Back to School Clothes Shopping

Looking at the midday news recently, my attention was caught by the news reporter touting the advantages of shopping at Value Village, a well known thrift store in the area with branches located throughout many states and Canada. With school shopping on the minds of many families, not only is there added expense to the budget of purchasing school supplies which were once provided by the local school district but you have the expense of the yearly trek to the store to outfit children with the latest fashion in clothing for that special "first day of school" outfit.

As you viewed the story, the cameras panned in on the wide array of clothing and accessories that are available to shoppers. In fact, to pique interest in shopping at Value Village, a personal shopper had two young middle school students, one female and one male, shopping with him and they happily perused the aisles together and found fashionable items that appealed to their very discriminating fashion sense. Both the students then did an impromptu fashion show on camera showing the items that had been purchased and ten ways the items could be mixed and matched to give an entirely different look. Both students were very pleased with their outfits and for the both of them the total bill totaled a little less than $50--a great value when you consider the number of items purchased.

The reporter noted that many of the clothes for sale at thrift stores are new clothes that were unsold by major department stores and given to thrift stores which can be purchased at much less than retail value. If the items are not new, you can find nearly new or gently worn clothing for purchase at great savings. So, before you completely dismiss thrift store shopping, open your wallet and see the savings mount as you pay less than retail for useable and fashionable attire for your children. Perhaps thrift shopping won't meet all of your school clothing needs but keep an open mind and reap the benefits of saving money. Before you spend all of your money at the mall, check for local well known thrift shops in your area and shop when the sales are announced. For Value Village, half price sales are held the last Wednesday of each month. The Salvation Army, Goodwill Industries and local thrift shops probably have sale days or a color coded system that indicates the "sale of the day" items. Visit the website of these thrift stores to find the location of the store nearest you and get more for less.