Monday Q&A-A reader question about children’s clothing

Every Monday, I answer a question or two from my readers. If you have a question you’d like me to answer(it doesn’t have to be about frugality pe se….if you wonder something about homeschooling, or about me personally, for example, ask away!), leave a comment on this post, or email me(thefrugalgirl {at} gmail {dot} com) with the “Q&A” in the subject, and I’ll answer it in a future Monday post.

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Kiki left this comment the other day:

I’m relatively new to this attempt to live frugally. My 2 teenage boys haven’t changed size in a year or so and have tons and tons of church polos and t-shirts for spring and summer left over, so all they’re getting this year is a pair of long khakis, a couple cargo shorts in a neutral color and some new sneakers and maybe swim trunks. My question is, how much is really enough? How many outfits do you budget in for each child, or do you just pick a set money amount and they get what they get? Please help. Thanks.

My children are still quite young(9, 8, 5, and 3), so the way I handle their clothing will likely change as they get older. But, here’s the way we do it as of now.

Since my kids are mostly clothed in hand-me-downs at this point, and since we are blessed with such an abundance of hand-me-downs, I’m usually in the position of trying to pare down their wardrobes(which is a nice place to be!). So, while this wardrobe minimization isn’t motivated by a desire to save money but rather a desire to reduce clutter and simplify our lives, I do think about the “How much is enough?” question.

Because I do laundry very regularly(every day to every other day), my kids actually don’t NEED a bunch of outfits. Here’s what I usually try to keep around for my son, since you asked about boys.

• 3-5 pairs of neutral bottoms(pants or shorts, depending on the season)
• 5-10 shirts
• 2 outfits for church(one pair of khakis and 2 long or short sleeved shirts)
• a swimsuit in the summertime
• 1-2 sweatshirts/pullovers for the winter
• 1 pair of shoes for church
• 1 pair of athletic/play shoes
• a winter-weight coat(in the spring/fall, he just wears his sweatshirt or pullover)
• 1 pair of pjs

My girls usually end up having a little bit more clothing than that, mostly because they care a little more about having some variety in their wardrobes, but I still try to keep their wardrobes from getting too huge just because we don’t have unlimited storage space.

As I’ve worked on minimizing our wardrobes over the last few years, I’ve been pleasantly surprised to see just how few clothes we actually need.

Now to answer the budgeting question…we set aside $50 each month to cover clothing for our entire family. Since I spend so little to clothe the kids, I shop clearances and Goodwill for myself, and use credit card rewards points to buy work clothes for my husband, $50 is more than enough to clothe us. In fact, we have over $200 sitting in our clothing account right now just because we haven’t needed to spend it.

When our kids get to be teenagers, we plan on giving them a clothing budget of their own to spend. I don’t know how much it will be(that’ll depend on how inflation goes!), but it’ll be enough to provide an adequate wardrobe for them. We’re hopeful that this will give them some incentive to spend wisely(they can buy 5 pairs of clearance or Goodwill jeans or one pair of regular jeans for the same price!) and will teach them some good money management lessons. We’re also optimistic that this will cut down on “But Mom! I really NEED this shirt!” type of conversations since the way they spend their clothing budget will be up to them.

However you decide to handle this, I’d definitely recommend that you and your husband come up with some sort of budget or outfit limit that you can agree on. That way you will be shopping with a guideline, and you’ll be much more likely to spend wisely that way than you’d be if you just went shopping with no plan in place.

I haven’t had teenagers yet, so it’s entirely possible that I’ve missed giving some good advice here. If any of you readers have some sage wisdom to add about clothing teenagers, please leave a comment!