Step 1Set a budget for back-to-school clothes and stick to it. For best results, break the budget down for initial purchases and ongoing monthly expenditures. Save more money by limiting purchases at the onset of the school year and take advantage of clothing sales as they occur.

Step 2Clean out your child's closet to determine what kind of school wardrobe you have to work with and separate back-to-school quality clothes from play clothes. Assess the number of outfits that can be made with existing pieces. Save money on back-to-school clothes by isolating separates that you can mix-and-match.

Step 3Save money on back-to-school clothes by shopping for summer sales in June and July. Buy enough outfits for warm-weather wear and look for items that can take the wardrobe into the Fall. Plan ahead for next Spring as you buy back-to-school clothes for more savings.

Step 4Take advantage of Winter clothing sales in the Spring. Coats and jackets or items needing frequent replacement, such as scarves, gloves and hats, make good choices. Projecting a child's growth is not easy but is often doable with outerwear and worthwhile if the savings are considerable.

Step 5Look for back-to-school clothes in online auctions, classified ads and consignment shops. Oftentimes, new and nearly new clothes can be found for a fraction of the retail price, particularly outside of the school shopping season.

Step 6Balance the need to involve your child with shopping with the need to save money on school clothes and do so as is age appropriate. You can win the battle over the school wardrobe by giving them an allowance to spend on trendy items or accessories and allowing their input on color and style. This minimizes impulse buying and purchases that go unused.
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I'd definitely consider resale and thrift shops. There are some consignment stores just for kids out there in some cities. Also, some of those types of places online, not just Ebay.

Goodwill or Salvation Army are OK, but you have to be careful. The stuff there in good shape is built to last, which is important, but there is a lot of seriously used stuff. Also, there is a stigma attached to shopping at those stores sometimes, and it might not be good to risk the kids getting teased about it. But it is definitely a super-cheap place to get clothes, and there are some high-quality items out there.
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steal them
Source(s):
me

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I would suggest to go to Goodwill stores. They have used clothes that are in good condition. Dollar General has cheap notebooks and filler paper for 50 cents each. Go to yardsales, trade lots, flea markets they normally sell stuff for cheap that is usually last years stuff but still cute. Hope this helps =]
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this weekend (Aug 7-9) is a tax free weekend for clothing and school supplies in VA? I would check with this website for tax free info for your state.

Clothing and footwear under $100
School supplies under $20

http://singleparents.about.com/od/taxfreeholidays/qt/VA.htm
Source(s):
http://singleparents.about.com/od/taxfreeholidays/qt/VA.htm

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Almost anywhere on the net, you can find coupons for all major clothing stores. You either print the coupon, or jot down the coupon code. it helps a lot. :)

http://www.couponcraze.com/categories/Clothing/
Source(s):
http://www.couponcraze.com/categories/Clothing/

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