Still, buying chidlren used clothing from a thrift shop, that is for people on welfare and foodstamps. I actually think if you are shopping for kids clothes at thrift shops and you are not truly poor, what you are doing is kind of morally wrong. There are people who really need those items and you are buying it instead just to be "thrifty".