One of the biggest budget expenses in a large family budget besides the grocery bill is clothing. If tracked properly, clothing expenses can be controllable. Over the years, I have learned several tips and tricks that I want to share with you to help reduce our costs in this area.

The four-step process includes figuring out what we already have by sorting the hand-me-downs. Then we make a list of the items we need to purchase. Next, we go shopping at retail and thrift stores to get what we need. The last step is to organize the clothing so we can grab what we need quickly.

When we had only one child, Sam, I would shop for his clothing needs year-round as he needed them. However, as our family grew and kept growing I realized that if I didn’t want to go crazy I needed to take a more organized and intentional approach in this area.

I learned the hard way that this was a line item in our budget that could get out of control really quickly. One of the ways I control it is by doing my clothing shopping twice a year in the months of April and October.

Now I am going to be really honest with you… Clothing seven children is a very overwhelming job! This year I started this process in the middle of October and now it is the middle of November, and we just got it all packed up and put away. Now, I’m just trying to dig myself out of the mountain of laundry we’ve created.

I have adjusted my expectations to make this process more manageable. I realize that it is going to take some time and I need to include my kiddos.

It Takes Time!

I am learning to give myself time to complete this task. I am a person who loves to get in there, tackle the job, and put it all away when I’m done. This year I took a different process, allowed the basement to be cluttered with clothing, and it was a lot more peaceful.

I got all the clothing out and sorted them by size in our basement, and they have been there for six weeks as I have been organizing it all. One day, I was determined I was going to get it all wrapped up that day. As I sat in a pile of clothes and looked around, I was so overwhelmed, I couldn’t even think of the next step. So I have given myself grace and decided to take on this mammoth job one tiny step at a time.

I have come up with a little plan to make things easier the next time I do this. I am going to write it here so I can refresh my own memory.

I need to have the kiddos sort all the clothes by sizes. Then I will go through those piles and eliminate all the clothes that cannot be worn because they are not in season. Then I will sort through the clothes that are in season to determine what we can use and what we can’t. All the clothes that can be used need to be washed and the rest of them packed away.

Right now, I finally feel like I am finally at the point where I hope to get everything organized and ready to be put away today.

Go Ahead and Include the Kids!

As the kiddos have gotten older, I am learning to include them in the sorting, organizing, and shopping for what they need. Not only does this give them a voice in the process but it really helps me out. I feel like it is a good life lesson for them to experience the jobs of managing a household. They can learn first hand that everything in life costs something and we must make the most out of what we have.

They can go through the hand-me-downs and see what they like or don’t like. After they do that, they can organize the items we are not going to use this season. They will package it up to give away to other families or put away in a tub for our next child.

Step One: Determine What We Already Have

Hand-Me-Downs

I can’t say it enough, I love hand-me-downs! A hand-me-down is something like an article of clothing or a pair of shoes still in good condition and is given to someone else after the original owner has grown out of it or no longer needs it.

We are very blessed to have a great support system within our friends, church, and family who are willing to give us the clothes their children have grown out of. This is a tremendous blessing and helps our budget’s bottom line enormously.

We pull out all the clothes we have and go through them to see what will fit in the correct season. The kiddos love this part because it’s like shopping in our own house.

We look for jeans, pajamas/play clothes, dress clothes, matching shirts, socks, undergarments, and shoes.

Jeans

Our kiddos wear jeans when we go out and about. I used to let the girls wear leggings but they would have holes in them after wearing them only once. I don’t know if it’s just our girls but we can’t afford to wear disposable leggings so this is where the jean idea was born.

Jeans generally are quite hardy and last a lot longer. Once they are potty trained, we plan for each child to have one pair of regular jeans and one pair of black jeans or pants.

When they are little and still in diapers, I plan to have at least five pairs of jeans for the little one. It takes some time for them to go through the laundry plus I throw a pair into our van as a backup plan for those unpredictable accidents.

Pajamas and Play Clothes

You know that theory you hear about all the time about homeschoolers who wear pajamas all day. Well, it’s true for the Hobbs Crew! Although we combine our play clothes and pajamas together.

Play clothes are comfy clothes worn around the house that can be played in. We do all kinds of activities in our homeschool so these clothes may have random dots of paint or grass stains on them. These are the clothes they get dirty in and I don’t have to stress about them ruining something.

Dress Clothes

These are the clothes we wear to church on Sunday or fancy occasions. For this category, I try to have three sets of outfits that are really dressy. This means the girls have dresses to wear and the boys have collared shirts or a nicer t-shirt. For the other Sundays or occasions, I plan to accessorize and dress up our everyday clothes.

For example, Bella may wear a t-shirt to church on Sunday but she will dress it up with a scarf, black jeans, and boots. She looks really nice but we have used some of the everyday clothing. If I had to have really dressy clothes every Sunday that would cost a lot more money.

Matching Shirts

If you have seen any of our pictures when we are out and about, you will notice we are all wearing the same color. Yes, I do that on purpose for a few reasons.

• Security
• Laundry
• Saves Money
• Unites Us

Security

I’m sure you are thinking, what? Security? Yes, I dress them all in the same color so I can keep track of them. When we are in a public place I can just look for the color of shirts we are wearing and do a headcount. When we were fostering, I sometimes had to stop and think about how many kiddos I was supposed to have. It decreased my stress when I could just think about the color I needed to count.

I wear the same color so I remember what color I dressed them in. Because, well, I’m a mom of seven!

I have a quick little story to tell you. We went to Elephant Rocks State Park as a family a couple of years ago. We had eight kiddos at the time. I had dressed them in play clothes so we were not matching at all. Seven of our kiddos wanted to climb the rock so we agreed my brother-in-law would take them over the rocks and meet us on the other side. We walked the path and got to what we thought was the other side. They were not there!

After waiting for a little bit, we began to get nervous. We decided to head to the top to see if we could see where they were. When we got to the top, we kept scanning trying to find everyone. My sister-in-law turned to me and said: “You know, you should have dressed them alike so we could pick them out of this crowd.”

It was at this moment that wearing the same color was more than just to make our pictures look good. It was a safety issue! Now when we go to Elephant Rocks State Park we wear orange. Nice, bright orange!

Laundry

This method keeps my laundry at least manageable. I am like every other mom on the planet and we are always behind on the laundry. It is a fact of life and one I’ve learned to accept. However, I do whatever I can to make things a little easier.

When we wear the same color of clothes, I can pop it all in the same load. As a rule of thumb, I stick with as many dark colors as I can because they are easier to keep clean. In other words, I don’t wear white because I have seven kids.

Saves Money

When I have a shirt that matches the rest of the family, I am more likely to take care of it and work to get out any stains. This is an incentive that saves us money in the long run.

In fact, we have clothes that all four of our girls have worn and can still be passed on to someone else.

Colors

I use the same colors over and over again with a few seasonal exceptions. For example, we only do yellow and orange in the spring/summer because it’s harder to find winter options in that color.

I always try to have about thirteen matching outfits in the fall/winter and fifteen different matching outfits in the spring/summer season. This way we have a variety and the clothes have time to get through the laundry. The spring and summer seasons are full of a lot more activities and running around so we need to have a couple more outfit options.

The casual colors are:

• Teal
• Purple
• Green
• Black and White
• Indigo
• Navy
• Turquoise
• Black
• Red
• Gray
• Orange
• Yellow

The dress colors are:

• Black and White
• Blue and White
• Red

Unites Us

This is a bonus tip for you, having the same color of shirts unites us as a family. We are a diverse family and the color of your shirts says you’re a part of The Hobbs Crew. This was especially important when we were fostering because it made them feel like a part of the family.

Long Sleeve T-Shirts

At the close of the summer season, I stock up on shirts in the colors we wear as the stores are having their clearance sales. Then at the close of the winter season, I stock up on long sleeve neutral color t-shirts like gray, black or white when they mark those down.

The shirts we wear through the summer can be worn throughout the winter by putting a long sleeve t-shirt underneath it. In most cases, we can use the matching shirts all year long which saves us some money.

Socks and Undergarments

We evaluate the condition and sizes of these items. I expect to buy these for the kiddos twice a year especially the socks during the winter months.

Shoes

Shoes are the most expensive line item in our clothing budget. The girls need to have a dressy pair of shoes, like boots or sandals depending on the season, tennis shoes and a pair of crocs. We try to buy shoes that will match all their outfits. The boys need to have a pair of tennis shoes and a pair of crocs.

Now, I am not a particular fan of how the crocs look but they are practical. They are shoes that can be worn in the mud and just rinsed off. Other shoes would be ruined when they run around in the mud but not the crocs. They are a very hardy shoe and last until our kiddos grow out of them.

Step Two: Make a List

After we have determined what we have, we make a list of what we need for each child using the categories listed above.

I write each list for each child. Beside each item that we need to purchase, I write an estimate of how much I think it is going to cost. This way I have an idea of how much we are going to spend all together and the kiddo has an idea of how much they have to spend on each item.

I put the lists on the clipboard and attach pencils to them in preparation for our shopping day.

Step Three: Go Shopping

I was raised in a very frugal family. My dad worked for one of the major retail stores for years and we learned how to shop their clearance racks for the best deals. I don’t remember paying full price for much of anything.

After I got married my sister-in-law began to teach me how to shop thrift stores. She taught me what to look for and how to gauge if it was a good deal or not. This was a lifesaver, especially with our large family.

When we are shopping for our clothing now we combine the two methods. I’ve learned what we need to buy and where we need to buy it in order to get the best price. For example, boys jeans in good condition are hard to find at thrift stores so I look for those on sale at a retail store.

I love to shop at thrift stores and so do our kiddos! It’s like a treasure hunt to see what kind of goodies we can find. However, I have learned to shop in places that are well organized by size and color. My time is very limited and so I like to go into the store, head the area where they have the size I need, and look for the color I want. This saves me a lot of time hunting through every piece of clothing to see if it will work.

Remember those lists on the clipboard? I divide the boy and the girls up into two teams each armed with a clipboard list. I lead the girls while Sam leads the boys. We go through the store looking for the items on their lists within the budget I have given them.

Now, they always find a few extra things they love. I try to cushion the budget with a couple of extra dollars per child so I can say yes to at least some of their treasures. For example, Andy found a Minecraft t-shirt he just fell in love with and I didn’t have to say no.

They are getting old enough that having them shop with me is fun! I know as moms sometimes we want to go and get it done by ourselves. I am the same way too but I am learning that if I take the time to teach them now it will pay off for me in the end. Plus, I am teaching them a valuable lesson in learning to buy only what we need without breaking the bank. I love to see their excitement when they find one of their list items for less money than I had budgeted. They get it and that makes me one happy mama!

Step Four: Organize, Organize!

One of the reasons I worked to fine-tune this method is because it reduces my stress in my everyday life. In the early days, getting the kiddos ready was so stressful because I wouldn’t be able to find the right shirt or pants to match the outfit. Then I would run around like crazy mom trying to get it all together. By the time we arrived at where we were going, I was exhausted and in no mood to enjoy whatever we were doing.

I began to realize that if I invested some time in setting up a system for clothing, I could make it a lot more manageable for myself resulting in less stress and a happier mama.

Socks and undergarments are stored in over-the-door shoe organizers. I hang one on the back of the laundry room door for their undergarments and one over the foyer closet door for their socks. It makes it easy for us to put them away when they are stored in one place.

Quite frankly, shoes are always a disaster and I’m sure all you parents would agree with me. I think the only way we could keep the shoes organized is to hire a shoe butler to put them away every time the kiddos took them off. Personally, we don’t have those kinds of funds so we do the best we can. We have a couple of containers in our garage that hold everyone’s shoes. Theoretically, we should have one for the girls and the boys separately but that’s not how it works out. Honestly, it’s a constant work in progress.

The play clothes are stored in the kid’s rooms for them to pick what they want to wear on an everyday basis. They store all their shirts together and all their pants together. They can just pick one of each and they are ready to roll.

I sort each color of the matching shirts in individual bankers boxes and store them in the laundry room. When I am preparing to go somewhere I grab a banker’s box with everyone’s matching colors and fluff them in the dryer. The kiddos grab their shirts from the dryer, pair them with their jeans and get dressed. This way I am not crazy mom and our time of getting ready is quite peaceful.

I keep track of what colors we wear on a dry erase calendar board in our laundry room. This prevents us from showing up in the same outfit time after time. Again, I’m a mom of seven and the storage area in my brain is full of other random things so I just take the pressure to remember off myself.

I have a tub for the boys and one for the girls in the laundry room where I store their long sleeve shirts, extra jeans, and skirts. We do not always wash our jeans after each time we wear them so each child has a hook they hang them on for next time.

We try to keep the hand-me-downs organized by size in a tub in our basement. We have several of them and the kiddos are a big help when it comes to this part of the job.

How much does it cost?

I budget approximately $1200 per year for our clothing needs. This number can fluctuate depending on the ages of the children. When they are younger you have to buy clothes more often because they grow so fast. This number would be much larger if we didn’t have the hand-me-downs. One of the big reasons I am intentional about a “clothing system” is to keep our expenses as low as we possibly can. Using the formula I’ve listed above has helped us get it in line.

I try to make my life as simple as possible because I feel I can be a better mom when I reduce my stress. And being a good mom is the goal!

Thanks for reading! We appreciate you!

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