I must say though, that this has been a productive morning. It is that time of year again when I realize that summer and/or Family Camp are merely weeks away and my children may not or may have nothing whatsoever to wear. Yesterday’s quick perusal of their under-the-bed boxes of clothing-to-grow-into confirmed that at their current clothing levels, several of my children would indeed be wearing naked this summer if some serious shopping were not done.

Huzzah for consignment sale season! Okay, maybe not “huzzah” because that word irritates me. It always looks like it should be a palindrome (which, of course, is the nickname of Sarah Palin’s pet dromedary), but never is which I have decided to take as a personal affront. Anyway, today I got out of bed at the crack of 7am (hey, it’s a Saturday. Seven is a crack for Saturday.) and dragged my sorry self all the way down to the Expo Center with a wad of money and high hopes. Also coffee.

And… mission: success! Here’s what I bought:

Henry:

• 4 pr shorts
• 9 short sleeve shirts (5 tees, 4 church)
• 2 swimsuits and a rashguard
• 2 long sleeve shirts (maybe 3, I forgot already)
• 2 pr long pants
• 1 pr jammies
• 1 hat
• 1 pr brown tennies (soooo cute!)

Faith:

3 pr pants ‘cause she outgrew all her long pants in the last month

3 short sleeve shirts

1 shrug sweater

1 pr church sandals

Kyra:

4 short sleeve shirts

3 pr shorts

1 skirt

1 dress

1 pr brand new water sandals

1 pr brand new church shoes

Anika:

1 pr shorts

1 tank top

1 dress

1 pr pajamas

1 pr water shoes

1 pr church sandals

Trinity:

1 purple dress that she’s going to flip out about

1 swimsuit

1 pr church sandals

2 pr ballet shoes

Georgie:

2 pr shorts

2 pr swim shorts

1 very nice pair of water sandals

So, what does all that make? I have no idea. Kinda curious though. Let’s see: 1 hat, 2 pr ballet shoes, 2 pr pajamas, 4 skirts or dresses, 5 pr pants, 5 swimsuits plus a rashguard, 8 pr shoes, 10 pr shorts, and 19 shirts plus a shrug.

And how much was all that? $235. Henry is completely dressed for the summer and I’m mostly done with most of the others. Yay! The whole shebang in three hours and only a little over half my summer clothing budget. Yay! Wanna see how nerdy I am? Here’s my shopping list I took with me:

Yes, me = giant nerd, I know. But how else will I remember what I’m supposed to be getting for which member of the nerd herd?

Well, it is now 3:30 and I guess I should probably head home since I finished shopping three hours ago. Me and my laptop have been sharing some quality time at Panera. Mmmmm, French onion soup and solitude. What could be better? Actually, going home after consignment shopping is always pretty fun. It’s kind of like being Santa Claus for the day. Ciao!

Rachel

Yeah, okay so the men are supposed to be the hunters and blah blah blah. Well, yesterday I conquered the shopping beast and it was awesome!! Brief backstory (stop laughing. I can be brief if I want to!):

Usually I buy the kids clothes for the following year at the end of the previous season because it’s much cheaper (so in January when winter stuff is on clearance, I buy it all up for them to wear the upcoming fall).

Last year we were uber-broke and I didn’t do it, which made last fall when the economy worsened and took our finances with it really unpleasant.Vowing to never make that mistake again no matter how broke we are, I have been consistently swiping a little bit of each paycheck for the kids’ clothes and filling in their boxes a bit at a time. $5 sweaters and $6 pants from Old Navy, $4 shirts and $8 pants and dresses from Gymboree have been pretty consistent price points.

Which brings us to today. Our brilliant government has decided that
everything that can be sold to or for children under age 12 has to be tested for lead and that the law is retroactive so if stores have stuff that was in production prior to the law that wasn’t tested, they can’t sell it. The law goes into effect February 10th. Baaaaad for businesses; today, good for me (after the 10th, not so good).

Gymboree, my favorite kids’ clothes store, has their semi-annual sale going on and their markdowns have been good. Yesterday though, they marked down about a gazillion things to $1.99 at both their retail store and their outlet stores.

Many of the marked down items have rhinestones on them, leading to speculation that these items were would be problematic under the new law. Other rumors are that the economy has made Gymboree’s earnings post badly and they need to unload as much as possible before the end of their fiscal year.

In the seven years I have been buying Gymboree for my kids, I have never seen them mark down this much. After calling the local stores to get a sense of what their inventory was like, I headed out to the Clackamas Town Center store, which didn’t have a whole lot at $1.99 but a few things, and then on to the Troutdale outlet which had tons. What did I get?

1 dress
4 sweaters
8 pairs jeans
15 shirts

Regular retail price: $568. My price? $56. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA!!!! I am the hunter back from the successful kill. Bwahahahaahhaaha! And here’s a picture of me with my plunder:

Every single thing on the floor there cost $1.99 (except for me). There are duplicates in different sizes in there, of course, which is not a big deal because I have a bunch of girls who will match and they like that. Plus, baby shower gifts! Yay!

Okay, so maybe the story wasn’t short. Ha! I actually condensed down 2/3 of what I originally had written so it is short. Well shorter. Okay, off to go pack all that stuff into the kids’ under-bed boxes for next year. Heehee! Yay!!

Rachel

P.S.
Gymboree will continue offering these items at this price point until
they are all gone so you might want to call around and see who has the most stock left. Generally lower traffic stores have better sale
inventory. The Salem store is pretty quiet and often has good clearance stuff, and the Troutdale outlet seems to have more clearance than the Woodburn one.

I’d also call the Vancouver store and maybe Pioneer Place and the new Bridgeport store. Clackamas is usually kind of medium and Tigard is almost always totally cleared out. Don’t know about the Lloyd Center one (I never go there).Good luck!