Dressing Children on a Budget
Some are born to cheapness, some achieve cheapness, and others have
cheapness thrust upon them.
I am a little of all three. Raised by antimaterialistic hippies in California’s ultra-left
Humboldt County, I spent most of my childhood wearing a raggedy mixture of
hand-me-downs and rejects from the St. Vincent de Paul thrift store clearance
rack. It wasn’t as traumatic as it sounds; my parents’ beliefs and lack of income
were typical of our area, so most of my classmates were similarly attired. Except,
of course, for the teachers’ children, who were impossibly wealthy with their white
cotton Keds and insulated houses.
I might have escaped the 80’s untainted by the name brand fever that marked that
decade had we not moved inland just before junior high school. In my new town,
the rich kids shopped at the mall and the poor kids at K-Mart. Even the blue-light
shoppers laughed at my clothes, which had never seemed so sad-looking on the
coast.
Tired of seventies' style hand-me-downs, I turned fashionista as soon as I was old
enough to baby-sit—at the time, twelve. From then on, there was not a thread of
generic or out-of-style clothing in my closet. If I was going to wear torn, faded
clothing, I was going to buy them at Macy's and pay extra for every well-placed hole.
Giving birth to my first child introduced me to a previously undiscovered galaxy of
shopping. First I fell into the Baby Gap, with its starchy oxfords and crisp jeans,
then discovered the matched-from-beanie-to-bootie perfection of Gymboree. When
I became a single mother I had even more to prove, and I worked double shifts to
cloth my preschooler in preppy Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger outfits more
suited to Harvard than Montessori school. I hunted sales and pawed through the
occasional clearance rack, but my number-one priority was to give my son the best
of everything, including clothing.
Remarriage was the dam that slowed my river of spending. My husband brought to
our union four children and a decent-but-not-extravagant income. I began looking
closer at the clearance racks at the mall and even venturing occasionally into a
consignment store. Cheapness was thrust upon me in a final, stabbing blow
when I quit my job to care for the babies that were coming in rapid succession.
Suddenly my number-one goal in shopping was keeping everyone clothed within
the constraints of a Lycra-tight budget. Yet fashion and brand-appeal remain a not-
distant second and third. Over the years, I've developed a few strategies to keep
my kids looking like Hilton’s and not Walton’s.
1. Buy at least six months ahead. I cannot stress this enough. Need creates
scarcity, which drives up prices. Always plan your shopping so you’re buying for
the next season. If you have an abundant summer wardrobe ready to be unpacked
in April, you won’t be tempted to buy a twenty dollar t-shirt, however cute it is.
Instead you’ll be in the back at the clearance racks, checking out the parkas
marked down to the same price. And don’t be afraid to stockpile far into the future.
If it will fit someone eventually and isn’t going out of style any time soon, it might be
worth the inconvenience of storing it.
2. Thrift stores are always cheaper. Especially since they all have half-price or
coupon days when clothing gets an additional discount. Call your local shop to
ask when the best deals can be found.
3. Except when Target and Walmart are cheaper. Some of my two-year-old’s
cutest shorts cost less than four dollars at Target. And there was a whole rack of
them in various washes, with matching t-shirts on the other side. If you lack the
time or patience to sift through a Goodwill store, nix the above suggestions and
buy what you need from the cheaper racks at a discount store.
4. Combine sales. Macy’s is my favorite store for this. A name brand t-shirt is still
expensive at half off. But Macy’s puts their clearance on additional markdown
almost every weekend. Occasionally the additional percentage off is substantial,
like 40-60%. During select weekends in November, July, and January, the
clearance combines with the additional markdown, plus they offer another 15% off
for using your Macy’s card. This alone is worth having the store card. Suddenly that
twenty dollar Roxy t-shirt is around 4 dollars and still brand sparkling new. If you
keep it nice, you’ll be able to Ebay it for more than that. Once you get the bill, pay
the balance immediately to avoid interest and finance charges—this can be done
at any Macy’s counter. I’m told that JCPenney and the Gap have similar deals, and
I always seem to find $1.99 shirts at Old Navy. Just keep looking and keep asking
employees when the next big sale is coming.
5. Hand-me-downs. Passing down clothing is going the way of home permanents,
much to the detriment of modern families. I have a friend with four boys in perfect
stair-step order. Yet she is constantly giving the six-year-old’s decent size 5 painter
jeans to charity only to buy a pair of size 5 painter jeans for the four-year-old. They
do this with everything. It seems obvious that only the oldest needs a full
wardrobe, but apparently it isn’t.
6. Garage sales. This is where you will find the best deals, but they will be
sporadic and you’ll have to walk until your feet ache. To save gas, limit yourself to
neighborhood or block sales. Otherwise you’ll just take money from the clothing
budget and tuck it in the gas and car maintenance one.
7. Be creative. As our grandmothers used to say, Use it up, wear it out, make it do,
or do without. A few weeks ago, a woman in one of my Yahoo groups mentioned
that she was hemming some of her son’s too-short pants to make school shorts.
What a great idea! Before you toss anything, look at it and think hard. Does it need
mending? Hemming? Stain remover? Could it be re-dyed or tie-dyed? As in all
areas of frugality, there is no substitute for ingenuity.
Some are born to cheapness, some achieve cheapness, and others have
cheapness thrust upon them.
I am a little of all three. Raised by antimaterialistic hippies in California’s ultra-left
Humboldt County, I spent most of my childhood wearing a raggedy mixture of
hand-me-downs and rejects from the St. Vincent de Paul thrift store clearance
rack. It wasn’t as traumatic as it sounds; my parents’ beliefs and lack of income
were typical of our area, so most of my classmates were similarly attired. Except,
of course, for the teachers’ children, who were impossibly wealthy with their white
cotton Keds and insulated houses.
I might have escaped the 80’s untainted by the name brand fever that marked that
decade had we not moved inland just before junior high school. In my new town,
the rich kids shopped at the mall and the poor kids at K-Mart. Even the blue-light
shoppers laughed at my clothes, which had never seemed so sad-looking on the
coast.
Tired of seventies' style hand-me-downs, I turned fashionista as soon as I was old
enough to baby-sit—at the time, twelve. From then on, there was not a thread of
generic or out-of-style clothing in my closet. If I was going to wear torn, faded
clothing, I was going to buy them at Macy's and pay extra for every well-placed hole.
Giving birth to my first child introduced me to a previously undiscovered galaxy of
shopping. First I fell into the Baby Gap, with its starchy oxfords and crisp jeans,
then discovered the matched-from-beanie-to-bootie perfection of Gymboree. When
I became a single mother I had even more to prove, and I worked double shifts to
cloth my preschooler in preppy Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger outfits more
suited to Harvard than Montessori school. I hunted sales and pawed through the
occasional clearance rack, but my number-one priority was to give my son the best
of everything, including clothing.
Remarriage was the dam that slowed my river of spending. My husband brought to
our union four children and a decent-but-not-extravagant income. I began looking
closer at the clearance racks at the mall and even venturing occasionally into a
consignment store. Cheapness was thrust upon me in a final, stabbing blow
when I quit my job to care for the babies that were coming in rapid succession.
Suddenly my number-one goal in shopping was keeping everyone clothed within
the constraints of a Lycra-tight budget. Yet fashion and brand-appeal remain a not-
distant second and third. Over the years, I've developed a few strategies to keep
my kids looking like Hilton’s and not Walton’s.
1. Buy at least six months ahead. I cannot stress this enough. Need creates
scarcity, which drives up prices. Always plan your shopping so you’re buying for
the next season. If you have an abundant summer wardrobe ready to be unpacked
in April, you won’t be tempted to buy a twenty dollar t-shirt, however cute it is.
Instead you’ll be in the back at the clearance racks, checking out the parkas
marked down to the same price. And don’t be afraid to stockpile far into the future.
If it will fit someone eventually and isn’t going out of style any time soon, it might be
worth the inconvenience of storing it.
2. Thrift stores are always cheaper. Especially since they all have half-price or
coupon days when clothing gets an additional discount. Call your local shop to
ask when the best deals can be found.
3. Except when Target and Walmart are cheaper. Some of my two-year-old’s
cutest shorts cost less than four dollars at Target. And there was a whole rack of
them in various washes, with matching t-shirts on the other side. If you lack the
time or patience to sift through a Goodwill store, nix the above suggestions and
buy what you need from the cheaper racks at a discount store.
4. Combine sales. Macy’s is my favorite store for this. A name brand t-shirt is still
expensive at half off. But Macy’s puts their clearance on additional markdown
almost every weekend. Occasionally the additional percentage off is substantial,
like 40-60%. During select weekends in November, July, and January, the
clearance combines with the additional markdown, plus they offer another 15% off
for using your Macy’s card. This alone is worth having the store card. Suddenly that
twenty dollar Roxy t-shirt is around 4 dollars and still brand sparkling new. If you
keep it nice, you’ll be able to Ebay it for more than that. Once you get the bill, pay
the balance immediately to avoid interest and finance charges—this can be done
at any Macy’s counter. I’m told that JCPenney and the Gap have similar deals, and
I always seem to find $1.99 shirts at Old Navy. Just keep looking and keep asking
employees when the next big sale is coming.
5. Hand-me-downs. Passing down clothing is going the way of home permanents,
much to the detriment of modern families. I have a friend with four boys in perfect
stair-step order. Yet she is constantly giving the six-year-old’s decent size 5 painter
jeans to charity only to buy a pair of size 5 painter jeans for the four-year-old. They
do this with everything. It seems obvious that only the oldest needs a full
wardrobe, but apparently it isn’t.
6. Garage sales. This is where you will find the best deals, but they will be
sporadic and you’ll have to walk until your feet ache. To save gas, limit yourself to
neighborhood or block sales. Otherwise you’ll just take money from the clothing
budget and tuck it in the gas and car maintenance one.
7. Be creative. As our grandmothers used to say, Use it up, wear it out, make it do,
or do without. A few weeks ago, a woman in one of my Yahoo groups mentioned
that she was hemming some of her son’s too-short pants to make school shorts.
What a great idea! Before you toss anything, look at it and think hard. Does it need
mending? Hemming? Stain remover? Could it be re-dyed or tie-dyed? As in all
areas of frugality, there is no substitute for ingenuity.
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