BHG Articles

For soon-to-be parents, pregnancy often feels like the best time of their lives. For the woman, there is great anticipation for the arrival of her bouncing baby, and for her husband, there is the promise of the feeling of being a dad. Both share in the excitement that mounts as her stomach grows and look forward to sharing the journey of parenthood with their child. Neither is really worried about kids clothing and other future concerns.

Indeed, babies are a joy to their parents, and are met with such excitement. But there is also some level of naivete before a child is born that quickly become obvious when the costs of raising that child become an issue. Many parents find themselves unprepared for these sudden additional costs and often make the situation worse by being unsure how to cover them.

Clothes are one of the most noteworthy of all the new costs there are to cover. Even before they’re in regular clothes, children have to wear diapers, which add up very quickly. Then consider having to buy all types of clothing later on, and things can easily be overwhelming. If you feel unprepared, here are some tips to save money on clothes.

First, you have to set a budget to know how much you can spend. You will need to adjust this amount around such things as your income, the number of kids you have, at what you can realistically set aside for each one. Your budget will also need to be flexible in case of emergencies, as unexpected issues come up a lot, especially when you have kids.

You can save a lot of money by shopping at places where you can get a discount on clothes, such as stores that specialize in items often between 45% and 75% off, and nearly as good as their more expensive counterparts. Clothes at second-hand stores might not be quite as good in quality, but they’re certainly not of bad condition, and are usually even cheaper. Do the same as they do at home, with older kids giving things to their siblings.

If you’d still rather shop at department stores, you should buy as much as you can during closeout sales. Items from struggling factories or that have been over stocked are usually marked down a lot. These discounts aren’t always advertised, but they’re typically found on items sold in bulk.

Shopping sales will teach you that timing is key. Likewise, some online retailers will offer coupons limited to a certain time period. Certain times of year bring savings on all sorts of items at all stores. The months of September, November, and December are the ones you should mark off in your calendar as the best times to shop for kids clothes.

One last thing is that you really do have to stand up against your kids when they try to get you to buy the latest fads. These items are always expensive and nearly every time, they will be forgotten as quickly as the styles that came before them. Within months, those things you spent so much on will be sitting in the corner of a closet and forgotten.