Outfitting your baby on a budget: Seasonal consignment sales

A lot of new parents to be are in shock when they realize what it costs to outfit a nursery and a new baby. It is very easy to spend thousands of dollars just to furnish the nursery and purchase the needed clothing and other items such as a car seat that are needed to bring their newborn infant home. This can be daunting to young couples who do not have a lot of extra money to spend. They have to find ways to furnish their nursery on a budget and this can indeed be done.

Outfitting your nursery and baby on a budget does take some time and effort so it is best to start a few months before your child is born. This gives you time to study the different avenues that are available to you and allows you to work at this with your energy levels. Remember, pregnancy does take a lot out of you so you will not be able to zip through things like you did when you were not pregnant so please allow for that.

Now lets get to the fun part, shopping! First find kids consignment sales in your area. Most states allow a certain number of sales per year without charging sales tax. In a lot of areas, these are done in the spring and the fall to allow for school shopping and summer clothing purchases. Consignment sales are great sources for baby furniture, baby equipment such as car seats, nursing systems, and many other items at less than half the price of new items. Please remember when buying any piece of used baby equipment to check for manufacturer recalls before purchasing.

New and gently used clothing can be purchased at consignment sales as well. A lot of people get many more newborn to 3 month sized outfits than they really need or can use at their baby showers. It is very easy to find these for very low prices and some even have the tags still attached. This is true for all items. You can clothe an infant for up to 1 year of age for less than $100 usually. The hard part about this is not to buy too much as babies do grow very quickly and they will not wear their clothing too long. It is best to buy a few outfits for each size and purchase more gowns, onesies, sleepers, and other basics that will grow with your child.

Most consignment sales have a half price day the last day of the sale in order to get rid of a lot of the merchandise that does not sell during the regular sale dates. Furniture and other popular equipment such as car seats, port a cribs will sell quickly so you need to purchase those when you find them. You can wait a lot of times until the half price day and purchase clothing items then and save even more money on your clothing and other purchases that are plentiful at the sale. This will give you the best value for your money.

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October 20, 2008 | Filed Under Baby depot