Hi, I'm just starting to buy fall clothes for my 4 y/o and my DH and I were having a discussion on just how many things she really needed to wear. How many pairs of pants, tops, sweaters, etc. do you buy for your kids? I think I remember reading somewhere about a list suggesting how many were really needed for kids. I don't know how much I'll follow it, but a guideline would be nice to look at.

Erin

I thought about this trying to be more frugal and deciding what I was going to buy before I bought it and then bargain shop. Alot of the ladies gave me good suggestions like buy clothes that can easily mix and match as opposed to an outfit. For my almost 4 ds :
3 pair of jeans
2 pair of Kacki's
2 activity suits
3 nice sweaters
3 turtlenecks
3 long sleeve shirts
4 pair of jammies
undershirts
coat
hat & gloves
That was my list but I found some really good deals at good will, and so he has more. I still want to find outfits for him and my baby dd that match for the holidays.

__________________
"Before I was a Mom I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body." ~Anonymous

I have seen the lists you talk about and think I would steer clear of them and go with your gut instinct. I think a good plan of action would be to make sure your child has enough clothes to get him through a week, or how ever often you do laundry, but anything more would be too much.

Last fall a girlfriend of mine cleaned out her dd clothes and gave me, literally 4 30 gal. trash bags of clothes. For me this was grand. I only had to throw away a few items that were stained beyond cleaning, but from the clothing received I had 11 dresses, 62 outfits, 12 pairs of pants (didn't go with any shirts) 17 shirts (didn't go with any pants) 23 pairs of pajamas, 2 winter coats, countless pairs of socks, and 6 pairs of shoes. I was in 7th heaven thinking that this was a lot, but we could get through winter without ever doing laundry if I didn't want to. Well grand turned to miserable when laundry time came, and even more miserable when I just recently cleaned out all these clothes b/c she had out grown the majority of them. A lot of the outfits we never even got to wear. And mind you, alot of these clothes came to me with the price tags still on them.

My point is this, you know your childs clothing habits better than anyone. My dd wants her shirt changed everytime she spills even a drop of water on herself. You also know how often you do laundry. I do laundry daily, but I know a lady who only does it every 2 weeks. That being the case she is going to have to have more clothes for her kids than someone like myself. You also know what your daily activities include. Daycare? Shopping? Hanging around the house, going to the park? Whatever.

This last summer I paired down what my dd had in her drawers. Since I do laundry daily I found it much easier to get by on just a few outfits vs. tons. We also got our wear out of them. Now that the cooler weather has made a return I did the same with getting her ready for the winter months. Just a few pairs of jeans, a few shirts, 2 pair of pj's, and a few sweat pants and sweat shirts. She also has 2 dresses for church and the shoe dept is strictly 1 pair each dress shoes, tennis shoes and boots. Enough socks and underwear to get her through a week.

I'm a SAHM who can get away with this. Though my dd and I are out daily it isn't as if she goes to the same place every day and so if she wears the same outfit 2-3 times in one week, nobody knows but me. Heck I will again have days this winter that she will never make it out of her pj's as the only place she will go is in the car while I taxi my other kids around.

And in the end if you decide that your ds doesn't have enough clothes there are always those good deals to be found at thrift stores and retail shops. Of course we won't even discuss those outfits in the stores that literally stand on their own and scream at the top of their lungs "I'm so cute, please buy me!".

Well now, as I get ready to post my girls' clothing lists, I keep hoping my husband doesn't come in and say "See, they don't need all that!!" Here is the run down (per kid):

21 tops (and usually matching pants/sikrt)
3 blue jeans
6 church dresses
8 pajamas
2 dress shoes
3 every day shoes
socks and panties for 2 weeks

I do make sure I keep the tags on though so if they don't end up wearing something, I can Ebay it later for better than with the tags off it.

i have never and will never buy in one go. I usually just go thru their closet and see what fits and what doesn't. I'm usually buying here and there when I see things on sale. Right now i think both my boys have about 6-7 pair of pants and about 10 tops for school clothes, and that's plenty.

I found that I'm better off not doing the shopping all at once. I have a tendency to buy too much if I do it all at once -- I've also learned to leave all of the tags on until my kids actually wear the clothing.

For my preschooler, I've bought him several polo-style shirts (maybe 6 - on clearance at target), four pairs of shorts, and three pairs of jeans (it's still pretty warm here in so. Calif.). I also bought him a pair of school shoes (and only let him wear them to school - I want them to look nice for a little while ). I have not purchased any cool weather clothes because I'm waiting to see how much he'll need (based on what he can still fit in from last year and how cold it actually gets here)

We have an awesome and frugal way of shopping for preschoolers here. A group of ladies at my church box up all their kids' outgrown clothes each season, and we pass them among each other...and sell to each other for a fraction of the cost. I am talking complete Gymbo outfits...hairbows included for $6. I outfitted both my daughters this way...and have about 1/2 of ds (kindergarten age) done, too. And, because I was also selling my own stuff, in the end, mostly what I did was trade out the old for the new...very little money went out!! YEAH!!!

__________________

I buy as they need other wise I end up buying the wrong stuff.

I haven't bought more than Christmas outfits, shoes, and swim trunks in 5 years......my SIL has a little boy who is 3 years older than my oldest so she gives me all the hand-me-downs. Plus, she's got a super job and can afford to buy Oshkosh B'Gosh, GAP, TCP, etc so they are really nice clothes. I got rid of most of the baby stuff after we had the 2nd one...and along came the 3rd and we had to start over. Rummage sales were my best friend this summer. I've got enough for the baby for his whole first year. Once we get to 18 month stuff I still have as that was what Riley was wearing when I started getting rid of stuff.

I'm not a big fan of doing laundry, so they've got:

10 pairs of jammies
8-10 pairs of jeans
4ish pairs of dress pants
30+ shirts (includes dressy stuff)
18 pairs of undies
tons of socks
1 pair of play shoes
1 pair of dress shoes (occassionally more if my SIL had a pair that wasn't worn much that are wide enough for my kids)

My oldest ds will be 5 next month is in size 5 bottoms (and they are just the right length, come late spring he'll need 6's) and size 6 tops. He had a few long sleeve shirts left from last fall/winter that fit perfect now. I got quite a few pairs of jeans/pants and shirts from a wonderful mommysaver I met. Here is what he has so far:
at least 14 pairs of jeans/pants/track pants
1 sweater
5 pairs of footed pj's but he needs new ones since the 5's are skin tight!
16 shirts
He finally out grew all of his summer stuff he's been wearing for two seasons so I bought a lot on clearance for next year.

My 16mo old has everything from his brother and then some. There are 8 large Rubbermaid totes up in attic with everything organized by size and season. This summer he had 24 pairs of size 2T shorts in his dresser that he never wore since he was still in 12-18mo bottoms. I am so hoping he can wear them next summer. Right now he has about 30 pairs of bottoms in 2T and he still can't wear them- he's in 12mo jeans/pants. My friend's ds is 5mo younger than my oldest but he was much smaller so I gave her all of his stuff when he out grew it. So when I found out I was having another boy she gave everything of his back to me plus all of the stuff she had bought for him. That's why my attic is overflowing with boys clothes!