Getting More Bang For Your Buck

I hear an awful lot of: "How can you afford to dress your kids so well" and "OMG Where did you get that?" or "You only spent HOW MUCH?". I hear it so often in fact that I thought I would make an entry about shopping, since it's something I do so love to do.

First of all, I want to make sure people realize that cheap and frugal are two totally different concepts. Being frugal is:

"The practice of acquiring goods and services at minimum cost achieved via economical restraint or creative measures. Frugality can be related to the idea of being conservative or conserving money"

By contrast, cheap is:

"relatively low in price or charging a low price"

So you see the difference? You can be cheap without being frugal, but you can also be frugal without being cheap. The words are not appropriately interchangeable.

For example: cloth diapering is not cheap. The start up cost is actually quite a bit more than you would spend on a box of diapers. But because you are getting the best *value* for your dollar, cloth diapering *is* frugal. It is not cheap in the long run, but when you have four children and only had to spend $300 on diapers once instead of over $2,000 per child, you will realize quickly how frugal cloth diapering can be.

My most recent frugality has been shopping for back to school clothes for Jakob. Last year, school shopping was no big deal since he could still fit in all of his older clothes. We just got a few new pieces here and there for him. This year was an entirely different story. All of the clothes he had last year he had already outgrown by the end of the year, so there was no way we could reuse any of that. He needed an entirely new wardrobe, which is no small thing considering kids' clothing can be expensive.

I was able to get him an entire *BRAND NEW* fall/winter wardrobe for less than $150. Sounds like a lot, but anyone who has children and shops for brand new stuff knows that $150 is hardly anything.

Here's how I did it:

I stayed away from WalMart and KMart. Why? You might ask. Aren't WalMart and KMart supposed to be cheap places? Yes, they are... supposed to be. One pair of size 6 boys jeans at WalMart cost a whopping $24.00. Yup, you read that right. Sure there were cheaper styles, but I won't wear tapered leg jeans, so I can't imagine putting them on Jakob. For the classic boot/wide leg cut jeans, it was expensive. I could have bought him four pairs for $100 and that would have been the end of my back to school shopping.

Shopping Tip One: I start early, at the beginning of the summer clothing season actually. All the heavier clothing goes on sale to make room for summer stuff.

Shopping Tip Two: There is a store we have locally called H & M, located in both Carousel Mall (for those of us who are willing to brave the construction madness) and in Great Northern Mall. I was able to get double packs of really nice fitted, long sleeved basic color shirts (black, brown, green, blue, red, etc) for $1 each. And by that I mean each double pack was $1, making each individual shirt $.50. SCORE! People often (and sadly) overlook stores like this when back to school shopping because they seem to think that it's outrageously expensive. Most of the clothing there is a FAR better value than clothing from WalMart, KMart, or even Target.

Shopping Tip Three: When I find a great sale, like the $.50 each shirts above, instead of just getting the size Jakob is in now, I get the next few sizes up as well. Sure, it means spending a little extra money now, but in the long run, it will save me a TON!

Plus, H & M Often has a deal where if you buy any of their denim, you can pick any hoodie to go with it for free. Their denim isn't outrageous, it runs anywhere from $9.99 to around $24.99 . So you can spend $12.00 on a pair of jeans, and get a $14.00 hoodie for free. $26.00 of merchandise for less than half. Can't beat that.

I also want to add that H & M clothing is really sturdy. It's the sort of stuff you can buy for one child, and by the time the next child gets around to wearing it, it's still sturdy and in great condition. The black shirts stay black and don't turn gray, the knees of the jeans don't fade, and Jakob is rough on his clothes, but they always manage to wash clean no matter what detergent I use.

Super Shopper Savings Tip Number Four: Old Navy. You can almost always find great sales at Old Navy. Their clothing isn't quite the quality of H&M, but it's still a good value. Recently they had a huge denim sale where all childrens' denim was $7, and all adult denim was $12. That is where I got most of the jeans Jakob will be wearing for school this fall. I also got Bill a few new pairs since all of his jeans were getting pretty frayed around the edges. Since it was the first time he's needed new pants in a few years, it wasn't a big deal.

Side note: Avoid the Old Navy outlet. For some really odd reason, their outlet store sells the exact same things they sell in their regular stores.... only..... they sell them for the exact same, and sometimes MORE! Every now and then you can catch something great on sale, but for the most part, I would avoid their outlet. It's just not worth it.

Shopping Tip Number Five: Check out babygap. I adore Gap clothing, I can't see paying $34 for a sweater, but I can always find pretty good prices for stuff online. My favorite ever Gap buy was last year in their store. I was looking for pants for Jakob, and went in there as a last resort, and found a bunch of his sized jeans on sale from $34.99 down to $5.99! I bought every single pair they had in his size. Those jeans lasted him from fall to spring, and were in such good condition, I have packed them all away for Jericho. So the sale was good at the time, and will save me from having to buy jeans in that size for Jericho down the road. That same day I got a cream colored cable knit romper that was originally $65 dollars for $6.99. I put it away thinking that some day it would make a great baby shower gift, not knowing that Jericho would be coming along. It's the perfect size to fit him once the weather turns.

Shopping Tip Number Six: Check out The Childrens Place outlet often. I got both Jericho and Jakob a ton of outfits for $4 at the end of the winter season. Each top was $1.99. Instead of getting the plain tops, which I had already got at H & M for cheaper, I stuck with getting sweaters and button down shirts. The pants were also all $1.99. My favorite outfit for Jakob is a pin striped button down, with the matching argyle sweater vest, and matching dress pants. Each piece on it's own was $1.99; so the entire outfit cost me $6.

Shopping Tip Number Seven: Browse sales racks for things to put away for future gift-giving-events. You may be planning on professional Christmas pictures next year. If you shop in the few weeks after Christmas one year, you can pay up to 90% off your outfits for NEXT Christmas. Can you even beat that?

Shopping Tip Number Eight: All Targets are not created equally. Locally, We have a Target in Camillus, Cicero, Clay, and Central Square. If you find something you want at one store, but don't want to pay full price for it, call around to the other three. You'd be amazed at how the Target stores never seem to have the same thing on sale at the same time. I've paid 90% off for something at the Cicero Target, then gone to the Clay Target to find it still full price!

Edited to add:

Shopping Tip Number Nine: I can't believe I nearly forgot one of my very favorites. REPURPOSE! What's that mean? It means that the white tshirt from last year that still fits but is covered in stains can be given new life. Sort of like Lazarus being brought back from the dead, so can you bring clothes (or any fabric for that matter) back from the garbage pile. All it takes is some RIT (or any other kind you happen to favor, but I like RIT) dye. To make your money go even further, it's a good idea to keep things put away until you have a lot of stuff you want to dye and do it all at once. This way you only have to buy one package each of whatever color you may want instead of multiple.

So now your stained up old white shirt is a crisp looking blue, all stains covered up and hidden away. Not only are you saving money, but you're helping save the planet by wasting less. GO YOU!

Those are just a few of my tips on saving money on clothing. If everyone likes this entry, I'll go ahead and do another on how to save on all your non-clothing shopping!