Spending money wisely

The other day Christine and I went to Michael's craft store to buy some items, (apliques, beads, stickers, fabric) so we could make some accessories for her dolls. Every time we are at a store together buying something for her she compares prices. On this trip we were looking at some iron on applique and she found some she liked. She said she really liked them but that they were expensive. She kept looking and found some very similar iron ons for much less and with more in a package. I have made my girls smart shoppers. When Ashley was younger we would go grocery shopping together, and as I read the items on the list we would choose the items that we needed. She didn't bother to check the prices on anything that she put in the cart. I spent a lot of time explaining to her how to get the most out of her/our money. She does most of her shopping on her own now and she has done really well. Sometimes she will ask me if I think she has spent too much money on something. She tries very hard to shop smart. I learned very quickly when I was pregnant with her that name brands were not something that I would be buying any longer. I wish my mom wouldn't have let me buy name brand clothes when I was a teenager. I think about the money I could have saved. I couldn't live without that $60.00 pair of jeans. She made me use my money to buy clothes that were over a certain amount. I had to get new clothes every year, even though I had tons of clothes from the previous year. My girls do great when it comes to shopping for clothes. They have never felt the need to buy new clothes just because it was the start of a new school year. I buy them what they need. It's so different now with all the stores to choose from. When I was growing up Moses Lake was where I did my clothes shopping. All the stores were specialty stores and they were expensive. Even the mall in Wenatchee was expensive compared to todays prices. Ashley hates clothes shopping. She always tells me to buy them for her and she will try them on at home. I think that happened twice and I said uhhh, no more, she was forced to go. One year we went shopping and we could not find any jeans that fit her well. We spent 6 hours at the mall. She was soooo sick of trying on clothes, but I refused to leave until we found something that fit and looked good. Finally at Old Navy she found some that fit great. My girls have so much more than I had growing up and I never felt like I was dirt poor as a kid. I had two working parents and was an only child and still there were some tough times. When Ashley was younger my income was way below poverty level. There were times I remember having enough extra money to buy cheese. Cheese was expensive so it was great when I could afford to buy it.