How to Buy Kids Clothes on a Budget

I wanted to write about buying clothes for your kids on a budget. Everyone knows that school is coming up soon for most everybody who has kids and its getting time to start buying back to school clothes. You need to set you a budget for the clothes for each month your child is in school just in case something comes up that they need it for gym or something like that.

Things You'll Need

• cash or credit card (if you use cash you only spend out what you have in hand.)
• paper
• Pen or pencil
• A list of items your child needs.

Instructions

1. School is still out for most children. But in just about a month or so school will be back in session and you'll have to deal with buying more clothes for your kids to wear to school. Wait just a minute though, didn't you buy clothes for them at christmas and back to school last year. Okay, so my point is that from your children grow you should budget atleast $2.00 more for each peice of clothing you buy for your child. The reason I say this is because the more material the clothes have the more they tend to cost. If you want designer jeans and shirts then you plan on trippling the amount you would normally spend at Wal-Mart or Target even.

2. Here's the first thing that you will want to do. Plan in May for August. Plan for Christmas in August and plan for Summer in February or March. You are probably thinking that I'm crazy right. Well think about it for a minute. When do the stores bring out there fall collection. When do they start advertising for Christmas. When do they start bringing out the bathing suits for summer. When you see the signs out in the stores such as Walmart or K-mart then that's when you need to start budgeting your money in for clothes.

3. I bet you are asking why you should budget it in 3 months early. Lets just stop and think about it for a minute. How many pay checks do most people get in a months time. Most of are having to work in a place where it's either one paycheck a month or 2 pay checks a month. Six pay checks is what you get in 3 months if you have a steady job paying that way. If you want to break it down even further 3 paychecks is what you get if you get paid one day a month.

4. What's next, well I'm glad you asked. You need to set aside around $50.00 to $100.00 a pay check depending on how you get paid and how often you get paid.

5. 

   The next step in this budgeting for kids clothes is to add $2.00 to $5.00 dollars extra for each year you have to go up in sizes for your child. You are probably thinking, why do this. It is simple really if you think about it for a minute. Toddlers clothes can average up 10.00 for a set. a set usually involves a Shirt and Shorts or a Shirt and Pants depending on the time of year. Adult clothing starts at around 8.00 for a shirt and goes up depending on brand and depending on store. Some stores mark up there prices upwards of up to 75% of there actual retail market value.

6. This is where your paper and pencil come in handy. About a month before school starts a lot of teachers try to send out school supply lists. When you go get the school supplies start your comparison shopping. Buy them one or two new outfits for them to start school with then take the first couple of weeks to comparison shop. If the store is having a clearance sell you might do better on buying clearance even if you are buying for the next year. I know you are thinking that she is crazy, but I've done with my daughter kathryn and it seems to work. I will go up to 5or 6 months at a time without buying clothes for her.

7. Another thing you'll want to do is a buy a size higher than what they are in now. If you have a boy that is in a 4T or 5T right now if you buy for school start buying in the little boys section and buy 6or 7 depending on height and weight. This is a trick I learned because I have been living off of around 100.00 a month for extras and you can not possibly spend every bit on clothes every month when you need the extra for gas. The reason for the pen and paper is that you need to know how much your shirts cost and how much your pants costs. You also need to budget in for new under ware and socks. I say under ware and socks because who wants to change in gym and have stained under ware on or stained socks and trust me people teenagers notice if they have the same socks on from last year or the same clothes.

8. 

   You have done your comparison shopping and have went and done your clearance shopping before you actually bought the school clothes on your list. The next thing you'll want to do is budget accordingly. Set you an exact price for items you want to buy. For example, if you buy 5 shirts, just be sure that you tell your kids what your budget is for 5 shirts. If you buy 5 pairs of pants tell them on average what you want to spend for the pants. The girls you might want to think about alrenative clothing such as skorts or skirts if your girls are into that kind of thing. This way you can mix and max and only have to buy 5 pants and 4 skirts and then you won't have to buy buy 5 shirts. You can easily get a weeks worth of clothing out of using this rule. Changing what day you wear it on and what shirt you with that pair of pants will make it look like you have a whole new wardrobe for each kids. Bluejeans is a great way for adding style. Blue jeans really never go out of style and you can wear any type of shirt with them for boys and girls.

9. The main thing, Don't over spend. I stated at the beginning that you'll want to bring cash. The reason you bring cash is because your kids understand cash and coins better than they understand you having a credit card or Debit card. Also, if you have cash on you, then you tend to only spend what cash you have. I get lazy where I don't want to have to get more money out because most of the time that means going by the bank and doing extra work. Plus if you bring cash then you are more than likely to buy clothes that your child will really wear instead of buying on impulse.

10. As mentioned above, buying on impulse is what you do not want to do. The reason you don't want to buy on impulse is because you may get it home and they may never wear it because they liked it in the store but they didn't like it on them or you didn't like it on them once they put it on.

11. One last tip, if you have time take the kids with you and let them try the clothes on before you buy them. Most retail stores have a strict return policy and you are better off to buy the clothes when the kids are with you. Most fitting rooms will allow 3-6 items per person to try on at one time so this will let them try on atleast 2 outfits at time. Get solid colors when you can for t-shirts and tanks. I usually do solids on my tops and then what ever I want on the bottoms. This way if you can't find what is supposed to match with it you can always match it with something else.

Tips & Warnings

• Plan a couple of months ahead of schedule.

• Comparison Shop

• Do not buy on impulse.

• check out the clearance items you would be surprised at what is there.