Schoola has New With Tags items!
I'm a pretty diehard Schoola shopper, as you know...the girls and I have quite a collection of gently-used Schoola clothes now, and I love that I can get the basic equivalent of thrift-store shopping done right from my house.
If gently used isn't your jam, though, and you'd still like to support Schoola's educational mission, maybe take a peek at their new with tags items.
Schoola has always had some new-with-tags items donated by individuals, but lately, they've had several brands (Gymboree, Tea Collection, Modcloth!) donate larger quantities of brand new items, and when you buy these, proceeds go toward The Malala Fund.
Schweet.
Schoola invited me to pick a couple of items out to review, and I found some things for my girls plus a few for me. Whee!
I got an Athleta NWT skirt, which I paired with a black tee from Goodwill.
Sonia has a NWT Abercrombie and Fitch sweater from Schoola, which she's wearing with a skirt from Goodwill.
And Zoe's wearing an Old Navy sweater with an Old Navy skirt, both from Schoola.
(We tried to be serious while we were taking pictures, but we cracked eventually.)
I didn't just choose winter clothes, though...as often happens when I shop at Schoola, I bought some out-of-season items for wearing next spring/summer.
(We modeled these inside. Because it is decidedly not sleeveless dress weather right now.)
Sonia got a NWT Paper Doll dress, and I got an organic cotton NWT stripey dress.
Zoe feels that it is quite a hardship to wait for Sonia to outgrow this dress. In fact, I think she may be hoping Sonia hits a major growth spurt this winter. 😉
These dresses are hiding out in our closets right now, but when springtime comes, they'll be kind of like a surprise. Ooh! New things!
(I think that's the best part of out-of-season shopping.)
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Right now is a great time to shop at Schoola because there are some awesome discounts.
First off, you get free shipping, with no order minimum.
Secondly, there are three discount codes valid now thru December 13th. They're as follows:
Save $5 off $20 with code 5OFF
Save $10 OFF $30 with code 10OFF
Save $20 OFF $50 with code 20OFF
Thirdly (and this applies no matter the season), if you're brand new to Schoola, you can get $20 off your first order (no minimum) if you shop through this link. I'm not sure that discount can be combined with the others, but it's worth a shot, and if you only use one discount, this one is better than the codes. And you CAN get free shipping in combo with this code.
This post contains affiliate links, which help support The Frugal Girl at no extra cost to you. Enthusiasm for Schoola is authentic, though, and these discounts are legitimately awesome.
I keep trying to like Schoola, really, but man they need people working there that know anything about clothes or brands. I looked through their boys' section and at least half of the items are NOT grade school boys clothes. I mean there was a woman's athletic zip up sweater in the grade school boys outerwear. I was hoping it was just a boys section thing, but when I checked the juniors section, I got even angrier. 70+% of their items are Chico. CHICO!!!! I consider that a "mature" women's store....definitely NOT juniors wear. I so love the idea of this site, but I really wish they could do a little Google search before categorizing clothes. Sadly, even our worst thrift stores can organize and categorize better than this site 🙁
Ooh, that IS really odd. Why would they put Chico's in juniors?
I almost always shop by brand when I'm looking on Schoola, so I hadn't noticed this issue (I use the search options to only check for brands I want, in sizes I want.) I find that searching by brand really helps to narrow down my options and makes it less overwhelming to shop. Plus, when I stick with brands I know, I'm more confident that the sizing will work out properly.
I do the search by brand for boys' clothes, but I've rarely found clothes in our boys' sizes that seemed like a decent price for the condition. We generally stick to about 4 brands for our boys, so it's hard for me to spend the Schoola prices when I know I can just go to Nordstrom Rack and get the item new for the same price (they over-inflate the original price on Schoola).
I like to do a general browse for myself since there is maybe 1 brand that fits me consistently. I was hoping the junior's section would have some more current looks in the more petite sizes. Thus my confusion when I saw nothing but Chico's and Coldwater Creek (yet they have so many younger brands and looks if you just search the new with tags).
I think I'm just going to stick to our old favorite of Savers. But I do hope they work on their inventory so more people try second hand shopping online (especially increasing quality, on trend boys' clothes).
If you can find stuff at Nordstrom rack for equivalent prices, then I say stick with that! Boys' clothes are hard to buy used in general, I think, possibly because boys tend to wear them out more than girls. I've always had very poor luck finding second-hand clothes for Joshua, but lots of luck for the girls.
I think it's also because girls tend to have more clothes in general, so they get less wear overall. We generally stick to 4ish brands as they tend to last through 2 boys. For example, we have a pair of Quiksilver shorts that are faded, but are perfect otherwise...and are still being worn weekly 4 years later. We do have good luck with finding boys' clothes in good condition at Savers, like a NWT pair of Shaun White jeans that we got for $5! I do find the skate brands tend to last longer/made of heartier fabric, and thus why we stick to them 🙂
I think that's part of it too...people just seem to be a little more minimalist when buying clothes for boys, probably without even realizing it. I know in my own case that's true! Joshua almost always seems to have fewer clothes than the girls do.
Although that may partially be due to the fact that I have so much more luck finding inexpensive second hand clothes for the girls. For him, I'm almost always buying new.
Thanks for the post Kristen! I bagged few L.L Bean tees and a L.LBean Skirt and top for my grade school girl.I ordered few in the past as well and they were really gently used 🙂 I enjoy them.
I like the idea of Schoola and donated couple of bags of out grown clothes as well.
@Megyn, like Kristen said, I too narrow down my search to the brand I want and the size I want. I only have a handful of them to look at, quickly look the notes and bag it!
I finally took the plunge and tried Schoola after this post. Curious to see how the clothes are-- I bought a cardigan for myself (brand I like) and a top for my daughter. Even searching the brands I like, though, I found there were some weird quirks -- sizes pulled in S/M/L that didn't seem equivalent, etc.
Thanks to Kristen, we LOVE Schoola! They always have great promotions (free shipping, $10 off, etc.) I don't shop for myself because well, I'm a woman, and things always fit different! But I've scored some awesome clothes for my 2 year old, and some accessories for myself!
We've also donated back each time we receive a shipment. I love that it supports our local school.
Love the new clothes! and yes to buying out of season and finding something in the closet next season that fits perfectly, is "my" colour and just my taste - ha ha!
I've shopped Schoola a number of times... in fact I'm expecting an order any day now with a few dresses. My main concerns with Schoola are that they don't accept returns (so you have to be REALLY certain something will fit), and you can't use a coupon code on the NWT items. I am too cheap to pay $30 for a NWT item (but others may not!), so I tend to avoid those.
To be fair, I've also tried ThredUp... it has a similar premise (online gently used clothing store for all ages), but they do accept returns. They also have a promotion running that allows your purchase to help schools. I found a far better selection of women's items on there (and it could be just how they photograph things. They put them on mannequins so you get an idea for drape. Schoola just lays it flat, so you have a hard time distinguishing between some features on the darker clothing items.
I'd be interested in hearing what you think of ThredUp! (First-time users get 40% off their entire order....).
🙂
Ok, I'll have to give them a try so I can compare!
Fit IS a little iffy with Schoola, but luckily, there are 4 girls/women at our house, so if something doesn't fit one of us, odds are good that it will fit someone else, if not at that moment, after a little bit of growing.
But if it was just me, then I'd be less brave about ordering!
Thredup has great customer service BTW! I accidentally pressed "buy" on a cart full of stuff. Since it was connected to my Amazon account it had all my info. Also, I had yet to put in my coupon code. I tried to cancel but couldn't. I emailed them and they sent me a free return label and added my coupon code. The fun part was I got to try on the clothes and still have free return shipping (returns are free if you take store credit, but around $5 if you want your money back).
I have a problem with their site sometimes though using Chrome.
Thanks for the referral! I'm giving Schoola a try with the $20 credit. How can you go wrong with that?! I found a few items for my 5 year old....including shorts for soccer next season!
I'm really excited to try this!
Heads up to anyone in Alaska and Hawaii... These states are not an option to ship to!! Was excited to try this but no go.
Thanks for the info. Free shipping makes using credits so much more fun! I used the $20 to get a sweater and I put in the coupon code and it reduced my credit to $15 so I thought I would add more to get $25 free but it still charged me for the extra so I took the $5 item out. I wasn't sure if I could save part of my credit so I just left it as is. Then, I started a collection and got a $10 credit and only used $9 of it and it is showing on my account $1.
Moral of the story: use the coupon code and you might be able to use the remainder of you credit later.
2nd moral of the story: I got two sweaters for $.85. I hope they fit!!
I've almost given up on Schoola a couple of times, but then, recently, I needed things for my eldest daughter and they are having the sale you mentioned. I've received things in the wrong size (like a size 2 women's skirt that was put as size 2 toddler!!) and things just lower quality than expected. When I call, they've been very kind, return me my money, and then give me a $10 voucher....then, I get swept in again. It's happened a few times, so I may not be shopping with them, unless there is improvement (in fact, I just got a card in the mail today from them saying thank you for hanging with them while they make improvements!).
I love, love, love thredup though....always good quality, prices, discounts at times, they accept returns....and I get things the way it is described online! I buy things for myself and all the kids there and I have been so pleased. They are worth the try, and so much better than Schoola!