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How I Dress My Children (As Cheaply, And Ethically As Possible)

On Wednesday last week we went to town for a big shop. By big I mean a monster, all day, get everything at once, type of shop (which to be fair, is the main type of shop we do). If you’ve been following a long for a while you might know that I occasionally get my ranty pants out about the ethics of shopping and consumerism (see here and here, and here too for some examples). So I thought that I would write about how I try to clothe my kids as ethically as possible. For us this means not wasting resources by buying lots of unnecessary clothes, trying to source clothing from local businesses, and buying (where possible) clothes that are manufactured ethically.

We also avoid buying short, tight, revealing clothing for any of the kids (that is a whole other post some time).

Add to that, we are a family on a budget. While we are prepared to pay a little more for quality, we don’t have unlimited money for clothing, so here is how we buy clothing as ethically and cheaply as possible:

Be realistic about how many clothes the kids need.
A few years back, I went through Meg’s drawer and she had 23 long sleeved t shirts. Some still had tags on them. Between my mother, mother-in-law, and I each picking up a few when they were ‘on special’ they had accumulated. Needless to say I culled immediately.

Kids don’t really need that many outfits, particularly once they go to school. It’s so easy to get carried away by all the cute (or cheap) out fits in the shops. Being realistic about how many outfits they need for your lifestyle is important. For example, here on the farm we need a few outfits that can get dirty, but only one or two dresses or skirts.

At the same time make life easy for yourself by having enough of the items that get used so that you don’t have to wash too often. Toby has 14 pairs of long pants for winter, which seems crazy, until you know that his pants get wet in the grass during winter, so most days he goes through two or three pairs. Suddenly 14 pairs isn’t so excessive. The girls don’t have nearly that many.

Use hand me downs – We are fortunate to have several friends whose daughters are older than us, so we get given bags of clothes from time to time. While some of the clothes don’t really suit our kids, there are always some good items in amongst the bags. I tend to go through the bags as soon as we are given them, and then store what we will use, and then donate what is left over. Quite often there is nothing wrong with them other than they are too wide for my kids (who are bean poles), or Hannah doesn’t like the look of them.

Of course, once Hannah has outgrown clothing, I put anything still good away for Meg to wear when she gets big enough. Clothes which are too small for Meg go to my niece.

Buy second hand where possible
We find that particularly for paddock clothes (ie old clothes that can get damaged) Op shops are perfect. Of course some op shops are better than others, but by finding a couple which are good, you can save a fortune, avoid the waste of new unnecessary clothes, and support a charity.

We have found several op shops that carry a lot of quality second hand kids clothes. Last year I got seven pairs of brand name shorts for Toby for $1 each. Some looked still new. The same shorts were $30 each in the store.

Buy quality over quantity.
Of course there are some things I will not buy from Op shops. Shoes, Underwear and pyjamas are some which spring to mind. And there are often times when we can’t find what we need at Op shops. I rarely find girls leggings.

In this case we buy new clothing. I am always concious that we buy quality clothing that will last. Although the initial cost might be slightly more, the clothing generally lasts longer, which means I don’t need to buy more. This saves money in the long run, and wastes less resources.

Store clothes for the future when you see them (but don’t go crazy).
Buying used clothing is always a bit hit and miss. I keep a box each of boys and girls clothing in the top of the cupboard. When I see something good that might fit my kids in a years time, I buy it, and then store it in the box. When I go through the kids clothing (which I do in late March and September each year) I go to the boxes and get out clothes that might be useful for them to try on. It means that when it comes to clothes shopping, I already have a bit put away.

Of course, we try to apply the same principles to buying our own clothing. I love getting a bargain on ebay, or from the local second hand ‘designer label’ store. And of course, it doesn’t always work out the way we plan. Sometimes it is really hard to balance competing priorities, and sometimes the kids need something now, not in a few weeks time. That’s when we cut ourselves some slack, and remind ourselves, that although we don’t get it perfect, it’s OK to be happy with our best.

I would love to know what your priorities are when buying kids clothing. Do you buy from Op Shops?

Let everyone know:

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Comments

  1. Erin says

    May 2, 2014 at 1:00 pm

    Huge opshop fan, and yes I think you've covered the main savings points. I probably have a few more saving tips that differ slightly due to having a larger family. For example if I'm passing a shoe sale table and sandals etc are reduced greatly say $7 yet but they wont currently fit anyone I may grab anyhow as they will fit someone one day. I also will buy up big at the end of season sale, but only from some shops keeping quality in mind

    Reply
  2. Rory Mouttet says

    May 2, 2014 at 12:32 pm

    Hand me downs are pretty much all my second one wears. Both my girls have 2 slightly older cousins so its a good source of sensible wardrobe creation.

    Reply
  3. neenaballerina says

    May 2, 2014 at 12:02 pm

    We are fortunate enough to get (and give) a lot of hand me downs around here. We have limited space for storage so I try to maintain a high rotation/low volume supply. We are lucky in that we live in sub-tropical Queensland so the turn-around for washing is pretty fast 😉 I have to say I'm a sucker for licensed clothing, though. My kids just love wearing 'their' characters around, if they are only getting three new t-shirts for the Summer, I'd rather they be the ones they absolutely love! They often wear them over skivvies in the Winter so they can continue to enjoy them before they outgrow them.

    Reply
  4. Carolyn @ Champagne Cartel says

    May 2, 2014 at 11:29 am

    Great tips! This is a balance that I struggle with as I try to clothe three kids on a budget but I don't want to be contributing to sweatshop conditions. I love op shopping although find it challenging for kids. I assume the limited availability comes down to children wearing their clothes out a lot more – or that parents save their kids' clothes for hand me downs.

    Reply
  5. Sarah says

    May 2, 2014 at 10:44 am

    I'm a huge fan of Op shops and buy most of my own clothes from them as well as many things for my daughter. For the more expensive things or when there is something in particular she wants then I always check out ebay first. she is far better dressed than she otherwise would be given my budget and I can feel confident that I've shopped ethically too.

    Reply
  6. Six Little Hearts says

    May 2, 2014 at 10:42 am

    You have some beautiful photos here! I too try to clothe my kids on the cheap. I find plain clothing at Target is great and you can often score trackpants and T-shirts for less than $10 each. Where I used to live (Balwyn), Target was definitely cheaper than the op shop! Occasionally we too welcome bags of clothing from friends but like you find it usually is passed along to secondhand stores. I tend to splurge on my girls though! There are so many lovely clothes for girls!

    Reply
  7. Karri says

    April 28, 2014 at 10:53 pm

    I firmly believe that if you're still growing, there is no reason to have expensive clothes. We garage sale and swap with family members and neighbors for the kids' clothes. I try to buy enough clothes for the next year (barring large growth spurts!) and store them in large plastic totes. We also re-fashion–Long sleeve tshirts get their sleeves cut off for warm weather, short sleeve tshirts get scrap fabric sleeves for cold weather. This enables favorites to be worn a little longer. My kids love opening up the tote of "new" clothes for the next season!

    Reply
  8. Molly says

    April 28, 2014 at 5:39 am

    We love hand me downs, my one year old is currently dressed entirely in hand me downs. I have a few friends who pass on their 'in good nic' clothes. My daughter has had many items off those 'buyswapsell' sites. I refuse to buy licences products or brand name clothes, I can't see the point in spending $20 on a tshirt cause it has a tag or picture of a character on it, when I can get another tshirt for $5. We have many boxes filled with clothes for my kids to grow into (handmedowns) and also I have kept 95% of my kids baby clothes for our next baby, hopefully one day soon…we have neutral newborn clothes as we don't find out gender but also cause u can reuse those items so many times cause they aren't worn for long. I also don't use '2nd hand' underwear, I will use hand me down shoes if I know where they have come from.

    Reply
  9. Michelle says

    April 28, 2014 at 1:56 am

    I love op shops – for myself and for my kids. I don't buy second hand underwear or shoes (like you) but if I'm given these items in the form of hand-me-downs and they are in good nic, then I'm happy to use them. I have a cousin who passes her daughter's clothes to my little girl and they are always so pristine. The biggest problem we have is storing them! Some things I prefer to buy second-hand. For example, I feel better about buying second hand winter coats because they get so little use in our sub tropical climate. It would be nuts to spend a lot of money on something like that. I'd rather spend it on wet suits (we live on a island). Kids really don't need many clothes do they. Aren't school uniforms a blessing!!

    Reply

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Hi, I’m Jo

I'm a city girl turned farmer's wife, school teacher, ideas woman, and mum to three country kids. Country Life Experiment is all about simple country living, growing and making our own food, and life on our family farm in rural Australia. Join me as I give country living a try. Read more...
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Hi, I’m Jo

City girl turned farmer's wife, school teacher, ideas woman, and mum to three country kids. Country Life Experiment is all about simple country living, growing and making our own food, and life on our family farm in rural Australia. Join me as I give country living a try. Read more...
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