We’ve been blessed with hand-me-downs from friends for both our son and daughter! So much of it is really good quality stuff that we would never be able to afford. It’s been such a blessing for us! We only need to fill in gaps occasionally - a solid color shirt here, tights there, etc.

I’m one of those people who likes to bombard my husband’s co-workers with hand-me-downs for their kids.  We have so many people in our life who have been incredibly generous to us that I feel like passing all our outgrown clothes onto other families is a nice way to pay it forward.  I have to admit that I also love getting pictures of the kids who receive our hand-me-downs wearing the clothes or playing with the toys we gave them.  We hardly ever get any hand-me-downs given to us, but when we do I’m always really excited to get them.

I haven’t gotten any hand-me-downs for my baby because she was the first baby of all our family and friends.  But, we did get LOTS of new stuff as presents (since she was first and all new and everything) so we really haven’t had to buy much for her.  I just tell everyone that we are collecting all the future hand-me-downs.

My kids were the first among my husband and my families and friends so we never really got hand me downs .I am however a bargain shopper who ,even though my children are now teenagers, still frequents places like Platos Closet. MY boys dress in Abercrombie and Fitch as well as Hollister for less than we could buy Wal Mart clothing. I did go to Garage sales when my children were smaller but found that I wasted a lot of time and never found much.
I do pass our used( third hand)  clothes on to others when we are finished with them and just smile when people comment on how nice of clothes I buy and how grateful they are to get them. When seasons don’t line up to pass them on to Friends and family, I donate to a near by Protestant church that has free clothes give a ways .

We get some hand-me-downs, which I love - it’s like Christmas!  :>)  Mostly, I shop at a twice a year consignment sale in a nearby large town (too small for most of you to call a city, I’m sure) where I get pretty good stuff at a reasonable price.  There are some more expensive things, but $5 for a pretty nice outfit is probably normal, less for separates and not quite as nice stuff.  I tend to buy everyday shoes new, though - I’m in the camp that thinks they mold to your feet.  Church shoes are OK for used, though.

I always feel a bit sad for people who give stuff away because they’re “done” and say a tiny prayer for them.

I was given lots of hand me downs for my daughter from a friend with three older girls, and from friends of my mother.  I am so grateful.  It saves, money, save time, and helps the environment.  One more bonus is my second child is a girl as well, so things get plenty of use.  I continue this by giving my still usable clothes to friends and neighbors I know with little girls.  This also happens with toys and books.

Someone lent us their dd’s first 2 years’ wardrobe when our first was born - with the added stipulation -  Use it, don’t worry about ruining anything, and give whatever is left back when done so they could reuse it.  That was great - hardly had to buy anything.  We’ve done that with friends now too, I just pull out anything extra special that I would feel bad if it got ruined.  Sometimes people even throw in a few extra’s when they return the clothes because they didn’t know what else to do with them.  Now we have 7 kids and I am regretting saving so much (meaning EVERYTHING).  It’s the wrong season, elastic has hardened, etc. and someone else could have used it if I would have donated it. Now I am much pickier about what I save and we still hardly have to buy anything for the younger kids.  My kids love to go “shopping” in the basement!

We’ve bought about 1% of our kids clothes.  We have older cousins plus one very generous cousin who’s retired and was never able to have children.  She loves to visit thrift and consignment shops and revels in finding like new clothes for close to nothing.  When we said she was being too generous she said no, please don’t ask me not to, it gives me great pleasure.  Our kids love her and her husband—moreso because they always have time and love for them when we visit.  The clothes and dress-up clothes are just and added bonus in the kids’ eyes.

For 4 children, I have only ever bought the special stuff (matching sweaters for Christmas, or a special treat). In a family of 13 grandchildren, we have girl #3 and Boys # 6, 7 and 9. The clothes get boxed up and shipped from San Fran, to LA, to us and to my in-laws in VA and back again to us. It’s been such a blessing. It has also had some funny moments, as when my MIL noticed she had a formal “portrait” type photo (school pics or holiday) of all 4 granddaughters (from 3 different families) in the same Laura Ashley dress over a 10 year span. I gues my SIL really did get her money’s worth out of that dress.

I love garage “sailing” as we call it!! I have passed on many I would say most of my kids clothes.  With the exception of clothes that someone had made them or something special.  The best have been my two little boys that are right next to each other.  My big kids are girl boy and girl so they could not really were hand me downs.  I however was givin that gene in spades that is the shopping gene.  I have been know to shop a the thrift store for hours looking at things.  They also have 50% off days when things are really great.  I have noticed however that thrift stores such as Value Village have raised there prices so high that I can get things sometimes new for the same price.  Best of all are the consignment stores.  There is one that holds a $.25 sale on the last Thursday of the month.  They get rid of all the things that did not sell that month.  You can get a whole bag of stuff fof $5.00.  I always shop for things that are out of season asl well and put them aside for next year.  If you have apple boxes in the garage or a plastic tub that is labeled you can orginize that whole thing. That way if you see a lovely sweater in the thrift store in July you can put it aside for when it will be needed.  Example Kid Place was having a great sale it was the begining of June.  They were selling tights for $.15 a piece.  I cleaned them out of my middle daughters next 3 sizes and put them aside.  I only spend $5.00 I could not pass that up for anything!!

Give and you shall receive!  I give away just about every piece of clothing my kids wear.  I save hardly anything.  I used to save stuff, and then I realized that it just didn’t work out with my kids.  I have one boy and three girls.  The two older girls are 2 years apart but have completely different body types.  They were also born in different seasons so even when the 2nd dd was a baby & toddler, there wasn’t much of anything that worked for her.  So I got in the habit of giving it away.  I’ve never regretted anything that I’ve given away.  There are boys all over town who wear my only son’s outgrown clothes.  I also love to shop and am a barracuda when it comes to sales.

I love hand-me-downs! We’re lucky to have cousins to pass down clothes to our girls. And we’ve also received some items from my father-in-law’s co-workers. My mother-in-law buys new dresses and coats and swimsuits for the girls too. So I pretty much only buy shoes and socks and tights and the occasional item that catches my eye.

For my son we do have a boy cousin who has handed on some clothes but the seasons don’t really match up as the cousin was a winter baby and ours was a summer baby. So I expect we may be buying more for him unless we find a new source for hand-me-downs.

But I tend to hoard the clothes when the girls outgrow them. I never know if we’ll have another girl.

Between my MIL buying nice new stuff for birthdays and Christmas (it’s really nice to have new Sunday dresses for the third-in-a-row girl) and hand-me-downs, I have’t had to buy many clothes for my children until quite recently when my oldest started wearing ladies sizes. 

I gave away all my baby and girl toddler clothing before moving and still haven’t had to buy more then a few items for dd number 4.  (no 1 son came between dd’s 3 and 4 - he still gets to wear some hand-me-downs)

I really need to regularly thin out clothing for my third girl as the clothing from the older two plus gifts of new clothes add up.

My mom is a garage sale fanatic and has provided 90% of the boys’ clothes (now ages 3 and 5).  I’m the first in our families to have kids, but I just brought over my 3 bins of infant stuff to my SIL, who is 40 weeks pregnant.  I’m hoping to get pregnant again, but the clothes might as well get used in the meantime.  I’ve told her to get rid of the worst of them and hand back the nicer stuff after her baby spews all over everything.  I bought some things relating to our cloth diapering—some diapers were gifts, but I make most of ours now and I bought or traded to get wool pants and other diaper-friendly clothes made by WAHMs.  My SIL also gave me $200 last spring to buy fabric and I’ve given her 18 diapers and a bunch of just-sewn clothes.  If she has a girl, I won’t be able to do many hand-me-downs, but I would have fun sewing. 

I’ve even been able to get lots of school uniforms from garage sales.  My mom already has the 7’s ready for my 5 year old, who just moved into 6’s.  She gets so many things that I end up donating a lot of them without even getting used.

We’ve been blessed with incredibly generous friends and family.  As such, we’ve probably purchased about 5% of Teddy’s clothes, and have containers and containers full of stuff to take him through toddlerhood.
The main contributor is my Mom.  She’s a retired teacher, and she volunteers at a 2nd hand store.  She gets to see most of what comes in and she nabs things (they’ll have bag sales where a garbage bag of clothes costs $20).  The money goes towards supporting the needy in the community.  The stuff is beautiful, too.  I am tucking it away for any other kids we may be blessed with, and then I intend to pass it on myself.