After driving to Payson to return the borrowed flute (gave him a thank you note with $20 in Toys R Us gift cards, by the way), and before the afternoon showing of Shrek the third, I realized we had an hour to kill. I was feeling a tiny bit guilty that I haven’t really bought my kids any school clothes. Nope. Nothing. So, I hatched up a plan where I give them an allotment of money to spend on whatever they’d like to buy at the children’s clothing store. I thought $20 was both reasonable and generous. They are just kids, after all, and they still have a lot of clothes they can wear. If they didn’t find things to buy, or didn’t use their full $20, they could get the balance–divided in 1/2–in cash. So, if they only spent $10 of their $20, they would get $5 back. Unfair and a bit arbitrary, you say? Well, it’s my plan, and my money–so there. I explained this to the kids on the way to the store, and Cole, always hard up for money, said, “Can I just take my 10 bucks right now?” I told him to look around. Maybe he’d find something he liked.
In typical Natalie fashion, she wanted to know exactly how much she could get, and was there any money left to buy more stuff? A headband or two to go with her cute new outfit of a shirt and skirt, perhaps? She actually went over by 50 cents. She’ll have to pay me back. Jenna wasn’t all that interested, nor could she make up her mind. She did find two cute shirts and a headband, and I think she gets $2 back in cash. Megan found some cute cargo pants that we can cinch in real tight to fit her skinny frame for a year or two, and a green stiped shirt to go with them. $19 for her, so she’ll get 50 cents back. Cole found a shirt for $6, and he’s happy to get $7 back (he needs money to buy the Ryan Shupe CD that we got autographed). John doesn’t care about, nor does he need any new clothes right now. Besides, he had been asleep in the car, so he was too busy hanging on me and whining and fussing to notice that we were even in a clothing store.
There you have it, folks. Back to school shopping in one hour or less.
Oh, and Shrek the third was funny but too long. And I really appreciate Jenna’s waiting to throw up until after the movie and the drive home. That shows great self control, don’t you think?
Where did you get these good deals on school clothes? We haven’t done any shopping for school yet this year.
Loved this entry. I am going to copy it.
I say Jenna gets bonus points if she threw up on the new clothes
She actually made it to the sink, which gets many many bonus points in my book.
I’m impressed Paige! I think it’s a great idea and you’re my hero. Taking all the kids clothes shopping and actually being able to get something for everyone that wanted it. In an hour! Just wow 🙂
Christine