Clothes for Winter

I am really putting myself on a budget this season for the girls clothes. I just love Gymboree and you can't imagine the sheer will that it takes for me not to open all those emails and go to shopping. We recently had out MOMs club consignment sale and I did ok.

I got them each:

A winter rain coat
An everyday winter coat (however, it is cotton, do I need one for the snow we might have??)
A couple of shirts and pants that coordinate.

My question is what do your kiddos get to start the season? Do you usually buy enough to not have to do laundry but 1 time a week? This seems like a crazy question, now that I am typing it out.

 

My kids have a few sweat pants & shirts outfits. They have about 6 pairs of jeans (each child) and about 10-15 shirts (per child). They have 2 jackets each. Somehow I still end up washing laundry EVERY day.

 

Well I can never seem to control myself with kids clothes. I definitely try to have enough so that I can go one week if I have to. We usually do 3-4 pairs of sweatpants(or similar) for school, a couple pair of jeans, a couple pair of cords and probably 8-10 shirts each. For Sofia I usually also have a couple of dresses with tights. Of course by the end of the season I usually end up with more because it always seems that they hit a growth spurt mid winter and their pants and shirts get too short.

 

For me it depends. Do you plan on getting out much in the coldest days of winter? I've been having to buy some heavier stuff for the kids for this year just because they start school, and I don't have the option of just staying insider and playing board games all day. If you have to be out in the coldest days, I would get heavier coats and more sweaters.

I also try and buy stuff that we can layer up. They both have undershirts that we'll add under plain long sleeves. Then they have a couple hoodies or sweaters that can layer over that for the coldest days all day or a jacket on not so cold days. They also have a couple of nice sweaters each that are warm. Sarah's favorite thing is to have an undershirt, then add a plain white long sleeve shirt, then layer one of her short sleeve tshirts over that from summer. Add a denim skirt and knee socks and she's happy.

Seriously though, my goal to start the season is about 8-10 bottoms. Pants for Timothy, pants and skirt mix for Sarah. I want about 8-10 long sleeve shirts. They have 2 layering hoodies or sweaters and 2-3 nice sweaters. Sarah also has dresses for church and Timothy has a couple pairs of corduroys and nicer shirts for church. My weakness is tights and knee socks for Sarah. I'm not admitting how many of those she has, not even to myself

I also try and have the clothes about 1/2 in their current size and about 1/2 in the size they are growing into. Yeah, some of the clothes look a little big at the start of the season, but I'm not in trouble when they grow. I try to really stick to my numbers at the beginning of the season also because I know they'll get a few clothes for xmas, and a few more for their bday's and at some point in the season, I'll probably see something somewhere that is truly perfect and get it. So by trying to keep it down at the start of the season, we don't end up with too much.

Marissa

 

I have all boys ages 8, 8 and 6. They are not into clothes so I try to get the least amount to get them by. The twins get four pairs of pants and one pair or gym pants each. (one twin only wears jeans and the other only wear khakis - makes a nice blend of hand me downs for my youngest!) My youngest gets a few new shirts for the winter holidays but the rest is hand me downs. I only have one coat each and if we are in a jam (wet coat or coat in the wash) they can wear last years coats. I buy them each a pair of sneakers, a pair of hikers and a pair of snow boots. They own a sweatshirt each mostly from hand me downs from cousins. I purchased 4 or 5 long sleeve shirts for each son. I feel like they wera the same things each week but they find "comfort" in that - they are not big on change.

 

We only shop clearance and/or thrift so I buy all through the year. That way we don't have to cough up big sums at the beginning of the season. My girls together have 33 complete outfits (I just put them all together for school, otherwise I would never know that, lol) and a few odds and ends pieces. The boys each probably have around 15 shirts and 6 or 7 bottoms (shorts, jeans, etc)

Everyone has two or three hoodies and one coat. Two pairs of sneakers, no dress shoes or sandals, although we have tons of flip-flops. Of course the girls have ridiculous amounts of shoes.

 

My turn for a question!

We're moving from Florida to Virginia. What kind of winter coat do I need to get for the kids? For myself? If they're in a 2T now, should I get a 3 or 4T to accomodate the layers? TBH, I have no earthly clue what we're going to need.

 

Wow... after reading the responses above, I must really go overboard!!! I have the philosophy that I want to make it 2 weeks if I have to w/out washing clothes. Therefore, I try for 14 of everything--shirts, pants, socks, underwear. I also have 1-2 sets of what I call daycare clothes, which I have to keep at school in case of messes/accidents.

Like another PP, I buy almost everything 2nd hand or clearance thru the year. This morning, I went thru to count out how much 5T stuff I had for each kid, to make sure I have enough. To get to my 14 of everything, I'll need to buy a few more pairs of jeans for each of them. Since it's not cold yet, I'll shop garage sales and clearance and hopefully get the last few things cheap. To be honest, I don't ever shop at Children's Place, Gymboree, OshKosh--I go to Target, Kohl's clearance, maybe Old Navy for new stuff. We do all white socks (share even for B/G), mostly non-character undies. Fancier stuff comes from Grandma's & Santa on birthdays/Christmas. Shoes... I do 2 pair each--something that works w/ brown and then tennis shoes. Easter/Christmas I typically splurge and try to find dress shoes for their fancy outfits, but I usually go 2nd hand.

For Bex... depends on where you're going in Va. I wouldn't go too big--even in PA I usually buy the kids their actual size of coat. This year, I'll probably go 5/6 for DD since she's just now getting into a 5; will likely go 6 for DS since he's half way thru 5. That's really only cause I don't want to buy more than 1 coat in a season--not so clothes can fit under it. When I moved to SE Va, I had a wool peacoat I'd brought from living in PA. It was WAY too hot. Go to the weather channel and find the average temp in the winter. If it's in the 40's or 50's, I'd recommend a coat w/ a zip out liner so you can use it on both warmer and cooler days. If it's 20-30's, I'd go wool or down.

HTH!
-penny

 

I feel like we have enough to get started, but we're also in the middle of potty training, so I'm not sure now since I need to factor in the occasional accident.

In the midwest, we can sustain on long-sleeve shirts and light jackets into November. Those are pretty easy to find at Old Navy on the cheap.

I bought coats from LL Bean last year that have growth cuffs in them. I hope that extra expense saves me from having to buy coats again this year. They are currently having a 1/2 off sale and the coat I paid full price for is now $35.

 

Mine should still be able to wear their coats from last year( off brand carhart style only $20 and very strudy). I end upbuying clothes half way thru the season because they grew so we have winter clothes in their current size. I have a rule that I try to stick to since I'm a single mom with no child support: no more than $25 for a complete out fit or no kore than $12 for a shirt or pants. Dresses should be no more than $20 unless its for a special occasion. Shoes of course are seperate but we usually buy munchkins by stride rite which are under $20 at kohls and jay as nice as stride rite shoes. It won't be could for a while yet here so by the time it is I have usually picked up enough pieces

 

As paw paw would say - our daughter doesn't have to worry about budgeting for clothes because shopoholic/spoiler of the grands grandma can't stay away from the children's department. Clothes are just so cute and we only have these three grandsons. It's our first time to get to buy little boy things. I do however, search for sales, buy off season, guesstimating sizes for the next season. If something is just too cute, I will go ahead and buy it before it's gone. I used to keep a separate wardrobe here for the boys, but things get mixed up back and forth, so we've just combined the clothes. Right now I'm working on putting together outfits for the boys because they have grown like weeds over the summer. They have nothing that fits and SIL accidentally gave away the bin of clothes daughter was saving for the baby this winter - so he has to be completely outfitted as well. We work towards each having several pairs of jeans, khakis, navy pants, wind pants and sweats. They have dark tennis shoes and brown shoes, each has a heavy jacket, several wind jackets and fleeces. They have assorted sweats, polos, henley's, etc. that can be mixed and matched with the pants. Today purchased each of the boys three outfits - olive green, navy and brown - great sale at Osh Gosh. My daughter has always dressed the twins alike and now since the baby is so close to the same size, I just buy three matching sets. That way I don't have to worry about who gets what.

 

I do laundry about twice a week -- 5-6 loads on weekends and another couple at some point during the week. Because of all the hand-me-downs we get and the fact that I look forward to the MOMs sale for months (it's the first weekend in October -- already on my calendar ), they have more clothes than they can really wear. (I found some 3T summer stuff in a drawer last week that never even made it into the rotation this summer.) So I do laundry when the hamper gets full!

They have a wide variety of coats :ibiggrin: -- largely hand-me-downs, but we also have a wide variety of weather here. They need one real snow coat (preferably waterproof too -- i.e. Gore-tex) and snow pants, plus a lighterweight jacket with some kind of wind layer, a simple fleece jacket, a light windbreaker (no fleece), etc. Obviously we could make do without a couple of those things, but I buy them all at consignment stores or MOMs sales, so I don't feel too guilty about spending the money.

I did buy Sarah a brand-new winter coat last year -- Old Navy, $20 NWT from eBay.

Don't get me started on the shoes... :blush: