Savvy Sunday: My Back to School Clothes Shopping Secret

I love shopping for clothes for my kids but I do have a budget to stick to.  I try to stretch it as far as it will go.  My best “secret” way to do this is to layer shirts in the colder seasons.  For my son, I buy a lot of polo shirts and t-shirts when they are on sale for $5 or less in the warmer months.  Then when the weather turns cooler I buy long sleeve tees or thermal shirts to layer underneath.  I usually find these for $5 or less as well.  I love the look and it really helps extend the life of the short sleeve shirts he wouldn’t be able to wear otherwise.  For the undershirts I stick to solid neutral colors like white, black and grey so we don’t have to worry about matching.

I use the same idea for my girls but it doesn’t stretch quite as far as their wardrobes are a little more varied. I can pick up a pack of 5 long sleeved onesies for the baby for around $12.  She’s wearing a lot of hand-me-downs from her sister and has yet to hit a big growth spurt so clothing is lasting a lot longer than it did for my first two babies.  Adding the long sleeved undershirts is extending it even more!

One other thing I try to find when we head into summer is pants that either roll up and button to a cropped style or ones that the bottom part zips off to make shorts.  That way when it gets cooler we can just unroll them or zip the pants part right back on.  Since we live in a mild climate it’s not uncommon at all for us to wear pants in the summer.  In fact, there weren’t many days this summer that we wore shorts!

Of course if I’m shopping online I always check for coupon codes and shop through Ebates to get cash back on my purchases.

These are just a couple of ways I stretch my clothing budget.  How do you make your back to school budget go farther?

For more family friendly ideas, be sure to check out Savvy Sundays!