Back to school on a budget

One of the first lessons students learn when headed to back to school is how to stick to a budget.

Lindsy Conry, the owner of Plato's Closet and Once Upon a Child agrees.

"Back to school is definitely our busiest time of the year, we'll see a third of our sales happen during this back to school time, so very busy," says Conry.

The most popular items are shoes, pants and backpacks -- but buying recycled clothes helps more than just your wallet... it also helps the environment.

Instead of creating waste by throwing clothes away, second hand clothes get used by a new person ..... extending the lifespan of the clothing.

But it's all about the bottom line for some shoppers.

Younger students aren't the only ones taking advantage of the deals, college students are too like Sarah Richards.

"As a college student, I have other priorities to pay for," says Richards. "I've got car payments, i've got college payments, i've got books I gotta pay."

"Shopping second hand helps relieve some of the stress of you know still staying in style with everybody else, but not having to spend as much as the name brand," says Richards.

Even after the school rush has ended, these clothes around me still find a home and that's at the school district.

"There's also a side benefit to having the clearance cycles. Once the clearance cycle is done we bag everything up and we donate it to the school district, both for Once Upon a Child and for Plato's Closet," says Conry. "The younger kid stuff is going to go to the elementary schools and then Plato's Closet product is going to go to the high school."

Those clothes are more than a few bags... they retail for around thirty five thousand dollars.