Ten Easy Steps For Clothing Kids on A Budget

Having a large family and a strict budget can often times lead to major financial hurdles. We have been a one-income family for the majority of our marriage and have had no other choice but to learn to effectively manage money. We've never borrowed money from family and have always made a point to pay any and all debts off as quickly as possible (making great financial sacrifices at times!)

To adequately and within budget, keep our children in clothes and shoes; we have created a system which has worked for nearly 19 years. It isn't exactly an easy system to maintain, but then again there isn't much in this life that is easy anyways. Our system takes year-round attention and the entire family pitching in to make it happen ~ I'm truly blessed to have a family that's willing to do their part in keeping up with our clothing system.

Our system for clothing our children has evolved and changed over the years, and I'm sure it will continue to be tweaked as our family dynamics change. The following list details our current large family, small budget system for clothing our kiddos.

Ten Easy Steps for Clothing Kids on a Budget

1. Remove the desire/want for name brand expensive clothing & shoes.
2. Limit the number of clothing articles necessary for each person within the family. This will look different for each family and each child. (Specifically in regards to age, gender, and extra curricular activities.)
3. Let friends and family know you are graciously open to receiving hand-me-downs.
4. Designate a space in your home to store hand-me-downs.
5. Teach your children to value clothing as a necessity not a want of the latest trends/fashion. They should simply be grateful for clothes to wear. (Lead by example mamas!)
6. Shop for clothing during the off-season. This requires actually going into a store folks. (Not exactly ideal for those who are hooked to on-line shopping and placing 'pick-up' orders at local stores, but this is a MAJOR facet of how I find great deals on clothing!!) 
7. Shop local thrift stores and consignment shops. 
8. Keep up with the washing and the taking care of clothes. Teach your children to keep up with their clothes, especially coats and other winter gear. If clothing is well taken care of, it can more easily be passed down to the next child.
9. Commit to sorting through clothes at least twice a year. I typically do this in October and April, but this would usually be when the seasons are changing.
10. Keep a designated box to place clothes you see your children outgrowing before your regular schedule clothes switch-out.

We affectionately call our seasonal clothes switch-a-roo the "Bucket Brigade".

As you can see we have acquired a lot of hand-me-downs over the years! A true blessing indeed!! Believe it or not, I actually do a seasonal purge of our hand-me-downs, lol. This year we had seven gigantic trash bags that we sent to the thrift store and we freed up three buckets. It's a never ending process that is for sure.

While this isn't exactly an easy system, it has consistently worked for our family. Making every dollar stretch to meet the needs of our large family takes all of us jumping through some hoops that I realize most folks wouldn't even consider doing. But, we haven't ever known anything different, so we just keep plugging away with what has proven to work.

Even though this system takes a lot of effort, I believe the life lessons of frugality and teaching my children the true value of a dollar is well worth the extra energy it requires. (Not to mention the money we save!) Our children are watching and learning from everything we do, even with something as trivial as how we clothe them. 

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer