Until kids stop growing, there are resale shops
Children can outgrow pants between the time you drop them off at school and the time you pick them up. It's the reason I am in love with resale shops.
Sometimes I've barely just cut the tags off before her ankles are poking out the bottom. I've found a place that can help me out with those items as well as give me a steady supply of jeans with pink butterfly sparkles on them as requested by the kindergartener in my life and leave me enough change to stop for cheese quesadillas. Little Bo-Tique at 803 E Nasa Pkwy, will resell gently used items. To open an account you must have at least ten items and I'll warn you they have to be the season they're selling. So even though my Northern self thinks sixty degrees still constitutes cute little dresses with short sleeves, the store won't accept them until spring. This is also where we found the lovely formal dress kiddo wore on Halloween when she trick or treated as a bride this year.
I also spent an afternoon at Goodwill at 20810 Gulf Fwy digging through racks of dresses and skirts to find a most lovely wine colored sweater with the tags still on it. I thought that was the ultimate score of the day until I realized that they had racks and racks of sunglasses and for someone who regularly sits on hers until they're too lopsided to balance across my nose anymore or abandons them at the counter of the library, this was heaven I bought three pairs. I still love the sweater though, something about being able to respond to I like your sweater" with Two Dollars!" is very satisfying. I'm not sure what I'm getting when I proudly announce what I paid, or how that's an appropriate response when thank you" would do. Perhaps I'm trying to convince people I'm the best gatherer of the hunter gatherers. I'm sure some day my response will mortify my kid.
The place I haven't gotten back to, but am looking forward to is Bay Area Resale Shop on Nassau Bay Dr. I was there a few weeks back hunting for rare books and the elusive pink Capri pants for the kid when I stumbled upon a wall filled with designer purses. I wanted desperately to root through the Coach, Prada and Chanel, but didn't even look their direction for fear of being pulled in by their bargain-y goodness and loosing my self completely leaving my kid doomed to wear pajamas to school. I usually set aside twenty or thirty dollars for a day at the resale shop. I count myself lucky if I find enough goods to spend it all, leaving with three bags full of kid's clothes but I knew I could easily spend the whole budget on a purse and leave walking on sunshine. So, I checked out that day promising to come back when I wear out the purse I have, which explains why I've been tossing it around, treating it rough, and wracking fire ants on the sidewalk with it. I'll be back soon Bay Area Resale Shop.
There are a few others out there worth mentioning, Plato's Closet 19028 Gulf Freeway, across from Baybrook Mall parking lot, runs great sales every week. St. Thomas's Nearly New Shop at 18093 Upper Bay Rd has lovely dresses arranged by size and they change the selections often. Hidden Treasure Consignment at 925 E. Nasa Pkwy. next to Little Bo-Tique, is where I found two vintage Tiffany & Co. crystal Champaign flutes with stickers still on them in the original Tiffany & Co. packaging to send to my nephew as a wedding present. This time I won't tell you what I paid but it most certainly wasn't retail and I'd be mortified if you knew. Finally, next door to Hidden Treasures, at 961 E. Nasa Pkwy is Half Price Books, a place my whole family gets lost in. They buy and sell as well as provide an atmosphere that only a unique bookstore can. It makes for a nice place to wander around on a Friday night and pick up something for everyone for less than the price of one brand new DVD.
