Get the leg up on thredUp

One area that I have to save money is children's clothing. I am so thankful that I have two boys that are very similar in size. They may not share toys but for now, they share clothing and shoes. I had purchased a Plum District deal for $20 for a Full Box of Kids' Clothes and a One-Year Pro Swapping Membership at thredUP. The cost to join depends on the length of time you want to be a member. One month pro membership is 4.99 and the one year membership costs $29.99. When you select a box, you pay a $5 handling charge and the cost of shipping is $10.70. So for each pick, your total out of pocket is $15.70. You also have the option of prepaying for up to four boxes and you can save quite a bit of money per box this way.

After you sign up, you are encouraged to build your own box. I wasn't going to build more than 1 box for now but I found out that you are allowed a certain number of picks based on your membership, rating and the number of boxes you build. With my pro membership, I am allowed 4 picks. When you start searching for boxes, you can narrow your choices from gender and size to season or specialty items. There is an option for twins and more but I generally do not find a large selection of those boxes.

I searched and searched for three weeks to find a useful box. I started to think I might have made a bad decision by purchasing a 1 year membership. I compared so many boxes and one of the things that I had a tough time with was going on good faith that the items were in good condition. The member ratings were helpful to weed out the better swappers. Members can rate boxes received and also assign stylie points to the clothing. If the swapper had less then stellar rating, I skipped over them. I finally settled on a box with 10 pair of long pants, 7 long sleeve shirts and 6 short sleeve shirts. I was able to view the items in this box and that played a large part in my choosing it. Members do not have to post detailed descriptions of the items or post photos but it really helped me to decide. Here are the items from my pick.



The box was jammed pack with the clothes and they were in very good shape. With 23 items in the box, the cost per item was about $.68 each. That is an excellent deal in my opinion, especially for button down shirts and jeans. That is cheaper than what I would pay at consignment or garage sales. Although not as cheap as free through freecycler.org.

One of the perks of being a Pro member is the advance notice of Golden Thread boxes. Every month, a company is featured and there are special boxes filled with their clothes. These boxes are coveted and when the notice goes out that Golden Thred boxes are soon to be released, they are found in record time. I have yet to get one of these but I continue to search.

This is my cost so far:
$20 membership and one box pick ($45 value)
$54.95 - 4 future picks
Total out of pocket is $74.95

If I average 20 pieces for each box I pick, I would get 100 pieces for the 5 boxes. My average cost per piece is a measly $.75! Tell me this isn't a great deal.

I no longer regret my choice of going with thredUP. If you have several kids to clothe, you can see the potential savings. Even if you join for 1 month and get 1 box at $20.69, you can still get a great deal on gently used clothing. Just pick a box with at least 21 items and you are paying less than $1 per piece. Whatcha waiting for, join thredUP and put some clothes on your kids.

FTC Compliant Review Policy - I was not supplied any product featured in this review. This review was unsolicited and opinions expressed are my own.