Buying baby clothes on a budget

In this week’s baby bargainista column, Rebecca Atkinson talks about shopping for clothes for her baby daughter who is growing by the minute and cute as a button.

As Jenny pointed out in a previous post buying baby clothes can be an expensive proposition when your little one constantly grows and no two manufacturer’s are alike in their sizing.
Given this the rapid changes in weather this summer and our darling’s early delivery, it wasn’t long before we were on the lookout for discount baby clothes in Toronto.

Here’s what we were able to find:
Value Village – when babies aren’t yet crawling, walking or spilling stuff on themselves, their clothes tend to stay in better shape, so Value Village is a great spot to find baby clothes at discount prices.

The Children’s Place – Depending on which location you go to you may end up with a gold mine of discounts: clothes priced between $1.99 -$4.99. I’ve been to three locations in the GTA and here’s what I can tell you. The Toronto Eaton Centre has a small discount area and is worth checking out. Yorkdale Mall’s store has the smallest discount rack I’ve ever seen. However, the motherload can be found at Vaughan Mills, with the biggest discount section – especially for infants.

Old Navy – Again, Vaughan Mills has a large discount area and we were able to buy a ton of her summer clothes, paying no more than $4.99 per item of clothing. I’m not sure about other Old Navy locations, but it could be worth a try.

Obviously, these are pretty Toronto-area specific discount shopping options, so surely there are other options across Canada. Where have you been the most successful?

Spending Saturday at Vaughan Mills

I don’t know why our family started a ritual of going to Vaughan Mills at the end of December but we did. In the beginning, we focused on three places: Build-A-Bear, NASCAR SpeedPark and Eggspectation.

Vaughan Mills is a haven for outlets but we weren’t there for the bargains.

2007 was no exception. First, we ate lunch at the food court and then went bowling at Lucky Strike Lanes. What a blast! This state-of-the-art bowling alley isn’t your typical bowling joint. It’s upscale and spotless. Had we planned better, we would have eaten lunch there too.

If I’d had my way, I’d have spent more time at Holt Renfrew Last Call. They always have great stuff, sometimes even at affordable prices. I need new jeans and there was a 7 For All Mankind promo for $59, plus racks of other designer denim for under $100! But I did a dumb thing: Instead of trying on jeans when I got to the mall, I waited until we were about to leave. The line-up for the change rooms was huge and I didn’t have the patience to wait. Even Bargainista can pass up a good deal!

Next visit, my guys can go bowling or to NASCAR and I’ll go shopping.