Baby clothes on a budget: How to upgrade your little one’s wardrobe affordably

Buying clothes for your little one is a journey of its own, with plenty of excitement to be had, but it also comes with its own challenges. Some of the more boutique labels can be quite expensive to fill wardrobes with and are often beyond the reach of the average Australian family. At the other end of the spectrum, there are extremely cheap options but you often sacrifice quality in favour of them.

These days, many families are on a budget when it comes to having a newborn in the house, with reduced income and household expenses taking a toll - including baby clothing. But you also don’t want to stock up cheap clothing just for it to break down or for your bub to rapidly outgrow it. Sometimes paying a little more provides far more justification in the long-run (not to mention peace of mind).

So how can you upgrade your little one’s wardrobe on a budget?

Repurposing baby clothes around the house

It can be frustrating spending good money on baby clothes and then waking up the next morning to see they have grown 5cm overnight and no longer fit their wardrobe. Okay, a slight exaggeration there, but as parents, it seems like time flies so quickly when there’s a newborn around.

So what do you do when they outgrow them?

Fortunately, baby clothing items are not lost to the ages. You can donate them to charity organisations or hand them down to others in your family or friend circles. But one of our favourite nifty ideas is to repurpose them around the house, using them as a way to cut down on expenses at home.

How, you ask? Hear us out.

Brightly coloured baby clothes – or even toddler costumes that no longer get attention – make for excellent fabric for your next craft project. Get inspired and create a quilt, a new set of cushions, your own stuffed toys, or a special accessory, all using those barely-used baby clothes. Alternatively, you can keep the material for patching and repairing down the track, craft them into bags of all descriptions and so much more.

Tip: You can find plenty of inspiration from sources like Pinterest or Instagram.

And for the extra ambitious, these designs can even be used to create decorations for baby showers, birthday parties, and even fun games.

Trust us, once you feel a surge of creativity and outside-the-box thinking, you’ll find yourself putting those once-needed essentials to good use where you least expected to.