Beware the tween years

[mapg]

My 11 year old has free dress today (wears a uniform all but one or two school days). She didn't get anything new for free dress the last time or so, so I let her pick out a couple of tops at limitted too. I nearly fell over when I heard the tally. $156 for 2 tops, 2 sale sweatshirts and a pair 0f $4.25 earrings (I checked the price of that before). Thank goodness we had jeans and camisoles already. My $35 clearance purchases from Naartjie is looking better and better.
MA

[lmwbasye]

OMG!!! I guess I'll enjoy my cheap Hannas while I can. LOL!

BTW, what a nice mom you are. I'm sure it made her day. I went to private school and the free dress days were a huge deal!

[mapg]

Thanks. She doesn't ask for a lot. I'm rethinking the private junior high. I always thought tuition would buy a lot of clothes, now I'm not so sure. I just hope we don't have a week of free dress for Catholic Schools Week like we did one year. They look so old out of uniform, her dad is about to lose it.

[momathome]

Right there with you. Limited Too is my almost 9 year-old's favorite store and the prices are horrible considering the quality. I try to wait until I have a 20% off coupon to shop there or just hit the sale racks. Do you have a Justice For Girls near you? It's owned by Limited Too and cheaper - kind of like their version of Old Navy. Liza likes it and it is a bit more toned down than Limited Too. I am missing the Gymboree days around here, at least I can still shop there for my younger two. :)

[pinkmomagain]

Welcome to my world. I have a 10 and 7 yo in addition to my 1 yo....If you think Limited Too is bad, wWait till she asks you for Abercrombie & Fitch clothing.....


Gina

[cstack]

I have a 14 year old. She used to love Limited Too and I thought it was outrageous. NOW its Abercrombie & Fitch, Wet Seal, American Eagle, and Hollister. When the stuff is on the clearance rack and you're paying $50 for a hoodie, it's gone beyond crazy. I solved the problem by telling DD (who has been known to spend $700 in one shot at LT) what she had to spend in total. If she really wants the $75 hoodie from A & F, she can have it, but that's $75 off her total. She's gotten *very* good at comparitive shopping, looking at prices, finding sales, etc. Plus now she only buys what she really wants, so she's become very frugal.

I like the Justice clothes, and they are a little cheaper than LT. A suggestion I could make would be to check out Aeropostale. They have really cute t-shirts and an X-small will fit most tweens. They do have some shirts that are "racy", but my DD used to get really cute shirts with monkeys and other animals and their prices for Ts and hoodies are way more reasonable than LT or the other stores (the ones the older teens want to shop at) and their sales are awesome. I just bought my daughter (and then all of the moms at her dance studio, tweens and up went and grabbed them) a really cute winter jacket - regularly $100, clearanced to $50 PLUS an additional 75% off - grand total $15 and it looks just like the one that A & F was selling (their clearance price was $100).

[dules]

OMG, Limited Too is that expensive? As a teen/college student Limited (regular) was always kind of cheapie quality (though I loved the trendy clothes, yikes).

Mary

[dules]

OMG, Limited Too is that expensive? As a teen/college student Limited (regular) was always kind of cheapie quality (though I loved the trendy clothes, yikes).

Mary

[mapg]

I'm looking at Tj Maxx a little harder today. We had a pass on limitted too for a while because she's tall and the stuff didn't really fit her. By the way, what is with all that kids stuff that has to be hung up to dry and ironed? And didn't the Dillards buyers have sisters. There stuff in bought in the same style for size 3 to 16. Some of the stuff is the same in the toddlers too. I can just see my daughter in a red sailor blouse, complete with big collar. I don't even know if I could get that on her little sister.

[momathome]

Limited Too used to be owned by The Limited but ended up breaking off and are now independent of The Limited. The quality and styles changed drastically after this happened.

[pinkmomagain]

Thanks for the heads-up on Aeropostale. I've got to take a look!

Gina