The Frugal Find: All Dressed Up

This past weekend I had the first time experience of dressing a family of 5 for our first formal event, a family wedding! Life has honestly been so crazy for us during this time of transition, being frugal has taken a hit here and there for the sake of ease. As things begin to settle for us, and we fall into a routine and a sense of this new normal, my frugal itch is starting to make it's way back into my life again. Getting us all ready for a wedding became my first real project in a while. How could I do this without dropping a good chunk of change at a local department store?... and so it began. Here are a few ideas to consider.

1. Garage Sales- Especially great for kid's dress clothes. If you know about the event soon enough be on the look out early in the garage sale season when they tend to be the best!

2. Thrift Stores- You never know what you will find! Stop often and know what you are looking for. Eventually you will hit it right.

3. Consignment Shops- Great option for special events since the clothes tend to be in a little better shape and they seem to have an abundance of dress clothes. I went to Once Upon a Child here in town and was super impressed with the selection and prices.

4. Borrow- Lots of people have dress clothes they only wear once or twice. Ask around. Warning- going this route with little kids scares me...my kids tend to ruin clothes.

5. Clearance Shop/Off season shop- Keeping an eye out for things that are marked down because they are off-season often works really well if you don't mind storing things away for a few months. I came across the girl's sparkly silver dress shoes going into spring for $4 a piece, and found my dress on a Maurices clearance rack for $2.95!

After a combination of all of the above to dress us all head to toe, we spent a grand total of $50 which included 3 toddler dress shoes, 2 toddler dresses, 3 headbands, a toddler dress shirt/suit coat/tie, a dress for myself, a dress shirt for my husband, a pair of earrings, and a purse. The only things I paid full price for were the headbands which I told myself we can use again and again (that is, unless they loose them which my youngest did)...

I did find out that you do not take nearly as many pictures as you would like to when you are busy making sure your three kids do not ruin a wedding, but here are a few I manged to snap. In other exciting news, our adoption finalized last week so I am finally able to share these beautiful little faces with you!