As parents we all want our kids to feel like they fit in, and face it – looks are an aspect of fitting in. I have always loved buying my girls cute clothes and dressing them to the T, but I hate spending money on clothes they will outgrow in a few short months
I used to have the tendency to go slightly overboard when buying clothes for my daughters. It’s fun to browse the racks and find clothes that fit your kid’s personality perfectly, but quite frankly I just don’t have the money to do that anymore.
Now when I have the urge to buy them a new article of clothing I am more money conscious. I now keep my kids well dressed in a budget friendly way.
Be Smart – Stock Up
There is a lot of hype going on right now about stocking up on household items and groceries thanks to the airing of shows like Extreme Couponing. I don’t think the stocking up needs to stop with these items though.
We are entering yard sale season!
If you have kids you know how fast they grow out of their clothes. They can outgrow 2-3 sizes of jeans in one year! That’s a lot of clothes. Instead of buying new after each growth spurt, why not take advantage of yard sale season and stock up.
I just went to my first yard sale of the season. For $11.00 I got my girls 5 pair of jeans, 2 jean skirts, 3 pairs of shorts, 2 bathing suits, and 2 shirts. These were all very nice and were all name brands – most of the jeans were GAP and Levis.
Right now my girls are in 3T-4T. I plan to stock up on size 4 and 5 clothes to take them through the rest of the year and to find winter clothes for them now.
Have a Swap
My sister in law and I swap clothes for our daughters. Her sister gives her a bunch of nice hand me downs that are way too big for my sister in laws daughter. She gives them to me and I give her the clothes that are too small for my girls. This way the clothes keep getting passed down the line. It is very convenient for both of us.
Sell Clothes that are Too Small
If you don’t have anyone to swap with consider selling clothes that are too small for your kids. List them on E Bay or your local Facebook Yardsale/Auction page. Take the money you make on these and use it to hit up yard sales to find your kids new clothes.
Clearance/Out of Season
I was in K Mart yesterday and they had boy’s slipper on clearance for $1.24. You can get amazing deals on clearance items and out of season items. If you can think a few seasons ahead you can get all the deals you need to clothe you and your kids for the next cycle of seasons
As long as you pick classic clothing pieces you won’t have to worry about the items looking dated the following year.
What do you do to save money on kids clothes?
Great tips! We do many of these things in our family as we have three little ones. We hate spending money on clothes and do what we can to save. Having two boys means we can do hand me downs for them. A big thing we do is participate in a local consignment sale twice a year here in town. We’re able to sell quite a few clothes/toys and we just use that cash to buy the “new” clothes we need to get the kids.
I thought I would be able to do hand me downs with my girls, but it just didn’t turn out that way. They are seventeen months apart but where the same size clothes and even the same size shoe! It is nice that they can share clothes though.
This reminds me of growing up. 8 kids in my family so there was a lot of hand me downs, and sometimes sharing across brothers. I remember when I came back on leave once while in the Army and my brother had my shoes. He said, “they’re our shoes now”. haha!
Craigslist is a great place to get clothing. You’ll be surprised at what you can find there. I got top quality clothing for a fraction of the price.
We moved to Colorado one year ago, and besides awesome weather, the best thing about here is year-round garage sales. I went to two in January!
Thrift stores are just like garage sales, but open almost every day of the year. My local Goodwill even has half price days, where instead of just one tag color being half price, everything in the store is. There is a line before they open, and if you get there much more than 5 minutes after they open, you can’t even get a cart. Best to not bring the little ones with you during this trip.
Garage sales are by far the best place to buy kids clothes. Like you said, it is fun to shop for clothes that fit your child’s personality, but I find I can still do that at garage sales. Right after we moved here, I ran into a garage sale and spent $25 on my older daughter’s entire size 6 wardrobe. Not bad, considering a t-shirt, ONE SINGLE T-SHIRT at a retail store costs that much.
I have began to realize that I am getting way better deals on the girls clothes at yard sales. I used to do quite a bit of shopping at Walmart or KMart but not I am getting much better quality clothing for half the price. I am definitely stuck on yard sales and consignment shops!
Children’s Place …. That’s where its at. My wife and I have bought literally thousands of dollars of clothes there over the years for our two kids for a fraction of the cost. Just like you said – off season is the key! Kids grow in somewhat predictable patterns. If you plan ahead and can buy next winters clothes now, you can put together an awesome wardrobe for next to nothing. You just have to be willing to store it away for a while.
I never buy clothes that are full price for my kids. They wear uniforms to school, so I don’t have to worry about them fitting in yet. I also have friends and family buy clothes for them for birthdays and Christmas, so that saves me money also. With twin girls, the “bigger” sister’s clothes go to the “smaller” twin (even though she’s that oldest). I usually shop twice a year for them and I always look for deals.
The “hand me down / sharing” concepts with siblings is a great idea. Still, we can find shops that offers presentable clothing with affordable prices. Kids are fast growing and I think it is not recommended to buy them branded and expensive clothing. As long as it is presentable, that is totally acceptable to me. We can also mixed-match their pants and upper clothing to keep them well dressed.