Babies on a Budget: Accept Hand-Me-Down Clothes

If you truly want to be frugal with babies and little ones, you'll have to get over your aversion to hand-me-downs and accept second hand clothes. 

After reading enough books on frugality, I've decided that when I take hand-me-downs from others, I'm not being cheap and it surely doesn't make me poor.  It makes me smart.  At some point, we have to start equating frugality with being smart.  It's smart to change out your light bulbs to CFLs.  It's smart to drive a car that gets 50 mpg on the highway (we do).  And it's smart to get rid of things that are disposable.  I consider baby clothes to be disposable.  If it's only going to be used a few times (often just weeks or months during early infancy), it's disposable, so why pay $20 for it?  Or more!

Have we purchased clothes for our child?  You bet.  In my family, the coming home outfit for a baby has always been a very big deal, so we bought a very special dress for Isabelle to wear home from the hospital.  She also wore it on the day of her baby dedication at church, when she was 7 weeks old.  We have purchased a few other items for her that were either special or very much needed.  But overall, we've chosen to allow God to provide clothes for her through hand-me-downs from others.  And we have been blessed by this provision, and it frees us to do other things with our money (not spend frivolously, but reduce our debt or make repairs on our home and cars).    

Christmas in October
I often let people know that we enjoy hand-me-downs.  I do this because I think it gives hand-me-downs a good name.  When someone sees my daughter, beautifully dressed in a smocked Laura Ashley dress, and they compliment it, I let them know that it belonged to Isabelle's cousins, Jolie & Jordan.  I want people to know that there's nothing wrong with accepting things second hand.  And often, various friends will offer clothes to us, and it's a blessing every time.

We recently had Christmas in October.  It's always fun to get "new to me" stuff, and it feels like Christmas.  Here's what the entry way to my home looked like for several days last week:

Everything but the pink diaper bag and toy phone were hand-me-downs.  Damian's aunt and grandmother were in town, and they brought several bags of clothes and shoes from my sister-in-law.  Want to see what's in one of the bags?

How cute are these shoes?!?  I love the denim and sequined shoes.  Those white ones will be perfect with whatever Isabelle wears on Easter Sunday. 

The other box was a package mailed to me from my dear friend, Leslie.  It had all sorts of goodies in it. 

In addition to several of her son's cloth diapers, she had pulled out a few things she'd planned on putting in her garage sale and mailed them to us.  She sent some cute boy and girl clothes.  Yep, that's a Ralph Lauren shirt on top, in addition to a cute "Big Sister" shirt for Isabelle, several fun books, and those tiny little lion slippers.  What a blessing! 

We've received some amazing things from friends.  We kept a tight rein on our budget this summer, yet my daughter still received "new" clothes & books, in addition to a huge play kitchen and toy food from some friends of ours.  And just when I start wondering if my child has any winter clothes, I go up to the attic, pull down some boxes, and discover that she has at least 15 pairs of pants, not to mention cute winter boots. 

You would not believe the other beautiful clothes that we've gotten from other families (like the black and white toile dress, size 3T, that we received from friends last month.  It's so my style.).  The thing is, we love getting them, and others love giving them.  We often show up for a Bible study or another church event, and someone will say "Ohhh, that was my favorite outfit of my daughter's!  I'm so glad you guys are getting some use out of it."  It's much more fun than a garage sale or giving it to Good Will. 

We just all have to change our attitudes about second-hand items.  It's not that we're a charity case.  While we are a single income family, my husband is an engineer who provides well for his family.  It's simply that we would rather spend our funds more wisely.  When needed, we make purchases, but overall, we try to avoid living like consumers all the time.  The bottom line is that I treasure Christ above all, not my wardrobe, and certainly not stuff.  I want to teach my kids to do the same.  There's nothing wrong with enjoying pretty things, but that must be kept in balance, and we're never to worship our checkbooks.  Everything I do, including how I spend my money, should bring glory to the Lord and reflect my priorities.  I'll step off my stewardship soap box now.

One key to receiving hand-me-downs is good organization.  If clothes are not well organized, they won't get worn, which is a complete waste.  Tomorrow, I'll share with you how I organize baby clothes, including a few pictures from my attic.  My attic is one of my favorite things about our home.

I hope you're enjoying the Babies on a Budget series.  Click here to read more.  I'd love to hear any feedback you've got on clothing your baby frugally.