How I Save Money on Kids Clothes – Part 1: The How To
I get asked so often about saving money on kid’s clothes. I have a bunch if tips. I have written about a few of them everything from shopping sales and thrift stores to hand me downs. See those articles below:
Thrifty Thursday: Swapping Kids Clothes
How to Save Money on Back to School Clothes
Thrifty Thursday : Clothes Shopping = Thrift and Consignment Stores!
Now I want to share how I personally save money on kid’s clothes, as it might help some other ‘bigger' families out there. (PS I can't believe as we add our 4th kid we are now considered a ‘big family' by society standards!)
First we have soon to be 3 girls and 1 boy let me tell you the girls get hand me downs. My favorite dresses I get to see on each kid and I love it! Hand me downs get a bad name but really why are you going to go out and buy NEW the same clothes the child before wore? It doesn’t make since. Especially on things like jeans and pants and shorts! If your kids are so worried about it add in a few new tops to the mix and call it good! So here is how we do it!
I started by getting some plastic bins and labeling each one, newborn girl clothes, 3 month girl clothes and up. Once I get to 12 months each size gets 2 bins. 12 month girl tops and dresses and 12 month girl bottoms and PJs and on up. See my bins in my basement?!
This is bins of clothes from Newborn Girls up to girls size 8 and boys clothes too!
This is the most organized they have ever been! We have crammed them where ever they have been able to fit in the past! From house to house they have been in the garage and crammed in corners of unused rooms and more!
With this method I shop for clothes 2-3 sizes ahead of what my kids are in. This stops me from being rushed to buy clothes because we wake up one morning to a growth spurt, and yes it has happened! (I’m pretty sure Arica who is 20 months is going through one now she is sleeping much more!)
Baby girl #4 on the way here (sorry no name release yet!) she is set thru size 12 months thanks to her big sisters hand me downs. If you want to get technical because of Hannah being in size 5 clothes and having girls clothes set threw size 7 all 3 girls have clothes set threw size 7, that means even this baby that is due in Oct!
This brings me to my next point. I keep a list of each size and what is still needed. I use the Notes App on iPhone to this.
With the hand me downs I will go thru and toss out anything worn out, stained, torn ect and add it to my list to replace. When I'm buying clothes for a size my older ones are getting ready to go into here is what my list looks like
Short sleeve shirts 24
Long sleeve shirts 24
Shorts 14
Lounge shorts 10
Pants 14
Lounge pants 10
Swim suit
Winter coat
PJs 14
For girls, I will add in the following:
Dresses 14
Skirts 5
Leggings black brown jean pink white
I will stock up with 24 of each shirt and about 14 pairs of each pants. In my house, the lounge pants and shorts are for messy play, outdoor play, or PJ substitutes basically clothes I know they will mess up. My kids love playing in the grass and if I can avoid grass stains on the jeans and good pants I’m all for it. For the girls, I will get about 14 dresses, a mixture of summer and winter ones. The leggings I will do about 2-3 of each color.
When clothes come in from either the mail or a shopping trip I sit down and sort them out right away and take them off my list. I have been known to be found sitting in piles that look like this:
See the empty space there? Yep that's where I sit! Normally the clothes piles aren't this big, this was me playing catch up after we moved.
Come back tomorrow to get the insider info on where I get my cheap clothes!
Also, remember when shopping online to use Ebates and their kid's section as much as possible. I love getting cash back on things I'm buying anyway!
Make sure to visit How I Save Money on Kids Clothes Part 2: Where to Save Money
These are great tips. I only have one so I don’t have to worry about hand me downs but I still try to save as much as possible and will get clothes from friends.
Yes even one kid, clothes still add up! Save everywhere you can!