As a father to three seemingly always growing kids I can tell you one thing – they’re always outgrowing and destroying their clothes. It’s a fact of life and thus we’re always looking for ways to save money on children’s clothes as a result.
As this is a part of our Frugal Hack Fridays, I went looking for a number as to what the average family spends on children’s clothing. I really couldn’t find anything specific, but did find that, according to the National Retail Federation, just over $231 is spent per child on back to school clothing. Well, I can tell you one thing. We’ve not spent that much on clothes for our kids for the entire past year!
That’s not to say that we’re better than the average American family, just that we place priority on other things – namely putting money in their 529 accounts as opposed to dropping $100+ on a swanky outfit from Jack and Jill.
Why you ask?
It’s one thing really. Are you ready? It’s because they outgrow them in a blink of an eye! That’s also not to mention the fact we don’t even spend that kind of money on our clothing. Yes, your kids may want the latest super hero outfit and they might feel they’re not part of the “cool” club but we’ve found that shopping for kids clothes provides a perfect opportunity to teach our children about money and thus kills two birds with one stone.
So, if you’re looking for a way to ditch the designer children’s clothes and save some money, hopefully these simple yet effective tips will get you started.
How to Save Money on Children’s Clothes
Go Secondhand. This is THE best way to save money on children’s clothes in my opinion. Since kids grow so darn quickly you can often find awesome outfits at an absolute fraction of the cost. It’s nothing for Mrs. Frugal Rules to find outfits, with the tags still on, that might’ve been $25-$30 new for under $5.
Recycle. If you have multiple children keep the clothes. Who cares if it has a snag in it? Who cares if it has been worn already? I can guarantee you that your two year old isn’t going to give two shakes if his older brother wore the same outfit. In fact, we didn’t have to buy a single outfit for the youngest little Frugal Rule for nearly the first two years of his life because he just didn’t need it.
Sell your clothes. Mrs. Frugal Rules started doing this after our first. There is a really cool semi-annual consignment sale in Omaha that’s specific to children’s clothes. Every spring and fall we fill the car with things that are either outgrown or not needed any longer. The funds we get from the sale are turned right back around to buy what we need at the moment. I can think of one sale out of the past five or so years where we actually had to spend our own money on children’s clothes.
Shop Offseason. Raise your hand if you’ve ever bought a winter coat in April or May. We’ve done it numerous times for both us and the kiddos. Seeing as it’s usually in the 60s or 70s by then we have no need for it, but you can save some serious money on children’s clothes by doing it. They might not even wear it for a year or two as it could be too big but it saves us a chunk of money.
Ignore Collections. Frozen anyone? Marketers know what they’re doing – I should know as I’m married to one. 
This is especially the case with children’s clothing. They create entire outfits and lines targeted at your kids to make them want it. I can tell you one thing though, your kid is likely going to care less if they have every single line from the collection – instead buy one item on sale and the rest can be standard clothes.
Many, if not all, of these tips are rather simple but they’re highly effective and they require little work. Ultimately, much of it comes down to making choices. Most of life is that way really. You need to choose whether or not you’d like to spend like the “average” person or if you’d rather be more purposeful about your spending. Yes, you might be able to “afford” that designer kids outfit from Jack and Jill or Alex and Alexa but it’s on us as parents to really determine if that’s the best use of our money.
If you’re a parent, how do you save money on children’s clothes? Do you feel pressured to spend more to keep up with the Joneses? Do you shop second hand for yourself?
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