Sunday, February 8, 2009

Old Habits Are Hard To Break

I took my fifteen-year-old son to WalMart this morning to buy some socks and shoes. He gets a larger monthly allowance than our other kids do and is expected to buy all his own clothes out of it. He's been skating by with hand-me-downs from his sixteen-year-old cousin, but that gravy train has run out, so it was time to shop.



As I wandered around the store I spotted a certain item of clothing on sale that I could use one or two more of. A certain...uh...intimate item of clothing that one really should try on before one buys, but one never really wants to try on - certainly not in a WalMart fitting room. I grabbed two. They were $4.50 a piece - how could I resist such a low price?

I should have resisted it. They're both the wrong size, laughably so. They're cheap as all get out. Two pieces of crap, forgive my French, and now I'm out ten bucks. I'll take them back, but really - I ought to know better. Didn't I just say a couple of weeks ago that it's better to buy one quality item than a multitude of cheap junk?

I've learned my lesson. And my son is learning lessons, too, about taking his time, shopping around and buying smart. He didn't like the prices of the jeans at WalMart ("They're $17.50, Mom!"), so I'll take him to the consignment and thrift stores next week and see what he can find. He's not going to pay for "quality clothes" at his age - he'd much rather spend the money on a new guitar amp. I guess the acorn doesn't fall far from the oak tree, eh?

3 comments:

Peggy said...

Can you share what you give for the allowance that the kids are supposed to buy their own things out of? I've been entertaining that idea and didn't know what amount was reasonable. Thanks!

Jennifer Feddersen said...

He gets $13.00 a week. He started out with a full wardrobe and I bought him a good winter coat right before we started.

So far, so good. He's used a lot of the money on other things, but he does understand he's in charge of buying his clothes.

The Team at Tucson Websites said...

my mom constantly yelled at me for not respecting my clothes, perhaps I would have taken more care if I had to buy them... good idea IMO