Do you buy new clothes for the start of school?? How can you save if you do? - Page 3

When my girls were little we used to go and pick out a new dress for the first day of school.  They would also get a couple of pairs of shoes and that would be it.   I had generally bought all their new fall clothes on clearance at the end of the previous winter so that I keep things to a reasonable cost.  Now that they are older, we'll need to replace their complete wardrobe because they are growing so fast that nothing fits them from last year. 

 

These middle school years seem to be hard on the wallet.  They want certain things so that they fit in with the other kids and they are growing very quickly so they actually need new clothes.  We try and strike a balance.  Certain trendy clothing or shoes that they want become birthday or holiday gifts.  I've found them some jeans at the thrift store and we try to shop at places like Rugged Wearhouse where I know that my dollars will stretch further. 

 

We try and shop little by little over the summer so that we are ready for fall. I already had to buy both DDs two new pairs of jeans because they needed them for camp.  They have to bring 2 pairs and not one single pair of jeans from last year fit either one of them!  And of course the smaller one can't wear the bigger ones hand me down jeans because her shape is completely different!    Today we went to Kohls because I had some Kohls cash that my wonderful MIL gave me and we used that to buy a pair of fall shoes for DD12.  Then we headed over to Macy's where we found 3 or 4 cute long sleeved tops for $4.99 each on the clearance rack.   

 

I try to stay on a budget but it does add up.  With bigger girls you have to add in gym clothes, bras, and tank tops or camis to go under all the other clothes.  These are things that I never had to purchase in the past and they add quite a bit onto the total clothing budget.

 

Anyhow, all this to say that yes, we will be purchasing new fall clothes.  Mostly because I have to and not because I really want to. 

Yes we do. My boys usually go through a growth spur during the summer. We don't buy a lot. Usually a couple of pants/jeans, light jacket and a few polos. We are fortunate that grandma always buys them clothes and my SIL sends me the gently used clothes from her 13 year old so by the time school starts some of that stuff fits my 7 year old. 

 

This reminds me I need to go through their closet and take out all the stuff that doesn't fit. I'm dreading it :(

i only buy new shoes, socks  underwear and bras....and DD's high school uniform pieces i cannot find used.

 

my sister ,DD and I hit the road on july 28th for our third annual value village/talize tour of south central ontario. 11 value villages and 2 talize stores( both are thrift stores),830 am to 830 pm...9 cities.

we go through EVERYTHING the kids( she has 3 teenage boys, i have teens, one of each) and make a list and STICK to it. since DS is not coming i take ALL his measurements and a tape measure and go from there...we replace ONLY what has been outgrown. last year it was under $100( for me) for everything( i even found a brand new pair of sneakers for DD to wear too at the one talize store...origional tags said they were $36.99 and i paid $6.99).

i have my list all ready to go and she is still working on hers. we pack lunches and snacks and get subs for supper and bring lots of water bottles.

We also live in an area where people spend a ton on back to school.

 

I usually start as soon as school gets out.  We usually will hit the outlet mall during our vacation (I snagged a ton of deals there-basically got them done for the impending school year).  We will also hit the local goodwill.  Earlier this year I got my youngest several new with tags clothes from Justice and ones that looked brand new without a tag.  My oldest takes good care of her clothes and has been the same size for the past 3 years so we just hit Plato's Closet for a few pieces.

I am so glad I'm not the only person looking to save money on back to school clothes. I will have to buy my children pretty much everything new because they have grown out of 90% of last years school clothes.  Even though I am trying to spend as little money as possible, I do want to get my kids a few "trendy" items because I know their kids from school will have everything under the sun and I don't want my kids to feel left out (I learned that the hard way).  

 

My daughter will be hard to shop for (everything needs to have glitter and ruffles), my son is easy - just jeans & tshirts lol.

People around here tend to spend a lot of money on back to school items.

We are similar to Kim. We buy a new outfit (that may or may not be worn on the first day) and then we just buy as needed and on sale. We just did a run through the closet and most things still fit fine so other than a few bras and tanks, we don't need much right now.

We live in very warm Sacramento California and starting school the first week of August, means warm weather until close to Halloween. I buy mine durable athletic shoes, 2 pairs of shorts and depending on sales, 3 or 4 shirts. They complain a little, but too bad!

Same here.  They picked up a few tops and shorts during the summer, and can still wear those to school.  We pick up things year round. 

I stopped buying a bunch of clothes for the start of school after youngest dd started middle school and decided she wanted skinny jeans after seeing what everyone else was wearing - I had just bought her several pairs of bootcut, and hemmed them for her.  Needless to say, it taught me a lesson!
 

Only shoes and sneakers for each child.  We pass down uniform pieces or get hand me downs.  My dds like clothes that have been "broken in."

Both get a few outfits, then we buy throughout the year.