The way I see it, the cheapest place to shop is in
your own house. Learn to appreciate what you have, reorganize your stuff to to be more usable, and re-purpose old stuff to be useful. It also helps to get rid of things you don't use so they don't clutter your home and your brain.
That being said, the next cheapest way to save money while shopping is to
trade with friends. Once we traded a full-size bed with mattress for a queen-size bed with mattress. We wanted a bigger bed, and our friends wanted more space in their guest bedroom. We also gave them an extra twin mattress that we did not need but they needed for a trundle bed. I would have never bought a used mattress from a stranger, but we knew our friends and their account of the mattress' history. That was good enough for us.
Along with trading, you can also
borrow from friends. With our second baby on the way, we have arranged to borrow a friend's glider and ottoman for the baby room. In our experience, a lot of newborn baby equipment is only useful for a few months (infant bathtubs, for example) and can be borrowed short-term or purchased second-hand from the original owner.
If you just can't get what you want for free, another great place to shop is
resale shops. Kids look great in everything, and at a young age they usually outgrow clothes before they ruin them. I love shopping at The Children's Orchard in Springfield. Their store is clean and organized and offer low prices. Bonus: if you know someone getting rid of all their baby stuff because they are done having kids, here's an idea. After you've combed through their stash for stuff you can use (of course), offer to take their stuff to a children's resale shop for in-store credit. Resale always offers more in-store credit than straight cash, so offer to buy your friend's in-store credit at a discount. For example, buy her $70 in-store credit for $60. You save $10 and she makes $10 to $20 more than she would requesting cash from the store. Lots of resale shops have semi-annual dumping sales where they get rid of all their back stock of clothes by holding frenzied events like fill-a-bag for $5. If you attend, leave the kids at home and wearing comfy clothing!
Garage sales and Craig's List can also be great sources for cheap treasures if you know where to look and how much something is worth. You can definitely pay too much, so just know what you're doing there. We had our eye on a Sit and Stand stroller, which I knew retailed for $130 new. I was determined to get that particular style of stroller. I found an older model in perfect condition for $60 on Craig's List. The way I see it, I just made $70.
Finally, when you shop
retail, be smart and shop during holiday sales and hit the outlet mall. Also, if you're a credit card user (we use our card for gas and groceries and pay the balance
every month), you can find a card that gives you useful rewards. Our credit card gives us gift cards for Old Navy / Gap instead of airline miles. We average earning $20 a month in gift cards!
