Fall Wardrobe

This upcoming fall is the fist season in which we would be filling Jackson's closet all by ourselves. We are beyond blessed to get hand-me-downs from several friends and up until now, we've just been supplementing an article of clothing here and there. As I pulled out Jackson's spring and summer clothes a few months ago, I realized that the hand-me-down drawers were empty and I even panicked a little at the thought of spending buckoos of money on clothing.

I began shopping for this fall back when garage sales started back in March and April. I purchased items one or two at a time and stashed it away in my closet. I dug it all out today to take an inventory and I've figured we are just about set for fall and winter.

We've got five pairs of pants. Clockwise, upper left: blue pants- $1; jogging pants- $.25, Wrangler Jeans- $1, Cherokee khakis- $1, Gap Jeans- $1. 

TOTAL $4.25

Jackson already wears ths Spiderman shirt, but I'm holding onto the others for now. I will probably pull them out when he starts wearing jeans. Iron man- $.25; Superman- $.50; Spiderman- $.50.  

TOTAL $1.25

Dress shirts for church. Blue and white striped- $.25; blue and brown- $2

TOTAL $2.25

I was beyond thrilled when I found these Mizzou shirts at the thrift store. Jackson loves him some tiger clothes, but buying them new is way expensive. These shirts are marked at $3.99 each, but I made sure to buy these on the day when blue tags are 50% off, so I only ended up paying $1.98 each! 

TOTAL: $4

 These long-sleeve shirts are practically new. The big brother shirt might have been worn a time or two, but I'm thinkin the other two haven't even been washed yet. I paid $1 for each of these.

 TOTAL: $3

These shirts are still is good condition {no holes or stains} but they have definitely been worn. Jackson goes through really picky phases of what kind of shirt he wants to wear, so I tried to pick up a variety to match his interest! There's guitars, dinosaurs, motorcycles and basketball. These were all a quarter each.

TOTAL: $1.25

And lastly, these pajamas. Now these were by far the most expensive things I've purchased! It darn near KILLED me to pay $4 EACH! But... I've searched high and low for 4T footie pajamas. The very few I've even seen at garage sales have had the feet cut out. These are brand new {with tags} and along with the 4Ts we used last year, we should be good to go.

TOTAL: $8

My grand total is $24.

Wow!! That's practically the price of one pair of GAP jeans brand new!

I'm still looking for a winter coat and maybe one more pair of jeans and/or dress shirt. It's weird to be looking for these items in the midst of these horrid temps and scorching drought, but if I just need to be thinking ahead.

I'm pretty picky about what I purchase. Even if it's only a quarter, I don't want to bring home items that have holes or look dingy. And I frequently see items at garage sales that I think are way overpriced. But if you just keep looking, you'll come across some good finds.


Browsing through the racks at the thrift store and going to garage sales does take time. But it's so worth it. And, I think it's pretty fun. It's important for me for my kids to have nice clothing and it's a nice treat to find clothes with their favorite characters and hobbies! It is totally doable on a one income budget with just a little effort.
Do you enjoy garage sale and thrift store shopping? What have been your favorite buys?

Trading blue for pink

I can't deny that it took a little while to get used to the idea that we are going to have a little girl. It's no secret that I have always wanted a little girl, but I was just so sure that this time it was going to be another girl. And then it dawned on me-- having a girl means so much extra work in the mean time!

I began searching through names hoping that'd help, but that was actually depressing. I am so committed to pick a name that means something- I can't just pick a name; it needs to come from somewhere... and there are very few girl names that I like and I haven't found one that I absolutely love.

So, Tuesday night after class I headed to the store and I went to check out the baby section. I found myself gravitation towards the boy section several times, but I made myself go back to the little girls stuff and I finally felt the excitement of having a little girl!

I am so excited to be the recipient of Chacey's hand-me-downs because she always has the cutest outfits, but I have vowed to not buy/receive any girl things until I go through all of Jackson's old clothes and send them packing. I just can't convince myself that I need to keep everything of his on the chance that we may need them in the future. Purchasing the two little onsies on Tuesday really helped motivate me to get it done and so I spent several hours this afternoon going through the boxes upon boxes of little boy clothes. I did keep a few of my favorites that I just couldn't party with.

We had 12 target diaper boxes filled with clothes that I separated into three piles: two for little boys at church and one to go to an organization that supports teen moms.

All so I can start to fill the closets with some pink and purple, ruffles and sparkles!

And in other non-related news... Linda bought Jackson a pair of boots today at Kohl's. Once he tried on the boots, he wouldn't let anyone take them off, so he actually wore them around the store. The only way I could convince him to take them off to put on pajamas was to let him take a shower first. And then he insisted on wearing them with his PJs...

Don't tell me this isn't normal...

Not only has he worn his boots all day, but he has been staring at them too-- even when he walks, so he ends up running into things. And he talks about them too. "Boots. Boots." But the cutest thing of all, is that he'll tell you that he has boots like his daddy. I like to think that's why he loves them so much!