My goal this year is two-fold as far as spending goes. Number one is to spend less. Number two is to buy fewer items new. One of my favorite blogs is The Non-Consumer Advocate by Katy Wolk-Stanley (http://thenonconsumeradvocate.com/). I'm constantly inspired by her even if I often fail to follow her lead. One of the things she advocates is buying used. She has pointed out numerous times not only the financial benefits of buying used but the environmental ones as well. I really considered the latter during the Christmas season when I found myself overloaded with shipping boxes, packing peanuts, and brown paper from numerous online purchases. Christmas morning there were the toys' cardboard boxes, little bits of wire that held dolls in place, clear plastic covers, etc. The environmental impact was overwhelming even though I recycled as much as I could and I almost exclusively use cloth gift bags.
With Ms. Wolk-Stanley's inspiration accompanying me, I hit the new year with a fervent desire to buy used. The gods were smiling on me last week and, I like think, encouraging my first efforts. I've always been a consignment store shopper for my kids' clothing, starting when my 11 year old was in the womb and I discovered I could buy a week's worth of onesies used for less than the cost of one new one. Normally my preference is for a charity consignment store in my hometown of Loveland, Ohio called Truly Blest. Last week, however, I received an e-mail that the Cincinnati/Dayton area Once Upon a Child stores were having a $1 clearance sale. Everything with an orange tag was a dollar. I swung by after my grocery shopping expedition at Meijer so that I wouldn't waste gas making a separate trip.
Frankly I usually find this Once Upon a Child overpriced for used merchandise and I really thought there would be a small rack of clearance items that would take 5 minutes to go through. Boy, was I WRONG. Tomorrow I'll tell you about the cornucopia that awaited me...
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