You CAN afford to shop at Gymboree...

It's my favorite time of year. All summer clothes are on major clearance. If you have an inkling of what size your kids will be in next summer, you can get their entire spring/summer wardrobe for 80% off regular price. People always tell me "I can't afford to shop at Gymboree" but I'm telling you people...you can. If I'm looking to buy something at retail or just around there I go to ebay because there are tons of gymboree "stores" on ebay. All of my items I've ever bought have had tags on and are still in the plastic. I have had 100% good luck with buying gymboree stuff from ebay. But that's not where the GREAT deals are. If you go to Gymboree online this time of year and buy summer collection items, you can get GREAT deals. Here's the thing I love about Gymboree. Their clothes are made amazingly well. They have magic fabric that just doesn't stain, I have no idea how they do it. Their fabric doesn't shrink. Their fabric doesn't fade. Buttons never fall off. Seams never tear. And because my kids share clothes, it's like I put two kids through one set of clothes each season. The biggest thing I love about Gymboree is that within a collection...everything matches. So for example, I just bought a bunch of the Aloha, Hula Girl, Hawaiian stuff for next summer. Everything is in cream, tan, olive, apricot/coral, navy, yellow or light blue. Each shirt matches each pair of shorts, each dress matches the other clothes and then I fill in with a couple of denim shorts from WalMart or Target and my six gymboree items plus let's say 3 WalMart items makes up 9 pieces but I might have like 20 different combinations of how to wear the clothes so it becomes an entire season's wardrobe for two kids. I also bought about 5 things in the flamingo collection because I love the rainbow sherbet ice cream cone colors...they remind me of the 80's and Florida and summer all together. So with these few purchases I am set for next summer. I might add in some geranimal play clothes from WalMart or some Cherokee shorts or T-shirts from Target and I've picked up some church dresses along the way but basically poof, I'm done.

WalMart, Target, Old Navy, Gapkids, Kohl's etc. all have their summer clothes on clearance right now. You can pick up some awesome deals. I also picked up like 6 knee high socks at Gymboree for $10 today which go great with plaid not too mini-skirts for this fall and tights, underwear and socks were cheaper at Gymboree today than they are at WalMart and let me tell ya...they last a lot longer. I think I've spent less than $150 and I have enough clothes to cover both my girls through Spring and Summer of next years including underwear, socks, pajamas and two pairs of sandals each. I know $150 sounds like a lot but if I left my shopping until next Spring, I would be able to buy way less than half of these clothes and I would have to settle for paying full price.

Now as my great friend Jody Carson taught me, you can ALWAYS do better shopping at thrift stores and I truly LOVE thrift stores. But I just don't have the time to stay on top of going through them. As my sister in law Faith can testify, you have to go every week to snag the great stuff that comes in. With two active 3 year olds, I find it much easier to sit down with my lap top at night after they go to bed and shop online. The shipping is often free and if not it's darn close to the cost of gas.

I occasionally find some great deals for myself online as well. But I find that I still want to go into a dressing room and see how something fits for myself. As the girls grow I'm sure I'll need to take them to try stuff on more often as well but for now they are the exact same height and they wear the exact same size so it makes it really nice to shop online. To summarize...here are my favorite places to go.

If you have to pay full price or buy something in current season:
www.ebay.com search gymboree and the size you want (example gymboree 4T)

If you are able to shop at the end of a season:

www.gymboree.com
www.target.com
www.kohls.com
www.walmart.com (they run out of stuff really early so their prices are great in season too but beware of seams, buttons and shrinkage)
www.oldnavy.com
www.ebay.com (just watch shipping, I'm finding for sale stuff I can do better at the actual store)
www.crazy8.com
www.childrensplace.com

BEWARE of these sites...expensive and never good sales:

www.sears.com
www.macys.com
www.nordstrom.com
www.gapkids.com