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My best friend in high school had $500 to spend at her favorite clothing store each month. Her father had given her a department store credit card, and she was not allowed to go over this limit.

Her father paid off the credit card every month. Each month she started fresh with a $500 clothing limit.

With $500 each month to spend on clothes, she soon had so many clothes that we never saw her in the same outfit twice, and we saw many clothes in her closet with the tags still on. Many were not even worn before she bought new ones the next month.

It is hard to understand the logic behind buying clothes that don’t get worn month after month. I wondered if she would ever marry and if so, how she would adapt when her father stopped paying the credit card.

I wonder if she appreciated all of those clothes. It is often hard to teach children to value things without placing some limits on their spending behavior.

Our family did not have quite as much money growing up, but we got by. My parents provided me with $100 to spend on clothes at any store I wished. This is when I first began to appreciate choices.

My favorite purchase was my Guess jeans. As you can imagine, this did not leave me with a great deal of money for the rest of my clothes. At that time, Guess jeans cost me $42, but to me they were worth every penny. Because I loved them so much and knew I could not buy more whenever I wanted, I took care of them and they lasted a long time.

I suppose, in retrospect, that it may have been wise to buy two pairs of jeans of a lower price elsewhere, but I really did love those jeans. I learned about making choices, and I learned the consequences of spending almost half of your money on one item!

In addition to parenting, the author also frequently writes on dome camera and thermal imaging infrared camera.