If $500 fits your budget, it seems like a reasonable amount. It also depends on your kid’s age and preferences. We’ve relied heavily on hand me downs. My son is 15 and this is the first year, we’ve had to buy him jeans and athletic pants. He isn’t picky and was fine with the on sale $25 Old Navy ones. Even if we had to buy the rest of the wardrobe, we would have spent less than $500. Shoes may have put it over, but I wouldn’t count dress shoes in his “back to school” amount since he doesn’t wear them to school.

Anonymous wrote:$500 minimum is right, OP. Don’t listen to the posters who claim this is ridiculous. They are out of touch. Everything is super expensive now. I have a nine month old and buy her clothes on sale and offseason and we have still spent over $1k since she was born because of seasonal Purchases. Patagonia buys back stuff after kids outgrow jackets so that is a way to get a little help every season buying a high quality coat.

I spend a decent amount on my kid's clothes but spending $1k on baby clothes over the course of 9 months is 100% a personal choice and not necessary. Of course it's easy to do, those Jacadi onesie's are cute and it can be fun to dress up your kid daily. But you could outfit a baby for less than $200 easily even without hand-me-downs (though these are incredibly easy to come by because kids outgrow baby clothes so fast -- we got tons of good quality hand me downs that first year including lots of stuff with tags still on because their kids outgrew it before they could wear it). Just shop sales at places like Hanna and Tea and then stock up on basics from Target and H&M. You don't even have to buy shoes because they can't walk.

Are people buying new good quality coats for their kids every year? Same with sweaters and dresses? We can always get 2-3 years out of these even in elementary school, as long as we buy good quality.

Even leggings and tees often get worn in consecutive years. Sometimes not but these items are stretchy, unless there's a big height increase, they usually wind up back in the drawer the next year.

I feel like we spend a couple hundred a year on shoes no matter what, and some years there's a new coat or dressy items, but mostly we're just replacing basics like tees and shorts or leggings, and it's easy to buy those on sale.

I think $500-600 is totally reasonable for non-shoe purchases. Easy to spend more and sometimes we do, clothes can be fun, but if the goal is just to make sure your kid is in decent quality, fashionable, well fitting clothes in good condition, I don't think you need to spend more than that.

Anonymous wrote:$500 minimum is right, OP. Don’t listen to the posters who claim this is ridiculous. They are out of touch. Everything is super expensive now. I have a nine month old and buy her clothes on sale and offseason and we have still spent over $1k since she was born because of seasonal Purchases. Patagonia buys back stuff after kids outgrow jackets so that is a way to get a little help every season buying a high quality coat.

Buying (new) Patagonia for an infant is insane.

$500 minimum is right, OP. Don’t listen to the posters who claim this is ridiculous. They are out of touch. Everything is super expensive now. I have a nine month old and buy her clothes on sale and offseason and we have still spent over $1k since she was born because of seasonal Purchases. Patagonia buys back stuff after kids outgrow jackets so that is a way to get a little help every season buying a high quality coat.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On my girls I usually spend 1k each season per child. We buy a lot of their clothes on overseas trips to the EU and we like the quality/fabric/style better than what is available in the US.

The boys I only spend about $500-700. Their clothes are less expensive!

Which stores and what brands do you like the best? It’d be nice to find some less dreary clothes.

NP - for boys I use Tea Collection, Primary, JCrew, etc. I refuse to buy anything for boys that has Dinos, jungle animals, or vehicles.

Anonymous wrote:I spend 200 or 300 per kid and buy mostly second hand. Thankfully we get hand me downs which helps keep the cost down. Much of the budget goes to coats and shoes which I often buy new.

Buying secondhand can be great! I got like 9 pairs of Nike/UA shorts off of FB Marketplace for $2 apiece. Kohls can be good too. Just bought a pair of boys khakis on sale (plus 15% off Amazon return coupon ) for $2.50.

I have a boy, but for my niece I always buy a holiday dress from Costco, they are usually $30-40 (less than half of msrp).

I don’t care at all about fancy appearance level but I also don’t worry about the budget and I spend probably $1-2k a year.

I pay more for better coats, boots, wool layers and good socks. I also buy one or two fancy dresses a year. But a lot of target for basic stuff because it works well and is convenient, and happens to be cheap.

How old are your kids? You can buy Target leggings for $3.75/pair on sale.

Anonymous wrote:On my girls I usually spend 1k each season per child. We buy a lot of their clothes on overseas trips to the EU and we like the quality/fabric/style better than what is available in the US.

The boys I only spend about $500-700. Their clothes are less expensive!

Which stores and what brands do you like the best? It’d be nice to find some less dreary clothes.

I have never budgeted clothes but I am thinking something like

$150-250 a nice winter coat or a medium-nice winter coat and a fall coat or fleece

$150-250 10-15 tops/sweaters

$100 5-7 bottoms (pants/leggings)

$100-150 5 skirts/ dresses (I have boys so I have no idea. I guess more dresses if they only wear dresses), plus a cute winter dress for parties/recitals/ holiday pictures

$120 pair of sneakers and a pair of dressier shoes

Anonymous wrote:How do you get an entire wardrobe for your kids for $500? What do you get them, a single shoe?

What a silly question. Are you buying handspun gold fabric?

$500 for seasonal clothes sounds right. My child is still small so is wearing mostly Target and hand me downs. I spend more for quality shoes, jackets, and sweaters, and that all adds up quickly.

I spend 200 or 300 per kid and buy mostly second hand. Thankfully we get hand me downs which helps keep the cost down. Much of the budget goes to coats and shoes which I often buy new.

On my girls I usually spend 1k each season per child. We buy a lot of their clothes on overseas trips to the EU and we like the quality/fabric/style better than what is available in the US.

The boys I only spend about $500-700. Their clothes are less expensive!