Clothing your family on a budget

WITH the rising costs of living, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for moms and dads to clothe their families. How do you make sure your family have all they need for home, school, work, outings and sports on a budget? As a mother of three young adults, and someone who has often been on a tight budget while my kids were growing up, I will share some of the things I have learnt that have helped me to save money while clothing my family.

1. Learn to repair your clothes

I don’t know about you, but boys destroy knees. I’m not talking about human knees but fabric ones! When my boys were young, the knees of their trousers, track pants, etc, were forever getting torn or developing bad holes in them, possibly because they were often falling onto their knees when playing roughly outside. While I know it’s fashionable now to have ripped jeans, it’s not always practical for your child’s clothes to have a big gaping hole in the knee or anywhere else. In fact, they can get so bad that they get their foot caught in the hole.

Not everyone possesses a sewing machine or even knows how to use one, but there are so many ways you can repair things by hand just with a simple sewing kit made of thread, sewing scissors, needles and buttons.

Also read: 3 Scary reasons why you shouldn’t buy fast fashion

Note: Always save any spare buttons – you may use them later.

You don’t have to be a seamstress to learn how to repair clothing. There are so many easy-to-follow tips on Pinterest and YouTube on how to patch up a hole or fix the thinning part of a garment or a broken seam.

You can also buy patches from a haberdashery or fabric shop and use them to fill up the hole, making the garment more interesting for the kid – they can even pick out their own patch.

I would often convert jeans or trousers with damaged knees into shorts for my kids by cutting off just above the damaged part and sewing a hem.

When buttons fall off, you can either replace the missing button with a similar one from your collection or buy a whole new set from the sewing shop. Buttons are cheap! Revamping the buttons on a shirt can even restyle the shirt, making you or your kid excited to wear it again. Once again, it offers the kid an opportunity to choose their own style.

The elastic in older pants and skirts often becomes stretched with time. You don’t have to buy a whole new garment. You can just unpick part of the band, insert a new, fresh elastic and stitch it up again. Here is a video on how to do that: https://youtu.be/3OoxZNEF2AY?si=9Htt2gCVawmYJMm1

What about when your kids keep growing? Well, if it’s practical, you could buy a garment that is slightly too big for your kids, especially length-wise, and lift up the hem – that is so easy to do by hand by just using the simple hem stitch. Check a video here: https://youtu.be/pbiQt9RJg2Q?si=LJlImWrBUOxZd2GV

Then, when your kids grow, you can unpick the hem, and they can still wear the pants, shorts, etc. You’ll just need to iron the hem flat.

Also read: Shift to thrifting to celebrate Mother Earth

2. Passing on/inheriting

Passing on clothes from the older kids to the next ones down may not always be popular among siblings, but nowadays, it’s become a necessity for lots of families with multiple kids, even those of different genders. It is a little more challenging to pass down from an older girl to her younger brother because of teasing and gender stereotypes, but it seems acceptable almost everywhere for girls to wear boy’s clothes up until maybe their teen years.

I wouldn’t suggest pushing the issue with your kids – give them a choice of whether they want the garment their older sibling had or not. Let them see it more as an exciting new addition to their wardrobe rather than an obligation. The last thing you want is your kid being forced to wear something that will cause them to be teased at school or in sports.

Also, be willing to accept second-hand clothes from cousins or friends of the same gender as your kid because they’ve grown out of them. My daughter was small for her age so her friends often gave her clothes. We seldom had to buy her anything new.

3. Buy second-hand/thrift

Buying thrift clothes is now a serious trend. And for good reason – the environmental impact of following fast fashion is devastating.

Also, there are so many lovely thrift stores nowadays with beautiful garments. The SPCAs often have second-hand treasures at their charity shops. Other non-profits have charity shops, and there are higher-end thrift stores in malls and shopping centres where you can find top brands at more affordable prices.

What’s great about second-hand is that you often buy something unique that no one else would have bought at a major fashion retailer recently. Your teenage daughters will love that!

And it’s great for moms and dads, too, although I have found it harder to find good quality second-hand clothing for men – my young adult sons. It seems that men often wear their clothes until they are really bad and then just chuck them away so you will find fewer in the thrift stores. I wouldn’t suggest buying underwear second-hand, though, except for maybe a decent bra.

Instagram has some wonderful SA thrift stores to follow, and you can get your goods sent via Pudo which is reasonable. The thrift site, Yaga, is a great place to find second-hand clothes online as they have an awesome search facility and are buyer-protected.

Also read: Find hidden gems at SPCA’s new thrift shop

4. Serious sewing

If you are a talented seamstress, you can make your family clothes on a budget by buying from budget fabric stores and using online patterns or second-hand patterns. You can even invent your own designs. If you’re not that way inclined, you can hire a seamstress to repair and make things for you. Even if something doesn’t fit, a talented seamstress can tailor it to your specifications, and that often ends up being cheaper than buying a whole new garment.

There are so many ways to save money while clothing your family. I’m sure I haven’t covered all the options. By searching Pinterest, you can find many more. Enjoy the adventure!

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