how do you usually buy / budget for your childrens clothes?

moo2moo

I buy their things in advance in the sales. I know what they are going to need and what size it will be by the speed they are growing. I buy shoes as they are needed from the Clarks outlet store and never pay more than £17 a pair for fitted shoes. The Gap outlet also have an under £2 section and Next have a 50p rail, mostly its carp but just once in a while they have some great stuff.

I had a very extravagent day yesterday in the clearance section of Decathalon. Hiking boots reduced to £5.95 and £6.95 for the DDs, £19.99 from £60 for me. Also t-shirts reduced from £4.95 to 50p, jumpers reduced from £7.95 to £1. Lots of choice and good quality. Winter coats were £20 each but the last ones have each done 2 children and still been good enough to pass on.

Tesco had reduced their childrens jeans with adjustable waists from £8 to £2 and school clothes are 3 for 2 with a 500 points voucher (leaflet at till) and £5 off a £30 spend from the news of the world.

Summer school dresses have to be pink and white so come from M&S, I do surveys with the companies that pay out in M&S vouchers so these work out "free".

DaisyFlower

I do two big shops a year, co-incidently the new Next book is out round about the same time :rotfl: and shop for school uniform in the summer holidays. My little one doesnt grow very fast and is very small built so I dont buy bigger sizes as he gets his wear out of the correct size. I do still pick up things I know he'll like to co-incide with his latest craze.

Shoes wise, get him checked every few months to ensure they still fit.

I rarely drop on in the sales for him, Next always seem to have older sizes or baby items but do sometimes get bits from Mothercare in their sale. Tend to stick to these two in the main as the clothes are slim fitting and have the adjustable waists so I know they will fit.

Elle00

Hi, I'm a member of the Tesco Fashion File thingy and get sent vouchers a couple of times of year. Each mailing gives me £10 off a £50 spend, 2 x £6 off a £30 spend and a £4 off a £20 spend.

You can use these vouchers for all your basics like tee shirts, shorts, undies, jammies etc and they're even valid on sale items (which is what I mostly use them on!).

I also grab a couple of nice bits from the Next end of season sales and put them away for the following year because Next are my favourite for boy's clothes.

I tend to have about £60 a month spare cash in my budget and I use this to deal with a variety of one-off expenditures including clothing. So one month I might go clothes shopping, another month I might need car tax.

I've only got one child so I only spend about £200 a year for all of his clothes. I suppose this is quite cheap for a growing lad but then when you get money off already cheap Tesco clothes it's not surprising! I think George at Asda are quite good too but they don't give me money off lol.

Gingham_Ribbon

Youngest gets almost everything handed down. Every 4 months or so my oldest needs new clothes, so I get what I can for about £40, which sometimes my dad gives me.

lauren_1

Ours is a mixture of handmedowns from the cousins, some freecycle, ebay and car boots (mainly toddlers things), asking for clarkes and adams vouchers for birthdays and christmases and gifts.

We shop as we go but keeping a lookout for the sales all in we spend around £100 each including coats and uniforms

kymbogs

I've got 2 little girls, one is 5 months old (Megan) and the other is 16 months (Molly). As I'm sure you can imagine, Megan is wearing all Molly's hand-me-downs apart from gifts that people buy her. I did buy her some girly newborn things cos we knew we were having a girl, whereas we had neutral things for Molly as she was a surprise.

I really should start putting a little aside each month for clothes but don't find it quite as bad now that Molly wears one size for 6 months rather than 3, and she fits in pretty well with the seasons too (12-18months for spring/summer, 18-24 months for autumn/winter). However I was panicking a bit the other day when I realised she'll be 18 months soon and I only have a couple of things put away in the next size up, I reckon a lot of her 12-18m stuff will still fit though.

I get a lot of stuff from ebay, buy from the sales for next year, that kind of thing. My mum works for ASDA in the George department and just can't stop herself buying things for them both so they'll never be left without clothes I don't think

onlyroz

Buy them as I need them. For toddlers you can't beat ASDA/Tesco - the cheapest come in at a few pounds for (e.g.) a pair of trousers. We also get given a lot of cast-offs from friends who have kids a little bit older than our boy. I haven't actually bought any clothes in ages, apart from swimming trunks, and socks (which seem to just disappear...)

arthur_dent_2

I buy them (2 girls 5 +7) as needed, if I spend more than £40 - £50 a year I would be very very surprised, to be honest it is probably nearer to £30. My last lot that I bought, was £2 for 15 t shirts all brand new from the market.

melwright

I usually do 2 main shops per year for my 3 & 5 year olds.

I go to someone like Primark spent about £50 between them on everything from pants to party shirts and that seems to last.

The only thing I don't bulk buy are shoes.

Rummer

I am blessed with generous relatives so I rarely have to buy clothes only shoes really. When I do buy though it tends to be in the sales or clothes from primark/tesco/ASDA. When my DD was really young we bought lots from charity shops which saved us a fortune especially for party dresses.

We really buy twice a year summer and winter.