Children's clothing

My children are on a mission right now to get rid of the clothes that are full of holes and/or that they just don't wear anymore. They put them in a box or bag and I then go through the clothes. I toss only what is badly stained or torn. Some tears can be easily fixed. Pants with holes in the knees can be cut off and hemmed to make shorts for the summer. This can save a lot of money on summer clothes for the kids. If you don't know how to sew go to any fabric store and pick up some "stitch witchery". It's fairly inexpensive. If you can iron and know how to use a measuring tape you can easily hem with stitch witchery. For jeans though, make sure you get the heavy bond stitch witchery.
The rest of the clothes I save and hang on to for younger siblings. There is nothing wrong with a child wearing "hand me downs". My youngest daughter loves getting her big sisters old clothes.
If you have any left over clothes check with a neighbor that may have younger children, see if they want them. If not take them to a second hand shop. Bless someone else's life with them.

If the clothes are in good shape look around your area and see if there are any consignment shops that may take them. Where I live there is a store that will buy "gently used" children's clothing, furniture, and toys. I have found that if I choose to take store credit they give me an extra 20% than if I would have taken cash. This is almost like getting children's clothes for free.

There are times that you will need to buy clothes for your children. Like I mentioned earlier, look at second hand shops and thrift stores. I have found some really nice stuff in these shops for dirt cheap. I also buy clothing off season from the big retailers. In today's economic market I've been able to find some really good deals for not a lot of money. I recently picked up a pair of boots for one of my daughters at a local retailer for $3.00. They were on clearance. I tucked the boots away in my closet for her birthday.
Right now I have good sized stack of brand new(name brand)clothes stashed in my closet for several of my children. I've bought jeans, hoodies, sweaters and t-shirts. All together I don't think I've spent more than $40.00. I picked them all up on clearance or from stores that were going out of business. These clothes will be given to them for birthday's and will be used for school clothes next fall.

A tip for buying shoes: I have 5 children, so shoe buying can get pricey. I wait until Payless shoe store runs it's BOGO sales. I also have AAA auto service. At this store I get an extra 10% discount with my AAA card. Check in to things like that. You never know...
Don't be afraid to hang on to shoes for younger children that your older children grow out of quickly. I put out grown shoes in a bag or box and when a child needs new shoes we check out the "shoe bag" or the "shoe box" to find something there first. If no luck then we wait for BOGO and go to Payless.