I’m not an extreme couponer. It’s too much work and I don’t have time to dedicate to it. Plus, many of the foods you can get for free aren’t safe for us to eat, so I don’t bother trying to figure it out. However, I like clothing deals. It’s fun to get brand new kids’ clothes for dirt cheap, so when  my mom invited me to go to Kohl’s with her today, I went along, just expecting to talk and hang out while she shopped. Then I had to pee. That meant walking past the baby and toddler clothing section. BIG MISTAKE… kinda. For the pocketbook today, it was. Long term, not so much. We found 30 articles of clothing for my kiddos that they can genuinely use. How do I know? We have a list.

Before Sweet Pea was born, we were given clothes, and I needed to know what she needed (she had a year’s worth of clothes before she was even born!), so I wrote down what she had for each size. I’ve maintained the list so that when people ask me what she can use, I can specifically tell them. We did the same thing for Sweet Sweet Boy, even though he didn’t start out with as many clothes as her. It’s nothing fancy, but it sure is useful! It came in handy today at Kohl’s. We were able to use my list for both kids and find stuff they need, not just “cute” stuff to buy just because.


So, how did I save well over $500 on clothes today? I’m a pro and learned from the best- my mom and godmother! Just kidding (kind of). In all seriousness,  I combined sales and coupons. Clearance clothes were on sale for an additional 20% off. I had a coupon for 30% off my purchases, so that’s almost 50% off the clearance sticker price. Then, there’s a coupon for $10 off a $30 kid’s clothing purchase coupon. So, I added that in, and we split our transactions to use it twice. Technically, we might have been able to split it after $30 and  ring up several transactions, but I didn’t read the fine print on the coupon, it’s a Saturday, so it’s busy, and splitting it twice (one transaction for my mom and one for me) is good enough. Plus, we each received $10 Kohl’s cash to use next week, and with it, there’s a coupon for $10 off a $30 purchase (or $20 off when you spend $30). I also received some store rewards points (always sign up for store rewards if you shop there often), so that adds a few more dollars off a future purchase.


All in all, between the two purchases, with sales tax, I spent $107 on clothing for my little ones and got 30 pieces of clothing. Since two dresses were about $10 each, that skews my price per item a bit, bringing it up to $3.59 per item, which is still a pretty good deal (it’s about $3.11 per item without the dresses). We also found 5 pairs of fleece footed pajamas (was a favorite of mine when I was a kid), 2 of which are gender neutral, so both kids can wear them. I highly recommend finding a few couponing blogs to get started (just reading through periodically helps get ideas) or watching sales if you’d like to try this on your own.

What are your favorite ways to save on kids’ clothing? My other favorite way is to buy clothing lots, so I get a lot of used clothes for dirt cheap, which is how I started Sweet Sweet Boy’s wardrobe. Anyhow, I had a blast doing some “retail therapy” today, splurging on my kids, but now it’s time to update my lists and feed the baby. 🙂