Hand-me-downs and other stuff

nearlyrich

My children had lots of uniform items when they were at infant and junior school because I worked long hours and I only washed at weekends. My son grew out of sweatshirts and polo shirts and his sister wore them, then my friend had them for her son, then back to my sister for my niece. Eventually they went back to my friend for her younger ones, some are still in use after 15 years and still look pretty good if a little faded. LOL.

Jeryth

Another thing I've remembered - my Nana used to work for the Gas Board in the showroom, and I got her skirts to wear to school. They were great, coz they had pockets.

And I once caught out one of my friends, who had the same school skirt as me. I knew it came from M & S, but she tried telling people it was a "designer" skirt! Hah!

Galtizz

Austin_Allegro wrote:

Uniforms were quite expensive in my schooldays - a blazer cost about £30 in 1983, which was a hell of a lot. I imagine the cheap uniforms available from Tescos etc mean that second hand uniforms are not required much nowadays.

School uniforms are still quite pricey. Each year in the summer hols my Gran would knit all of us kids a new school jumper/ cardigan and the uniform was blue trousers/ skirt white top blue jumper. Nowadays most schools have a school sweatshirt which can only be bought from specialist shops. My friend bought one for her daughter who has just started secondary school (but she is still very small for her age) and it was £20! I think they should definatly bring back uniform shops once a term.

Lillibet_2

Galtizz wrote:

Nowadays most schools have a school sweatshirt which can only be bought from specialist shops. My friend bought one for her daughter who has just started secondary school (but she is still very small for her age) and it was £20! I think they should definatly bring back uniform shops once a term.

Afraid in that case I would be tempted to buy the sweatshirt with the logo just once, when it is outgrown cut the logo out & sew it onto knitted/cheap sweatshirts in subsquent years!

Spendless

You're not able to do that at sons school Lillibet cos the logo of sons school is actually printed onto the sweat-shirt. And some schools are very strict about the uniform.

I pay £6.50 for a school sweatshirt that i can only buy from the school and compared to other schools i get off lightly a friend pays £13 for hers and £9.50 for polo shirts. At least i can buy plain white polo shirts.

From what my friends say the local secondary school is worse, they insist that the child has its name printed onto the sportswear so you can't even pass down to a sibling!

likabu_2

My 2 boys have hand me downs, at nearly 3 yrs old and 4 months old they don't realise. Hopefully be the time they are old enough to realise I will have drummed into them all the moneysaving tips from this site and they won't be bothered then either!!

My 2 yr old has clothes from my 4 yr old brother, which I then put away for my 4 month old. I still have the "new" clothes we bought from shops for the 2 yr old put away also.

While I was pg 2 nd time around I received bags full of girls clothes from my Mum (clothes belonged to my twin sisters) "just incase" I had a girl.

I am always so excited when I get a new bag to look through, DP says I'm sad but I dont think he realises the money that is saved. The children look nice in the clothes too, its always good quality stuff!!

Lisa

elona

I was just congratulating myself on third daughter being due to start sixth form in Sept. and in own clothes when I realised that my youngest will be starting at the same school then and it is another set of school uniforms! AAAAAAGGGHHH!!!!!!

School will not let you buy stuff not from school shop and is insanely stict about uniform. At least it is when it is dealing with well behaved hard working kids like mine and suddenly the loud mouthed kids get away with murder satorially speaking.

The school prices make Marks and Spencer look cheap! Logo is woven into jumpers etc so I cannot get around it. And trying to get 70 denier navy tights drives me mad - Heaven forbid they should wear black tights that are cheaper and easy to find! GGGRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

[Deleted User]

Have you tried looking at some of the online school uniform shops to see if prices and stock are better. http://www.schooluniform247.co.uk/schooluniform247/product_list_general.asp?cat=general_products_Tights these are 70 denier and any colour you like.

culpepper

This thread reminds me of 'the family from one end street' (Eve Garnet) about a family with seven kids.Each gets the older boy/girls clothes so they only ever have to buy 2 sets new.

We had to buy most of our uniform from the one shop when I was at secondary. Mum got a grant for one child and I (1st year)was kitted out with Tie,skirt,belt and blazer but I think the grant didnt cover the belt.Mum had to find shirts ,socks,PE kit and cookery apron aswell.
She didnt get another grant for me till 4th year and my skirt was about 2" shorter than everyone elses cose the grant wouldnt cover it.
I was so grateful when a girl in my year gave me hers in exchange for a pencil portrait of her favourite pop star(her mum was quite happy as she didnt wear it).

spankymonkey_2

both my children have to wear school uniform, son is 5 and daughter is 11. sweaters are nearly £10 each and cardigans a bit more. i went into my local QD store and found a couple of jumpers exactly the same colour (obviously without the logo on) for £1 each!!!!
also mackays always have a good sale, i buy sale stuff even if its 2 sizes too big and put it away.