Boys School Uniform Wardrobe for Under $100

Each fall, parents everywhere purchase new clothing, accessories and school supplies for their children.  Estimates vary wildly on how much we spend each year. According to the National Retail Federation's Back-to-School Spending Survey conducted in 2015 by Prosper Insights & Analytics, the average family with children in grades K-12 planned to spend $217 on clothing and accessories., excluding shoes.  I recently got an email from a reader that got me wondering if you could get an entire school uniform wardrobe for half of that national average.

Q - "I am on a very tight budget.
Where can I get the best deal on school uniforms for my son?"

I learned her son is a second grader at a school with a casual uniform policy that requires basic khakis and polos in solid colors.  Many national retailers now carry school uniform items these days and all of them have great sales where you can regularity snag uniform clothing items for less than half of their regular retail price.  But if you are pressed for time and don't have time to shop the sales, I'd recommend you place an online order with Walmart.

Walmart offers school uniforms at one of the lowest price points in all of the major uniform clothing items that we track in the Best Bets Series.  If you shop online, you can order only what you need and avoid getting distracted with an impulse buy in the store. While they carry several brands, we've personally had good success with their George brand uniform items.  The quality held up for an entire school year and my daughter found the fabric very comfortable. 

I reviewed the website and mocked up this sample order for our reader's son. Check it out! All of the basics for a school wardrobe designed to last an entire school year for under a 100 bucks!

Sample Boys Uniform Wardrobe from Walmart

Item	Quantity	Total Price
Short Sleeve Polo	4	16.88
Long Sleeve Polo	2	11.50
Sweater	1	14.97
Pants	4	17.82
Shorts	2	16.00
Jacket	1	10.00
Long Sleeve Oxford Shirt	1	11.00
		$98.17

This order takes advantage of Walmart's uniform bundles where the quantity is more than one. I am a big fan of how Walmart offers these bundles. They  allow you to take advantage of the lowest price on items you need multiples of anyway.  The coolest part about their bundling, it that it allows flexibility to vary the items in the bundle with color of the item or even the size.  For example, you can get 4 polos in 4 different colors and 2 pairs of pants (one navy and one khaki).  If you think your child might have a growth spurt halfway through the year, you can order 2 pair of pants in their current size and 2 in the next size up.

By virtue of this exercise, I learned that it is possible to get a full wardrobe of school uniform for half of what most spend on a back to school shopping. You might be able to find a similar items at another retailer if you catch their best sale, but you cant beat the prices for the quality, ease and convenience on this George brand wardrobe from Walmart.