Personal Finance Review – Expensive Baby Shoes Edition
August 12, 2007
The weather is blistering hot here in the Midwest, making it too hot for our daily walk with our son. We really wanted to get out so we headed over to a nearby mall to stroll around in the comfort of air-conditioning yesterday. I am not a big mall person, probably because I don’t enjoy spending money, but I will stop in every now and then. Luckily we left empty-handed but I was astounded by a stop we made at the Stride Rite store.
Whenever I need new shoes I am usually able to pick up an older model of Nike or Adidas they are phasing out for around $30 – $35. I was blown away when I looked at the price tag on some of the baby shoes and saw them priced as high as $50! I just can’t believe anyone would pay that much money for baby shoes but people must otherwise they would not price them so high. I could never pay more for kids shoes that I spend on shoes that are four times as big for adults. Baby clothes are a racket!
Here are some money posts I enjoyed this week:
– Deciding To Sell Or Keep Your Employee Stock Options @ The Digerati Life
– Investing On a Shoestring with DRIPS @ Lazy Man & Money
– Tired of Investing in the Same Countries All the Time? @ Suns Financial Diary
– I Am Happy When The Market Goes Down @ Money, Matter, & More
– Think the Stock Market is Going Down? Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is and Profit From It @ Generation X Finance
– We Liquidated Our Target Retirement 2050 Fund @ Blueprint For Financial Prosperity
– Capital One Sucks Slightly Less Now @ Five Cent Nickel
– Everything Warren Buffett @ Free Money Finance
– Another good reason to pay cash for a car @ Mighty Bargain Hunter
– 401(k) Money Isn’t His Only Option @ All Financial Matters
– Opportunity Costs or How Not Watching TV will Help You Make Money @ DoshDosh
– Six Habits I’ve Given Up In Order To Save Money – And How Much It’s Saved Me This Year @ The Simple Dollar
– The Real Price of Cheap Books @ Money & Such
Thanks to The Frugal Law Student for including our submission on easy money in last weeks Carnival of Personal Finance.
All posts by Ben Edwards
Our pediatrician said cheap shoes are fine, but my son doesn’t have any problems with his feet; one of my friend’s kids does, and so she has to pay a ton (maybe he walks funny w/ cheap shoes? sorry, I can’t remember). Also, as paidtwice said, cheap shoes don’t come in a variety, so another friend whose son has wide feet also has to pay for expensive shoes. I do think that some parents pay for expensive baby shoes because no matter what they’re told, they believe good-quality shoes are important in getting the foot to grow properly (no flat feet, etc.). I do have a friend who’s gotten Stride-Rites on sale for $20 or less.
Wow, sorry to hear about your shoe predicament paidtwice! I’m glad you were able to sell them on eBay. I hope you have better luck with your daughter!
When you have a kid with XW feet (when he was a new walker he had XXW feet so it is slightly improving) you don’t get much choice about buying the expensive Stride Rites. We try to get them on clearance as much as possible but the XWs go fast so usually we are out $50-60 a pop each time. His feet are rather square. And he started walking at 9 months (he’s 3 now) so we’ve been through quite a few Stride Rites. The only silver lining is that you can recoup some of the initial investment through ebay usually.
It is depressing. 😉 Maybe he’ll outgrow it. You can get Wides at places like Payless but not XWs. And we’ve tried having him wear Wides. That was a waste of $15 buying those shoes. 😉
I can only hope my not-yet-walking 9 month old daughter has more average feet.