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I did both with my daughter. When I was pregnant I purchased some clothing for babies from a garage sale, plus I was given hand-me-downs from a few people.
But I also wanted some fresh and new items, too. Luckily, I didn't have to buy much on my own because I had a couple of baby showers. Daughter was pretty well-stocked for awhile. But when she outgrew the toddler stage I pretty much bought her clothes new.
With one exception: Blue jeans. She wanted to cut slashes into her jeans like a lot of her generation did. First, I never understood the desire to purposely look "poor" in ripped clothing. But there was NO way that I would permit it on a pair of $20 - $35 jeans. I told her to spend her own money at Goodwill.
I don't have children yet, but I would. I have told my wife that, if/when we have children, they are not wearing name brand clothing unless I get an unbelieveable deal on it. They just grow too fast for it to be worth it. But regardless if it's name brand or not, I would not be above doing hand me down's. Chances are, each article of clothing will only be worn a few times before it doesn't fit any longer.
Thats something you can get away with when your kids are young. When they start school, its kind of a no..no. Where I live the public schools incorporated uniforms, khakis and collared golf type shirts, everyone looks the same, so there are no clothes identity issues until they get to middle school and high school, when second hand clothes become a definite no..no.
I guess it depends on the school. I did get a lot of abuse from kids because of my second hand clothes. But it SOB made me a SOB better SOB person. Things kind of sucked until high school. My friends were all cool and creative and we pretty much lived in "vintage" clothes from the 70s. To this DAY, I still wear second hand clothes! LOL I get upset when I have to pay more than 5 bucks for a blouse or a skirt at the thrift store. Nowadays, I can afford to get the stuff altered and dry-cleaned and it's a nice way to get well-made clothing without spending thousands of dollars.
I did and am trying to encourage my DD to do it with her first child that I will meet in August and we WILL be going to some resale shops and such for winter clothes. Also her best friend gave her a bunch of clothes. It ridiculous how quick they grow out of them.
Not only the kids but my hubby and myself. My kids like Ralph Lauren, Eddie Bauer and L.L.Bean. My husband is in construction and I run the farm. We need clothing that is going to stand up to the rigors of our lifestyle. We have 2 great thrift shops here one run by the Junior League and the other by the Menonite church. There is also a college here and when they graduate,they donate high end winter clothing. I bought my oldest daughter a brand new Ralph Lauren 3/4 length merino wool coat for $2.50 . The original price was $485. I know because the tags were still on it. If you know your clothing lines you can make a killing at thrift shops.
My dad did that for us I mean he had 4 of his own and then when his brother died my dad took in his 5 kids and raised them all in a two bedroom house luckily my dad had quite a good sized property and we all worked so we did what we could to provide for everybody . So yes my dad bought alot of salvation army clothes and church sales and such to clothe everyone . Yes in High school we did get made fun of and it was hurtfull . kids picked on us alot but we dealt with it . i remember a counselor called my dad cause one particular set of clothes was stained and we could not at that time afford to buy more and she called cps on us and the lady was very nice who came out and gave my dad vouchers for clothes and she went to the school and reemed that teacher that reported me a new one .
Just got back from our local ARC thrift store. I made a killing! Gloria Vanderbilt, Body Glove, Eddie Bauer among others. By the prices on their tags I would have spent about $150 but since it was a .99 cent sale, my total was $30.93. I am supershopper-hear me save
Everyone I know usually trades around clothing kids or not. Someone is always getting too fat for that or needs baby bump clothing or some new smaller something or other etc. My aunts are sorta clothing addicts and they would just clean out the closet and bring the bags over and pick through things and donate what did not fit anyone else.
My cousin who was 15 years older than me gave me all her old band shirts when she "grew up" as I was still a teen. She looked so sad. LOL. But she was not squeezing her post baby boosums into teen shirts again. I on the other hand, was thrilled to have old KISS, MOTORHEAD and CURE shirts that were actually from the era and not replicas.
My kids are 5 and 7 and I love hand me downs. I also love shopping at consignment sales. My favorite thing to find is collared shirts for church because some other kid only wore them a few times, they still look new, and they are cheap! I get them new stuff too. Boys this age are really hard on their clothes, and it is getting hard to find things that are second hand and still in good shape. I did have a little bit of a complex growing up. For a few years my mom dressed me only in hand me downs and she didn't pay any attention to styles changing. I won't do that to my kids.
Absolutely. While kids are growing, it's ridiculous to spend anymore than you have to on clothing that will simply be outgrown, and quickly. Wasteful.
I had a cousin two years older than myself. Only child, child of divorce, both parents spent a lot of time attempting to be the parent who bought her more stuff/more expensive stuff and one-up the other. The end result was that she had way more clothing than she could possibly even wear, and much of it high end. I got most of it at some point, and often, it hadn't even had the tags removed yet. I never wanted for a nice wardrobe through my entire childhood and teenage years, and it was totally free. My cousin grew up urban, with access to the hip stores. I grew up in a rural farm town with access to dollar stores and a WalMart and K-Mart 20 miles away. My second hand clothes were decidedly more "status"-y than my classmates' brand new clothes, so getting mocked for wearing hand-me-downs was not an issue, not that any of this mattered to me at the time. I know my mom was thrilled that she didn't have to spend on at least one of her four kids when outfitting us for school. Most of it got passed down to my younger sister, as well, eventually.
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Things kind of sucked until high school. My friends were all cool and creative and we pretty much lived in "vintage" clothes from the 70s. To this DAY, I still wear second hand clothes! LOL I get upset when I have to pay more than 5 bucks for a blouse or a skirt at the thrift store. Nowadays, I can afford to get the stuff altered and dry-cleaned and it's a nice way to get well-made clothing without spending thousands of dollars. 
