Consignment boutiques. Consignment boutiques are pretty cool, because clothing is often hand selected. A good consignment shop chooses quality clothing and offers items at a fraction of the cost you would normally pay. You can also take clothing you own and no longer wear to be sold for store credit. Depending on where you live, you can find consignment shops for both yourself and your kids. When my daughter was a baby, I used to purchase all her clothing from either a local children’s consignment boutique or a bi-annual sale event for second hand clothing for babies and kids. This helped save quite a bit of money as she would outgrow her clothing quite quickly.

Thrift Stores. Well organized and clean thrift stores are actually fun to shop at. They have a wide variety of types of clothing and you can find children’s clothing that’s in good condition. My daughter loves to shop with me when I go to the thrift store and chooses some of the clothing she’d like to wear. I don’t have to stare to long at the price tag, because the prices are significantly low, sometimes 5 times less or more than what I would have paid at a regular children’s clothing store.

Festivals. Many art, music or similar festivals have vendors that sell creative and beautiful clothing with unique patterns and designs, often made with sustainable materials such as cotton or hemp. Depending on the vendor, you can even find stylish and modern clothing too.

Sustainable Brands. Brands like Synergy, NAU, Prana, Patagonia and others like them, use sustainably harvested, up-cycled or recycled materials to create their products. There are so many options. You can buy many in stores and most online. A lot of them have simple return or exchange policies too, so that if you purchased an item online and it doesn’t fit, you can exchange it. Some also have incredible sales and programs where you can get 50% off or more a year. One way to get notified about them, is to sign up for their newsletters.

Repair your clothes – Quality clothing that you love is totally worth repairing or adjusting. You can do it yourself or take it to the local tailor for help. 

Sales – Check out local event websites and pages for thrift sales for kids or fashion pop-up shops for yourself. You’d be surprised at how many there are in a year.

Reuse what you currently have. Do you really need that new top or dress. Sometimes the answer is a resounding “Yes!” but in other cases, scan your closet and try some of the clothing items you haven’t worn in a while and pair them with different accessories. You’d be surprised at how many different combinations you can find.

Reconsider the costs. Initially it might seem like a good quality sustainable shirt that costs $60 is way to expensive, when you can get a similar and lower quality one for $15. But if you take into account the quality, the former might last you several years, while the latter might only last a few washes before holes appear.