Does Anyone else WAIT until school starts to clothes shop?

[crazy4mm]

The idea that you are "supposed" to do a big "back to school" clothes shopping trip never made sense to me. As has already been said, the weather is still warn enough that the kids are still wearing Summer clothes as long as they can (some kids even wear shorts in the winter).

But my kids have been growing by leaps and bounds since the day they were born....and I can't keep up! I have learned the hard way that they grow out of clothes too fast, and end up with new clothes that they never wore.

So instead of back-to-school shopping, I will pick up a few new "outfits" to wear from Summer clearance (mostly for my daughter's sake, cause my boys could care less) and then just buy clothes as they need them.

It's a much easier blow to the wallet if you are only picking up a few new clothes each month, plus they have new clothes throughout the year, instead of one big rush of new clothes at the beginning.

 

[Hannathy]

I've always waited. They almost always start off school in their summer clothes and usually for most of the month of Sept. even if it cools down the most they will wear is jeans with a summer shirt. Our schools don't have AC so they need summer clothes even if it is cool out. Especially my kids for middle school cause they have no windows and no AC.

For my DD she might buy a new top for the first day but that was it ( or a summer dress if we found one really on sale) my DS couldn't care less, new, old or even matching!

I never bought mine a lot of clothes all at once anyway. If you do that and the grow they are then out of all their clothes at once. Plus it is nice to be able to get new things all year and for girls to be able to get something new if a new style comes out.

The only thing I usually HAVE to buy for 1rst day is new Tennis shoes for Gym.

 

[wishesuponastar]

The only BTS shopping we do is for school supplies and one new top, pair of pants or skirt and sneakers if they need them. Our kids wear their summer stuff until the end of September.

 

[YO's Mom]

Also, we have a Goodwill about 30 miles away that for some reason is like a high end dept store. I'm not sure why, but everything in there is super nice. The girls found tons of stuff there, and they were thrilled.

We have a Goodwill like that in our area. I have found lots of things with the tags still attached - Ann Taylor, Coldwater Creek, DKNY and for the kids, Hanna Andersson, Gap, Gymboree. The fact that we are near an outlet mall probably explains that! My girls would rather have 5 new things from Goodwill than 1 new thing from Old Navy. Gotta love my little bargain shoppers!

 

[Natalie's Mommy]

i keep an eye on winter stuff on clearance when i start doing my hard core summer shopping, because at that point it's usually marked down cheap (got dd1 a pair of skinny jeans at 77kids for $7!!)

I also shop throughout the year for great deals on non trendy items and save them for BTS clothes. Justice did a 40% off sale and had an addition 40% off clearance (so 8-% off almost!) so i stocked up on basic tee's and tanks that don't ever go out of style in her size now for school and also a few in the next size up. I think the most expensive thing i got that trip was a pair of shorts that she NEEDED (we had a shorts shortage here for her) for $6 and the least expensive was a t-shirt for 1.59.

DD1 also likes PS by areo but their quality is kinda crappy and i won't let her wear super duper trendy stuff (she's 6 she dosn't need to look like a mini teenager) but i always go in there to check out their sales, a year or so ago i went in there one day and they had a table full of boxes of t-shirts (it was winter) and they were all $2.99 so i dug in and got her 5 or 6 t-shirts in the smallest size they had and those are in her "BTS" pile this year. Stuff like that dosn't go out of style and i got 5 shirts for what most people usually pay for one or two....she's in heaven because its from that store and other kids shop there too and i'm in heaven because i saved a ton!!!

 

[knittykat]

My daughter is not in school yet, but this year I took her to the thrift store to pick out a few things. She had a great time and everything is already preshrunk. I thought I'd start instilling the idea that thrift shop stuff is good and we can get more than brand new, and it's environmentally responsible.

I'd never apologize for not being able to afford things. IMHO the "back to school" thing is a marketing gimmick that our collective society has bought into and so now we feel like we are "depriving" our kids if they don't have new "back to school" new "holiday" new "winter" new "spring" blah blah blah.

I made her try on everything in her wardrobe and we made an honest assessment of what she needed. I would have said she needed pants but she had TONS; and long sleeved shirts were what she needed instead. Since she didn't need them right away, we knew we had time.

FWIW I did the same thing for my husband and myself; go through everything, what fits, what doesn't, what needs to be mended/altered/repaired, what do you actually need now.

/soapbox

 

[HM]

We never buy clothes before school starts. They live in what they've owned all summer/spring because it still fits. Once the need for winter clothes starts to appear, then we buy.

 

[mrseace711]

I am just curious. We are just flat busted broke right now....This Summer was horrible We were able to pick up a backpack and a few school supplies at 5 Below for our daughter. The issue is school clothes. We simply are not going to be able to afford to buy anything new before school starts. I have tried explaining to her that it's still warm enough to wear her Summer clothes and she will not need new jeans, etc...for a while. But, she is bugging me every day to go shopping...I admit that we can usually buy a few new thing before the first day and last year things were a bit better so she got more than a few things....However, I don't think it's so horrible to wait...I think the sales would be better...and I could afford to get more. Am I being a big meanie (although I don't really have a choice) by waiting or do some of you do the same???

I bought my 2 youngest that are not in uniforms yet all new jeans and shirts for school Guess what it was too hot for jeans and heavy tee-shirts!! They are in week 2 of school and have yet to wear their new clothes!! I should have waited Im sure I could have saved more money that way!! Maybe a new outfirt just for the first day and then buy a shirt or a pair or jeans when ever you can =)

 

[StitchBuddy]

I usually do some back to school shopping before school starts, because I am a teacher and don't have much time after school starts. We live in Texas and it can be warm into Nov. so we usually buy a few shirts on summer clearance and a couple pairs of shoes. But, I don't let her buy jeans until at least Oct. However, this year was a little different. She is starting high school so I splurged a little and we split the cost on some things (she babysits). Nice thing this year is I didn't have to buy a lot of paper etc...

 

[PrincessSteph]

This year I decided that each kid could get a first day outfit and a new pair of gym shoes (they were needed). Last year I let my girls get several new outfits prior to the start of school and by the time the weather cooled down enough for them to wear, all of the clothes were clearanced.

I felt really guilty for a while that I did not / could not buy more (mostly because as a kid I looked forward to all the new back to school outfits I got).

 

[iheartdisney]

I am totally in the same boat, so don't worry! I am nearing the end of my degree program, so I am stuck waiting for the classes I need to open up, so until I can go to school- no school money from the VA, which means not a whole lot of wiggle room in our budget.
I don't do any "big" shopping. I buy here and there all year long. My kids are always wearing out their clothes, or growing out of them in phases, so an outfit here, a new pair of jeans there, that is how I roll! The biggest shopping I do is on Black Friday sales. Other than that, most of their clothes come from the thrift store. Department stores are ridiculous, and at Walmart, you get what you pay for. Sure the outfit is only $10, but it might last a month, if I am lucky.
Luckily all three kids hit a wacky growth spurt at the same time in May, so I had to buy new shoes then, which never got worn during the summer, so they are mostly new.

 

[Dragonfly_34]

DS14 has already started back to school. I usually do my shopping before school starts, but not this year. I was just taken off work and put on short-term disability a few weeks ago because of my pregnancy and am still waiting for my first full disability check so things are a little tight right now. I ended up having to buy him a fair amount of clothes just before school ended in May, and while he still needs a couple pairs of shorts (two pairs have miraculously disappeared) and some shirts, I'm not getting those for another week or so. I did have to get him some new shoes though ~ he threw away one pair of sneakers and lost his other pair ~ so those were a must have. I'm actually going out today to get his school supplies too ~ I opted to wait on that until he knew exactly what he wanted/needed for each class since there's not a published supply list for high school. He made do the first week with one binder and one spiral notebook.

 

[JamesMom]

I always liked the idea of wearing new clothes for the first week of school - first impressions and all that. My boys between camping and rough housing are hard on clothes and shoes and by the time school starts, their spring/summer clothes look a little worn and the soles on the shoes are gone. So sending them to school in spiffy new seems more groomed right down to socks and underwear. We are fortunate to be able to budget $200 for their outfits: each boy (DS6, DS8) got 3 new T-shirts, 3 new short sleeve polos, 3 pairs of shorts, 6 pair underwear, 6 pair socks, new pair of tennis shoes. Next week they can were the old stuff back to school, lol. Here in Texas it is pointless to buy any long sleeve stuff (I buy ONE sweater and ONE long sleeve shirt a year - if it is cold, put on your fleece jacket over your short sleeve shirt) or jeans until Thanksgiving. So far they can still fit into their jeans/jackets from last year so might not need to buy anything new this year as I always buy a little big and the younger boy gets big bro's hand-me-downs. (*fingers crossed*)

 

[shine87]

I got very lucky with the fact that dd's birthday is 2 weeks before school starts. I have a HUGE family and we're not the type to give toys and such for birthdays. we always get things like clothes etc, that the kids will need since none of us are very well off. So I get enough outfits to last her the first week and a half to 2 weeks of school. I usually end up buying her a sweater and jeans just because we live in mass and you never know with the weather around her, I wait till much later to buy the rest of her clothes

 

[lpandorf]

For the most part, waiting at our house. It will be hot here for at least another month and they can wear their summer things. I did not buy anything for my seven year old son. I'll just wait until it starts cooling down and see if I can get some good deals. I did buy my 11 year old daughter a few new t-shirts as she is really starting to care about what she has on. I'm gald I waited on her though, because the store the girls shopped in last year is not considered cool this fall.

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

We live in FL so my kids just wear summer clothes until it's too cold. I don't even buy anything until probably Nov. or so, and even then it's maybe 5 or 6 pants sets. I didn't go school-clothes shopping, and from the looks of it neither did anyone else at my DD's school.

 

[Colleen27]

We don't school shop. We clothes shop as needed, but not at any specific time of year. The only back-to-school shopping we usually do is for a first-day outfit for DD10, unless she got something suitable for her late Aug birthday. I do the bigger fall shopping around the end of Sept when it starts getting too cool for the summer shorts/capris rather than at the start of the year when we're also paying out all the other back-to-school expenses, buying school supplies, etc.

 

[SleepyatDVC]

I'm waiting because DD12 had a growth spurt this summer so I need to make sure any clothes purchased now would fit in about 2 months when she'll actually wear warm weather clothes.

DD10 had a TON of hand me downs from DD12 as well as female cousins. Some of the clothes are barely worn.

 

[Minnie_me]

I'm a teacher. I haven't gotten paid since June 24, and although I start school on August 31, I won't get paid again until September 16th!

So - yeah! -- we wait to do the big school shop.

I get my girls a new pair of gym shoes and a first day of school outfit, and that's about it. It's still nice enough up here in September to pretty much wear their summer clothes.

We do our back-to-school shopping during Columbus Day weekend. Good sales then, too!

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

It's summer hot here and school has been in session for 2 weeks already. My kids are wearing their normal summer clothes to school.

I won't shop for clothes for them until probably October when we need to buy jeans and a few long sleeve shirts to get ready for winter.

I did have to buy each of them a new pair of tennis shoes since they'd worn their summer ones out.