Saving Brave: How to Save Money on Clothes for your Family

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Care to save money on clothes and shoes for your whole family?  This isn’t a topic I don’t delve into much around here, but I think we can all agree that stewarding our money well is important, so I thought I’d share with you a couple fun and simple ways I do just that.  Get ready, because it’s pretty amazing what you can do in

First, a bit of honesty.  I like to pretend that I’m frugal, but deep down I’m a spender.  My husband is the mastermind behind any financial planning in our home and I just seek to follow the rules…most of the time.  I do, however, enjoy the challenge of saving money.

I jumped headlong into the coupon craze 8 years ago when my oldest son was in preschool.  I’d drop him off and take my daughter with me to get groceries and we’d slowly walk the aisles stacking our carefully sorted coupons and price matching where we could.  Then I would return home and try to impress my husband with a dozen boxes of crackers and 4 tubes of toothpaste purchased for only pennies.  It was all quite fun.

And then we decided to homeschool.  Then I had a couple more kids.  And then I gave up on coupons and started doing nearly all of my shopping at Costco.  The End.

For real.  There was a time and season for all of that, but it doesn’t work so well in this stage of life.  However, I have found other simple ways to save a decent amount of money, so I thought I’d share my favorite ways to save money on clothes and shoes.

How do you afford clothes for all of those kids?

I have four kids and I’ve been asked that questions more than once.  The answer is two-fold.   a) awesome hand-me-downs from friends and cousins and b) smart shopping.

What does smart shopping look like?  I’m glad you asked!  Get ready because this part is fun.

How to Save Money on Clothes and Shoes for the Whole Family

 

Step 1 – Ebates

I do most of my shopping online and I often start right here at Ebates.  Haven’t joined Ebates yet?  This one is a no-brainer, friends.  Simply register and go through their site to do your shopping and they’ll send you a cash rebate for part of your purchase.  It’s simple and it’s legit.  They pay out rebates quarterly and give you a $10 rebate bonus on your first purchase.

Rebate amounts vary, but to give you an idea, right now Macy’s is 10% cash back, Nordstrom is 6% and Gap is 6% as well.  I happened to be shopping for kids clothes this week so I headed to Old Navy (through Ebates), which is currently an 8% rebate.  Now anything I purchase is automatically earning me 8% cash back.  Nice, huh?

Step 2 – Shop the Sales

Next, I checked Old Navy’s sales.  Their Pre-Black Friday sale has most purchases at 40% off so I loaded up my cart with a couple dresses and a few shirts for my girls. Here are a few deals I found quite easily.

 

And a few more here.

 

Tip: I don’t shop for back-to-school clothes.  Granted my kids are homeschooled, but they do still wear clothes. 😉  However, since it’s quite warm in August, when we begin school, and fairly seasonable here until November, I try to buy their fall/winter clothes closer to the holidays when the sales are even better.

So we are at 40% off (yes, in addition to sale prices) and 8% cash back from Ebates.  Nice, huh?

But wait. It gets better.

Step 3 – Raise

When my cart is ready I hop on over to Raise.com and buy a gift certificate.  Raise acts as a middle man, linking up gift card buyers and sellers..  The best part?  Many of them are offered as e-cards that are e-mailed to you instantly.  For example, right now you can pick up a $100 Old Navy gift card for only $86 (14% off).

(Tip: Old Navy, Gap, Banana Republic and Athleta are all owned by the same company so their gift cards work interchangeably.  I can use anything remaining on my gift card for another purchase throughout the holidays.)

Did you get all that?

1. I shopped the sales area and found 10 items for $49.48 after tax (regular prices for these items showed as $161.40.  I don’t pay much attention to regular prices because sometimes it feel like retailers mark things up just so they can mark them down.  But saving $111.92 sure feels like a good start.)
2. Clicking through Ebates will earn me 8% cash back, an additional savings of $2.97 on this particular purchase – not bad for one extra click on your computer.
3. I bought a Raise e-card at 14% off for an additional savings of $6.93.

Final Price $39.58 for 6 shirts and 4 dresses.

Total savings $121.82. (over 75% off the original retail price)

Average price per item $3.95.  With tax and free shipping, delivered to my door.

And that, friends, is how I clothe a larger than average family on the cheap.  But it is certainly not limited to larger families or Old Navy or crazy good sales.  There are some items online that rarely seem to go on sale (Converse All Stars, anyone?).  Combining E-bates and Raise is a great way to create a sale.  With a couple simple clicks I know I’m making purchases at the best price I can find.

It’s actually kind of fun to save money on clothes, isn’t it?

(Tip:  If you are new to E-bates there is a $10 cash back bonus on your first purchase.  This really is a no brainer, friends.  For a first timer, the scenario above could have then been lowered to $29.58.  That, friends, is how you buy $161 in brand new clothes for less than $30.    You can sign for Ebates by clicking here.)

But What About Shoes?

Shoes are expensive, aren’t they?  And hand-me-downs don’t work as well here.  I haven’t found a way to purchase shoes at $3.95 an item yet, but I do have a little trick for buying great quality shoes at the best prices around.

Meet Shoebuy.  Yes, I buy most of our shoes online as well.  I was slow to adopt this process; however, Shoebuy offers free shipping and free returns so in the event that I get a wrong size or a bad fit we can always ship them back and order a new pair at no charge.

The best part?  Shoebuy has great sales!  Quite often Shoebuy will have a 25% off (and occasionally a 30% off) sale and it usually applies to items already on sale.  So while these may not be the most frugal purchases, this is a great way to buy shoes that rarely ever go on sale (Converse All Stars, Crocs, and Georgia Boots are a few of my favorites) and get them for the lowest price possible.

Here is a purchase I made last year.  I had my eye on a pair on of Sorel boots for quite some time.  But they are expensive.  I tried to justify the price by how much I play outside in the snow with my kids and the fact that we were headed to Minnesota in December and the cold there is real.  But I couldn’t do it.  So I waited for a Shoebuy sale like the one they have on right now.

 

The Joan of Arc Sorels, which are $180 at Nordstrom and just about everywhere else online, are on sale for $134.95 at Shoebuy.  On top of that, they are having a Black Friday Preview Sale which gives you 25% off + Free Shipping with the code BFPREVIEW, click here to check it out.

Total price for a sweet pair of snow boots? $101.21  Again, the very same pair that you’ll find for $180 everywhere else right now.  Of course, I’d go through Ebates to get another $6.07 cash back.

Final price $95.14

Total savings $84.86 (over 47% off retail price). 

Not bad, huh?  Again, that is not exactly a frugal purchase but the same rules apply for many other brands as well.  Find the shoes you want, wait for a good sale and save a bundle.  It’s really quite simple.

Note 11/24/26: Today this deal is even better, friends!  Click here for 30% off + Free Shipping with code THANKS16.  The price on these boots now drops to $94.47,  or $88.80 after your E-bates.  It doesn’t get much better than that.

If you decide to shop Shoebuy be sure to sign up for their rewards program.  For every $200 you spend you get $10 in rewards cash.  That’s another 5% savings, right?  With 6 people in our family, it doesn’t take us too long to get there.

So there you go. My two favorite ways to save money on clothes and shoes for the whole family.  This is not a sponsored post friends, it’s just me sharing a few easy tips I use to save a bundle.

Do you have some favorite money-saving ways to shop?  Share them in the comments and we’ll all keep learning together!

Happy Saving!