How to Shop for a 6-Year Old Fashionista on a Budget
Hey, Hey, it’s Jessica, one of Collin’s sidekicks!
When it onlinees to fashion, my daughter is 6 years old going on 17. So how do I keep my budget in check and shop for my little fashionista?
She’s been into fashion since she was three years old. At first, I loved it! When she was a baby, I enjoyed dressing her up in frilly dresses, skirts, and PINK, PINK, PINK! Little did I know I was creating a monster. A cute one, of course, but a monster nonetheless.🎀👗👡 She loves to have a lot of different “pieces”, and everything NEEDS to coordinate, from her earrings down to her socks. I mean, I get it. Clothes are fun. The price tags, however, are not.
The truth is, buying children’s clothing is a rat race. We know kids will either stain clothes or grow out of them within a very short period of time, so spending a ton of money on them doesn’t make sense. Thankfully, there are some things you can do to ease the financial burden.
Deals, deals, deals, and ONLY deals!
I’m confident in saying that 99% of the time, I’m getting some sort of deal. I never pay full-price. Well… on purpose, I should say. I actually had a very bad, eye-opening experience once. I took my daughter school shopping the summer before kindergarten, and we went into a more (let’s say) “trendy” store. I made the mistake of letting her pick out four items BEFORE looking at the price tags – and she was FAST. She grabbed them, the clothes looked cute, and I said “okay”.
I get up to the counter and the cashier tells me I owe her $125. My face must have said it all because she quickly added, “but you get a free tote for spending over $100”. Oh great, I thought, maybe we can live in that when we’re homeless!
Instead of creating a scene, I paid for the what should have been diamond-encrusted clothing, stopped at Auntie Anne’s to get a huge pretzel to ease the pain (ahh life before keto), and took with me a very valuable lesson.
Buy pieces to mix and match
It’s good to buy lots of plain pieces so they can mix and match. Also, for us, leggings are a must! My daughter prefers them 75% of the time. She doesn’t grow out of them as fast, and I hear less onlineplaining about her jeans being “too itchy”. Another important and pretty onlinemon sense tip is the less white the better… does that really even need an explanation? 😉
Online shopping is my jam!
I prefer online shopping over going to the store… surprise, surprise! Yes, sometimes I get the wrong size (shoes mostly), but most of the time I can return them without a problem. If you’re reading this article, I am guessing you like to online shop as well.👍
My favorite online stores to shop at for my daughter are the ones that almost always have sales and/or free shipping like Carters, The Children’s Place, and Crazy 8, just to name a few. The Emoji shoes pictured above were from Crazy 8 and were only $7.19 shipped! I love taking advantage of their awesome sales when they’re also offering up free shipping on any size order!
It’s also important to sign up for emails and any free rewards or membership programs. For instance, score $10 off your $40 purchase at The Children’s Place just by signing up for their emails. Also, when you sign up for their Rewards Program, you’ll get 1 point for each dollar spent. Once you get 100 points, you’ll score a free $5 reward! They also offer free shipping every day and have lots of sitewide sales and hot clearance buys!
Another one of my go-to online stores is Carters.online. While they may not offer free shipping every day, they do offer free shipping to my local store. They also have tons of sales and a “Rewarding Moments” program. It’s free to sign up and you’ll earn points every time you make a purchase. Spend $100 and earn $10! Every little bit helps, right?
What’s with the massive bows?
One thing that has surprised me is how giant bows are all the rage right now. I don’t even think they were this popular in the 80s when I was in elementary school! The person responsible for putting bows back on the map is most notably JoJo Siwa. If you don’t know who this girl is, lucky you. Her brand can be super pricey.
Thankfully, I have been finding more and more of her stuff on sale. For instance, I purchased this set of bows from QVC for $25.74 shipped, which works out to $4.45 per bow. I realized that even as a deal, it still seems expensive for a bow, and I agree with you. I don’t exclusively buy these bows because my daughter wears bows every day, and I don’t have the money for them all to be JoJo.
You can buy this 15-pack of Hair Bows on Amazon for right around $11 which works out to 73¢ per bow! That’s more like it. 🤗 I also like to check out the hair section at Dollar Tree during one of my many weekly visits. They have cute headbands and bows, too!
Speaking of JoJo, I was also able to buy TWO pairs of JoJo shoes and a pair of Zac & Zoe boots for $27 shipped from Payless. Don’t sleep on Payless deals, guys!
This brings me to my next point: Don’t let brand names freak you out!
My daughter is still young enough where this hasn’t been a big issue yet (other than JoJo, of course). But with tweens and teens, it gets to be ridiculous. Everything HAS to be brand named OR ELSE. As adults, we realize brand names are fairly silly and really don’t care about them as much. I hope my daughter will not fall victim to the brand name game, but if it happens, I’m ready.
If it’s currently happening to you, don’t worry! More often than not you’ll be able to find that name brand designer item for much less online from eBay and Amazon or at stores like TJ Maxx. Consignment and thrift stores are another option, and you can even do that online now with sites like Thredup.online and Swap.online!
I hope my little tips will help people who are in the same boat as myself. I’m always looking for more tips and tricks on how to score my little fashionista clothing without busting my purse threads, so if you have any advice on ways you save on kids clothing, please let me know in the onlinements section! Thank you!
