If you (& spouse) made $160K/yr, would you force your kids to wear 2nd hand clothes?

I had to wear second hand clothes when growing up.

I would have wished otherwise but it wasn't up to me. However, it didn't kill me. Junior high was no picnic.
 
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Wearing second-hand clothing seems perfectly reasonable to me. Especially for children, who outgrow their clothes so fast. Just because you can afford to pay retail doesn't mean you should.
 
I see nothing wrong with it; I wore plenty of second-hand clothes as a kid. A few wears and washes and you won't be able to tell the difference from something purchased new. Kids outgrow and/or destroy clothes pretty quickly. I'd rather save money to pay for college later than buy new clothes when they're young.
 
Nothing wrong with hand me down clothes, but it helps if your next older sibling is the same sex.
 
swampwiz said:
If you (& spouse) made $160K/yr, would you force your kids to wear 2nd hand clothes?[/url]
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Oh, please, our daughter wouldn't be forced to wear second-hand clothes. If she didn't like what was available at Goodwill & garage sales then she was free to save her allowance (or do jobs around the house) and go buy her own clothes.

She didn't even know there were stores more expensive than Ross Dress For Less until she passed her driver's test.

When she was a teen she earned a clothing allowance: twice a year. It had to cover both her clothing and her toiletries, and it had to last for six months. The joke was that she could look really good or smell really nice, but probably not both at the same time.

I have to admit that lately I've shopped the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet for most of my t-shirts, because their "5 for $20" deals have been beating out Goodwill's selection.

This woman is not only innoculating her kids against affluenza, she's teaching them vital shopping survival skills.
 
travelover said:
Nothing wrong with hand me down clothes, but it helps if your next older sibling is the same sex.
Click to expand...

I have two older brothers (only), and the little boy my age across the street had two older sisters. So, you guessed it. He wore my brothers' old clothes, and I wore his sisters' old clothes.
 
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I wore second hand clothes from the thrift shop and sometimes yardsales. My kids had some clothes from yard sales. We didn't have to shop the yardsales for the kids but we did look around on Saturday mornings for castoff items in great shape for our home, like bookshelves and dressers. Sometimes we would buy something for the kids if it was in near-unused condition. Of course, when our kids were small we didn't make 160k. On the other hand, this mother says her kids are extremely rough on clothing. If that were the case, I probably would have shopped yardsales and thrift shops for the kids, since after one or two wearings the new clothes would look the same or worse than gently used yardsale stock.

R
 
As a kid growing up in the early 40's I wore a lot of second hand clothes. I was the only child until sister and brother came along and they certainly didn't do me any good as far as clothes went. Mom knew some lady in my home town that had a son couple years older than me and I got a lot of his hand-me-downs. That is the way you grew up in the midwest farm country during the war years. I think it stayed with me throughout the years and has made me a saver. I still try not to waste anything. I know things are different today and kids have more, but I don't think it gives them a good scence of direction or values.
 
Since I retired, I don't see the value of wearing designer or name brand clothing. I have worn second hand clothes for a long time ( casual stuff like shorts and T shirts ), and they fit just as well, and look almost as good, at a fraction of the price.
 
I should have mentioned in my last post that I frequent a consignment shop. It's one of the best I've ever seen and it's for "Just Men". That is it's name, "Just Men". I would never go shopping for men's clothes without checking out this place first. Nothing but the best, lot of new stuff, everything must be freshly cleaned and pressed. Everything is displayed beautifully. I can afford new, but it would be a waste of money to buy new when stuff like this is available.

Check out your local areas for consignment shops.
 
her first item was 11 pair of long sleeved shirts, school uniform?
How is a shirt a pair?

$18 for the whole haul is really cheap, around here shirts are 2 or 3bucks apiece.I can sometimes find things at Macys that are the same price range as the thrift shop.

With some kids you can wash and fold things then stick them in their room-they won't know if they are new or not in a months time.

I
No, our household income was not that high but I often still wonder where the money went.
 
Our household falls in the "$160k" income range. Our kids occasionally wear yard sale clothes. For their first few years of life the majority of clothes were hand me downs from friends of ours or their cousins.

They are just clothes. Sometimes you can get brand new clothes (tags still attached) at the thrift store or yard sales.

We would probably buy more yard sale clothes except the time required to acquire the clothes outweighs the convenience of paying "full" price at walmart where many kids clothing items are $3-7 (occasionally $10) and the size, color, and style varieties are better.
 
My sister is 3 years older and my mom used to buy us matching dresses when we were young. I'd have my own until I grew out of it and then I'd have my sister's. This worked until we developed our own tastes. My sister turned into a fashion princess (name brands, current styles and trends) and I did not (jeans and a polo shirt).

She had two sons a few years before I had two sons and we really made that work! My kids had plenty of name brand hand me downs from their cousins until about age 8 or 9 when the cousins would wear things long enough that they were pretty worn out when they were done with them. It was very helpful in the early years.
 
I would make them wear 3rd and 4th hand clothing, often made of hair, if hair clothing were available in my neighborhood. Or I might make them travel by bus or bicycle to another part of town where it could be found, and pay for it with their earnings from collecting aluminum cans.

Ha
 
I love garage/yard sales. To me they are like a free (unless I buy something) college course in advanced sociology, or perhaps it's the peeping tom in me.:cool:
 
Sure, as kids we wore lots of second hand or pre-used clothing, but by this time in our advanced ages and net worth's we feel it is important to dress like millionaires. The good thing is that, by definition, we do.

Recently we needed a bunch of cleaning rags for the apartment cleaners. Went to the main Goodwill and filled a cart with 37 pounds of towels from the bins (wanted to get over 25# to get the cost down to 89 cents/pound). For about $33 we got a massive stack of towels to cut up. Also kept three really nice Egyptian cotton towels, a king sized lightweight blanket for summer use, a pair of Old Navy pants for me, several T-shirts, the gal got several sweaters including a new petite "Christopher & Banks" and a hoodie out of the 37# of fabric materials.

I like shopping when you just toss things in the pile that look likely, then put them in the goodwill bag and take a tax deduction if they don't suit. Good for Miser Mom.
 
I was lucky to have any clothes growing up.

Had a Mom that did not enjoy shopping with or for her 4 children. Did not hurt any of us one bit.

Instead...she started and grew her own business. I'd say more than a fair trade off..
 
When I was growing up, Mom didn't make us wear second hand clothes. If we didn't like what she brought home (yard sales, hand-me-downs from cousins, etc, thrift stores) , we were free to go earn the money buy our own.

When I was 14, I decided I'd rather work so I could wear bell -bottom Levi's and flannel shirts to high school rather than dress like my Uncle Frank the banker- (high-end mens store plaid polyester pants, turtleneck sweater...)

Mom never had to buy any of us kids clothes (except underwear and socks) after about age 15- Her plan worked perfectly.
 
Uniforms, Slacks and sometimes white shirt and tie. Girls HATED their uniforms...My first job was to buy clothes from the seconds shop.

When my daughter was old enough, we sent her shopping for her clothes. She spent days scouring the stores for the best deals and the best fashions. Poor George yelped in pain from being pinched so hard.
 
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