How much do you spend per kid per year on clothing?

[Anonymous]

In a recent thread I saw a lot of people commenting that they shop for kids clothes on ebay. I've never tried this. I thought I was doing ok catching H&M's 30% off sales twice a year. We have one 2 year old and I have been budgeting and spending about $800 a year on clothing, which includes all clothing, shoes, pajamas, coats, etc. I know I realize that's quite a lot potentially, but it's pretty fun to dress a toddler!

So how much do you spend on clothing per kid and what are their ages? Where do you shop? I am hoping to hear from people on both sides of the spectrum on this!

[Anonymous]

I have no idea because I don’t track it. DD is 10 now and about 90% of her clothing is from the thrift store.I buy new at the Outlets sometimes, mainly Gap and Old Navy. She likes athletic clothing and I can always find Under Armour, Nike , adidas etc for her for $3-$5. She wears a uniform for school so the shirt is new because has a logo but all her khaki pants or shorts are from thrifting. Current winter coat is North Face and she has a Columbia one as a back up, both from thrift. I like nice quality, I just don’t want to pay for it.

[Anonymous]

Similar to PP above. Both kids are young so most clothes are hand me downs or thrifted. I buy tennis shoes brand new but always on sale. I pass on or resell everything that is still in good condition after they outgrow.

[Anonymous]

For us it’s a mix. We get some hand me downs from a friend (their kids are slightly older). I hit up sales at old navy/gap, H&M, Primary, also shop secondhand for sone of the nicer brands (e.g. Hanna) on BST groups or Poshmark. I’ve had limited success at thrift stores and don’t have one that is super convenient but I’ll stop if I’m in the area. But my kids are hard on pants especially, so it’s no wonder I rarely find gently used joggers for my 6yo!

[Anonymous]

PP again- I don’t really keep track on the amount but should!

[Anonymous]

I’m surprised at the number of people who thrift. We bought at Old Navy, Gap on sale, Nordstrom Rack (or Nordstrom at the anniversary sale) sometimes outlets and handed down to younger kids. I’m sure we spent $1000/year.

[Anonymous]

Now my kids are teens and we’re all so busy, thrifting is impossible. For years, we got by on thrifting and hand me downs, but that’s about over as well.

So I buy at Land’s End, mostly on sale, and other places. Luckily my kids don’t require anything trendy!!!

[Anonymous]

^ don’t keep track of expenses - maybe $200-500 per kid per year, depending on whether they’ve outgrown coats, footwear or formalwear.

[Anonymous]

I thrift, use consignment sales, and buy nothing hand me downs. Probably $200/year. Shoes are stupid expensive though--they are easily $50/pair of sneakers, cleats, or basketball shoes. If you're counting shoes, it's probably double. He's almost 9 and starting to have an opinion on clothes now so it will probably start going up. I couldn't justify the waste of a $10 shirt that was outgrown in a few months when he was little though.

[Anonymous]

I have two boys who are 13 and 11 and a girl who is 8. I barely spend any money on clothes. We literally only buy the 13 year old clothes. And the kids have about a gazillion t-shirts from their activities. The 13 year old needs clothes and then the 11 y/o wear his hand me downs. Then I have a friend with two girls and a boy the same ages as my kids but reversed. I give her my boy clothes when the 11 y/o grows out of them and she gives me her girl clothes when her 11 y/o grows out of them.

They get new clothes if they need them for a specific reason or I do put it on Xmas list as ideas. My MIL, SILs and nieces do like to give my daughter frilly dresses and totally cutesy clothes when they see her so I don’t think she’s suffering. The boys DGAF what they wear.

[Anonymous]

~$500/year per kid. But both kids like pretty basic stuff, tees sweatshirts and athletic pants.

[Anonymous]

My kids are 3 (boy) and 1.5 (girl).

We were intentional from day one with buying primarily gender neutral stuff (which I tend to prefer anyway) since we’ll prob end up with 3 kids. We hand down nearly everything from DS to DD. We also get hand me downs from others. We are lucky that we have a gender-aligned source for each kid. Almost anything we need to buy we get from online thrift stores (thredup and swap.com)

In my daughters life I’ve probably spent less than $150 on clothes for her. One bear suit last winter (season was off from my son), one set of summer dresses and bathing suits last summer, and both her Christmas dresses. All but one dress were thrifted. Now that we’ve got a good source of hand me downs, we literally spent $0 on her last clothing size. I can’t imagine spending more than $50 or $100 total in the next couple years.

We spent more on my son in the early days because he was first and we didn’t get the hand-me-down situation set until he was about 2. I prob spent an average of $50 a month for him his first year of life (he also went through a LOT of sizes!). Probably the same his second year. We had fewer gifts, thrifted clothes got more pricey (there’s such a glut of little baby stuff that it’s dirt cheap), but also fewer sizes. Now that he’s in a size for about a year, and we’re locked in on hand me downs, it’s prob just $200 a year.

[Anonymous]

I have 3 young kids. We pick up a lot via our Buy Nothing group and hand me downs from cousins. My younger kids wear hand me downs from their siblings. My kids also get gifts of clothing from family members. I'd say we spend an average of $250 per kid per year to fill in what isn't free/gifted. Usually I'm spending the most on shoes, swimwear, and underwear, and a nicer outfit for family pictures.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m surprised at the number of people who thrift. We bought at Old Navy, Gap on sale, Nordstrom Rack (or Nordstrom at the anniversary sale) sometimes outlets and handed down to younger kids. I’m sure we spent $1000/year.

I’m the first PP. I live 10-12 mins from the Unique/Valu Village store. It’s huge.

[Anonymous]

One tween. We probably spend $300 on clothes, $150 on shoes, and if she needs outwear-another $150 on one kid who lives in two homes-so we tend to need more items. Most of her clothes are from target and she likes Nikes in the cheap styles.