Compacting with Teens...

This year I joined the Compact in an attempt to not buy anything new (with food, toiletries, etc... being exempt) for all of 2010. So far this year, I have personally stayed within the Compact guidelines I established for myself.

Others in my family have not fared as well. Early on in our Compact year, my son was invited to a Bar Mitzvah which involved purchasing a new blazer, nice white shirt and khaki pants. Luckily we could use my husband's dress shoes and a tie to complete the outfit. The last minute invite was received on a Wednesday night, the Bar Mitzvah started on Saturday at 10am. Because I am still relatively new to this area, I didn't have a single inkling about how or where to obtain these items used, so I was forced to haul out the credit card and buy them. It did cross my mind to rent the outfit, but it would have cost $130 and I wasn't willing to invest that amount of money each time a Bar Mitzvah invitation came along. The purchase of these items made me feel like I was failing the Compact before I even started. The good thing was it made me realize that I needed to get organized and find the thrift shops in my area in order to find used clothing and gear for teens. Being on the Compact is easy for me as an adult, but a completely different story for a growing teen.

With this idea in mind, I did some online research and was able to turn up some used clothing and gear resources for teens. Unfortunately, the clothing option is not located in my area but I include it here for those of you that may be able to benefit from the information.

Here are the resources I have found so far:

Game Stop- buy and sell your used video games and video game systems
Plato's Closet- buy and sell name brand used clothing specifically for teens
Play it Again Sports- buy and sell used sporting goods

I would love to add to this list so if you know of any other teen oriented used resources, please pass them along in my comment section. Thanks so much.