Childrens clothes

Purplekylie22

I tried looking at a load of boards and i honestly dont know which one to post on... but i post here most often so i figured i would try

My 7 and 8 year old's (boys!) are running out of clothes! Were on benefits and things are tight, I need to get new school uniforms soon and the council is slow on uniform payments, so im trying to ignore uniforms right now. As far as normal clothes, every day ones, just about everything is too small for them now. I need to buy them new wardrobes basically. I don't have any problems with second hand and often look on e-bay for bulk sets, not many for their size at the minute, I would try charity shops but they are all so expensive now. Honestly ASDA is cheaper than charity shops!

I only know of one major Car boot in the area (Aberdeenshire) so we are going there this Sunday. Is there anywhere else I can look? im desperate

rachbc

Freecycle? Can the older ones stuff go to the younger one?

Have you thought about selling their old ones to raise funds - either car boot or by the bag to the rag man - I had a leaflet through the door offering a few quid a kg for bags of old clothes etc.

I know from expereince that getting second hand clothes for boys is tricky as mine certainly wore things out before he grew out of them.

Primark and Asda do for basics and H&M have some nice stuff too and can be very reasonable. Also I thing we sometimes think they need more clothes than they actually do - if they are in uniform all day then really they only need enough clothes for the weekends/ holidays - 2/3 pairs of jeans and a handful of tops, 2 fleeces or hoodies and plenty of socks and pants!

Gettingtherequickly

Are you friendly enough with other mums that you could all arrange a clothes swop morning? That way, you could have a little social event, but at the same time get clothing for the kids knowing that you are all helping each other. I'm sure there are other parents in the same situation and alot of the clothes would be in good condition, simply outgrown.

starsandmoon

Are you a member of Freecycle? People often give away kids clothes there. I agree charity shops are a bit expensive, you have to touch lucky. I got my DD a load of clothes in Primark sale recently, they were all £2/3 an item and was really lucky at a boot sale at the weekend. Got her a Zara wool coat, a Debenhams coat and a Zara top for £4.50. How about Ebay? You can get bundles of clothes there quite cheaply.

Its the shoes I struggle with as my DD has to have decent fitted shoes for school and at £30 plus a time :eek:

Purplekylie22

thank you everyone

Im not really on that good terms with the other mums, I moved here about a year ago and the area is quite small, they dont seem to like outsiders too much! lol The school uniforms will likely come from asda as soon as the council sends me money for that, their jumpers will do another year so Im hoping i dont need to worry about that too much.

Using older kids clothes for young sort of works, I keep the good stuff for my 2 year old, but the 7 and 8 year olds are the same size, the eldest is a bit thiner and the middle on is slightly taller, but they share all their clothes already! Everything they have has been worn to distruction, I have two very very active boys who rip every single knee in their trousers and sleeves in their tops e.t.c lol, I have very boy-ish boys!

I will keep an eye out for ebay, I have got good bundles from there before, i hope there will be some more again soon. Im really hoping a lot of the car boot sale And yes, i am on freecycle. I always forget to look their though... of to see just incase.

Thanks guys

uropachild

I would write a list of everything you think they will need - down to pants and socks. There was a blog article about this somewhere, let me see if i can find it...

Here it is! http://jengrantmorris.blogspot.com/2011/02/kids-clothing-bank.html

You list everything they need and i would imagin that it turns out to be less than you think! Then you look out for things as you see them and stick to the list. I know you need stuff NOW, but moving forward this could be a good idea?

Have you tried parenting forums? There are some that have a buying and selling section and you can post wanted ads. Some people will send you stuff as long as you pay the postage.

Aril

Would it be worth approaching the school office to see if they have any 2nd hand uniform sale? Do you have any supermarket vouchers that you could cash in for uniform?
Aril

PudseyDB

On freecycle....or freegle as ours is now called..........dont just wait for some to be listed - a friendly wanted post will often remind people they have clothes that they can pass on. And sometimes, if you get clothes from one person - collect promptly and send a thank you message - they'll sometimes also pass on the next lot thats too small for their child. I did this for a while with my son's Clarks shoes - as there was a boy who was always the size below my son.

I'll so ditto the other siggestion for Primark - ok maybe not the best quality but as your boys ruin clothes anyway, they'll be ideal - and cheap. You can get nice tshirts for just £1 there.

pleasedelete

I would agree to ask on free cycle. I offer all my childrens clothes and uniform on there twice a year. I advertise big bag of girls age xxx .

Mine are mostly gap, boden or Ralph Lauren and I get very few enquiries (maybe I live in too posh an area).

Try a car boot in a decent area as well.

Selling childrens clothes on e bay isn't worth it usually. I used to give mine to a friend but they moved.

Purplekylie22

The school do have a uniform sale but they had it right before then end of term and we just couldn't afford to even go and look at the time

Primark is on the list of places to visit for sure ty

Supermarket vouchers are all spoken for, We wouldn't have a Christmas if it wasn't for those to rely on

Were going through all their clothes right now so we can see just how bad it is, pen and paper will be out after to make a list hadnt thought of that ta

ALIBOBSY

Aldi and lidl sometimes get bits in. Picked up a couple of minnie mouse t shirts for £2.99 each today one for toddler one for DD2 and there were some boy ones like ben ten man u etc up to about age 10 if I remember rightly in Aldi plus some pjs.

ali x