Sustainability in Your Family Budget & Your Kids’ Clothing Costs

Sustainability has always been in style, but now it’s becoming even more en vogue – not only do you do your part for the good of the planet by not wasting Mother Nature’s resources simply by throwing perfectly good clothes away, you can also save a tidy sum of cash too! That’s wisdom of nature. When your family is still growing, one of the ways that you can manage your budget is to lower the amount of clothing costs that you have. However, you would soon find it genuinely challenging to totally cut down on essential consumables such as food and utility payments. That is unless of course you have the ability to materialize them out of thin air!

But with some resourcefulness and creativity on your part, you can try saving on some of the other aspects, such as clothing costs. When it comes to your kids and what they wear, you can try out the following simple methods.

Take Advantage of Sales and Discounts

Some stores and even certain brands hold regular sales that you can watch out for. This also applies to those that sell the normally more expensive items, such as Spyder boys’ ski wear or pants. You can take advantage of these when you’re in need of specialized clothing types. Just make sure that you have a way of avoiding or navigating through the crowds when those days come.

Sell or Donate What Can’t Be Used

Children grow faster than you think. It’s no surprise that in only a few months, you’ll have clothes that no one fits in anymore. In that case, selling them in a garage sale or giving them away to charity will give your closet space a breather. You can help your kids choose which ones they let go of, and you can even teach them a thing or two about entrepreneurship or helping people in need.

Recycle Outfits

One of the more costly kinds of outfits that your kids are going to own are costumes.

Whether it’s for a play or a pageant, the chances are that it’s only going to be used once and for good reason. Who wants to dress up as, say, a tree while going to the mall? However, even though you can’t wear the whole costume as it is, you may be able to save some of it and make it part of your kid’s everyday wardrobe.

Hand Down Clothes

If you have more than one child, chances are that they’re going to be a couple of years apart from each other (depending on how, ahem, busy you’ve been!).That would mean that if your older kid has grown out of their clothes, they can give it to their younger siblings for them to wear. This way, you will only mostly worry about your eldest child’s clothes. Of course, you may still buy your younger children some new ones as well, but not as much as you would normally need to.

Get Creative & Make Repairs

Some people will automatically discard clothes when they get damaged. However, when you don’t unthinkingly waste your money by throwing away perfectly good clothing, then repairs are the way to go. They help you make the most out of your money, and some of the more visible fixes, such as patches, can become part of clothing design as well. You can let your kids have fun and learn basic sewing, a useful skill which they can apply later in life.

When you become more economical with your own and your kids’ clothing costs, you will find yourself bristling with new and creative ideas through the force of concentration, and still have the money you would’ve only otherwise spent, to purchase other items if needed. Perhaps toys for the children. Make your budget ‘smart’ by maximizing your use of clothing. As long as you take basic measures to look after your clothes and they look good and ‘fit’ well, they can be enjoyed to the maximum and last a very long time!

Jennifer Dawson

Jennifer Dawson is an experienced freelance writer who specializes in food and nutrition. Working in fitness marketing previously gave her a good feel for the industry and since going freelance she has been able to explore her preferred topic areas such as diet types, nutrition and food. Outside of work, Jen enjoys traveling, swimming and spending time with her young family.

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