Rosie wore a yellow sundress to church on Sunday that has now been worn by three little girls: Ella, one of her cousins, and now Rosie. It has a tiny grass stain on the hem that nobody can get out, and it still looks sweet. That dress is basically my whole philosophy on kids' clothes.
Last year we spent about $640 on clothes for all three kids, and $260 of that was shoes. I don't think that's rock-bottom, and I know people who do it for less. But it's a number we can live with on one income, and it's been pretty steady even as the kids have gotten bigger.
Hand-me-downs, with a system
Hand-me-downs only save money if you can find them when you need them. For years I had a pile of mystery bags in the basement, and I'd buy Rosie a winter coat in November, then find a perfectly good one in a bag in January.
Now everything lives in clear plastic bins on the basement shelves, labeled by size and season: "Girls 5T Winter," "Boys 8 Summer," and so on. When a child outgrows something, it gets washed and goes into the right bin that day, or it gets donated. No maybe pile.
A few rules we follow:
- Say yes to everything offered. When my sister hands over a bag from her boys, I take the whole thing, keep what fits our system, and pass the rest on. It keeps the goodwill flowing both ways.
- Check the bins before every season. Twice a year, usually in April and September, I pull the next size down and see what we've got before I buy anything.
- Owen is the hard one. The girls have Ella's clothes and cousin clothes. Owen is the only boy in our house, so he depends on my sister's boys, and some of their things arrive pretty worn in the knees. Jeans for Owen are the one thing I buy new most often.
The consignment sale
Twice a year, a big kids' consignment sale sets up in a big church gym a few towns over, one in spring and one in late summer. If you've never been, picture a gym full of folding tables and racks sorted by size, with hundreds of families selling their kids' outgrown things.
How I shop it
- Volunteer a shift. Volunteers get to shop a presale before the doors open to the public. That's when the good winter coats and boots go.
- Bring a laundry basket. Arms full of hangers is a mess. A basket is not.
- Have a list with sizes. Without a list I buy cute things we don't need. With one, I stay on task.
- Go back for the half-price day. Most items without a star on the tag drop to half off on the last day. It's picked over, but basics like leggings and plain tees are still there.
Selling, too
I also consign what we don't need to keep. It takes an evening of tagging and pinning, but this spring I got a check for $112, which paid for almost everything I bought at the same sale. Clothes that don't sell get donated by the sale organizers if you check that box, so nothing comes back home.
Timing does most of the work
When you buy matters as much as where. Here's our rough calendar:
| What | When I buy it |
|---|---|
| Winter coats and snow pants | Late February and March clearance, one size up |
| Swimsuits and shorts | Late July and August clearance, for next year |
| Jeans and school basics | Consignment sale, then fill gaps in September, after the back-to-school rush |
| Church and holiday outfits | Consignment only. They get worn five times. |
Buying one size ahead feels like a gamble, and sometimes it doesn't pay off. I bought Owen snow boots on clearance one spring, and his feet grew two sizes by December instead of one. I sold them at the next sale for about what I paid, so I call it even.
Where we don't cut corners
Shoes are new and fitted, every time. Hand-me-down sneakers are molded to someone else's feet, and kids' feet are still growing. That's why shoes are over a third of our clothing budget, and I'm fine with it.
Ella is also reaching the age where what she wears matters to her in a way it didn't before. Instead of fighting about it, she now gets a set amount for fall clothes, and she decides how to spend it. She discovered the consignment sale on her own this spring, and I think she was a little shocked by what she could get for her money.
Rosie will get that yellow sundress for one more summer. After that it goes back into a bag for whichever cousin comes next.
