School Shopping

I can't believe how much money it takes to get kids ready for school. I had $1000 to work with that I had been saving up for the last few months. It just seems to melt away though!

Since when does two pair of shoes per person, socks and underwear cost $300?

Sara needs "professional dress" for her school. Last year it cost me about $400 to get her shoes, slacks, and dressy tops. This year she still had a lot of her basics but needed some more skirts and tops.

Megan, Jeffrey, Julia, and Mandy are all going to a school that requires uniforms. Which means two wardrobes. And since we're switching schools, the uniforms are slightly different and I can't use some of the clothes I already have.

Fortunately I have an awesome sister Lizzy who happens to be a professional when it comes to clothing.

I heard from friends that Savers was a good place to get clothes. I walked in, couldn't figure it out, and walked out. But after walking the mall twice with Sara looking for clothes for her (and gasping in shock at the prices) Savers was looking better and better.

So Lizzy came down for the day. We went to Savers and then the DI in American Fork. I couldn't believe at what Lizzy was able to get. Sara now has a huge and very interchangeable and amazingly good wardrobe, all for $120. That's about how much I spent on her two bras, top and skirt we bought at the mall!

During this trip she even picked out a few shirts for Megan (totaling about $8) that happened to fit her perfect and look great on her.

Then Lizzy spent the night. I convinced her (ok paid her) to go to a used uniform sale that our new school was holding. She ended up picking up all of the tops I needed for the kids, and did it for $50! I was ecstatic. She even took Julia to Savers and managed to get her seven more play pieces, including some very cute skirts for only 20 bucks. I only had to buy a few items at full price and the kids are going to have great wardrobes.

The only problem is that the $1000 will be gone by the time I pick up the last of the pants and I'm starting to get e-mails from teachers for lists of supplies. Ugh. Don't know what I'm going to do with those!