We don't shop for school clothes now that we HS, either. We're starting our third year and I still get happy when I see all those dreadful uniforms in the store and know that I don't have to buy any! (They went to private school and needed uniforms.) Like many of the others, I just buy clothes throughout the year on an as-needed basis. We shop at thrift stores and off the clearance racks, and my boys never seem to mind. Consignment sales were more useful when they were younger. Our local sales are very skimpy when it comes to boy's clothing over size 7 or so. I'm amazed at what some of my friends spend on their kids back to school wardrobes. One friend has four boys and an income as tight as ours. But she still buys each boy the fancy $90 sneakers they feel they must have every year. That's $360 just for shoes! Insane, IMO.
We don't shop for clothes now. We buy as needed but it's usually at a thrift store so we can shop whenever we need to & get a good deal. If we buy new it's probably on clearance really cheap. I hate "clearance" prices that are only $1-2 off. But we bargain hunt year round. We do buy school supplies to stock up & to donate for shoeboxes w/Samaritans Purse.
We are currently shopping the summer clearance for NEXT summer. Occasionally that one comes back to bite me, if a kid grows through a size in the winter and we don't to use those buy aheads. But my kids are all about stretchy garments, so shorts and t-shirts tend to be more forgiving size wise. I will need to buy at least two of my kids some pant/jeans when the weather gets a bit colder, but I will probably wait until September or early October for that. My younger two need shoes because they've been in sandals all summer and their tennies don't fit. That's my most pressing purchase at the moment.
I loved school clothing shopping once I reached 7th/8th grade because I had to "dress to impress" of course - lol. We do not clothes shop specifically at this time of the year as of now. There are always sales at different times of the year which can actually be cheaper than now. Once my eldest starts to "care" about how she looks I am sure we will get a few new items at the traditional start of school just so she has the "new clothes" to go to the teen center in. Now supplies ... oh boy do we stock up on supplies around this time. Heck, right now I can get a spiral notebook for $0.25 but in two months it will jump up to about $1.00 it makes no sense to "wait until we need it" with supplies - lol.
