To ask how much you spend on your DC’s clothes.

[Del29]

I have two children - a boy and a girl so hand me downs can’t happen. They’ve grown lots in the last year. They literally need everything! T-shirts, leggings, jumpers, shorts, jeans, jumpers, hoodies.

I’ve ordered a few bits this week from different websites as stock isn’t great everywhere. A mix of H&M, Matalan, Asda and next! Totalling around £300-£350 and it’s not like I’ve got massive piles of new clothes from that amount of money 🤦🤦 they did literally need everything down to pants and socks plus some croc type shoes for garden play.

It’s not like this will see them out for the whole year. It’s mainly clothes suitable for spring and summer!

So yeah how much do you spend? How do you save money on clothes?

They are 10&6 so not like they are teenagers!

Both will need shoes before long too.

Before covid I’d just go shopping and buy them bits and bobs throughout the year and never really noticed the costs adding up.

I got in on the river island sale a couple of weeks ago, bagged over £300 worth of stuff for £105 fir my girls. 3 dresses each and 4 full outfits each and matching sweat shirts. All for autumn winter, I do it with all the seasons, buy for the next year when everythings going cheap in the sales! Then I just buy what ever else they need when the time comes. I’d say probably around 300 each per season, I shop river island, Zara, H&M and the odd but if asda/Tesco.

Wait until there teenagers and the jumper they want is £60
£300 for spring/summer wardrobe isn't that bad as normally you would of picked it up but by bit so would of still cost you that most likely just £20 here and there you don't notice

I wouldn’t spend £60 on a jumper for my teens unless it was a Christmas present, the most I spend on one item is £30/£35 for a hoodies/jumper, the only thing I would spend a bit more on is a coat though neither of them will bloody wear one anyway. Most of their clothes comes from Primark, Newlook, Emp, H&M and ASOS. Neither are too bothered about expensive items, not even trainers. I think I’m quite lucky as it means I get more to spend on myself 🤣

I have probably spent around £100 each on winter clothes this year, they did get quite a lot last year and haven’t grown out of much, I will probably spend another £100-£150 on summer clothes but they really don’t need that much as they have shorts from last year and neither will wear skirts or dresses, dd2 needs a new wet suit 😬

Exactly. They can want the £60 jumper all they want but they can buy it with their pocket money or put it on a Christmas list.

I probably spend roughly 650 pounds a year on clothes. Extra for shoes

I used to but a lot of organic eco brands but now I prefer to buy my dc trendy clothes. Plus it's nice to
Pay £2-£3 for a t shirt that's good quality and does Not shrink/ fade unlike the expensive eco organic brands.
Makes it so much more affordable for multiple dc too.

Brace yourself, it only gets worse as they get older and they become aware of brands!

I spent 22 pounds on three pairs of shorts yesterday trying to match the beloved ones that ds refused to get rid of as he's jumped two clothes sizes in a year. Also new school trousers as 4 pairs were destroyed in a term and school shoes. Also he needs new jeans and jogging bottoms as he's showing ankle in everything 🙈 he is very fussy when it comes to clothes so i try to smuggle things into the wardrobe and let him just take them out as and when. Lockdown hasn't helped so I've been shoe horning him into anything I can. By the time we've replaced everything probably looking close to 200

Probably about £100 a month per child 10 and 14. Shoes and coats are the biggest expense, and both of mine are shoe obsessed. Plus a little more for occasions like Christmas, birthdays holidays Easter etc.

It will be a lot more than that the older they get op. Over 6ft 14 year olds with size 11.5 feet are expensive.

I can’t say my kids have ever needed absolutely everything all at the same time. (Admittedly I get a few bits for my ds from friends). At a guess I probably spend about £300 per child all year but not in one go. This would include school wear and coats.

Having said that I haven’t factored in shoes and trainers. Last £60 per of trainers only lasted a matter of weeks!

An embarrassing amount.

For 2 children it’s around 9k a year. That includes all school uniform, coats, shoes etc.

Can you try and find someone local who has kids you could swap with? So if you have an older son and they have an older daughter for instance?
I buy a bot of one off items of good quality on eBay. For instance you can get a 2nd hand pair of Biden trousers which will wear and wear and wear for a fiver including postage. But also you can get a big bundles of several tops for a fiver too! I tend to find local selling groups better for bundles though as you don’t pay postage. Try Gumtree. x

When my children need new wardrobes full I source a mix of winter and summer together and pj's I do on a separate trip

Usually I approximately spend £300 probably more per child this includes the full years of clothes

I buy each child in stages so it's manageable
Ebay is also great for bundles

I bought summer stuff for my 4yo from gap this week and a pair of trainers. Spent £250

At a guess I probably spend maybe £800 a year. Including all shoes, outdoor gear, beach stuff etc.

@ChampagneWorries

An embarrassing amount.

For 2 children it’s around 9k a year. That includes all school uniform, coats, shoes etc.

Wow, that’s £750 a month! What do they wear?

I find it hard to understand how people manage laundry-wise when their children possess so few clothes. Mine have a least a dozen t-shirts each as I don't want to constantly doing laundry or hunting for clean clothes. Once into puberty they need a clean top each day. So perhaps three hanging in the wardrobe from which they can choose what to wear. Three in the laundry basket awaiting the next laundry load of that colour. Three wet/drying after being washed. Three in the ironing pile awaiting ironing.

I have 5 DC and I honestly have no idea but it’s a lot. My eldest is 11 and in size 6 shoes, it’s the shoes that kill me most really because my other two older ones are in size 4 and 5 so all adult sizes, I pay about £40-50 per pair. Clothes are expensive the older they get, I can kit my toddler out for £100 but there’s just no way with the older three.

I do two ‘kit outs’, one in March for spring summer stuff, and then again in aug/sept for autumn winter stuff. Try to buy everything then even though large outlay but at least then I know they’ve got everything they need and there’s no scrabbling for T-shirt’s / things in wrong size. Probably spend about £150 in Mach and £200 in the sept including coats but excluding shoes. Shoes bought when needed, probably £40 every 4/5 months.

I always buy two coats - one for nursery and one for home so they can be washed / worn on rotation, and always a tonne of T-shirt’s / joggers / socks from asda / Tesco / primark etc. Tend to buy more special or individual items from next / H&M / Zara

I try to buy as much as possible in the sales. Last summer I stocked up on summer shorts for this year. I try to buy when there's a 25% off in Sainsbury's, also, whenever there's a good sale in there, I'll pick up items in the next size up and put it away. I bought a couple of good quality hoodies from eBay in the summer ready for winter, so got them at a good price! Just had to buy ds a new pair of trainers though so shopped around online for the best deal. He's going through a huge growth spurt at the mo (both upwards and outwards ) so I'm trying to be as frugal as possible!

For DS16 this is probably what I spend a year, and it’s probably quite a conservative estimate :
X3 hoodies - £120
X3 jogging bottoms - £120
Jeans - £30
T-shirt’s - £100
Socks / undies - £50
Pj - £30
Shorts - £30
Trainers - don’t want to think 🙈 -£100??
Coat - £80
Plus all school uniform, x2 pairs of school shoes a year and sports kits. These would all be men’s sizes.

3 years between my two. DD wears Ds's old stuff, mostly the joggers and pants and some t-shirts. Also shoes and winter gear (live abroad and they have the proper, expensive kit). There's not much I haven't had dd wear, except army print /super boyish t-shirts etc. And undies, obviously. DD has a lot of new stuff but she's worn most of ds's old stuff.

I'd always buy in the sale for the following year, no way I'd buy that season.