The total price for all the clothing in this picture was $17.82.
1. Less Is More - Kids don't need as much clothing as you might think. In the past, I have fallen prey to spontaneous clothing purchases while window shopping because something was too cute to pass up. This can lead to a closet full of stuff they don't need. Now I limit my kids to 6 outfits each plus 1 church outfit, and its a calculated, pre-meditated purchase when I've already taken inventory of what they need.
2. Fair Trade Agreement - Buddy up with a friend/cousin who you can mutually benefit from each other's hand-me-downs. I love dropping off a huge package (or finding one!) on the doorstep for my trading partner, especially when we have the same taste in clothes.
3. Buy Used from Local Trading Sites/Boards - If you can't find a buddy to trade with, often you can find someone locally who's trying to make a few dollars off their recently out-grown clothing. Once I got an entire layette in near new condition, absolutely everything I needed for my baby sizes 0-12 months for $50. And, I made a new friend. I asked her if she'd let me know when she was ready to part with next year's stuff. She loved the idea of getting paid for it :)
4. Buy Clearance for Next Year - Retail stores have a seasonal cycle. You can predict when to buy if you shop often and exercise patience. I consider myself a Helicopter Shopper. I watch the kids clothes go down to 30% off, then get marked Clearance, then some stores even have a Buy1Get1Free among the Clearance to get them out of the store to bring in the next season's merchandise. The problem is if you wait too long, it will be picked over and you'll get nothing good. So prime time is Day 1 of the B1G1 Sale.
Predict what size the kids will be about 9 months in the future when they'll begin to need that season and pick the best 6 outfits. (Make a list if you must.) The picture above is Toddler tops and bottom shorts/leggings that were all $2.97, but they were MIX AND MATCH- BUY ONE GET ONE FREE. So all of the clothing in the picture came to a total of less than $20.
A similar deal was going on for shoes ... it was All Clearance Items with an ADDITIONAL 50% OFF.
The combined total cost for all 5 pairs of shoes was $23.50, the price of one pair of shoes.
Next year's stash is going into a storage bin at the top of their closet, or that emergency moment when someone's lost their shoes!
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