Back-to-School Shopping with a Tween

Only 1.5 weeks (12 days) until school is back in session, but I’m not counting. Really. I’m not. i{Okay, maaaaaaybe a little.}/inbsp;Although there are some great things about kids going back to school, there are some not so good things. nbsp;Like shopping.br /br /I will admit, I am not a shopper. nbsp;Well, I’m not a shopper when it comes to shopping with two active boys and an indecisive tween. Give me a day without kids like I had a href=”http://www.daveramseyroad.com/2011/06/happy-birthday-to-me.html”on my birthday/a and I’m in shopping heaven! Granted because I am a frugal woman, I don’t buy much, but it’s still fun to browse.br /br /Anyway, back to my point. On Monday, I took my tween i{and two boys}/i to Aeropostle, a VERY popular store among the tween set. I gave my tween her back-to-school budget and said “Go!” I discovered last year that it is MUCH easier and LESS stressful to shop with an indecisive girl when I give her the budget and let her pick what she wants.br /br /The rules are simple, here is your amount of cash and I get final approval i{because lets face it, some of the clothes they sell are not on the modest-side.}/inbsp;I tell her the same thing every year, “If you decide to buy an article of clothing that costs the amount of your budgeted cash, that is all you get. You get XX amount and that is all…spend it wisely.”br /br /I figured out that doing this allows for her to really see how much clothing costs and teaches her how to find the great deals. nbsp;On Monday, she found a pair of $40 jeans that only cost her $5 i{hello!}/iand then got four t-shirts that were buy one, get one free (or 50% off). nbsp;In total she only spent $40 and still has some money in her budget to spend. nbsp;It is a total win-win! I don’t have to try to convince her to spend less because it’s a fixed amount.br /br /Unfortunately there are too many tweens/teens istrikeadults/strike/inbsp;who have an entitlement attitudes because there are no boundaries set for them. Give them the boundaries and let them learn within those boundaries.br /br /Will they whine, stomp their feet, and say you are the worst parent in the world?br /br /Maybe. But I knew when I started this parental journey that my kids will not always like my decisions and that is okay. nbsp;I decided I am not going to feel bad when I teach them lessons that will help them in their adult life i{and I also will not feel bad when other people try to tell me I’m too harsh with my “lessons”-Uh huh…let’s compare notes in about 10 years…forget 10 years, I can already see the difference now!}/ibr /br /My daughter had a great sense of accomplishment for being able to find 5 pieces of clothing for $40. In fact when she got home she immediately pulled out each piece and told her dad how much she spent. The pride in her eyes when he responded with “You are kidding me!!” was priceless.br /br /a href=”http://www.aghdesigns.com/images/blogs/siggy4.png” target=”_blank”img alt=”Anna” border=”0″ src=”http://www.aghdesigns.com/images/blogs/siggy4.png” //a