How much do you spend on your children's clothes?

lifebegins

I'm in the process of trimming ALL our outgoings back to the bare essentials and planning a new (much reduced) family budget. This week I'm trying to plan a sensible amount to stick to for spending on clothes. Me and the OH are easy: we don't grow, so I won't be buying anything new until Xmas.

The children are another matter, I know that this has been one of my BIG weaknesses: they always look so gorgeous in the new clothes about, I just can't resist. I've realised I have no real idea of what I've spent in this area and worse, I've no idea what most people view as "normal".

I've 3 children aged 9,7 and 5. How many outfits/ pairs of shoes should they need in your opinion? How much should an MSE moneysaver spend a month/ year on each child? I'm just interested in what everyone else thinks.

skylight

I budget £100 per month for the 6 of us - 4 kids and 2 adults.

I usually shop these days at Primark for all the kids although for the 2yo, I bought a massive bundle of 70 clothes from Ebay for £65 a few weeks ago - all were from Mini Boden or next and I swear most had never been worn - bargin! Thats her sorted for Autumn/Winter!

I will not compromise on shoes though - they have to be Clarks for growing feet and no shopping outlet near me so its full price. I do descend at sale times to for trainers and usual shoes, but new school shoes are a real pain.

And same as you, most of the money goes on the kids. OH and I do not buy much very often. Especially me - being a big girl, Evans is about it so I save up for that!

skylight

For a treat I get them stuff from TK Maxx (!). The little ones have Dior t-shirts for £4 each from there, but we don't go there that often!

nearlyrich

My children are older but when they were young I used to shop in inexpensive stores so they didn't have the pressure of ruining good expensive clothes. They need decent school shoes and a pair of trainers, enough school uniform to enable a change everyday if you can't wash for a day or two and maybe 2 or three outfits for the weekends.

Can you pass the clothes down from one to another, do you have friends or family with children slightly bigger or smaller so you can swap clothes with them.

Have you checked out the clothes in supermarkets? good quality and very inexpensive much better than when my two were small.

iwanttosave_2

I buy all my kids things from primark twice a year so I would say I spend about £100 a year on the eldest (6) but more on the baby because he grows faster and needs extra like babygrows and stuff, so I would say about £150 a year for him.

astonsmummy

I only have one DS aged 2, but i buy most of his clothes from primark and asda, dont really have a set amount per month, as some months i dont need to buy anything, i spent £50 in next sale the other week, i bought lots of jumpers and tank jumpers so these will be good for the winter, when it was his bday i asked most people to get him clothes and at xmas, my mums bros and sisters buy next vouvhers (as he gets spoilt by nanny with toys anyway!)

astonsmummy

oh and he has one pair of white and one pair of black trainers cost about £15 each

Janepig

I don't budget any particular amount but both DD and DS get 99% of their clothes from Asda, Tesco and Next, cheap and cheerful. Usually if I see something I like, it's a reasonable price and I think they'll get the wear out of it then I'll get it. DD starts school in three weeks and has a uniform so hopefully she'll need less of a "normal" wardrobe. DH never buys clothes, and I'm a shorta**e so I just buy things as and when I see something that fits (cropped jeans are a fave because they are normal length on me!!!) - New Look is my usual haunt.

Jxxx

Melissa22_Mum

As little as possible! With a growing 18month old little girl I do all I can to save on getting clothes for all of us.

My main tips are scouring through the end of season sales at Tescos GREAT bargains, some of the labels didn't have the correct price so I got a top and skirt for 1.50! I got a ton of clothes for baby £15.00.

Primark is a godsend especially if you rifle through the for sale clothes look for the red signs. I got all my holiday clothes for £20.00. I also got 6 pairs of baby socks for a pound as they were reduced, really cute too!

I also borrow clothes from friends kids whos kids have out grown them.


Ebay is good for the odd bargain aswell, I got two brand new baby swimming costumes for £3.00!

Charity shops are ok but not always in fashion and you do have to trawl every few months. I get my books from charity shops.

The only real expense for the littleon is on shoes which my boyf's mum has paid for the first time and has offered to do again, they were £26 Clarkes. I normally get shoes for her from shoefayre or the like as she hardly ever wears them anyway, I get booties and things, not to harsh on her tootsies!

End of season catalouge sales and money off codes come in handy but I use them sparingly and always wait for there 3rd offer of money off as they get desperate:j

It's good to get in season stuff and cute little outfits but they certainly hit the pocket hard the likes of Next I think are very overrated, I find the quality of clothes leaves a lot to be desired, bad article of clothing I bought:rolleyes: If I do splurge it's for a birthday outfit or special occassion. After all they get dirty and torn so why pay loads? Bleach comes in handy for the white things though!

suzywoozy_3

We budget £40 per month for clothes and shoes for a family of 5. We rarely buy clothes, we love "black sack days" when friends bring us bags of clothes - I would say our main expense is shoes. I actually find it is a generous amounts and allows for occasional treat clothes - in general though I only buy things they need not that they just want.

I also ask for specific clothing items for some Christmas/birthday presents eg last year the girls wanted summer dresses and so I asked for the birthday presents to include these.

Jet

I'm lucky in that my sister-in-law donates her childrens clothes to me. I have to buy a few pairs of trousers as they don't seem to hand down too well, coats, shoes, trainers, school uniform and underwear. All the clothes that I do buy are from Primark, Asda or Tesco, school shoes are from Clarks.

I have no idea how much I spend, I will have to keep tabs on it from now on for my own interest.