Resale

Uuugghhh!!! It's back to school time. I mean, yeah I am ready for my kids to go back, am just not looking forward to the expense of back to school. School lists now are 50 items long. The thing that bugs me is it's not just school supplies anymore, it's classroom supplies. All the educational necessities plus everything the teacher feels he or she can get us to contribute. Some teacher, some where, one day probably said at a meeting "just put it all on the student supply list, even if we get half that's a huge score." (If you're a teacher please don't leave me nasty comments, I'm just venting!)

Supplies are not even the worst part though. It's the back to school clothes. I mean first off, the stores are advertising all these great Fall clothes. Has no one figured out yet that it is 98 degrees with 100% humidity in the middle of August? I don't want corduroy pants with sweater vest and a long sleeve shirt. ( Like any of my kids would wear that anyway) Really, we need summer clothes until late October/November. I don't want to buy a bunch of new summer clothes when they have plenty and I don't want to buy Fall clothes and have them pass out on the play ground or walking from the bus stop from heat stroke, but,they MUST have new School Clothes for that first week or OH MY GOSH the horror!!!! Tommy and Trinity are not really that big of a problem. A couple new t-shirts and cool new book bag and they are feeling brand new! Taylor is "anti label" so he is not too expensive, but he has had a huge growth spurt and I really would win The Worst Mother Of The Year award if I made him wear his jeans from last year. Flood?!? Now, Tori is the challenge. She also has grown and not much fits. Tori is what I would call "not anti-label" she would be more like "label". Oh the challenge begins, because I do not have a Label budget.

There is one new piece of arsenal in this war fought between parent and teenager that has come on the scene in the past 10 years or so. The resale store. HALLELUJAH!!! Hallelujah!!!! When I was younger the only kind of resale store was Goodwill or Salvation Army. Back then Goodwill was nothing like Goodwill today. The Goodwill near my house even has a Boutique section of all name brand clothes. You know you are a seasoned resale shopper when you are standing in Goodwill on 1/2 price day and you actually say ( and out loud to boot) "Yea, that shirt is cute, but there is no way I would pay $1.49 for it". The best though is when you find what should be in the Boutique section, but it is in the Regular section, and its half price. Jackpot!! The next day when your friend is like " cute shirt" you actually say "Goodwill, 1/2 price" its like a badge of honor.

The nice resale stores are just that, Nice. (They usually won't buy the clothes I take in there because after my kids wear them they aren't nice enough anymore, LOL) People have caught on to the used clothes thing now. Its just like a used car. You can get just as nice a car for alot less money if you let someone else buy it first and drive it off the lot. Then 6 month to a year later you buy it after it's traded in and save so much money. The first guy looks silly. It is the same with clothes. Yesterday I went to a resale store and bought Tori 2 pair of Abecrombie jeans and 6 Abercrombie shirts for $51. That was great deal. Later I saw 2 of the shirts still in the Abercrombie store new.

I am very thankful though for the people who can afford all these expensive clothes new, because some one has to buy them new, or I could not buy them used. So chop! chop! Keep shopping people.