Never look a gift horse in the mouth!

[tiredmommy]

Those of you that got to meet Duckie in Cleveland can attest that she is pretty tall for an 8 year old. She's been growing non-stop, it seems, for the last few years. I was quite concerned about the $$$ it was going to cost to outfit her for school but then I remembered that my neighbor's daughter had sent over several lag bags of hand-me-downs early that fall. Most of the sizes were 12 and up but I thought I should dig through the items to see what I could press into service. Duckie had outgrown all her pants and most of her long sleeve pants before school ended...

So you can imagine my surprise when the majority of the items fit! I can't believe that my little girl can wear a size 12! She started 2nd grade in a 6x/7!!! But I've been working on 7 very large loads of clothes, moved an old chest of drawers into her room for storage and have been trying to figure what we have and what we need.

She has 8 pair of jeans, 8 pair of twill pants and 9 pair of active pants. That I know for sure! She has a plethora of short- and long-sleeved tops. She has skirts & skorts. A ton of sweatshirts. Even a lightweight winter coat!

And the stuff is in great shape!!! And lots of brand names!!! And Duckie loves the clothes!!!

So, for back to school shopping and a little beyond I need to get Duckie:
-a white sweater
-multiple pairs of leggings to wear with all the skirts she now has
-a couple pair of shoes
-sneakers
-black fashion boots (a staple in our household, lol!)
-a heavyweight winter coats and boots (eventually!)

I feel so fortunate on so many levels right now!

 

[gcvmom]

Very cool, indeed! Certainly helps the pocketbook this time of year, doesn't it?

easy child is lucky to have four older female cousins... so guess who gets all the hand-me-downs? Although I admit that I've had to quietly cull through some of the things that were a bit too, um, old for her. Thankfully, though, as she's getting older her modesty is growing and she's MUCH more interested in comfort than style.

The difficult child's, however, are going to send me to the poor house if they don't stop growing. My 12yo wears a men's size 10 SHOE, and difficult child 1 is just a 1/2 size behind. YIKES! And they both have to have a separate pair of shoes for PE in addition to their daily wear shoes. And there is no way they can manage with just ONE pair of sneakers and not have us all passing out from the smell in a few weeks -- plus they don't dry overnight even when I do wash them, so they need a backup pair. Ugh. I need to by stock in a shoe company...

You can also get good deals on gently used items on ebay. I've sold lots of stuff there, and bought clothes for the kids as well.

 

[Wiped Out]

TM-How great for you and Duckie!!!

We have such a hard time finding clothes to fit difficult child. He is so short but getting wider. He fits a pair of 16 pants for his waist but they are at least 3-4 inches too long. This poor guy needs to do some growing!

 

[goldenguru]

If my kids hadn't had hand me downs - they would have gone to school naked some years.

You might want to hit some garage sales, and local thrift stores to see what else you can find. The cost of new clothes is ridiculous.

 

[Lothlorien]

I love hand-me-downs for the kids!!! I rarely get any for Missy, these days, because she's taller than some of my friends older girls....I could give them her clothes now. I do get a lot of hand-me-downs for Mighty Mouse, though. I usually only need to fill in with a few dress shirts and some shoes and he's set.

 

[mstang67chic]

Having a difficult child who grew like a weed myself, I understand. It's always great when you can get clothes like that AND it's something the kid likes!

When we first got difficult child he was 9, not growing very fast so I did his school clothes shopping at Kohl's. With their sales, I could normally get stuff at only a bit more than Walmart prices and the quality was a bit better also. Once he started his huge growth spurts though we switched to Walmart. THEN we hit his feet spurts. OMG...there was one year I was buying him shoes literally every 4-5 weeks at a 1 1/2 size difference for about six months. Thank GOD for Kmart's buy one/get one half sales because of course this was during school and he would need gym shoes too. There were times he would whine a little about getting non-brand shoes but I simply explained it to him. There was no way I was willing (or could afford) shoes at $40 a pop when he was literally outgrowing them in a month. Wasn't happening. I said that when he stopped growing, I would buy him the "good" shoes but until then....sorry, nope. I've been pretty lucky with him that he's generally ok with bargain shopping and he can be pretty good at it himself.

The last few years though, we've purchased a lot of his school clothes at the Goodwill. Partly because he can sometimes find the jeans he wants there without them costing us $50 and partly because he DESTROYS his clothes and I'm not paying even Walmart prices for him to do that. Shoes I buy new and even the "cheap" ones are pricey as he's in a 12/13. *sigh*

One other thing about Walmart type clothes for those of you who have boys. I would buy difficult child a few pairs of their jeans that unzip at the knee at the beginning of the school year. By the time it was spring and warm again, the pant legs were a bit too short but the shorts still fit. It was like 2 for the price of 1 and really worked out well for him. Just an idea for those of you with boys!

 

[tiredmommy]

OMG! I still can't fit all the clothes! I'm going to have to pick-up another chest of drawers, lol! She'll have one for tops, one for bottoms and one for underwear, socks, pj's, swimsuits and accessories.

 

[DammitJanet]

Anyone have size 4 slim girls to handmedown? Keyana is starting Head Start this year and her Mommy just asked us to help with costs. Mommy isnt working anymore because her new baby has heart problems so now money is becoming a problem.

 

[AnnieO]

I'm dreading the back-to-school clothes shopping.

Onyxx does with what she gets. We'll give her $150 and tell her... That's all you get... Including shoes... We will pay for underwear and socks, boring stuff, if you want fancy stuff you pay for it... Plus one winter coat every other year (she hates wearing coats so there is no point in buying them for her).

Jett, on the other hand, despises shopping. So I measure him and go to Wal-Mart or Kohl's or Penney's, maybe Target, get sale stuff that I think he'll like. The entire summer outfitting - HUGE bag - cost $78 and included 7 pairs of shorts, 12 t-shirts, 6 pair of underwear, 12 pair of socks, 2 pair of shoes and 2 pair of pants. Brand new stuff.

We really can't do hand-me-downs... Occasionally Onyxx likes something I'm getting rid of, but mostly it's goodwill, Plato's Closet, and Wal-Mart. Since she can't go to Hot Topic right now! LOL

But if we could... The kids would just have to wear the stuff. 'Cause we're not millionaires!

 

[tiredmommy]

I wish we did have some hand-me-downs, Janet... I'd ship them down in a NY minute!

 

[gcvmom]

No size 4's Janet, but easy child just outgrew her size 10 slim stuff a couple months ago I'm sorry you've got that added pressure on you now -- and very sorry to hear about they baby's heart problems.

 

[DammitJanet]

Keyana is this weird size. She has always been tiny. She wore exactly the ages on the clothes or smaller all her life. Like if they said 3 to 6 months....she was 6 months when she got there. She wore 0-3 until she was 6 months. She still wore some 9 month clothes at a year and some 18 month clothes at 2. Mostly it was shirts that had to go bigger because her waist was tiny. Especially after she started walking and lost all baby fat.

Now that she is 3, well she can wear 3's but some 3T pants are too big on her! Not in length but in waist size and they darned sure dont make a 3 slim...lol. Some 3T pants are getting too short and most 3T tops are getting too tight. She is getting tall and thin...lol. Im not entirely sure 4 slims fit...I need to go fit her. I know I went through this with Jamie. I think the T's have the room for diapers which is what the problem is. She doesnt need diaper room. She is fully potty trained which some kids who wear this size arent. She doesnt need to go into the 4T's because she doesnt need the diaper room. She needs the regular 4-6x department because she is not in baby clothes anymore. At least I think that is the idea...lmao.

 

[gcvmom]

Target carries 4 slims. I can't remember if Walmart does or not... And in our area the Target girls jeans are on sale right now for $7. Slims are HARD to find! difficult child 1 has ALWAYS needed slims, and easy child, too. She outgrows the length of things before the waist. I don't know WHO they got this gene from, but it sure wasn't me or husband! (Most likely my mother... she's a twig and so are her brothers).

Elastic adjustable waistbands have been our saviour for many years!

 

[DammitJanet]

I will have to go up to the next city and check out Target. Cory and her mom are both skinny. God knows where Cory and Jamie got the skinny from. You know what we look like...lol. I used to worry people would think we were starving our kids.

 

[trinityroyal]

Elastic adjustable waistbands have been our saviour for many years!

I was just about to mention the elastic adjustable waistbands. These have been a life saver for us too. Little easy child is wearing size 10-12 boys' things for the length, but they are too large around the middle, so those elastic waist adjusters keep him from having falling-down-pants.

And I know that they are available in the girls' clothes as well as the boys. I buy a lot of my jeans from the kids' clothes section at Costco, and they all come with the elastic waist adjusters. Janet, I don't know if you have a Costco near you, but that might be worth looking at as well.

I also like Stang's advice about getting the pants with the zip-off legs. They can stretch a pair of pants throughout the year. Don't know if they make those for girls, though.

Trinity

 

[lmf64]

Considering during the last school year difficult child went from 34/30 to 44/34 you can imagine that I had to buy him clothes multiple times. I wish there was anyone who could give him hand me downs, but as the oldest cousin he's on his own. We always (until a couple of years ago) would hold onto winter clothes for his younger (less than three years) cousin to wear when he came here for visitation, but now that can't happen as difficult child grew and nephew hasn't.
I was going to suggest the waist adjuster pants for the little ones. My nephew is 3, needs 5's for length and 3's for waist are too big. Also like you said Janet the T is for diaper so if you can find the clothes that aren't todler sizes you should be able to fit Keyana.
The zip off leg pants are cool, but be careful. When I was teaching you can't imagine how many pants legs (and shirt sleeves) wound up in the lost and found never to be recovered.
Too bad ya'll don't live here. Our Wal-Mart is going through a remodel and has 4 isles of shoes for $1. Of course none of them will fit the feet of my kid lol. I had to buy him new shoes just after school got out and hope that they will fit him until Christmas, but I'm not holding my breath.

 

[goldenguru]

Janet -

Do you do "Freecycle"?? I've had great luck for the grands through that site.

 

[tiredmommy]

You aren't going to believe this... I was making dinner and talking to a very good friend on the phone when the door bell rang. My neighbor's granddaughters dropped off another bag of hand-me-downs!!!

 

[DammitJanet]

Lol.

 

[KTMom91]

TM, that's so great!

Janet, for Keyana, have you thought about skirts with leggings underneath? That's a really cute look, and easier to fit than jeans. If you sew, and she likes dresses, you can get cute T shirts and add a skirt. Miss KT had a painted sunflower t shirt, and my mom added a skirt with sunflower print. She also had a red doggie print skirt on a white T, with doggie buttons added to the shirt. Very, very cute, and very inexpensive.