i saved up for my DD starting school, and i easily went thru $500 (and that is public school, so no blazer, and being able to buy Best n Less/Target/Big w generic pieces e.g polo shirt in school colour. i didn't buy one thing from the school, with the school logo on it (much pricier).

What i learnt in her first year of school:

the shops have a major blitz in mid January, heaps of school stuff available and heaps of sizes, specials e.g pack of two long sleeve polos for $15 at Target

i bought a BIT of winter stuff in January, thinking the winter stuff would all be available later in the year e.g winter, but when it WAS actually winter, i noticed, the stuff in the shops was very limited e.g i could not find bilby's sizes anymore and there were zero of some products. So that taught me, note for 2013, buy heaps of winter stuff IN JANUARY cos that may be my only chance of getting it. Ditto about hats. I should have bought multiple hats back at the Jan sales, cos i couldn 't find them to buy (in the right size) later on in the year.

Labels - when bilby was younger, one year we got asked "what does bilby need for her birthday" and i said "name labels", the cloth ones you sew on. So i sewed them onto her childcare stuff, unpicked them and have now sewn them into her school clothes. So the upside of the cloth labels is that you can unpick and re-sew them to the current clothes, which is saving me money, being able to recycle them. But you have another younger LO, and it is an extra thing to do, iron on ones might be more time efficient for you.

If you can't label everything, prioritise your labelling. Jumpers, jackets, the stuff they put on and off the most, that is the most crucial stuff to label. Little kids take off clothing in the playground and run off to play, there goes the school jacket you just bought! LABEL HATS!!!! and yes, people do cut off labels. The laundry textas are good for marking.

For under school dresses, i bought some school coloured bike shorts, made of cotton, that best n less and target sell. (next to the yoga pants).

i found all cotton school colour socks, 4 for $10 at Cotton on Kids. (the school ones are polyester).

best n less is good for plain cotton singlets and knickers (the ribbed ones have great coverage). all cotton, good quality, price is reasonable, no annoying skinny elastic to dig into legs.

Socks - many kids all have identical looking socks - they all take them off to play in the sandpit - so i got bilby's socks, instead of plain white or plain navy, i got stripey gold/navy ones - easy to work out which socks next to the sandpit are hers.

I bought navy corduroy trousers for my child for winter, she REFUSED to wear them, would only wear the navy yoga pants, so that was my lesson - don't assume your child will wear everything you choose.

It's easy to get behind with the washing, so don't have so few that you HAVE to wash every few days. The good thing with the polo shirts, is that they dry very fast, e.g wash the night before, dry the next morning.

Shoes - first term we had school sandals (first buckles). Second and third term we had closed in shoes that did up with velcro, they died a month shy of term 3 holidays, replaced with lace up sneakers - at this stage bilby was ready and able and motivated to do up laces - that's an individual call, i had no idea WHEN she would have the motor skills to do that, she surprised me by wanting to be independent. Term 4, i'm sure i will have to fork out for new sandals, and HOPE that over the summer holidays, she doesn't grow out of them.

so i skimp on the clothing and buy one pair of supportive school shoes. She's always in the school colours, which is the criteria of the school. She was the only girl NOT in a summer uniform dress, something i can't get at the cheap shops - and i'm finding the "school culture" of 2nd hand uniforms, like a secret society. When i finally work out HOW and WHERE to buy the 2nd hand uniforms, i will buy her a 2nd hand summer uniform dress. I think her school does this by private networking, not on an official basis.

oh, and don't ONLY look in the school clothing part of shops. For e.g our school colours are gold and navy. I found some good stuff in the "normal" girl and boy sections, e.g plain navy jacket in the girls, plain navy trousers and shorts in the boys. School uniforms seem to start at Size 4, and as i had a Size 3 child to outfit, i found the "normal" sections very helpful, because then i could buy the size 3's she needed at the start of Reception.

if your child has hair you intend to put up each day, best n less have bulk school hairties/headbands/clips in the school colours. Price Attack has them too.

School expenses don't stop at uniforms, i saved up the year before she started school and now she is at school, i save up every fortnight, in an Education account, so that i CAN come up with the money when the notes come home for "$30 for school swim lessons" etc, as well as the big outlay in January.

i bought a LITTLE winter stuff Jan 2012, but come Jan 2013, i will take it more seriously, buy multiple hats. And a school cardigan, even in Jan 2012 i could not get Reception size..

Recently, Target was selling off winter school colour skivvies for $1.83, so i bought up her size for next winter. I'm rarely in the shops, so was glad to stumble across that clearance.

i think "pull up" clothing, like elasticised waist shorts, trackypants, yogapants etc, are great for Receptions, toiletting independently at school. My child could not go to the loo in a skirt or dress, without getting naked !!!, back in Term 1 this year LOL. She didn't have the motor skills and co-ordination to manage the clothing AND go to the toilet at the same time. So maybe it was a blessing i coudln't get her a school summer uniform dress.

If your kid can't yet do laces, don't worry, unless it's a private school that stipulates "must wear lace up shoes", you can go down the velcro sandals route or velcro sneakers. I worried about shoes too, then found out the school was quite relaxed about shoes. They need shoes to climb and run in, lots of playground time in Reception, so grippy shoes are important i think, for their safety. (but that is my own opinion, safety first).

buy the stuff, keep receipts and tags on. Try it on your child BEFORE removing tags.

Then you have the whole mindset of lunchbag/lunchbox/drink bottle to get your head around - that sounded so simple, and took me ages to work out ha ha. (to get it all fitting in the school bag).

i need to buy bilby a pair of skorts right now, can only find size 16 skorts at Target now in Sept, i doubt they've restocked since Jan!