Fall Thrifting Extravaganza (and a mini fashion show!)

I think this is quite possibly the latest I've ever gotten around to posting about our Fall Thrifting Expedition, which we usually do in late August to stock up on all the fall and winter clothing our family needs for the coming months.

For one thing, we did our shopping in two stages this year: our usual late August trip to Value Village, plus a trip to Talize just a couple of weeks ago because my younger son still desperately needed to find pants!

As usual, we came away with a pretty good haul and a few really great finds. Here are some of the highlights and an update on our total clothing expenditures so far this year.

I didn't managed to snap a pic of every single item we brought home, as the boys have a tendency to run off with their treasures the moment they get them in the door.

Shown above:
1. A pair of Van's and a pair of sandals, both for my almost-16-year-old son Noah. The sandals were $2.00 and the Van's were $6.50 (I couldn't find an exact match online, but that brand generally runs $55 to 75+ a pair!)

2.  Tops for Noah - a Superman T-shirt ($3.50), Adidas hoodie ($2.00) and plaid flannel shirt ($3.50).

3. More tops for Noah: Patagonia hoodie ($4.50), Argyle sweater ($5.00) and striped sweater ($5.00). We were really excited about the hoodie, as Patagonia is a really good brand and it was in brand new condition!

4. Jeans for me: Jones & Co., Coupe Galbee "Curvy Fit" and Contrast, $5.00 each.

5. Nathan's haul: T-shirt ($2.50), plaid flannel shirt ($4.50), long sleeve gray knit top ($4.00) and jeans ($4.00)

All of those were from Value Village on 50% off day, and the last one is mine from Talize:

6. Mexx top ($4.99) (this had a pink tag, which was 50% off that day, otherwise it would have been $9.99)

More shoes:

From left to right:

A pair of Clark's for me ($9.00). This was a near-miraculous find - they fit my size 10 narrow feet *perfectly*, are in brand new condition, and cost over $70 new!

Faded Glory slip-ons ($4.99), also for me. They are super comfy for walking in!

Sneakers for Joe (hubby), $6.49.

Our total spent at Value Village with tax was $93.23 for 18 items of clothing, or an average of $5.18 an item. We spent another $97.52 at Talize for 11 items, or an average of $8.87 an item (I spent $20.00 on a coat there, which jacked up the average - more about that below!)

The boys came away with a good haul of American Eagle items (their favourite brand) and Nathan (13 yr old) found an Abercrombie hoodie which made him *very* happy!

Since clothes always look better on than in a pile, I did a little min-fashion show, and managed to convince Noah to let me snap a pic of him, too!

Outfit #1:

Hoodie, $9.99 at Talize (brand new condition), jeans $5.00 at Value Village, shoes $9.00 at Value Village, Gap T-shirt (under hoodie) bought a couple years ago for about $3.00, earrings (hard to see, but I am wearing some!) around 50 cents at a yard sale a couple years ago.
Total cost for outfit: Approximately $27.50

Outfit #2:

Gap turtleneck sweater, $6.99 at Talize, jeans $5.00 at Value Village, shoes $4.99 at Value Village, earrings homemade from a broken wooded bead necklace picked up at a rummage sale (?25 cents?)
Total cost for outfit: Approximately $17.23

Outfit #3 (Outerwear):

Coat, $19.99 at Talize (I'm not sure what it's made of as I can't find a care label, but it's really soft and fully lined), fleece hat, $1.00 at a yard sale a couple of years ago, fleece gloves free from a yard sale free pile last year, scarf hand knitted by me a few years ago (about $5.00 for the wool-silk blend yarn).
Total for outfit: Approximately $25.99


Outfit #4:

Patagonia hoodie, $4.50, jeans, approx. $5.00 from last year, T-shirt, approx $3.00 from a couple years ago, shoes, $6.50 at Talize (they were marked 50% off).
Total cost for outfit: $19.00

Annual clothing budget update:
After these last two thrifting trips, we are up to $419.09 for the year.  We generally aim for around $400 per year total for the four of us ($100 a person, although usually more of it goes to the boys as their clothes need replacing much more often!) We spent $455.86 last year, so we should come in somewhere in the same neighbourhood again (Nathan could still use a new pair of sneakers!) The last couple of years, with the boys fitting into men's size clothing, it's been more of a challenge to stick to the $400 annual budget, so I don't mind going a little bit over if necessary.

Have you found any great fashion deals this fall?
 

 
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Graduating in Style - Without Busting Our Clothing Budget!

My younger son's grade 8 graduation ceremony was yesterday afternoon. It seemed pretty surreal, especially since this was his first-ever year of school! And of course there's nothing like being packed into a non-air-conditioned school auditorium with a few hundred other people during a humid Southern Ontario heatwave :)

While the school encouraged parents not to spend too much on fancy clothing and told the kids to dress "like they were going out somewhere special with their family", of course all the kids had their own ideas about what was appropriate! I remember us all getting dressed up pretty fancy for my own grade 8 graduation, and these kids wanted to do the same.

Nathan was determined that he wanted an outfit comprised of a dress shirt, vest and dress pants, as this is what all his friends decided they were going to wear. As his usual attire is more along the lines of a pair of Adidas shorts, a T-shirt and a pair of sneakers, we didn't exactly have anything to draw on from his current wardrobe. Add to that the fact that all our schedules have been crazy busy of late and we didn't end up coordinating a time for him to go out shopping with his dad until Saturday (3 days before the event!) and we were all feeling a bit stressed about whether we'd be able to pull things together!

Thankfully, when Joe and Nathan finally did go on the hunt for an outfit, they hit paydirt at their first stop (Value Village). They were able to get the dress shirt, vest and pants in the above photo - all for just under $25! Thankfully Nathan, who doesn't own a pair of dress shoes, has the same size feet as Joe so he was able to borrow his dad's black dress shoes and socks to complete the outfit.

He was pleased with his fancy look (and he did indeed fit right in with what many of the other boys were wearing) and we didn't have to spend a ridiculous amount of money for him to get all spiffed up for his graduation ceremony. I was pretty glad about that since he ended up taking those clothes off ASAP after the ceremony and changing into his "normal" attire to head over to the dinner/dance afterwards! I'm sure he'll probably get a bit more mileage out of the shirt and pants in the future, too, since they are both basic wardrobe staple pieces.

While this wasn't quite as impressive a feat as the time I pulled off my $10 holiday outfit a year and a half ago, we were all satisfied that we put together a good outfit for a great price.

Have you managed to pull together a stylish yet frugal outfit for a graduation, wedding or other formal occasion lately?

Our Spring Clothes Shopping Expedition

Yesterday was a 50% off day at Value Village. Thanks to the fact that we have a Super Savers Club Card, we were able to shop the day before and get the 50% off discount. So our Mother's Day ended up being a free class at my yoga studio (they always do free classes for *everyone* on Mother's Day, which is so generous of them!) followed by a thrift store shopping trip. It was a busy day rather than a relaxing one, but seeing as how they were all frugal activities I suppose it was the perfect Mother's Day for me!

On this trip we were focused on getting the boys some spring and summer clothes as they both went and grew again and didn't have much that still fit them except a few T-shirts each.

They are both getting really particular about their clothing and although at first I thought we were never going to find anything that fit them *and* met with their fashion approval, we did end up with a decent haul in the end.

My younger son came home with this:

There are 3 T-shirts, 3 pairs of "regular' shorts, 1 pair of athletic shorts and a swimsuit in the picture. He also found 2 other T-shirts and a second pair of athletic shorts (not pictured since he went off to school in one set of T-shirt and shorts and I have no idea what he did with the other T-shirt!).

My older son found the following:

Again, not everything is pictured since he wandered off with some of the items already. In the photo are 2 T-shirts, a tank top, a pair of athletic pants, 3 pairs of shorts and a swimsuit. Not in the picture are a second swimsuit, another pair of shorts, and another 3 T-shirts (again, he's wearing one and I don't know where he's stashed the other 2 at the moment!) The pair of shorts in the bottom right corner still had the store tags on (I love it when we find brand new, never-worn stuff at the thrift store).

My husband also found a pair of sneakers for himself (not pictured).

In total we came home with 25 items of clothing for $96.06, or $3.84 an item.

We still need to find my younger son an outfit for his grade 8 graduation on June 25th. We'll probably hit our local Talize as that is my boys' new favourite thrift store.

Have you found any great thrift store deals lately?

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Finally - A Fall & Winter Clothes Shopping Trip!

I believe I've mentioned that life's been crazier than usual around here at least once or twice :) A sure sign that things have gotten a bit out of hand is that the fall and winter clothes shopping trip that we normally do around the end of August (hitting up a Value Village 50% off day) just happened on Saturday. Yup, *after* Thanksgiving! Hey, at least we got it done before Halloween.

Since there wasn't another 50% off day on the Value Village horizon for the foreseeable future, we decided to head over to Talize since fellow Hamilton blogger Jentine of My Edit is a huge fan (and far more fashion conscious than I've ever going to be). I'd been there way back when they first opened (I think that's getting close to a decade ago as I seem to remember my kids being quite small). Anyway, for whatever reason we'd never gone back (it's a bit more out of the way for us than Value Village so it mostly fell off my radar I think). I'm happy to report that we had a very successful trip and I'm now an official Talize convert :) Overall I found the selection better organized, with more higher quality items and a lot less stuff that looked like it was ready for my rag bag compared to Value Village. As it turned out, they were offering 50% off on clothes with pink and purple tags, and about half the items we selected fit this category, so we did still receive a significant discount on our purchase.

We did also make a quick trip over to Value Village as they have a much larger shoe selection than Talize and we'd struck out in that department. We made a couple of good finds there, then hauled the whole lot home to be photographed and laundered.

(My apologies for the less-than-stellar photos. By the time we got home, daylight was starting to fade, and I really wanted to get this stuff in the wash as I had two teenage boys pestering me for their new duds. I did the best I could with the light I had to work with!)

Teenage boy #1 (13 year old) ended up with the following:

- A new winter jacket (I'm SO relieved we found something he agreed that he would actually wear!! He's definitely the most style-conscious person in our household).
- 3 pairs of jeans (again, nearly a miracle considering how picky he is about fit). One of them is actually not black since we found a gray pair that met with his approval (I'm not sure why, but he won't wear blue denim)
-2 black T-shirts
-2 American Eagle hoodies (only one in the picture as he was already wearing the other one!)
-plaid button-down shirt
-black belt


Teenage boy #2 (15 year old) got a pretty good haul, too:

 -2 button-down shirts
-2 long sleeved knit pullovers
-2 black T-shirts (one short sleeved, one long sleeved)
-2 pairs of jeans
-a pair of New Balance runners
-a pair of winter boots

Plus I found a couple of items for myself:

-A pair of yoga pants in brand new condition (I was really thrilled to find these as my current pairs are looking more than a bit long in the tooth)
-A pair of hiking boots

The boots I'd picked up in hopes they'd fit my 13 year old. They *were* in the men's section. After he tried them on and reported they were too small, it occurred to me that the style was not all that different from that of my favourite boots that died last year. I tried them on and they fit me! So, even though they're technically men's boots, I don't really care :) I don't love them as much as my old expensive pair, but at $14.99 and in brand-new condition, they'll get me through until I can splurge on another really good pair again (which isn't likely to be this year).

The grand total for this shopping expedition was $170.50 for 21 items, or an average of $8.12 an item (not bad with a winter jacket and 3 pair of footwear in the mix!)

That brings our total spent on clothing so far this year up to $344.47. Over a third of that was on shoes and boots since my boys' feet just keep getting bigger! I'm hoping their feet are just about done growing as one of them already has larger feet than my husband and the other's are about the same size.

I think we're now just about covered for fall and winter clothes. We still need to find some winter boots for my 13 year old, and hubby needs a new pair of dress shoes. We also need to stock up on socks for the boys. I'm hoping that should be it until the end of the year! It looks like we'll come in a lot lower on our clothing expenses than we did last year, when we went about $150 over our typical $400 annual budget.

Have you found any great thrift-store deals lately?

Finds from our Spring Clothing Shopping Expedition

Monday was 50% off day at Value Village, so we headed out to do our big spring clothing shopping trip. Hubby and I are pretty well fixed for clothes right now, so we were mainly looking for clothes for the boys, who have either outgrown or worn out most of their spring and summer clothes from last season!

It was total chaos at the Value Village - our timing was not great and I think we managed to hit the after school crowd - but we managed to survive the experience and came home with the following:

Six pairs of shorts (all for the boys) and two swimsuits (one for my 12 year old son and one for hubby, who desperately needed a replacement for his ancient suit). The cost of these items ranged from $1.50 to $4.00, with the total spent on shorts and swimsuits (before taxes) coming to $22.50.

My 12 year old son is starting to develop "champagne taste" when it comes to clothes and is becoming extremely label-conscious, providing an additional challenge when it comes to finding him clothes that he deems acceptable. He's quite fixated on Abercrombie and Fitch at the moment,  and he managed to find two of their sweaters that fit him, making him a happy camper (and I was happy with the prices; $1.50 and $4.00). My 14 year old picked up a really good quality black fleece pullover (not pictured) for $7.50.We also found 7 new T-shirts for the boys, ranging from $2.00 to $2.50 in price. The before-tax total for sweaters and T-shirts came to $28.50.

Finally, my 12 year old son found himself yet another pair of black sneakers (pretty much the only colour he considers acceptable these days). His current pair is starting to show some signs of wear, and sine he is constantly playing one sport or another with his friends all summer long, I wanted to make sure he had a backup pair when the current ones bite the dust. These cost $10.00. Thankfully both boys still have flip flops or sandals in good condition that we picked up on clearance at the end of last season, so they should now have adequate footwear to make it through the summer months.

The grand total for the day, with taxes, came to $68.81 for 19 items of clothing, or an average of  $3.62 an item. 

This trip was a real headache-inducing experience, but after I reminded myself how much money we saved for enduring two hours of chaos, it was definitely worth the effort! I *am* glad we only do this a couple times of year, though :) 

To learn more about how we spend less than $100 a year (per person) on clothes, go HERE.

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How to Spend Less Than $100 a Year (Per Person) on Clothes

Photo by panpote/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Clothing (along with food and shelter) falls in the "basic necessity" category - you can't exactly choose to go without it, no matter how tight your budget is. And it can be a real budget-buster if you let it - I've read that the average North American family spends about $3000 per year on clothes.

Although I haven't tracked our clothing expenses super-closely until I started this blog, I know we've always averaged less than $300 per year on clothing (or $75 per person) for our family of four. That's one tenth of what the average family spends! And although we hardly look like we're going to be strutting down the runways of Paris, we look like a fairly typically dressed family in our middle-class neighbourhood. So how do we do it?

Here are the strategies we use to keep our clothing expenses as minimal as possible:

Welcome hand-me-downs: I ALWAYS say yes when a friend or relative asks me if I'd be interested in some clothing they no longer need. I want everyone to know that I happily accept hand-me-downs, and if I say "no" once, they may decide that I'm uncomfortable or offended by the offer, and never offer again. After all, it's pretty easy to pass along anything we don't need to someone else. I hardly bought any clothes at all for my boys for the first few years of their lives, due to the generosity of friends with older boys passing items along. And hand-me-downs aren't just for kids - we've received some great articles of men's and women's clothing from friends, too! Freecycle is another great source for potential free clothing items; my husband received some gorgeous dress shirts through Freecycle a few years ago that are still looking great today! Just make sure to "share the wealth" and offer items back to the Freecycle community that you no longer need.

Buy secondhand as much as possible: We buy nearly all our clothing secondhand, with the exception of undergarments and socks (for obvious reasons!). I *have* actually found a few pairs of boys underwear with the tags still on at thrift stores, and I'm perfectly okay buying them in that type of situation. Our primary source of secondhand clothing is our local Value Village stores, and we almost always wait for 50% off days to do our clothes shopping. We do two big clothes shopping excursions per year, one in the spring for spring and summer clothing, one in the late summer for fall and winter clothing. Other good sources of secondhand clothing are yard sales, church rummage sales, and online classifieds like Kijiji or Craigslist. Secondhand does not have to mean second-rate; we've found many fabulous items of clothing over the years through secondhand sources. On one Value Village outing last spring, my hubby scored several like-new dress shirts by Ralph Lauren, Eddie Bauer and other expensive labels (for an average of about $3 a shirt!).

Know what you need: Another key way to save money on clothes is to make sure you only buy the items of clothing you truly need. Most people wear 20% of their clothing 80% of the time, so why not focus on that 20% and forget about all that seldom-used stuff? This saves a ton of space as well as money! I try to keep good tabs on our clothing situation so I know what items I need to be on the lookout for, and what we have a surplus of and don't need at all. Before we head out on a major clothes shopping expedition, I do a detailed inventory so I know exactly what items each person in our family needs to fill in any wardrobe gaps.

Think classic and coordinated: I usually only need to buy a few new items of clothing per year for myself and my husband, to replace items that have worn out. This is because we buy clothes in classic, basic styles that always look good (most of the time I think the "trendy" looks are pretty ridiculous, anyway!). We also both stick to a few coordinated colours so we have a mix-and-match wardrobe (my clothes are mostly black, white, red, light blue, navy, sand, and dark denim).

Consider borrowing seldom-needed items: I don't have a big need for dressy clothes as I don't work outside the home or go to a lot of formal social events. I did manage to put together a decent holiday outfit for my husband's work party for under $10 at Christmas, and in that case I bought a top and shoes to work with a skirt I already had. Another good option would have been to borrow something from one of my friends with a more extensive wardrobe than mine.

Care for your clothes gently: Making clothes last as long as possible is another key piece of keeping your clothing budget low. Harsh detergents and the dryer are your clothes worst enemies! Firstly, don't wash your clothes until they actually *need* washing. Items like pants and sweaters can usually be worn several times before they need washing. Treat any stains as soon as possible to make sure they come out. Wash with a gentle detergent (I use soapnuts) and line-dry clothes when possible. Mend any small tears or ripped seams as soon as you notice them, so they don't become large, item-destroying tears.

"Cycle" your clothes: Clothing goes through several phases in our house. It starts out as the "good" stuff that is meant for public consumption. When it starts to look a bit shabby, it gets relegated to the work clothes pile for doing yard work, heavy cleaning, etc. When it gets REALLY bad, it gets relegated to the "wear it for painting and other extremely messy and clothes-wrecking tasks" pile. When pants get too worn out around the cuffs, they become shorts. Spent T-shirts become rags or T-shirt yarn (I'm hoping to accumulate enough of this to knit some throw rugs out of it!).

Buy name-brand undergarments: I've learned my lesson on this one over the years - cheap socks and undies fall apart quickly! We wait for a good sale on name-brand ones and stock up.

What is your family's clothing budget? Do you have any great tips for saving money on clothes?

My $10 Holiday Outfit

My husband started working at a new company this past January, and as it turns out they hold a pretty fancy Christmas party for their employees and spouses. I haven't had to get really dressed up for the holidays in a number of years, so I was scrambling to put together an outfit that would be suitable for this occasion without spending a lot (since we've already busted our clothing budget for this year!)

I didn't even have a pair of high heels that fit me, since my feet stretched out and gained a size after I had my younger son (the fact that he's now twelve years old gives you an idea how often I get really dressed up - nope, not even a wedding in our family in all that time!)

Thankfully, Value Village saved the day by having a 50% Off Day at the end of November. We decided to go to the store that's located in a more affluent neighbourhood as I figured I'd have better luck finding "fancy" clothes there.

I got *really* lucky and found a pair of black patent leather Rockport heels that fit me perfectly for just $6.50. I also found a black and silver top to pair with the black velvet skirt I already own for another $3.00. I added my "good" pair of dressy silver earrings to finish off the outfit.

Total cost to put this outfit together: $9.50.

The party was on Thursday night (and it was really quite fabulous!). No, I certainly didn't win the "best dressed" award, but I certainly didn't come close to winning the fashion booby prize, either (ladies, please don't wear strapless, low cut dresses to a WORK Christmas party!!). There was actually a pretty wide mix of styles and levels of dressiness at the party, so I blended in pretty well :)

You may or may not like my holiday style, but that's not really the point. With a little creativity and resourcefulness, I think it's possible to put together whatever look you're going for, very inexpensively.

For many of us, holiday outfits are worn so infrequently that I just don't think they're worth spending a lot of money on. In fact, I may just try holding a holiday clothing swap with a few friends next season, so I have something new to wear to next year's party!

How do you do "holiday fashion" on a small budget?

Fall & Winter Clothes Shopping Extravaganza

I mentioned a few posts back that we'd done our major fall and winter clothes shopping expedition and I promised I would fill you in with the details soon, so here, at last, is the lowdown on our clothing purchases.

The bulk of our purchases were made at a 50% off day at Value Village:

 4 long sleeve shirts and a turtleneck (3 for my younger son, one shirt and the turtleneck for my older son)

 slightly dressy top for me

 Black turtleneck sweater for me

 

 5 pairs of pants for my older son

 
On the same trip, we also got a pair of sneakers for each boy (not pictured as they happened to be off wearing them during my photo taking session). Miraculously, we found a pair of brand-new looking Airwalk sneakers that perfectly fit my younger son (he had been determined that he absolutely wanted this brand of sneakers, which are very popular with the boys in his social circle). For my older son, we found a pair of New Balance sneakers in excellent condition.

My younger son desperately needed pants, and unfortunately we weren't able to find anything that fit him at our Value Village trip. We ended up going to Walmart and buying what I think might be his first ever pairs of brand new pants :) Since he is now fitting into mens' sized pants, the prices at Value Village are not always that great of a deal compared to the sale prices at Walmart. The pants we were looking at at VV were priced about $10-12 each, and some of them weren't even in that great of condition. We ended up getting Nathan 2 pairs of brand new jeans on sale for $15 each. They were the exact style he wanted and fit him well, so I feel it was definitely worth the extra couple of bucks per pair.

We ended up going back to Value Village a few days after the 50% off sale to see if we could find any more pants (the racks tend to be better stocked when it's not a sale day!)

We did find Nathan one more pair of pants; they will need hemming length-wise but otherwise fit him well.

We were also on the lookout for winter jackets as both my boys have outgrown the ones they've been wearing for the past 2-3 years. We checked out the jacket selection on 50% off day and I thought it was curious that there weren't any winter jackets on the racks. When we went back a few days later, there was a rack full of winter jackets, so apparently they don't put out winter outerwear for the sale. I thought that was a little sneaky of them, but we did find a good jacket for Nathan during our second visit:

I am really pleased with this find as it appears to be a good quality jacket and it has a METAL ZIPPER!! I can't tell you how thrilled I am about THAT, as I've had way too many plastic zippers break on my boys' winter coats over the years when the coat otherwise had lots of life left in it.

We spent a total of $85.59 between the two Value Village trips, and another $33.90 on two pairs of jeans plus a belt for Nathan. We spent another $49.72 stocking up on sale-priced socks and undies for everyone, plus a clearance pair of sandals for my older son Noah as the flip flops he'd started the summer with suffered a fatal breakdown.

That brings the grand total for our fall and winter clothes shopping spree to $169.21. I think the only items we are still in need of are a winter coat for Noah and winter gloves for both boys.

So far this year, we've spent $525.13 on clothing. 

Other than the aforementioned coat and gloves, I don't foresee that we'll need to buy much more prior to the end of the year. Still, we are going to be significantly over our typical clothing budget of $300 per year. Now that the boys are getting bigger, it's getting more difficult to always find suitable second-hand options for them. They are also both at rapid-growth stages, so they had outgrown most of the clothes they wore last year.

I'm curious to know how much other frugal-minded families spent per year on clothing, especially if you have teenage boys. How much does your family spent on clothing annually?

My Successful Soapnuts Experiment

Image by Carlos Porto/freedigitalphotos.net

I first heard about soapnuts earlier this year and was fascinated - washing your laundry with the fruit of a tree sounded very natural and all, but I was concerned it wouldn't be an effective enough cleaning option for dealing with my stinky loads of boy-laundry washed in cold, hard water.

One of my friends knew I was interested in trying them out and gave me a small bag of soapnuts as part of my birthday present at the end of May. I started using them in June after my batch of homemade laundry detergent was used up, and after a good solid three months of use, I can officially say that I have been very pleased with the results!

My clothes are at least as clean as they were with the homemade detergent - probably cleaner. And the added bonus is that the soapnuts seem to have a fabric softening effect - I definitely notice a difference in the feel of our cotton T-shirts.

For those unfamiliar with soapnuts, they are kind of like a hard, sticky berry. They usually come with a little cotton bag, and you put 4-6 of them in the bag and throw it in the bottom of the washing machine when you start your load of laundry. The soapnuts contain saponins which are a natural surfactant that will clean your clothes. The same batch of soapnuts can be used for 3-4 loads, then most of the saponins are used up and you need to start with a new bunch (I suspect I've done up to 6 loads of laundry using the same batch, as I've been known to lose count of how many loads I've done with the current batch!)

After a bit of experimentation, this is my new laundry washing "formula":

-if using a fresh batch of soapnuts, soak them in boiling water for a few minutes before starting laundry (I do this because I wash in cold water, and I've heard this helps "activate" them so they will be effective in the cold water)

-for each load, use 4 soapnuts plus about 5 drops of lemon essential oil added to the little cotton bag with the soapnuts, plus about 1/4 cup of borax

That's it! I am really pleased with this method of doing laundry. The soapnuts are not only a 100% natural product, they are also a Fair Trade product, and when you're done with them they can be tossed right into your compost bin. They are also quite reasonably priced when purchased in bulk: the best price I have found so far from a Canadian source is at Grassroots - $25.99 for 1 kg, which will do over 200 loads of laundry and last me over a year. In the U.S., Mountain Rose Herbs seems to have very good prices (although I'm not sure what the current price is as they're out of stock right now and the price isn't listed).

(No, those are NOT affiliate links - I just really like soapnuts and these are two of the best places I know of to get them!)

Have you used soapnuts? If so, have you been pleased with the results? If not, have I convinced you to give them a try?

Thrift Store Clothes Shopping Extravaganza

I didn't have a chance to go yard sale shopping last weekend as we had family commitments on Saturday morning; there wasn't much going on anyway in the yard sale department as the weather's been so rainy people aren't willing to chance putting their stuff out on the lawn!

Fortunately, we were able to do some serious thrift store shopping this week as Value Village had a 50% off day on Monday and I also hit the Salvation Army thrift store when I was down in that part of the city at the end of last week.

Here is everything we found: 

At the Salvation Army:

 2 pairs of boxer briefs and a pair of boxers for my boys (I know some of you are thinking "ew, second hand *underwear*?!? - don't worry, they still had the original tags on!!)

 A swimsuit for my 13 yr old son

A pair of long shorts for my 11 year old son

A good quality dress shirt for my 13 yr old son

I also got a pair of Reebok spandex exercise shorts for myself that looked like they'd never been worn, apparently I forgot to take a picture of them, though!.

Total spent at Salvation Army: $14.91

At Value Village:

 Two hoodies for my 11 year old son

 Two button-down shirts - short sleeve for the 13 yr old, long sleeve for the 11 yr old

 7 T-shirts - a plain black one for me; the rest for the boys

 3 swimsuits for the boys 

  6 pairs of shorts - 3 for each kid

6 pairs of footwear: sneakers for both boys and hubby (all Reebok/Nike), a pair of sandals for hubby, flip-flops for the 13 yr old, and (most exciting) a pair of black Mary Janes for me - I've been looking for a suitable pair for what seems like forever and these fit my size 9 1/2 feet perfectly and look practically brand new!

Total for Value Village: $87.84

Grand total: $102.75 for 33 items or an average of $3.11 an item. 

Thankfully I think we now all have just about everything we need for spring and summer so we won't have to go clothes shopping again until fall!

February Frugal Finds

Spring is just around the corner. Right?? It sure doesn't feel like it here, since we got another big dumping of snow yesterday and it's -7 degrees Celsius outside. I'm eagerly awaiting the return of yard sale season, along with the glorious banquet of spring rummage sales that are sure to appear soon.

Until then, I supposed I'll have to be content with sharing a couple of great finds I made this month. First up is this curbside find my husband scored:

A Samsonite suitcase in excellent condition. It's got a few marks on the outside but the interior is pristine. I was very pleased about this as last year I had mentioned that we really needed another suitcase. Up until now, we've squeezed clothes for all four of us into one suitcase for our family vacations. With the boys getting older (and their clothes getting much larger!) it was getting really tight last summer. Now the boys can have a whole suitcase to themselves.

I made the second great find this month:

I got this Eddie Bauer goose down-lined winter coat for just $7.50 at a Value Village 50% off day! It's in perfect condition; I don't know if anyone ever wore it. My current winter coat was over 15 years old, so I was thrilled to find such a quality replacement for such a low price (the old coat will now be reserved exclusively for winter bike riding, so I don't have to worry if I get a lot of messy road gunk all over myself!)

On the same day, I also found a lighter ski jacket for $5.00 (again, my present one was really old and getting a bit ratty). In addition, my husband tracked down five good quality men's dress shirts (including an Eddie Bauer and a Ralph Lauren), paying a total of $16.95 for the lot.

What great finds have you made lately?

A Year End Clothing Budget Report

Photo courtesy of bulldogza/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I can't quite believe that Christmas is over for another year. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday! I guess it's time for me to ease back into my blogging routine. With just a couple of days left in the year, I wanted to make sure to squeeze in my final clothing budget report for 2010. In my mid-year update, I shared that we had spent a total of $99.54 on clothing for the first half of the year. Since then, I picked up a number of items at yard sales in July and August:

$1.00 for a black button down shirt for me
$2.00 for New Balance runners for hubby
$3.50 for 2 T-shirts, 1 long sleeve T and a denim stretch jacket for me
$0.50 for a long sleeve thermal undershirt for hubby
$1.00 for a short sleeve dress shirt for hubby
$3.00 for a long sleeve T, short sleeved summer blouse and black skirt for me
$5.00 for a Nike jacket

The total for these yard sale purchases was $16.00 for 12 items.

In late summer and early fall we hit several sale days at local thrift stores. A detailed report of our purchases at the Salvation Army and Value Village 50% off days is here. My boys needed a lot of new clothes so we ended up buying a lot - 32 items for $105.50. We also hit up Walmart to stock up on socks and underwear to the tune of $55.59.

After we completed those shopping trips, we had most of what we needed to meet our clothing needs until next spring. We checked out another 50% off day at Value Village in November, which I reported on here. We purchased 8 items for a total of $31.12 that day. I also picked up a couple of things at fall yard and rummage sales:

$2.00 for 2 pairs of running shoes for the boys
$1.00 for a pair of dockers-style pants for hubby
$1.00 for a long sleeved dress shirt for hubby

Our final purchase was a pair of winter gloves for my younger son at a local surplus store for $4.50.

That brings our total for the second half of the year to $216.71 - over twice what we spent the first half of the year! That is fairly typical for us I think, as we seem to need more items for the fall and winter months.  Just over a quarter of this total was for socks and underwear alone. It always amazes me how much undergarments can eat into our clothing budget!

Our grand total for the year was $316.25 or $79.06 per person. I had guesstimated that we spend about $300 a year on clothes (this is the first year I've kept such detailed records on our clothing purchases) so it looks like my impression was pretty accurate.

How about you? How much does your family spend a year on clothing? Were you over or under your budget for the year?

Thrift Store Scores: 50% Off Day at Value Village

Yesterday was a 50% off day at Value Village here in Canada. There were a few items of clothing we had on our "wanted" list, so off we went to see what we could find!

Before we even started bargain hunting, I was thrilled to see the renovations they have completed to our local store. They have expanded into the space that used to be next door, making it much more spacious and easy to move around. They also reorganized the entire store, making it easier to find what you're looking for. The change rooms were given an overhaul, too, making them larger with built-in benches in each change room (much easier to stow your stuff on these benches than on those flimsy wall hooks, and also a place to sit when giving pants a good test fit).

Not only did we have a more pleasant shopping experience than on our last visit, we also managed to find everything we wanted. I was looking for some cozy sweaters for myself and found the following:

A black ribbed roll neck sweater, $4.00

A super-soft and warm red cowl neck sweater, $5.00

A warm, snuggly and soft hoodie (perfect weekend lounge wear) $3.50

*And* I even found myself a pair of shoes (this is a near-miracle with my size 9 1/2 super narrow feet)

Comfortable enough for running errands, versatile enough to wear with pants or a skirt, and only $2.50!

My hubby was looking to replace his worn out jeans and found 2 pairs that fit the bill:

One pair was $3.50, the other pair was $3.00

I was hoping to find a pair of good-looking pants for my older son to wear on occasions when his perpetually-stained jeans won't quite cut it, and really scored on this front:

These Gap cargo pants cost $3.00, fit him *perfectly* and are in pristine condition. While the tags aren't on them, I'm positive no one ever wore them as the snaps and velcro on the pockets have that never-been-used feel.

My younger son also found a hoodie for $3.50 that I don't have a photo of as he disappeared with it as soon as we got home from shopping!

The grand total for our purchases this trip (with taxes) was $31.12, or an average of 3.89 an item for 8 items.

I'll be doing a final year-end clothing budget report during the last week of December; we're looking good to come in at just over $300 for the year!

Have you been over- or under- budget for your family's clothing this year? Any great finds to share?

Fall & Winter Clothes Shopping Roundup

 Our haul from Value Village - *5* big bags full!

As I mentioned in my last clothing update, my boys had outgrown many of their clothes and I knew we were going to have to buy quite a lot of items for them for the upcoming fall and winter seasons. Despite scouring local yard sales every week, I had yet to come up with anything for them except a pair of excellent winter gloves and a couple of pairs of running shoes. So I was watching closely for the next 50% off day at Value Village, which was yesterday here in Canada. There was also a 50% off sale at the Salvation Army thrift store this past Friday. We hit both of them, and came home with a ton of booty:

At the Salvation Army:

-four T-shirts (3 for Nathan, 1 for Noah)
-a turtleneck for Noah
-a hoodie for Nathan
-two pairs of sporty pants for Noah
-a long sleeve T-shirt for Nathan
-a swimsuit for Noah

A total of 10 articles of clothing for $14.45, or 1.45/item

At Value Village: 
-a pair of New Balance runners for Joe
-a pair of New Balance runners for Nathan
-a pair of Adidas winter hikers for Nathan
-THREE pairs of jeans for me (super ecstatic as I have a really hard time finding comfy ones!)
-super soft V-neck sweater for me
-pair of grey cotton Docker-style pants for Joe
-six pairs of pants for Nathan (2 camouflage, 1 pair jeans, 3 pairs of sport pants; one of the pairs of camos were brand new Faded Glory brand with the tags still on!)
-hoodie for Nathan
-turtleneck for Noah
-four long sleeve T-shirts for Noah
-a hoodie for me
-a pair of shorts for Nathan (to carry him through the last of the warmer weather; these should still fit next year)

A total of 22 items for $91.05, or $4.13/item

Grand total for all: 32 items for $105.50, or $3.30 an item.

This just goes to show how invaluable those 50% off days can be if you need to buy a lot! Since we paid $105.50 at half-price, we saved another $105.50 by shopping on discount days (i.e. the total would have been $211 if we'd shopped on normal price days). This is a huge factor in keeping our annual clothing budget to around $300 or so. We went to the sales knowing exactly what items of clothing we all needed; the week before we went shopping I'd already sorted through the boys' current fall and winter clothing and knew what items each of them required to have a full fall and winter wardrobe. This helped keep us focused; we didn't waste any time or money looking for or buying items that were unneeded.

We also purchased some non-clothing items at Value Village: a few pieces of hockey equipment for Nathan, and a small sconce-style wall lamp for the side-entrance reno we're working on right now.

Our whole family is pretty well set for clothing now until spring. Thankfully, the boys' winter jackets and ski pants from last year still fit, as do Noah's winter boots. Nathan needs a pair of gloves and I'm still on a quest for a pair of black leather Mary Janes and winter dress boots, but that's about all we still need!

I'll do a final year-end clothing budget summary the last week of December; so far it looks like we're on track to land right around the $300 mark for the year; although if I have to end up buying a pair of shoes at retail price we may go slightly over (I *really* need new shoes!)

A Mid-Year Clothing Budget Report

Image: Suat Eman/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Our family of four spends roughly $200-$250 per year on clothing. In the past I haven't kept an exact running total for the year, as clothing is part of our "miscellaneous" spending category, which includes clothes, entertainment, personal care products and services (like haircuts) and household goods. This year I decided to keep track of our clothing expenditures, curious to see if my "guesstimate" of our annual spending in this category was correct.

As of June 30th, our clothing expenditures total $99.54 for the year to date. Here's a breakdown of what that money was spent on:

A pair of sandals for 12 yo son for $8.00 at Value Village

Six pieces of clothing at a church rummage sale: $6.00 (this included a pair of black yoga pants, a white collared long sleeve shirt, light green camisole top, white T-shirt and a tank top for me, as well as a light blue Denver Hayes T-shirt for my hubby which looks like it's never been worn)

A pair of shoes for 12 yo son and a pair of sandals for 10 yo son, $24.13 at Value Village

A pair of black cloth Mary Janes for me, a pair of sneakers for my dh, and a pair of slippers for my 10 yo son, $3 total for all at a yard sale

Socks and undies for dh, $14.00 at a discount department store

Undies for me, $9.04 at a (different) discount department store

Short sleeve dress shirt for dh, $6.77 at Value Village

Decent quality running shoes for dh, $16.19 at Value Village

Skirt and T-shirt for me, $12.41 at Value Village.

TOTAL: $99.54

Well, look at that - so far we are right on track to spend my guesstimated amount of $200-$250 for the year.
You will note that the bulk of the total comes from footwear and undergarment purchases ($74.36, or 74.7 percent of the total spent!). Undergarments are one of the few things we purchase new, so we wait for a sale and buy decent quality ones so they'll last a while. Footwear I don't mind buying second hand; there are lots of pairs of good quality, barely-worn shoes out there. Even at thrift store prices they can still take a bite out of our clothing budget when my dh goes through about 3 pairs of runners a year, and my boys need a new pair of sandals and runners every year, too.

In case you're wondering what the heck my boys are wearing besides footwear (as we haven't bought them any clothes yet this year), we bought several pairs of pants for each of them at Value Village back in the fall. Most of their long-sleeve shirts and T-shirts from the previous year still fit them, as did their swimsuits and some of their shorts. I've had to do some mending on a few items so they'll make it through another season. I also cut off a couple pairs of my older son's jeans (pairs he had gotten a couple of years of wear out of that had the knees ripped out) to make jean shorts, as well as one pair of my younger son's jeans. My younger son needed some more shorts to make it through this summer, so I dug around in our "purged clothing" pile to see what I could do. He has the same waist measurement as me (yep, he's a big, solid kid!!) and I found a pair of jeans and a pair of barely-worn navy cotton pants I had decided I didn't want any more; they are very gender-neutral in their style and cut (probably why *I* didn't want them any more) and they will both make good shorts for him. I'm also repairing a pair of his athletic pants that I'll cut off and convert to shorts as well. With a little creativity, he will now have several new pairs of shorts without it costing us a cent!

I expect the bulk of our remaining clothing budget for the year will be spent on new pants for the boys in the fall. I hope they will still fit into last year's winter outerwear again this year (fingers crossed!). I may have to buy at least one of them a new pair of winter boots as well. Stay tuned for another update at the end of the year!

What is your family's annual clothing budget? How do you keep your clothing costs down?

Oh My, Oh My, Oh MENDING!!

Clothing repair and renovation is one of the tasks about which I procrastinate the most. While I find it satisfying to save items that would otherwise be tossed out, I find the mending process quite time consuming (I'm not exactly the most skilled seamstress out there, which probably doesn't help in the speed department).

So, let's just say I've been ignoring my mending basket for (ahem) quite a while now. I knew there were a lot of items in there that would be needed for the spring and summer season, so yesterday I finally dared to assess the situation:

Yikes! I didn't have a mending "pile", I had a mending *mountain*! After taking a few deep breaths, I decided I better dig through and prioritize the items that would be most needed for the upcoming season.

Things still look kind of imposing post-prioritization, but I think I can actually get through this pile in the next month or so, and we'll be good to go until the fall.

What's there:
-Five (yes, five!) pairs of my pants that have gotten a bit "floodish" but otherwise still fit okay; I'm planning to turn them all into capri-length pants.

-Three of my boys' swimsuits, which all need seams repaired. One of them also needs some new elastic cording put through the waist. These should be pretty quick to do.

-A pair of my younger son's pants that needs the butt repaired.

-Two pairs of my husband's pants that are frayed and/or torn near the cuffs. These are both slated to become shorts.

-A couple of T-shirts and pairs of shorts that need minor seam or hole repair.

In addition, several of the black items are on the faded side. I'm planning to try dyeing them with some RIT dye, (plus a couple of other items I have hanging around that aren't pictured). This will be my first time using dye, so I'll let you know how it goes!

I also need to do some repairs to our spring and summer quilt (at the left in the first photo). We received this as a wedding gift nearly 15 years ago and some of the quilted pieces have started to come loose. I shudder to think how long this might take me, however I really want this quilt to last as long as possible so I've got sufficient motivation to get it done.

Anyone else out there with a mending mountain? I'd like to think I'm not the only one!