I was talking with a couple friends recently about back-to-school shopping. Our kids are teenagers now, and care more about brand names and labels than they used to in the past. The problem, of course, is the price tags on some of these “name brand” items can be astronomical and impractical for most budgets.
One friend said how she handles these requests is by setting a limit of what she’ll provide for a given item (e.g., say $50 for a pair of shoes), and if her teen wants something that goes above the limit, they have to pay for the difference out of their own savings. Makes them look twice at those $150 Nikes and really think about how many babysitting hours it would take to pay the difference to consider whether the cost is worth it.
I liked that idea – setting a reasonable limit for an item and telling my teens they can choose to purchase a more expensive version if they want to be responsible for paying the difference.
