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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I agree with the above posters.  DD14 is similar, and last year we set up an agreed upon allowance amount so she could save up and buy herself whatever she wanted.  She quickly realized how expensive everything is and how long she’d have to wait before she could afford to buy them.  She started asking to do odd jobs and chores for cash.  She makes me an iced vanilla latte that tastes even better than Starbucks and I pay her $5.

Then her friends told her they buy the fancy makeup brands at Marshall’s.  (This, after she had paid $18 for the exact same lip gloss)!  And then she found Lululemon in one of our local thrift stores.  And she finally started learning how to stretch her money.

For Christmas, she put an expensive Lululemon jacket on her wish list, but we bought her other stuff, and she received gift cards from family.  So she asked if she could sell me the gift cards and return a couple of items that didn’t fit, and then she got enough to buy herself the jacket she wanted.

I highly recommend this approach![/quote]

We do something similar.  At 13-14, DD was in this phase and had a few treasured Lululemon items that she bought full price with birthday/Christmas gift cards from family.  Not surprisingly, she was unhappy about how little she could get with that money.  The fact that it was "her" money (gift cards that she controlled) really helped her understand the true cost of choosing expensive brands. Her dollars really did not go far.

So then we talked about local consignment stores and eBay, and she was skeptical but willing to try it.  Turns out, she was willing to participate in the "hunt," which became another hands-on way for her to understand cost and value.  Plus she/we found some good stuff!

Now she's 16 and seems to have settled in to the idea of getting a few brand name items per year - for her birthday and Christmas.  And though she's now earning some money through various seasonal jobs, she doesn't ever spend her money on the expensive stuff. LOL.

She doesn't seem to feel deprived in any way.  She just sees pricey brand name items are a "sometimes" thing - when value to her is worth the extra cost.  I consider this a big parenting win (with a nod to my mother and grandmother, who grew up poor but were remarkably good at stretching their limited dollars to include some special things along the way!)[/quote]

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