Lesson Nine: Cheaper Is Not Always Better

As far as my girls are concerned, the best part of Christmas is the shopping to be done after the holiday is over.  They take inventory of what they received, any cash that was received, collect coupons, gift cards, sale notices and off we go. 

We made a trek to Portland this week to visit with friends and family.  The girls had money to spend so they wanted to do some shopping.  My husband and I were along for the occasional help with discounts and math, and to guard the dressing room doors.

We spent all day on Thursday shopping through downtown Portland.  Well, to be honest, the girls shopped, my husband and I mostly sat and waited....and waited....and waited.  The fact is, they each had a finite amount of money to spend and they wanted to get the most for their money as possible.  They are generally pretty good little bargain shoppers.  They check for sales, shop the clearance section, prowl through consignment stores and do everything possible to go home with a large amount of bags.

The girls are at the age where they can't necessarily just shop for their age, especially with jeans.  They need to try them on for waist size and length.  Since the obsession with skinny jeans continues, they tried on maybe 30 pairs of jeans trying to find the exact right fit.  My youngest daughter found a pair that fit her really well and she loved them.  They happened to be on sale for 18.00.  My oldest daughter could not find a pair on sale despite her best efforts and had to accept the fact that she was going to pay 36.00 for a pair of jeans if she wanted jeans that fit.  While she was less than pleased with the price, she has worn the jeans every day since buying them.

Once the jeans mission was accomplished, it was off to find some boots.  Once again, they tried on every single pair of boots in the place.  After much discussion, they both chose a pair of boots that were on sale for 20.00.  My husband and I took one look at them with their cardboard-like soles and realized that they would be ruined within a week.

We asked them what they would choose if they didn't have to worry about money.  Without hesitating, they each chose a different boot.  These boots were not cheap at a nice round 50.00.  Not wanting to see them waste their money, my husband and I offered to kick in 20.00 for each of them and asked them to make their decision with that in mind.  It was not an easy decision, but in the end they both chose the 50.00 boots, now costing them 30.00.  We were finally able to convince them that cheaper is not always better especially if they were to spend 20.00 on a pair of boots that would be taking up space in the garbage within a week.  Sometimes you really do get what you pay for.

Lesson Nine:  Cheaper is not always better.