Moms + sale = crazy

By Published On: August 27th, 2012

Written by: Hillary Grigonis August 26 2012 There's just something […]

Written by: Hillary Grigonis

There's just something about the words “mom” and “sale” that when used together in the same sentence are usually accompanied by the word “crazy.” Where else would women usually responsible for the sanity of their family be found acting like teenagers before the midnight release of the next biggest movie and joining in a line that wraps around the building a few times but at a mom-to-mom sale? I was run over by a stroller. I was packed into crowds that I would've had trouble getting through before my big belly came in. And, I actually had fun.

A mom-to-mom sale virgin so to speak, I headed to the biggest mom-to-mom sale in my area with my mom and mother-in-law (who else would I take to a mom sale?), joining the line about fifteen minutes before the doors opened and only about three minutes until the line ran out of building to wrap around and headed into the parking lot. We were in line for about twenty minutes more after the doors were opened, but it didn't actually seem like that long, after striking up conversation with the woman in front of me who was two weeks from her due date, about anything from baby gear to pregnancy woes.

My baby shower was just a week away and I had told myself umpteen million times in my head only to buy things its good to have multiples of, so I just quickly glanced through the big item room before heading to the main part of the sale, where about a hundred tables with clothes, toys and all types of anything baby were set up. I learned rather quickly to skip over items that were overpriced and come back if I wasn't sure. I bought a Detroit Tigers onesie for $1 at one of the first tables I stopped at, a few tables later, I bought two more for only a quarter each. One table was asking $2.50 for jeans and khakis, I passed and quickly found a table that had all clothes for $1 and picked up jeans there.

I was rather proud of myself when I left with exactly what I had told myself ahead of time was okay to buy instead of being swayed by bargains. But when I went home and added my dozen or so outfits I had picked up to the pile of clothes my mother-in-law gave me after an entire summer of garage sales, I started to wonder if even the few things I picked up were too much—I had four loads of laundry in just baby clothes.

My thoughts quickly went the other way (and not from one of those pregnancy mood swings which I seem to have more of lately) when I started organizing all the clothes by type and size. My three to six months pile, for example, has four pairs of pants—diaper mishaps, spit up, spills…if I stick with what I have I'm going to be doing laundry three times a week. Which means that (after the baby shower) I can make a list of everything I still need and really go crazy without that little voice in my head reminding me that just because something is cute, doesn't mean I have to have it (especially since everything baby is cute…).

What about you? Did you find yourself overbuying before baby arrived or underbuying? What were your favorite places to find bargains?