The Price of a Pair of Shoes

Spending money we don't have, on other people, to make ourselves feel good.

Photo by Luise and Nic on Unsplash

Ahh, the car is in the garage AGAIN. It isn’t even an old car. Or perhaps it is now, as we live in a throwaway generation and our belongings feel old the second we start to use them.

Remember in the olden days (as my young children would call them), when a family car lasted close to ten years. Or maybe even longer.

You would drive it until it literally could be driven no more. There were no annoying lights and beeps coming from the dashboard to inform you one thing and another had broken. You simply carried on driving, blissfully unaware that anything was wrong with the car, until it actually came to a complete stop and you felt you had run it into the ground. But at least you got your monies worth from it.

Nowadays, our cars are becoming too clever. There are wires and electrics that can be triggered by simple things and your car then spends some time sitting in a garage with mechanics poking about to find the problem. I suspect mice have been the contributors to our recent cars failing. But we will foot the bill.

What bothers me the most about the car breaking down, is that I was just beginning to think we would have some SPARE disposable income next month. Isn’t that always the case?

At a time when the cost of living is still hiking up, we don’t need these added curve balls of finance thrown at us. It’s as if the car industry know how dependent we are on our vehicles; especially living in rural Northumberland.

Back to shoes…

So last weekend, before I knew we were going to be slapped in the face by an eye watering bill from the garage, I took my daughter into town to buy her a new pair of school shoes.

She is six years old and had recently been complaining her school shoes were too small. At first, I thought it might be because she was hinting she in fact wanted a new pair of shoes because kids are like that aren’t they? But then she told me she was scrunching her toes and of course I immediately felt bad.

Off we went to have her feet measured and to purchase a pair of shoes that are ridiculously over priced. I have bought cheap school shoes before and they just don’t last as long. Perhaps a bit of a false economy. Therefore I took her to the shop that is famous for providing children up and down the country with their school shoes.

She beamed as she discovered her feet had indeed grown since last time. I pointed out practical shoes for her to try on, in the same way my own mum used to try and draw my attention to the “sturdy” looking shoes and away from the pretty ones. My daughter, however, takes after me and was of course drawn to the little pumps with bows on. We had the same argument my mum and I used to have about practicality and I gave in because I knew how much these shoes would mean to her.

I was right. They DID mean a lot to her. Just this morning, I caught her CLEANING them with a baby wipe. How sweet. And money well spent, in a way. It relieved my mum guilt and shifted it to the “money worry” guilt. But the mum guilt was gone. So that made me happy.

I would much rather spend money on a pair of school shoes, that have made my daughter happy, than on repairing the car any day.

Photo by Josh Appel on Unsplash

I chose to spend the money on her shoes. It made me feel good. Like a grown up spending money on her daughter. We haven’t got much money spare at the end of each month but I set myself monthly income goals from my freelance businesses, that allow me to spend money on things we choose as well as the things we have to. These goal posts keep moving as I struggle to keep up with the cost of living and travel.

And so the cycle continues. Parents spending money on pairs of shoes, that are of course needed, so retailers can keep their prices high. We all do it. Grumble about the cost but pay anyway. We want to keep up. We want to make other people happy. It maybe burning holes in our online wallets but for a brief moment we feel good that we have been able to provide.

Money is ugly and people don’t like talking about it. But it also fascinates me what our relationship with money is like. How DO people afford things? Or are they constantly treading water like us just to keep afloat?

And before I go and put in some more hours into my working day, I just wanted to let you know that life is short. You knew that right? But, like, really short. Savings are a good idea but so is sharing that experience while you are still able to.

Like seeing your daughter’s happiness over something as simple as a pair of shoes.

Or perhaps it was the experience of going together…

Photo by Marina Abrosimova on Unsplash

On my website (Northumberland Family Diaries) I have some FREE downloads providing inspiration for those days out when money is a little tight.