How to dress your children without spending?

For about 8 years now I’ve had a new tenant, my son Giovanni. To make sure he’s always well dressed, without spending too much, over the years I refined a particular technique. Which one? I’ll explain all about it now!

For a couple of years in Italy, but not only here, there has been a chain of stores (in Trieste there is La Birba, that you can find all around the country) that buy and sell used clothing and items for children’s care.

It works in a very simple way: at the beginning of the season (after the famous “wardrobe change”) you need to remember to bring the clothing, that now is too small for your children, to this shop. They’ll give you a list of all the items and once they’ve been sold you will get 50% of the earnings. The shop I go to also accepts toys, sportswear and items for children’s care… almost everything that would usually end up in large bags for your friend’s children o for the less fortunate.

La Birba is very careful with all items, they accept only brand names and kept in perfect conditions. After having found out about this franchising, I also adopted the idea of “no more wastes, only investments” to buy something useful. I started by bringing my son’s old clothes to the shop to then buy what he needed.

The trick is to wait for the second hand clothing, already sold at a very low price, to be put on sale at the end of a season and when the whistle blows for the 50%-off mark, spend a couple of hours choosing everything he will need for the following year.

By doing this, with what I earn by selling his second hand clothes, and buying things on sale, the expense is almost the same. I find this way of buying both really interesting for my wallet, and very useful to recycle and not waste clothes and objects that you don’t use any more.

And so, with an item of the latest fashion and a second hand one, Giovanni is now 8 years old. We’ve seen loads of clothes, toys and every kind of ornaments of every kind…all much appreciated, not only by him. But remember that elegance is not a synonym of “spending a lot” but of taste, of searching for beautiful things, that make shopping much more interesting if you find them for a special price!