Back to School Clothing
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| Wed, 08-09-2006 - 5:58pm |
Ugh- it's my dd14's favorite time of the year again - a bonafide excuse to go shopping, where I foot the bill ;-)
I just want to know what everyone else does - maybe get some ideas. Do you offer a "budget amount" to each of your kids for back to school clothes and let them choose as long as they stay within the budget or do you go through and see what they actually "need" versus "want"?
I personally like the idea of letting them learn money management skills by giving them a set amount to spend and if they wear the same worn out shoes because they over spent in other areas perhaps they might learn something...the question becomes what amount is reasonable. Dh, who is completely out of touch with how much anything costs these days, thinks $100 per kid is enough, when as we all know a good pair of shoes can't be found for under $40. For my ds10 who likes to shop at Target $100 will be more than enough. But teenagers are a whole different ballgame, clothes are just pricier, even if you don't shop the name brands. What do you think?

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My dd14 is also a size 0 - but we have trouble finding that size. We also have taken advantage of Pac Bucks at Pac Sun. DD is also very good at sniffing out bargains. I guess my thing is that I'm looking for a reasonable amount to set - so far I've seen $300 (ouch)mentioned. So I guess somewhere between $100 and $300 will be my goal.
Hi Robin and welcome to the board.
I'm with Pam. I have three boys (15, 13, and 10) who couldn't care less about clothing or where it comes from. Matt (15-junior) wears jeans,t-shirts, and hoodies; Chris (13-eighth grade) is slightly more fashionable and like polos, or shirts and sweaters come winter; Greg (10-fifth grade) would live in sweats and tees if I let him.
We don't do back-to-school shopping as an event. We do a sort and purge; clothing moves down the line (Matt to Chris, Chris to Greg) and then we fill in the gaps as needed. And it isn't just Matt who gets the new stuff; Chris and Greg will get new items because they don't always like what their older brothers are passing down.
I'm very fortunate that my guys don't care where clothes come from. My DH has been unemployed since January (he starts a new job next week), so this summer's "new" polos for Chris and "new" shorts for Matt came from the Salvation Army store. Last winter when my mom came to visit, we found "new" hoodies and sweaters for the guys at the Goodwill store. Some times I luck out and have even found J. Crew and Tommy Hilfiger stuff at these places--for a fraction of what they'd cost new.
I think the only new thing I have to buy before school starts is new sneakers for Chris. The kind he likes are about $25 at Target.
Elizabeth
I've got 2 boys and they are as bad as any girl I've ever seen when it comes to clothes, especially the older. (Thank heavens he is now out of the house and buys much of his own clothing.) We do the need vs. want mostly. I've never actually put a dollar figure to it, because sometimes one will have outgrown absolutely *everything* and maybe the other can pretty much still wear all of last year's clothes. Plus, the older hands down stuff to the younger, which really, really helps (because, you know, big brother has *everything* that's cool and Mom just doesn't know what "cool" is, so God forbid I actually buy anything w/o approval. sheesh) Anyway, there is always the occasion where one of them really wants a particular item that is more expensive (usually a name-brand). Depending on what it costs and what it is, I may let him choose either that one thing, OR two or three of a cheaper one. For example, last year, ds15 found a pair of ratty jeans (you know the ones) on sale. He really wanted them. They were twice the price of regular jeans, and, since he actually found them on sale, I told him he could have that one pair, or two pair of reg. jeans. He opted for the one pair. I was fine with that. We pretty much buy clothes year round, looking for sales. So many times I can't buy something for winter during the summer because he'll outgrow it before he can wear it.
We always have to spend money on sports stuff (cleats, gloves, etc.), so that kinda knocks out any *major* spending on just school clothes.
This year I'm guessing about $200 per kid, with the big expense being shoes. The shoes I bought DD early in the summer (3 pairs) were about $100, I think, and those should last her for most of the school year. School polos have to be purchased at either the school store or uniform supply shop and have the school logo on them (so no 2/$20 Target polos, unfortunately) and will probably be between $15-$20 each. I think we'll get two. She also needs a new pair of jeans for Fridays and a new backpack.
I mentioned that DS' shoes were only $40 vs. the $60-$65 I was expecting to pay so I let him have the $42 Ezekial shirt he wanted from one of those 'sun' shops. I tried to interest him in the sale shirts, but he wasn't having any of that. So he got just one, instead of possibly two. He also got a rather pricey Quicksilver backpack. He's gonna be my name brand worshipping kid, I see that already. Early in the summer, I bought him 3-4 pairs of shorts and shirts, plus a couple pairs of athletic shorts for tennis and only spent a little over $100 at Old Navy. Those purchases should last and will be fine for him until December/January. Oh! and also at Nordstrom Rack, we bought a Quicksilver sweatshirt for $18.99 or something. We saw a very similar one at that 'sun' shop for over $40! He won't need it for quite a few months yet, but I thought it better to pay $20 now instead of $40 later.
Last year, however, was an entirely different story as we had to 'build' DD's school uniform wardrobe. At the uniform supply store, we bought 4 skirts, 8 polos, a v-neck sweater vest and a long-sleeve v-neck sweater and spent about $500. Then, she needed a white button-down blouse for dress days, as well as dress shoes. Then PE clothes. And when the weather got cooler, we had to buy a sweatshirt -- actually I think she ended up with two. All her school clothes have to be official school uniform, even the sweatshirts, so last year was pricey. BUT ... she'll be able to wear most of what we bought for the next four years, providing she doesn't gain a lot of weight or suddenly get very tall.
In the fall, she went on a school-sponsored trip and we realized that she didn't have many clothes appropriate for activities outside of school, so we had to shop again for casual clothes. Like I said, it was an expensive year, clothes wise!
Like some others have said, I tend to shop on as-needed basis now that they're older, instead of a big shop just because school is starting.
One of the things I learned when DD was in middle school is that it was best for her to see what sort of clothes everyone else was wearing, what was cool, etc., before actually buying anything. There was a year or two that we shopped in advance and once school started, she decided she didn't like what she'd bought, it wasn't the right look, the wrong crowd wore it, blah, blah, blah and it all just hung in the closet getting smaller while she wore the same things over and over and over.
Now that I've been through the whole middle school experience with DD, I'm a little better prepared with DS. That's why just one new 'back to school' shirt and we'll fill in as things wear out and get too small.
Sorry so long; I'm sure that's more info than you need to know, but I hope it helps!
Julie
Edited 8/10/2006 1:47 pm ET by hydrangea_blue
Ugh! I hate this time of year. DD 17, who is VERY into fashion, thinks this is free reign for
I go through with my son and determing exactly what he needs and how much of each item he'll be needing. I then give him an allowance based upon what it would cost to purchase those items at a typical dept store. If my son wants major brands, then it's got to come out of his allowance or he needs to shop sales and thrift stores to come up with the difference. Sometimes he manages very well with thrift store finds vs wanting something in the store.
ie.. He's been wanting a Columbia brand fleece jacket for a couple of years now. It's always been beyond his budget,and I have alotted $20 for a fleece jacket. Well the he saw one the other day at the thrift store. It looked like new (had some cat fur on it but that came out easily enough with a good washing), the price marked was $6.99 and he got it for $3.50 thanks to it being a 50% off blue tag day. So instead of having to come up with the extra $20 over and above the $20 that was allotted to buy the jacket he wants, he got the jacket he wants and has $16.50 left over from his clothing allowance for the jacket to put towards purchasing something else.
He has to fill the list the items he needs, but how he does it is entirely up to him. Sales, thrift stores, etc.. He usually is able to pull out a few major brand (Gap, AE etc..) doing things this way.
stacy
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