I got off pretty cheap with DD but now that I have a DD there is so much temptation out there. Girl outfits are so adorable and the selection is larger. So I'm looking at some of the end of season sales for clothes I'd normally not be able to afford, well I could but I want to be able to buy other things besides clothes. So I'm wanting to buy this summer/spring clothes for next year when DD will be over a year old. The stuff I'm looking at is very good quality and has high resale value on eBay. So I'm not sure how much I should be spending on each outfit (excluding shoes). What I"m looking at would run me about $30 for pants/shirt/skirt outfit or $20 and under for dresses. But at full retail the dresses run $40 and up and the outfits $50 or so.

So what I'd like to know is how much do you spend on good quality clothes for your DD? Or do you have price limits based on your DC's age? Right now for DS I'm willing to pay up to $16 on Old Navy/Gap jeans, up to $18 on a shirt but prefer under $10, and under $25 for shoes. Oh and up to $50 on a coat. I almost always buy on sale.

We're on a strict budget, so I don't look at the clothes I want to buy but rather look and what is in my price range. I buy what the kids need, so I dont' have a budget. We have gotten a LOT of clothes handed down from friends, birthdays, freecyle, etc. and buy the rest mainly from garage sales in the summer. I might spent $10-20/year for my oldest son or daughter (clothing, accessories, shoes, all included), and their clothes are handed down to their siblings. I dont' buy clothes for the younger kids.

I hate to buy new clothes, so I never do! That saves a lot of money ;-)

Jeans: $7 limit. I wait for change of season sales at Old Navy & The Children's place and buy a size up.
Shirts: $5 limit. But only if it is really cute. I usually prefer under $3. Kohl's is excellent for really cute & reasonably priced shirts.
Dresses: $8 limit. This is really low I know but I sew nearly all of my daughter's dresses.
Coat: $10 limit. I buy two. Old Navy usually has really nice warm coats under $10 in the spring.
Shoes: $15 limit. I try to buy only quality brands (my preferred brand is Stride Rite) I can find them for $15 at a local store once in a while. When they are there, I stock up.

ugh, you guys are uber frugal...i'm jealous. I guess I'm a sucker when it comes to clothes. I'm generally such a cheapskate in other areas.

Well, lets just say I *have* spent upwards of $40 for an outfit for my DD 2 years, but I made sure it was a special one! LOL I bought an outfit last summer when DD was 14 mo. and she wore it to my brother's rehearsal dinner and for a photo session and she is still wearing it this summer! (And she has grown a lot.) We have a boutique in town that sells the most gorgeous clothes- but the awesome thing is that they last and the sizing is generous.
In general though, I buy most of her clothes used (name brands $1-$3 an item) or at end of season clearance so that I can afford an occasional splurge. I do buy some basics like tees and leggings from target-all under $5.00. Shoes are something I splurge on also- DD has a wide foot and unfortunately, no Target shoes fit her.
I have realized though, that even though I buy it cheap- I buy too much!
Working on that one. :o

It's really hard for me to justify spending over $10 on any clothing item for DD, 3. She grows so fast, she's really active and gets dirty every day, so really nice things just don't make sense to me at this stage.

I also grew up dressed like a doll, and constantly in trouble for getting messed up. I don't want to put that kind of pressure on either of us.

I shop at The Children's Place, Old Navy, and Target for the most part. My mom lives in SC, and the Belk's near her house has incredible sales! I haven't found it too difficult to buy her quality, adorable clothes that cost between 5 and 10 dollars--especially doing what you are doing--buying a year ahead.

I wouldn't completely rule out a splurge here and there--I love Hanna Anderson and Janie and Jack, which are both high end for me. But I wait for a sale, and then maybe it is one special outfit.

We haven't spent anything on clothes for my youngest other than buying a couple of tshirts:o

We have tons of clothes from her older sibs and personally I prefer boys clothing because it is roomier and easier to bounce around in :) She loves to figure out which sibling gave her which item of clothing!

I do not currently have a toddler girl, but when I did I think the most I spent in a year to clothe her was around $30, including shoes. I :love hand-me-downs.

I've spent that much on DD's outfits a few times, but only for stuff that will be worn almost constantly and will really hold up for several kids, like Hanna Anderson playdresses with leggings. I shop the clearance rack and the better sales at Old Navy, but I think my limit on an outfit there is about $10, and even then it's only if I really love it.

Jeans: $7 limit. I wait for change of season sales at Old Navy & The Children's place and buy a size up.
Shirts: $5 limit. But only if it is really cute. I usually prefer under $3. Kohl's is excellent for really cute & reasonably priced shirts.
Dresses: $8 limit. This is really low I know but I sew nearly all of my daughter's dresses.
Coat: $10 limit. I buy two. Old Navy usually has really nice warm coats under $10 in the spring.
Shoes: $15 limit. I try to buy only quality brands (my preferred brand is Stride Rite) I can find them for $15 at a local store once in a while. When they are there, I stock up.

yup .. did this exact thing last year, and I already have DD#2's jeans for this fall. I wait until the end of season, and buy like crazy for next year. My Gymboree cart is filled with things for next summer.

I thought that having boys would curb my spending habits on children's clothing ... nope. Now, I'm feeling the 'dress them alike' urge!

I also shop the sales and am pretty cheap when it comes to toddler clothing. My girls are active and I don't want to discourage them from really engaging in play and getting messy b/c it might ruin a $30 outfit. Target and Kohls have great sales and I haven't had a problem with things holding up.

Shirts: under $5
Pants: definitely under $10 and only that if they're really cute
Dresses: Under $15, though again only that much if it's durable. My one daughter pretty much only wears dresses and she's rough and tumble. I go to the Hanna Anderson outlet and shop Land's End overstocks for play dresses.
Shoes: I don't skimp on these. Generally $30-40 for stride rite to fit her chubby feet. I often get these at kidsurplus.com
Coat: it's pretty mild here, so fleece works. Usually under $20.

I guess that my advice would be to realize that your child may ruin the resale value of some of their clothing, unless you want to make yourself crazy keeping them away from anything dirty.

I'm a total cheapskate when it comes to clothes. I usually buy ahead for the next year at the end of the prior season. I haven't been very off yet. I also shop at thrift stores, though now that my kids are into the toddler sizes I haven't found many gems. I also shop at OUAC, my store has $1 deals at the end of each season, there are racks and racks of great clothes for only a buck1

I try to spend less than $5-8 on single things like shirts and pants. Dresses I'll go up to $15 if it is SUPER DUPER CUTE. For shorts I like Circo brand at Target, I can get them for $3 on sale. With all the messes my girl makes, I hate to spend more than that on something that will be ruined.

I don't skimp on shoes, but I get my money's worth for DD. She's been in the same shoe size since October! Stride Rite gives me a 10% discount for having twins, and I have resold her Pedipeds and Robeez for almost what I paid.

Tights and socks I pay $1-2 and buy a season ahead.

DD has quite a few Gymboree outfits but compared to her cheaper Target or generic brand clothes, they wash up much better and I'll be able to resell them and recoup some money when she is done with them. I'm really prudish about what my kids wear, we don't do characters, spaghetti straps, revealing backs, words on the bum, etc.

I'm cheap! I spend $15/outfit on used Hannas and that's my max. Most of my DD's clothing was purchased at between 25 cents and $3.00 (used) at garage sales and thrift stores. It looks nearly brand new (and after new clothing is washed a few times it'd look the same anyway) and she can actually have a larger wardrobe because of it. :)

We look for very high quality construction and fabrics and it has to be free of stains and tears.

The only place I occasionally splurge is on shoes. I like the kids to have high quality leather shoes and I'm fond of Stride Rites. Those can run up to $30 a pair and I like her to have several pairs in each size (dress shoes, sandals, casual shoes, etc). I do try to buy them off of the TP or on eBay and can often find them for around $14/pair, but sometimes we have to go a bit higher.

I'm really cheap - esp on kids clothes.

She just gets them dirty and stained (5 yo) and I don't want to stress about it. I just bought her dresses at Marshalls (she loves to dress up). We spent no more than $12/dress for ones she can wear to school. I spent about $16 (which is a LOT) on a fancy one with a crinoline that she can only wear to church. For shorts, which she doesn't like, but now needs to wear under her clothes - no more than $5 and usually $3 on sale at target. We also have a bunch of sleeveless tops/undershirts that she wears all the time. Those were less than $5, too. Maybe $2.99. I need to get some more of those for the winter - she really liked them. She has a lot of sensory issues and undershirts have been a godsend.

I do look at the Hanna Anderson stuff and will occasionally buy the end of season stuff - whatever is in her size. Well - dresses only, the rise is too long in the pants. She's got such issues that we really need to try things on. I think the Marshall's stuff was quite nice at 1/3 the price!

I work in an office and I spend real money on suits for me - I need them for work, I wear them for years and years (almost always get classic styles), and buy at seasonal sales. I just can't see spending real money on kids clothes. She outgrows them long before they wear out. And I want it to be OK to play in anything and get it stained - not worrying about re-sale value.

If you kid is going on 1 - that's the real toddler - walking exploring - messy stage. You don't want to be stain treating every outfit every night so it can hold it's value, do you?

Almost all of DDs dresses are from garage sales or Goodwill. I spend up to $4 but usually around $1 each. I try to shop used only, in general, toddler girl clothes are gently worn.

For store sales, I buy Gymboree dresses for $10 on sale for next year. Leggings for winter, $4-7.
Target dresses $4 on clearance.

I LOVE to find deals and shop Goodwill!!

I shop consignment stores and sales, mostly. There are great consignment sales around here, fall sales in August/Sept and spring sales in January/February. I stock up at those sales and try to buy nothing else the rest of the season. I have found that for ages three and under, there are great deals at those sales. I find coats, jackets, Christmas outfits, play clothes, church clothes, etc. (I buy socks, underwear and shoes new from stores like Target, JCPenney, etc.)
I will buy new from stores like Old Navy, Target, Gap, Gymboree, and Children's Place but usually only if something is on the clearance rack.

I generally spend no more than $75 on DD's clothes for the season.

I like consignment and thrift stores, too.

I only have a boy so far, but boy clothes are abundant until at least size 5 or 6, and girl clothes until about size 10 or 12. I like to pay less than $5 per piece. Children's clothes are $2.60 at our Goodwill (infants up to 24 months are $1.60).

I can also sew, so that cures the craving for a certain look that I love---the little boy jon-jons, nad the little girl swing dresses with capri bottoms. I could eat those up! But, they take less than 1.5 yards of fabric, and about an hour, so easily less than 10 bucks. Around here, those sell in boutique type shops for upwards of $40 (more with monogram or applique), so I feel it's a good use of my time.

I have three girls so I know how tempting girly clothes can be! I buy almost all of my kids clothes at Goodwill for about $2 a piece. I have an eye for name brands, usually you can tell by the quality of the fabric, so most of their stuff is Gap, Lands End, Old Navy, Limited Too, Gymboree etc...and we live in a small town so this would probably be even easier in a bigger city. My girls play hard so I really can't justify spending big money on clothes that usually aren't worth being handed down more than once much less resold.

My mom buys them a couple of nice dresses each season and sometimes I might see something really cute on ebay and splurge a little but for the most part, thrift stores it is.

I shop at Value Village for kids clothes. The clothes are always in excellent condition. I shop twice yearly during their 50% of sales and I spend about $30 each time and end up with wayyy too many clothes.

I find the selection (colours) much better than in stores.

I get DD's clothes either hand-me downs, the goodwill or Target when they have their celrance sales.
I get her the cutest stuff, I wont spend over 5 dollars for a single item right now, and when she gets out of toddler sizes it will go up to 8 bucks but no more.

I have to be real with myself and realize Im NOT going to resale any of her clothes so I shouldnt even tell myself I can afford the Hanna cause Im too lazy to sell it later on LOL

I only have a boy, but Freecycle has yielded us a LOT of Old Navy, Gap jeans, Hannah Anderssen, etc...for nothing more than the gas it takes me to get it. I'm waaaaay too cheap to spend much $$ on DS's clothes, but he still looks great!

I'm in awe of some of the sales you ladies find. We just don't get sales like that in Canada or at least not that I know of. We got a lot of handmedowns and I watch sales but I still spent $100 on clothes for dd's first year.

I spent almost nothing on toddler clothes.

places with awesome sales right now:

Old Navy - 1/2 off the lowest clearance price. We got about 20 items for $40 last night. (I was shopping for four people)

Once upon a child has there clearance sale right now (at least ours does) and we got two garbage sized bags of clothes for $35. some things were under $1. and it was cute stuff some still had the original tags.

Gap has some pretty good clearance right now.

I have 3 girls and my bf has one so we do a fair amount of hand me downs. I also try to first find as much as I can from garage sales throughout the summer then fill in as needed from a regular store. At a dept. store I'll try to stay under $10 for a pair of jeans, $8 for a shirt, and $12 for dresses. I don't like to skimp on shoes but I usually buy what's on clearance. They dont care if it is last season's style. My girls dress very nice because I try to only buy quality clothing from garage sales/thrift shops. I don't really mess with any big box clothing except Target and Kohls. My absolute fav store is Children's Place, and my mom lives by an outlet so I usually score awesome deals.

When mine were younger, I'd occassionally splurge on a Gymboree outfit. Their Red Dot sales are really good and you can get a lot for not much. Plus, if you keep it stain free it's got resale value.

Old Navy stuff is cute too, and again, look for the clearance section. I've gotten swimsuits for $5, sweaters for $4, etc.

From the time DD was a few mos old till she was about a year, I only bought high quality clothes from Gap, Gymboree, Old Navy & Children's Place. Then I looked back at the amount of $$$ I spent on clothes that she wore for such a little bit of time & a light switched for me. No way no how do I buy those things now unless, the are on super sale.

Last Jan. I bought DS 7 shirts, 3 sweaters, 2 pairs of pants & some mittens for $32.00 at Old Navy. The shirts turned out to be $1.99/each, the sweaters were $3/each, pants were $4 & the mittens were $1.99. After that mother load, I saved the receipt & I keep it in my wallet (it's highlighted in pink) so that whenever I feel an urge to buy I look at it & remind myself how much money I'd be losing if I didn't wait until the sale.

I've found that Tuesdays are markdown days for many retailers so that's when I pop in if we need something.



Shirts: under $5
Pants: definitely under $10 and only that if they're really cute
Dresses: Under $15, though again only that much if it's durable. My one daughter pretty much only wears dresses and she's rough and tumble. I go to the Hanna Anderson outlet and shop Land's End overstocks for play dresses.
Shoes: I don't skimp on these. Generally $30-40 for stride rite to fit her chubby feet. I often get these at kidsurplus.com
Coat: it's pretty mild here, so fleece works. Usually under $20.

I guess that my advice would be to realize that your child may ruin the resale value of some of their clothing, unless you want to make yourself crazy keeping them away from anything dirty.

I agree with this.

I have 2 girls who are 2 years apart, so whatever I buy for #1 goes on to #2, and now I have a niece who is starting to get my nice Gymbo after it's been worn twice :D I guess I just want to get nicer brands that last longer (like Hanna) and I can pass on. One year I got DD all Wal-Mart stuff b/c it was cheap and I was pregnant and didn't want to shop. ALL Of those clothes ended up getting pitched, so when #2 came along I had to rebuy all that particular season. Since then I've decided to stick w/ mainly Gymboree stuff. For one I like their quality, two, they are cute, and three I can shop from home and find good deals for next year. I watch their sales like a hawk! I plan to get a lot of stuff for next summer here in a few weeks when they mark it all down again for BTS stuff! Last year I totally cleaned up, I bought jeans for $8, tops for $4 and$5, even hair stuff, bracelets and socks to match! DD has a whole wardrobe for winter and it cost me about the same or less than I would have spent at Wal-Mart. I do not having any good thrifts or any good places to get used clothing. I do get some hand-me-downs from my cousin, but they are usually dressier things and we need more casual (city folk vs country folk :D)

My kids have skinny feet just like I did as a kid and I do buy Stride Rites narrows, usually at shoebuy.com w/ a coupon. I don't buy a lot of shoes, usually one pr tennis shoes, one pr. Mary Janes (or sandles in summer).

We buy almost all of my 2 year old daughter's clothes at Once Upon A Child. No more than $7 for any piece. She ends up ruining almost all of them anyway before she even grows out of them, so there really is no point in spending a lot of money.

and have for all the 13 years of being a mom. For my DD (youngest) I knew I was having a girl and I put the word out- that I was willing to take what anyone had up to size 3 (before she was born- I always save up 3 years ahead) that is a BIG part of my secret- take what people offer you when they offer it. My kids are big. my 2 1/2 year old DD wears sizes 3 and can wear 4s in some summer items- tank tops.shorts... some dresses.... So I take all the clothing that is offered to me, I wash it all on hot to get out stains and allergenst and then go thru it. I toss anything really ratty, and pass on when I get too many of something- who needs 10 size 4 sleepers, right? So I share with a friend with a DD 3 months younger. then I put everything into those rubbermaid storage totes and store int eh basement, with them all labeled by size and season. I don't over stuff the bins as this lets critters into them... But it is so easy now- when I needed 3 summer stuff, there it was, just brought it up...

I also do a LOT with Freecycle. I freecycle out all my middle sons things that are too boyish to save for DD, and then if I need stuff for my older son or my dd, I ask and have been blessed with so much- even shoes... wonderful coats et cetera... If you don't have a lot of storage space, I would say get 3 of those under bed bins- 3 will fit under a twin bed, and then have one for the coming season (Fall/winter 08) another for Sping Summer 09 and another for Fall Winter 09. But if you can devote a corner of the basement to clothing sotarage that will really save you $$$ Amy D wrote aobut the method I use in the TWG books... I guess also with having DD be my third (and last) it is nice because once she is done with stuff it all gets passed on. I do save things between my 2 boys. I have nev,r ever had to run out and buy any child a whole seasons worth of clothing. Now that my oldest is a teen and is in hard to fit sizes I do find myself buying him jeans and shorts, but still I ask on Freecycle first. I also have to buy my oldest brand new shoes, the kids goes thru them pretty quick but he has my poor arches so I do spend money on good shoes for him. But all his coats and shirts come via friends or Freecycle and I do find some shorts and pants for him at the thrift shop.


I also send thank you notes, some times on e-mail, to those who have given me clothing for my kids. Even when what they gave me was mostly play clothing or even shot- I figure if I got even one or 2 useable things, then we are good. One lady I know always gives me play clothes, but we need those too so that is ok : )

If you are not yet involved with Freecyle, I strongly urge you to get involved. Wehn I joined my group, it was a very small group but now it has grown to almost 2000 people. If you don't like getting tons of e-mails, you can get it in digest format.