Clothe Your Kids and Yourself on a Frugal Budget

Many people don’t realize that they can still dress fashionably without paying that "designer price tag", but you can! 

Here are a few pointers you may consider when deciding to start living as a frugal lifestyle champion....

Play Clothes vs. School Clothes--- Everyone knows that kids can be harsh on clothes especially when they are with their friends and playing in mud, dirt, and sand. You can save yourself money by making your kids change out of their “good” attire for school and public places and change into play clothes that you don’t care about getting stained or torn. 

Many people find cheap play clothes at secondhand thrift shops such as shirts, shorts, and pants for as cheap as Php50.00 / $1.25USD a pair. Why spend much money on clothes that are going to be messed up… in the end by providing your kids play clothes to change into after school, you will save yourself "tons" of money by not having to replace the “good” clothes as often.

Create Clothing Bins for Storage and Future Wear--- This is a great idea if you have more than one child and you can also use this for yourself and your spouse. What you want to do is create bins for clothes to store in your storage or attic. 

Each of the bins need to be labeled with the appropriate gender and size. You can also separate the bins in seasons if you’d like. If you have an older child and a younger child of the same gender, then this is a great way to store hand me down clothes when the younger child reaches the appropriate size to wear the clothes from the older sibling. 

Hand me down clothes are a great way to save money, and doesn’t have to be looked at as a bad thing. As long as the clothes are taken care off, they can virtually still look like new for the next kid coming up into the appropriate size. 

You can also shop secondhand thrift stores for future up sizes that your kids can grow in to. Remember that most secondhand thrift stores do have clothing items available that are from retailers of name brand clothing that literally still have the price tag on them, so take advantage of those savings and quality, even if your child isn’t that size just yet. 

You can easily store the clothes in a bin labeled with the size of the clothes and then when your child reaches that size you can use those clothes. You will be surprised to see exactly how much money you can save using this method… and still be able to have the name brand clothes that your children desire, just at a dramatically low price!

Shop for Discounts and Seasonal/Holiday Sales on Clothing Items to Store--- Each year clothing retailers will host a huge sale for all of their season ending clothes. This is a great way for you to get bargain prices on name brand clothes that the whole family will love. The trick to this savings is to shop for clothes that your child can wear for that next season or for the holiday, which is most commonly one to two sizes up from what they are wearing currently. You can great discounts on coats this way also. Many of the clothing retailers will have clothes marked down to even 80% off, which is a great savings and a way to get more clothing at a cheaper price. 

You may try doing this and you will be surprised how much you have saved yourself when you already have a wardrobe for both you and your family and spent only a fraction of the price that you would normally spend. Most department stores base their discounts per season, so keep your eyes peeled during the months of summer, fall, winter, and spring or holidays like Christmas for discounts and savings for the upcoming year’s wardrobe and save money the whole step of the way!

So the next time your deciding to hit up the sales and clearance racks for you and your families clothing, make sure that you use these helpful tips, strategies, and suggestions to save you cash and puts money that you would normally spend back into your pocket!