That means shopping for back to school clothes.  There are ways to help save on the time and expense of shopping.  Here’s what I do.

A week or so before we plan to head to the mall, I have the kids try on all their clothes. Yes, every single solitary piece.

When you have them do this, you’ll discover that many many articles of clothing have become too small over the summer.  These you can toss into the “give to charity’ pile.

You’ll find many pieces stained and others that need repair.  If you’re the kind of person that will actually take the time to remove the stains or replace missing buttons, then go ahead and make a pile for that.  If not, they can probably go in the trash, that is if they aren’t good enough for charity.

You can also toss last years fashion faux pas into the charity bin as well.  This will leave you with the clothes that actually fit and are wearable.  These you’ll separate into different classes, a pile for pants or jeans, a pile for tops etc.

There will be some clothes that your child will say that no matter what they will never wear it.  They hate it.  Don’t question it, you know that you have clothes that you don’t like yourself.  Toss it into the charity pile.

From the good pile of pants or jeans, have your child pick out a pair then look thru the tops to see if there is anything to wear with it.   Hopefully, together be able to find at least two tops for every bottom allowing extra outfits or looks from one pair of pants.

Once you’ve joined up the bottoms with the tops, take a count.  Is there enough clothing to last your child a week, or two?  Is there enough to last from laundry day to laundry day?  If so, you’re done.  If not, you can quickly determine that you need more jeans or you need more tops by the number of completed ‘put together’ outfits and  items left unpaired in the piles.

You can then make a shopping list from the work you just did.  You may determine that you need three pairs of jeans and only one versatile top.  Or you may discover your child has really grown over the summer and needs five new pair of jeans and ten new tops!

Be sure to go thru the underwear too.  Nothing worse than trying to wear underwear two sizes too small!

Don’t forget to check the shoes!

With a prepared shopping list in hand, you’ll be better prepared to spend your back to school clothing allowance wisely.