Some Ways We Save Money Alongside Kid Clothes

One of the most common questions on instagram/Facebook/Twitter when we share a photo is not “what paint color is that?” or “who makes that lamp?” – it is “where did you get that shirt/dress/skirt?” – and they are not talking about me (or John)… they are talking about Clara. Yes, there have been a bunch of requests for a post about how we score deals/save money in the kid clothing department along with where we get her clothes. So whoop, here it is. And thanks to all of those aforementioned instagram photos that we have shared, we have a whole bunch of shots to use throughout this rundown.

Admittedly it is kinda weird to analyze your kid’s clothing in so much detail (she’s two! we simply buy things we think are cute and try to save money when we can) but I realized when I was writing this up that we have in fact learned a decent amount over the last two years of dressing a compact person. And there are certainly things we wish we had known in the beginning, which would have saved us money and time – so perhaps they’ll assist someone else out there. So without further ado, the story of Clara’s clothes, as told by our instagram feed…

Most of Clara’s clothing comes from these four places:

1. Hand me downs from her sweet cousin Elsa (or the three year old who lives next door)
2. Old Navy (typically on the clearance rack or purchased with a coupon)
3. Target (consistently on the clearance rack)
4. H&M (they have the cutest stuff, especially summery dresses)

Of course she also occasionally gets things as gifts or we get gift cards to a place like The Gap for our birthdays (and spend the money in their kids department instead of on ourselves). And we have also ducked into other stores from time to time, like the Carter’s Outlet near John’s parents’ beach house. But I’d certainly say the majority of her stuff comes from the four sources above. Like the dress in the picture above (from the clearance rack at Target) for example.

It was in fact a birthday gift for her from John’s sister Emily, but we enjoy that she knows one of our go-to Clara-clothing spots (I think it was around $6). It is a size 2T, which should last Clara at least a year (we can add jeggings underneath to carry it into colder temps or to cover things up if it gets shorter as she grows). And it might seem obvious, but we have at last realized that dresses are frequently the most bang for our buck in the clothing department since they are simply one piece (so instead of finding a low-cost t-shirt for $4 with low-cost shorts for $4, that dress is an whole outfit for $6).

Here is a dress from H&M, which was $12. Initially I thought that was pricey (I am low-cost, so I like things in the single digits – anything over ten makes me flinch, haha) but Clara has worn the heck out of it. Likely at least once a week for the whole summer so far. So by the end of its life I’d guess the cost per wear will likely be around fifty cents. And if we hand it down to a future child it could be even less.

Unlike a Beverly Hills housewife, Clara wears her outfits a whole bunch of times. You might see her petting goats in something one week…

… and playing with Barbies in the same outfit a week or two later.

This is a clearance skirt from The Gap and a white top from Old Navy. I think this outfit total was around $7 ($4 for the skirt and $3 for the top). In short the top + bottom equation with her is typically: colorful blousey top + basic jeggings/dark jeans OR colorful skirt or pink/yellow jeans + basic top (like this white ruffled tank top). Something sort of classic with something else that is bright and lively. That way it is not too boring or too crazy, it is a little bit of each. And when it comes to trying to “make” outfits from random items that she has in her drawers like a pair of jeggings or a cute t-shirt, I can now make pairings fairly much on autopilot with that general equation. So as weird as it is to have a “Clara clothing formula” it saves us time (and money spent on things that would not fit in as easily). And she seems to truly like her clothes (last night while going to visit her grandparents she said she could not wait to show them her “fairly fairly dress”).

Another strong example of that equation would be one of my go-to Clara outfits ever. See how the basic printed t-shirt (featuring a Burger lookalike from the J Crew Outlet) + a girly ruffled soft pink skirt (a hand-me-down from the girl next door) can add up to something playful and sweet at the same time? Especially when paired with a RAD tattoo. Haha.

Another example of this would be one of my go-to shirts (from Old Navy for around $8), which you can see in this picture. It is blousy and flowy and Clara LOVES it. Everything from the big sleeves with the scalloped trim on the bottom to the colorful flowers float her boat. So we pair it with basic jeggings or jeans most of the time. Simply because it is an straightforward foolproof outfit. And it keeps me from having to buy more specific bottoms that “match” it (ex: purple pants, orange capris) since we have sufficient classic items like jeans/jeggings in our drawers that already work with it.

Here is yet another example of girly/bold/patterned bottoms with something basic on top. This is an outfit I found at the Carter Outlets in Delaware when we stopped there over Memorial Day. I think it was under $10 total for both pieces (total) and Clara has easily worn this at least eight times since then.

When it comes down to numbers, Clara typically has 10-12 “good outfits” in rotation, which is simply a number that seems to work well for us since we do laundry once a week and she has some other “messy outfits” that we will put her in before doing anything crazy like painting or running around in the mud. So it is not like she changes clothes three times a day and needs 30 good dresses and pants and tops. I’d say 95% of the time, she wears one outfit all day long. So since 10-12 outfits is not truly that many, we try not to go for quantity, but for quality. Not by spending a ton of money on the item itself (goodness knows kids get things dirty and grow out of things all the time) but by trying to stay “focused” on things that work well for us (especially Clara) – so she does not end up with dresser stuffed full of mismatched deals with no real pairings or purpose.

We did not consistently follow this technique. When she was smaller we used to go for quantity, so if Old Navy was having a t-shirt sale I’d get three for eight bucks instead of one dress for eight bucks on the sale rack. But as Clara grew we realized that a bunch of clothes that you do not enjoy (and that you did not necessarily buy as an “outfit”) are not as straightforward to use or enjoy as trying to keep your focus and only buying things that you will end up reaching for them again and again. One straightforward question I ask myself before I buy something for her is “will this be something I put in our ‘go-to outfits’ drawer, or will it end up in the middle drawer with a bunch of on-sale mismatched items that she never wears?”

This is a tee we got on clearance from Old Navy with a red skirt from The Gap that Clara got as a gift… wait for it… over a year ago.

So another one of our learned-along-the-way pointers would be to ignore the size on the labels when it comes to retiring items of clothing and simply go by how they fit. This skirt in fact says 12 months in the label, but it still fits her comfortably (and although it is a little short it has built-in bloomers for toddler modesty, haha). So instead of simply stashing it in the tupperware bins in our attic (where we store all of the clothes she has outgrown – more on that here) I am cool with her wearing it as long as it comfortably fits. We have gotten at least one “bonus year” of wear from it already, so I am psyched. Saves us from buying another one until she truly outgrows it.

Here is the opposite application of that last pointer. If something is too big, you will get more wear out of it by figuring out how to get your child into it sooner if at all possible (two summers of use from a dress instead of one = brought in value). So when I slipped this $8 Target dress onto Clara and it was way too big (the straps were so stretchy the neckline slipped down below her chest), I tried turning it so one of the arm straps went around her neck like a halter. The other strap got tucked into the elastic back of the dress, which does not seem to bother Clara at all, and now she can wear this dress now, and hopefully next year too with her arms where they are meant to go.

This is another dress from H&M (it was $11). It is hard to tell from this photo, but it has a fairly eyelet detail on the bottom and it is a soft blue seersucker material. One thing to notice from the picture is that Clara has a go-to pair of shoes, and it is her pink Crocs. So those are what she wears 95% of the time.

It has saved us a ton of money to recognize that the girl has a go-to pair of shoes (we used to buy her a bunch of distinct kinds and she consistently requested the same ones, to the point that she’d outgrow perfectly pristine shoes without ever wearing them since she favors her Crocs so much). But now we have realized that they are her shoe of choice and we are ok with pairing them with nearly any outfit. Sure, navy shoes might be cuter with this blue dress, but pink crocs send out that “these are the shoes I like” vibe, which we are cool with.

This dress is from Old Navy. It was $6 on clearance and after stacking additional coupons on top it was $4 at the register. Woot. I consistently keep Old Navy coupons in a little file folder in my purse (more on that here) so I in short never buy anything there without using a coupon since they pop up in the mail all the time.

In general our theory on dressing Clara is that we want her to be comfortable and cute. We could consistently spend more, and certainly could spend less, but after two years we think the $6-12 per outfit range is the sweet spot for us. We have also at last figured out the stores we like and how things fit her (ex: 3T jeans and PJs at Old Navy fit her like a dream, 2T dresses are better for her from nearly everywhere, etc). This is helpful because it saves us money and time (had we invested in three more pairs of 2T pjs without knowing that 3T fits her better, she would have outgrown them faster and we’d be back at the store buying more).

This outfit is all Old Navy. The top was $4 and the jeggings were 2/$7 (so it was $3.50 for this pair). I’d say Clara’s “summer uniform” has been sundresses and the occasional skirt and top, but for the spring, fall, and winter, jeggings and dark denim jeans (along with a few pairs of colorful jeans – in pink & yellow) have been excellent.

And in case you are wondering, Clara totally goes shopping with us. Her go-to spot ever = the fake family at the front of our Old Navy. She literally runs towards them and says “I see the children and the dog!” and even lifts up the girl’s shirt to look for her belly button.

This is one of my go-to instagram photos ever, and Clara’s wearing a hand-me-down shirt from the girl who lives next door. I thought the checkers on her shirt looked so cute with John’s checked shirt while they were lying in bed, and I am so glad I grabbed this shot. Makes me melt. And even though you cannot see the rest of this outfit, since Clara’s hair has yet to grow in and she sometimes gets mistaken for a boy, her pink crocs assist to add some girl power. Not because we are weird about gender stuff and covering her in pink, simply because we like to throw strangers a bone so they do not blush profusely after calling her a boy. And Clara in fact says “pink and yellow” when you ask her what her go-to colors are. So those certainly get worked in a fair amount when it comes to her clothes.

So that ends our little Clara clothing rundown. I hope our weird analysis of why/what we buy and how many we get/how much we spend somehow helped folks out there who were wondering! What are your go-to kid clothing stores? Do you have any money-saving pointers? Or do you have a magic number of “good outfits” that carry you through the week without making you feel overwhelmed (or making your drawers feel overstuffed)?

Psst – I am obsessed with this beach house. How fairly is it?! Thanks to the sweet reader who suggested the link. I have had the page open for days.