Back to school Bargain Shopping

My girls started school today, one in 1st & one in Kindergarten. As a mom yo want them to have the best. You want them to feel their best and look their best. I got up super early and curled their hair and helped them get ready. Here they are with their schlutes, prior to opening. My flash on my camera doesn't work so the inside shots didn't turn out too well.

About a week ago I knew I had to get serious about back to school shopping since the school my girls are attending requires uniforms. I didn't really shop around at first because I'd been keeping my eye on the ads and there never were very good sales on uniforms. I settled on Target since I know that store well and they have good quality most of the time. My mom generously offered to buy their school uniforms so I wouldn't have to worry about the expense. However, I found out that I am so not used to buying retail for anything anymore! Since I mainly use coupons while grocery shopping, and have been shopping Goodwill so much in the past year had a little sticker shock when it came time for the buying. Even though I wasn't the one doing the buying I had serious buyers remorse, especially when I didnt have all the same items for each of my 2 girls, 1 had shorts while the other had pants, 1 had a sweater and the other didn't. I was going to still have to spend more to get the ramining items.

Over the next week each time I'd go to Goodwill, I would find a bunch of uniform items on their racks. I was able to buy at much more comfortable prices a lot of the items they would need for the school year. There are some great items on both sides. At least I had piece of mind that they would have them just in case, but I really do think that now I will be returning some of the Target items. Check out the difference:

Target - 2 skirts, 8 shirts, 1 sweater, 1 pr pants, 1 pr shorts, 2 pks ankle socks, 1 pk knee highs, 1 pr shoes (our only clearance item). Approx $160.

Goodwill & Deseret Industries - 1 sweater vest, 2 jumpers, 1 dress, 3 prs shorts, 2 prs pants, 4 skirts, 2 shirts. Approx $28 and all great quality wth a variety fo brands: Cherokee, Gap, Justice, Lee, Old Navy, French Toast, etc.

See what I mean??? They can still dress well on a better budget. Plus Goodwill gets a lot of Target clearance items so I'm gonna keep frequenting it in hopes to get more!!