Remember a couple weeks ago when I wrote about setting up a budget for our daughter for school clothes and school supplies. The post was titled, Back to School – A Dad’s View. Well, a few days ago, we gave our daughter her money and went shopping for school supplies.

We chose to do the school supply shopping on a Thursday evening. I would pick up our daughter at the Boys and Girls Club, then my wife as she was getting off work. Then we would go out to dinner before shopping for school supplies.

Like any dad, I want to see the best for my children. When it comes to buying for back to school supplies and clothes it can be a bit of a tug of war. This increases as they get older. Girls more so than boys. I am talking about staying within budget!

I am talking about the definition of basics. Last year I did not see what was wrong with the backpack my daughter had from the year before. The concept of a needing a messenger bag to carry over a perfectly functional backpack was beyond my understanding.

Every so often I head down to the local mall to observe people and stores. It is my way of getting a feel for where people are spending their money. In addition, I get insight as to what stores are selling and what price by observing sales, clearances and placement of products. March 30th was one of my Observation Days.

I like to go mid week because this is when stores let their hair down, so to speak. Sales staff are more relaxed. The clearance items have just been set out. It is a time to find real deals.

This week was unusually busy with Spring Break, had a large group of the younger generation, out and about. Grandparents taking grand kids to the mall to spoil them. Parents taking some time off work to get to know their children better.

Lunch time at the Food Court was as busy as the Food Court the day before Christmas. The only main difference was people were not carrying with them any large bags of soon to be presents. In fact they were very few who had any bags of recently bought items.

It is not hard to give a woman some money and say, “Get a new outfit”. Some may like it to turning a kid loose in a candy store or putting a guy in the tool department at Sears.

I must stop here and give you a disclaimer. Like any red blood guy, when it comes to shopping with their wife, it can be quite a traumatic event. I give my wife a rough budget. She walks into the womens clothing section and I head the other way.

Most of the time when a sales person asks if they can help, their end goal is to get as much money out of you bank account and into theirs. This was not the case last Thursday.

That is what happen on January 21st, 2010. After going to several discount clothing store, my wife just could not find the right dress or outfit. Then she walked into the DressBarn.