Share Worthy Ideas: "Cleaning House!" (aka, Finding Affordable Baby Buys)

I am NOT a bargain shopper. I am NOT a good-deal hunter. I am not, even, a "shopper" at all. When picking out things for myself or gifts for others, which historically has been my only experience with shopping, I know what I want, I don't want to dig through piles of junk to get it (I enjoy a nice experience and will pay to have a nice experience) and I want out of the store as soon as I pick it up.

My snobby shopping philosophy does not hold true with baby items.

Gasp! Am I turning a new leaf? Here's the deal: this little guy is going to grow like crazy. He's going to poop on things, including his clothes. He's going to spit up and vomit on them. So in my eight-months-pregnant-nesting phase, I just COULD NOT EVEN with paying full price for baby clothes. And the name brand/designers I love? No way!

This does not change the fact that I myself enjoy nice things. But I'm done growing and believe in buying quality over quantity because I won't wear the knees out on a pair of Hudson jeans... I will wear them for years and years. Baby will wear them once, vomit on them, and the next time I go to put them on him, they'll be too small. Hmmpppffff!

So what's a quality snob to do when she can't seem to justify the enormous expense for baby? (And y'all. It is ENORMOUS. $40 for a 0-3months-sized polo shirt?! Is that some kind of joke?) Church consignment sales! This past weekend, my friend Kate introduced me to this glorious find. We met up at The Church of Christ in the Preston Hollow neighborhood of Dallas early Saturday morning to hit up this sale. She discovered it last year (she has a beautiful one year old daughter) and has been talking about it for months now. I was so desperate to get an hour out of the house with my bed rest nonsense that I jumped in the car and headed right over.

And here is a SMALL handful of the things I found:

Ralph Lauren (not Polo Ralph Lauren - actual Ralph Lauren label... I don't even own any of that!) romper and shorts

Petit Bateau (French designer) cardigan and Ollie & Bess seersucker and crab diaper cover

MudPie long sleeved shirt and Ralph Lauren label khaki pants

Kit & Lilli onesie and Baby Gap bear sweatpants

Here is how the sales work: folks can either donate the clothes to the church, and the church collects the proceeds as a fundraiser. Or, they can decide to sell it on consignment, and a fraction of the proceeds go towards the church while the seller gets a premium for the garments. Either way, the church gets a fantastic fundraiser and the donor either gets cash from sales or a tax deduction for the donation. Win-win!

But the BEST part?! Is that the shopper gets access to all these high end label clothes for DIRT CHEAP. I didn't pay more than $3 for any one of these items. The shorts and the diaper cover even had their original tags, so they had never been worn! The other items looked as though they had been worn once - maybe twice. I ended picking up roughly 20 items, ranging in size from newborn to six months, and spent a whopping $63.87. Everything was name brand or designer label. WHATTTTTTTTT!!!!

I highly suggest for all my mama, daddy, soon-to-be mama and soon-to-be daddy readers to look into this idea in your area. Target church sales that are in the most affluent parts of town, as they'll be likely to have some of the best name brands donated from wealthy residents, if that's what you're after. If you're not a quality snob like myself, just look for sales around town to save serious money on new or gently used baby items. These sales are an excellent way to save serious money on baby gear while maintaining a "quality snob" status. I can't wait to go to my next sale!