Worth It

With all of the fall expenses, the budget has been bursting at the seams. It is certainly easy for me to overspend at this time of year. Pops and I took a hard look at the expenditures and decided we had to severely pull in the reins if we are to make up for our spending by the end of the month.

I was all set to hunker down for the next week or two, but soon discovered a purchase that really couldn't be avoided: Kid shoes. After a summer in sandals, where toes can wriggle freely, I hadn't thought about it much. But one look at the old fall weather foot-gear and I realized the tootsies would be hard-pressed to cram into their old homes. We had to find room in the expenses for some new shoes.

So I took the children to the store to buy tennis shoes. For the older two. Jane could just manage in some old hand-me-downs for awhile.

A good sale was in place and we found some snappy sneakers at a decent price ... for Peter and Lucette. It was then I noticed the most droopy, almost-4-year-old face I've ever seen moping her way down the aisles. In the tiniest voice she explained to me how she wished she could have some new shoes too.

I turned to mush. The poor dear is normally happy with her older sister's cast-offs, but the shoes ... they are always so ratty looking. I consoled her with a "Well let's take a look and see what we find, okay?" As we turned to browse, she saw them. Pink, flowered, velcro, Converse. When she emitted a little gasp and her eyes began to sparkle, my feelings of uncertainty instantly dissolved.

She carried them on her lap all the way home and set them proudly on her shoe shelf once we arrived. I'm making a veggie soup for dinner tonight ... and maybe we'll have it again at the end of the week. It's a fine trade-off, if you ask me.