Kid's Exchange Sale

Even though I'm a Dave Ramsey fanatic, I'm not all that good at couponing, bargain shopping, or finding awesome deals.  I work with women that are EXPERT coupon-ers.  I'm pretty sure each of them has a grocery budget of $10/month.  They are that good at it.  (Ladies, you know who you are...)

When I found out I was pregnant, people all around me started offering up ideas of how to get baby stuff for cheap.  One of the greatest ideas told to me was the semi-annual Kid's Exchange Sale in Raleigh.  It is a HUGE consignment sale with a ton of variety of quality used items for kids.  It is so hard to know pre-kid what you'll really use or need or want to have 10 of.  While pregnant, I went in January with my friend Amy.  She advised me on what types of things to get at this sale:  bathtub, play mat, pack 'n plays for mom and mom-in-law, clothes, bouncy seats, to name a few items.  This past July, I went to my second sale.  This time, I had a 6 week old baby to shop for.  I had a little better idea of what I wanted/needed/couldn't live without.  My mom and mother-in-law joined me at this sale.  We had a great time!  Lots of great deals were found.

Here we are with some of the loot: (mom on left, mother-in-law on right)

Mom got a diaper champ and a bouncy seat.  Gail and I both got high chairs (the kind that secure to a chair).  I got a Pottery Barn rug for $60 that matches the nursery perfectly.  Gail got a Radio Flyer Wagon, which conveniently served as our "cart".

Searching through a mountainous pile of crib sheets.

The loot, waiting to be packed up.

Oh, I also got a jogging stroller for cheap!  Haven't tried it out yet, though, because apparently you have to wait until the baby is older to put them in such an apparatus.  Who knew.

Thankfully Gail drives an SUV.  We would've had significant trouble cramming this stuff into my Honda Civic.

Happy shoppers!

After a couple hours of shopping, we treated ourselves to a lovely lunch at Remington Grill.  Yummm.

Side note:  At 6 weeks post-partum, I was still living solely in my Target-brand nursing tank tops, exhibited in these pictures. :)

If you are not familiar with this sale and you have kids, or nieces or nephews or grandkids or neighborhood kids you like a lot, I'd recommend you checking it out!  It is every January and July in the Raleigh area.  There are lots of other cities that have these sales as well.  Check out their website.  If I can plan well enough, I hope to get James' clothes at this sale and not have to pay full price for clothing.  Ever.  Because James is so young, I haven't ventured into the "toy" section of this sale yet, although it is EXTENSIVE.  The whole area is brightly colored and fun looking because of all the exciting toys.  Maybe at the January sale I'll get him some toys. :)  As a 6 or 7 month old, he won't know Christmas isn't in January, right??  

The great thing is that as James outgrows stuff or we realize we aren't using certain items we have, we can sell them at the next sale.  Maybe there's hope for me learning to be frugal!

Have you ever been to a large-scale consignment sale?  What types of things have you purchased there? What would you never buy used?