***ETA*** First time back to school shopper here... Need some help.

[Sunivondea]

*** Thanks for all the great suggestions ladies!! My DS always gets hand me downs from my sister because she has two older boys. I've had all the way up to 5t since he was born!! And it's all in nearly new condition because that's just how my sister rolls. DD is the only girl on both mine and DH's sides. (until 4 months ago when I had DD2.) So I always have to buy her clothes. Usually I hit up garage sales and thrift shops and stock up on larger sizes. But this past year has been a drain finacially and I wasn't able to. But get this, a woman from our church gave me 4 large large shopping bags full of sizes 5 and 6. Jeans, sweatshirts, tshirts, couple pairs of sneakers, even unopened packages of socks and underwear. She is the Sunday school director. She said she realized DD was the oldest girl in our family and it wasnt fair she was never given things. So she asked her granddaughter from Texas (who has a daughter just a lite older than DD) to send her her dd's old clothes. I'm in awe. All we need now are tennisshoes and school supplies!!! I'm so geeked. But now that I'm doing better financially I can stock up for next year too. :)



DD is going into K. I have maybe $200 to spend on school supplies, clothes & shoes for her plus shoes for DS because he's outgrown his.

How many outfits should I plan on getting her? Where can I go that has cheap cheap CHEAP stuff? IS there a place I can get name brand stuff for less money?

[LucyHarper]

How many outfits does she already have that fit here? We didn't get any clothing for our kids for back to school because they didn't need any. If she already has plenty of clothes that fit, dont get her many new things, if she doesn't have many and needs more, make sure she has enough outfits to last her a week. Look in places like tjmaxx, old navy, sales at kohls and macys, but dont worry so much about if something is brand name, it really doesn't matter. Whats on her supplies list?

[Sunivondea]

I haven't even gotten a supply list yet... :-\

[illinoismommy83]

Check out consignment shops and garage sales. I map out all of the big sub sales in rich areas and stock my kids up on name brand stuff for pennies on the dollar. My 4.5 year old has an entire closet of Gymboree clothes that look totally new for this fall/winter. 

[jbfcmom]

Like many others said, I buy clothes on clearances throughout the year, mostly end of season stuff so I buy sizes ahead for them to grow into later. Both of my girls summer stuff still fits fine and we did get them a couple of new outfits for their summer bdays, so they have a couple of new things. My DDs both love the graphic tees from children's place and crazy 8 that are constantly going on sale for $4.99 (plus TCP usually has 15-20% off total purchase coupons that make sale items even cheaper), and the knit ruffle skorts that are often on sale for $4.99 at TCP and target, even Walmart has some, but not sure of the price there. The only thing they usually need at the start of the school year is new sneakers because they really wear out the soles on their old ones. I tend to buy sneakers on clearance sales at TCP and Payless and stockpile those as well for sizes ahead. My girls grow very slowly though in clothes and shoes, so I can do this. I know not everybody likes to buy shoes ahead because a lot of kids can jumps sizes very quickly and skip sizes.

As far as supplies shopping, Walmart is the way to go IMO.

[cjsmom1]

I went to Walmart for ds's supplies and it was really cheap

[cjsmom1]

Clothes: TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Ross, Target, JCPenny

[cjsmom1]

For sneakers try kids foot locker (they often have shoes on sale), kohls, finish line