How much to dress a six year old girl?

tanith

I am going to not read this thread anymore as I realise your family is actually on a different planet to the one I inhabit.. 10 bags of under 2yr old clothes and that was only the good bits did it for me... I wish you luck with your quest to cut down but I really don't think its actually going to happen...

BitterAndTwisted

A long time ago I was a nanny for an extremely wealthy American family. Most of their clothes were bought at Harrods in the sales and none of those three kids had a fraction of the amount your children do. Things were put away when they were outgrown to be passed down to the younger one. The little girl had an equally wealthy family's daughter's designer hand-me-downs and when outgrown were passed onto her younger cousin in the US. They changed out of their school-clothes as soon as they got home and very little of their outer-wear went straight into the laundry as I was the one doing all the washing and ironing. I became the world's expert on spot-cleaning, even just washing the cuffs on sweaters and the like when it became necessary

In my opinion your wife has a very serious shopping problem. The amounts being spent and the numbers of items you've listed as essential are very serious over-kill.

"10 bags of under 2yr old clothes and that was only the good bits did it for me"

It did it for me as well: I had to go for a little lie-down when you mentioned that. I honestly don't think it's just over-kill, I find it kind of obscene, really . Think about the problems you've got in store for the future if your children have these kinds of expectations when they're older. You're going to beggar yourselves without even trying!

I honestly think that your wife needs to read this thread, and soon.

onlyroz

I think threads like this go hand in hand with the recent thread on "how often do you wash your clothes?" If you throw everything in the wash after one wear then you'll need to buy more clothes. For school uniform, my son gets by just fine on:
- 3 polo shirts
- 2 proper shirts
- 3 sweatshirts (although we could prob get by on 2)
- 2 pe t-shirts
- 2 pe shorts
- 2 pair joggers
- 1 pair trainers and 1 pair clarkes shoes

The most expensive things here are the shoes and the logo'd sweatshirts - everything else is peanuts.

I got my son a proper wardrobe a few weeks back, and I'm struggling to find things to hang up in it - his school trousers, school shirt and dressing gown look quite lonely. I suppose I could hang up his t-shirts, but I don't really see the point...

meer53

Think i must be abnormal as a parent !
My daughter is 10, she has worn the same school sweatshirt since she started in Sept 2009, need to buy a new one now though, the cuff is starting to fray. She's had 1 pair of school shorts (m & s) and 1 school skirt, and 2 school shirts (m & s again) As for clothes for normal wear, Asda Matalan and Primark are her preferred shops, this pleases me no end as a single parent ! I've taken her in Monsoon to look at the lovely clothes but no, she's not impressed, far too girly !!
I buy knickers in Primark, they wash fantastically well, last ones were £1.75 for 3 pairs, she has about 15 pairs at the moment and about 10 pairs of socks on the go,
I buy as and when clothes are needed, probably about £15 a month on average ?

pigpen

these 10 bags of clothes... are they carrier bags or binbags??????

tesco size carriers I'd say was not so bad, binbags I'd slap myself about the head and chop up the bank card... and I'd expect my OH to slap me about the head had I been that stupid.

However.. I am now questioning her childhood.. were they extremely wealthy so this is the norm for her or were they extremely poor and she had very little and is over compensating?

DCFC79

You can always buy a smal quantity and if you find more is required then top it up with some more

lostinrates

tanith wrote: »

I am going to not read this thread anymore as I realise your family is actually on a different planet to the one I inhabit.. 10 bags of under 2yr old clothes and that was only the good bits did it for me... I wish you luck with your quest to cut down but I really don't think its actually going to happen...

Michaels and I have been ''MSE chums'' for a while now. I like and respect him. But dear chap, I'm afraid I agree this is a bit ''not normal''. That in itself doesn't worry me at all, but that you can't afford it right now (I'm thinking to some discussions elsewhere about what had to give ATM). Think about the long term value to the kids, and to you and DW. This could cost more than the price of the clothes.

Your children, from their pictures are incredibly beautiful. I'm sure your wife could turn them out well and they'd still be headturners on a LOT less.

I think, my very dear friend (and tbh I'd just shut up if it weren't a nice person) this is something to take seriously and resolve. I do think it could be about something else. IIRC your wife is from somewhere I've lived, where there is a strong sunday best thing going on with childrens' clothes often, but even in that context its not reasonable under your circumstances. And its wasteful under any circumstances. Washing after wearing once for childrens' clothng is watseful, v expensive (have you seen how much soap powder is?). Obviously underwear, sports clothes and ''rough play'' clothes are different.

ailuro2

IMHO you're spending money in the wrong place, you're buying clothes from Next, sending your kids to school in a clean uniform every day, yet they have £15 shoes on their feet... A decent pair of shoes will set you back £28 at least, they need fitted properly every time, not bought big and hoping their feet will be the same width as last fitting...

Our DD is 12 now, she only had one summer dress, one school sweatshirt and one school cardigan, two skirts and a pair of trousers, one school tie, one old white T shirt for PE and a pair of dark shorts.

For after school she got changed into "play clothes" which are clothes that were past their best/ a bit on the short side... for playing round thehosue these were fine.

I think you need to have a list of what they need now instead of buying in bulk at the Next sale. If I see something in a sale I ask myself if DD really needs it, if it matches with the clothes she has already etc. Just like I do for myself, really.

JBD

meer53 wrote: »

Think i must be abnormal as a parent !
My daughter is 10, she has worn the same school sweatshirt since she started in Sept 2009, need to buy a new one now though, the cuff is starting to fray. She's had 1 pair of school shorts (m & s) and 1 school skirt, and 2 school shirts (m & s again) As for clothes for normal wear, Asda Matalan and Primark are her preferred shops, this pleases me no end as a single parent ! I've taken her in Monsoon to look at the lovely clothes but no, she's not impressed, far too girly !!
I buy knickers in Primark, they wash fantastically well, last ones were £1.75 for 3 pairs, she has about 15 pairs at the moment and about 10 pairs of socks on the go,
I buy as and when clothes are needed, probably about £15 a month on average ?

You're not abnormal, that sounds like me and my children. They have a few more school uniform items than your daughter though.
And we all wear clean clothes every single day in our house. You don't need to have a lot of clothes to do this. My Mum used to say '1 outfit to wear, 1 in the wash, 1 drying'. I always aim for my children and me to have 4 outfits each and that does fine. I always received compliments when my kids were little on how nicely my children were dressed.

michaels

Hopefully you are not just spamming your own site - but either way I think you need to check your spelling in your links.

brunoandsummer wrote: »

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