Kitting Your Kids Out On A Budget

New coats, shoes, school uniform, jeans, jumpers – the list is never ending when you’re kitting your kids out for winter.

Money saving mum of two, Kayleigh Hughes, who blogs for PromotionalCodes.org.uk, has put together her tips for clothing your children without breaking the bank.

Hitting the charity shops and car boot sales are among her tips, as well as checking out online auction sites.

Kayleigh is also a regular at end of season sales and knows all the tips to bagging a bargain at the right time.

Kayleigh said: “Kids clothing can be a big never-ending bottomless pit of money. Just as you get sorted they grow out of them and you have to start over again but there are some great ways that you can save money.

“Charity shops are a great place to pick up a bargain and more often than not you can find great items with the tags still on.

“Car boot sales are brilliant for baby clothes as are new to you sales which are specifically for babies and children.

“It’s always worth checking out sales on the high street too. Wait till the sales are almost over and prices at their lowest and you’ll be surprised at how little you’ll pay.”

Here are Kayleigh’s tips for kitting your kids out on a budget.

Charity shops

Finding treasures in charity shops can be great for savings. I’m a regular visitor and the number of items I’ve found for my boys still with tags on is crazy.

I’ve found tops, pjs, trousers, shoes and much more and I’ve never paid more than £2 for an item. You do have to make regular visits, as you won’t find everything your looking for in one shop, but after a few visits you will find lot of items that can be ticked off the list.

Car boots

I love car boots for baby clothes. I bought a lot of things for both my boys from car boot sales.

Babies grow out of clothing so fast that a lot of items I found were either brand new or only been worn a handful of times. I always came across boxes of clothes, mostly 50p an item, and after a dig around for the best bits I could kit my boys out with bags full of items for a lot less than buying brand new.

Online sale sites

Places like eBay and Gumtree are great for finding new or nearly new unwanted items for kids.

When Jax was tiny I bought quite a few bundle deals of clothing from eBay. I’d pay around £5 for a big bundle of often labelled items that were in great condition which meant I could get a whole wardrobe full of clothes for him for a fraction of the price I’d pay in store.

Same with Gumtree – keep your eye out for bundle deals of unwanted clothing items. One of the great things with Gumtree is you can check the quality of the items before paying for them so you can make sure you’re buying quality items.

Sales

Buying for the next season is a great way of bagging deals. For example buying for winter in summer and vice versa. You can save so much doing it that way.

Also, unless there’s an item you have your eye on, don’t rush to the sales as towards the end the prices will drop to the lowest and that’s the best time to pick up great savings.

Last summer I got my son JJ four pairs of winter boots in the sale in various sizes as they were only £2 a pair. They started at £12 went to £8 in the sale but in the last few days were reduced to £2 to get rid of them. That was the perfect time to buy them for the next few years.

New to you sales

Very similar to car boots but they are specifically for baby and children items and are great places to grab nearly new bargains.

They are always advertised online so take a look and see if you can find one in your area.

ENDS