You know. . . HOW, exactly, do we feed and clothe them all.
I get it. I know that it seems illogical and somewhat impossible.
But, do you know that the Lord has this AMAZING way of providing for all of our needs?
He is good. He is Sovereign.
Why would we EVER doubt
that he will provide for our needs?
He will.
He will provide.
He always does.
He always has.
and, He commands us to REMEMBER his faithfulness!
so. . .
Just so I don't forget, here is how we have been blessed in the clothing department:
- We have boxes of clothing in our closets and garage that are sorted by gender, size, and season. Most of these are hand-me downs from neighbors and friends. They are all in great condition. Whenever I need a new pair of jeans for one of the kids (usually the boys wear their's out first), I can run out and find a pair that fits. Awesome!
- We also have shoes, sandals, boots, etc. . . same story, basically.
- Late in the summer I sorted through all of the clothes the kids have for winter (took 2 days!) and then went thrift-storing with a good friend. I managed to purchase almost everything that 10 children needed for fall/winter for about $250. That is about $25 per child!
- Growing feet, and wet, cold winters meant that we really did need new snow boots for 7 of the children this year. UGH. Not cheap! We HAVE tried the thrift-store, hand me down boot thing and usually end up regretting it every day the children come in with soaking wet red little toes. . . but, I happened upon a GREAT sale at a well-known children's catalog store and ended up getting an INCREDIBLE deal:
for a grand total of:
(drumroll please)
$109.84 (INCLUDING shipping!)
WOW!
Thank you Lord for your provision.
Always.
Help me to remember!
Other mamas of large families: How do you clothe your children without bankrupting your account? Let's share some ideas.
5 comments:
By faith.
Lots of sharing--the boys have two bins of clothes and the girls have a closet--just pick what's on top and put it on!
Love from the North,
Summer
right now we only have 2 kidlets, but i love a deal. i buy their snowboots a size to a size and a half too big, everything gets bought big. pants roll up easily. i only buy intense sale. frequent shopper cards help.
Thank God for hand-me-downs and friends with shopping addictions! LOL!
We do it very much the same as you... a lot of hand-me-downs and thrift store shopping. We have a wonderful thrift store near us that has half price Mondays... I rarely shop there on other days. I also make some of the things I can't find otherwise, mainly nice (and appropriate) dresses and skirts for my girls. It is also very helpful that my mother loves to buy my children clothing.
I totally depend on charity shops (that's what they're called here in Britain). And my eldest daughter , now 20, is an expert coming home with clothes a plenty for each of the kids plus bits for dh and myself!
Food - getting into beans big time now. Always cook bulk so there are leftovers - then usually stretch the leftovers the next day with another tin of tomatoes for instance. Make my own bread and try to avoid stuff like crisps and most ready made stuff. Try to get the girls baking enough biscuits and cake for everyone. We also buy all our whole foods and earth friendly cleaners in bulk from a wholesalers, as part of a local home-ed charity we have an account!
Post a Comment