To say no to Claire’s?

I find Claire's utter shit, overpriced, that stupid offer that keeps you in there for hours trying to find three 'free' items that inevitably end up with you spending more. I avoid it like the plague although my kids will go in there if they can and I agree the stuff is poor quality.

To be fair though, they will spend all their money on something unless you teach them to save half. My daughter is currently obsessed with Jelly cats and spends any spare penny she has on them.

This

plus it’s never too early to teach them about eBay, Quidco, Wowcher etc

By the time dd was a teenager she was going to the mall with her friends and through my accounts was teaching them to check out websites for discounts whilst in the changing rooms

Its about thinking of what you want and how to get it for less than ticket price or ticket price plus free gifts thrown in.

Perhaps sign up to their emails that'd tell you when they're doing special promotions in-store, and take them at those times. Also, they do promotions online to (like 4 for the price of 3). Teach them to be savvy with how they shop.
I don't find Claires to be particularly bad quality, you might have been unlucky - however, I do think it's overpriced for what it is.

You need to teach them that they need to divide their pocket money into three, in proportions to be discussed and agreed.

long term savings for something they really want which they can’t touch and which you will add to when it reaches a certain amount to encourage them.

short term savings for cards, little presents for friends etc

splurge money for tat, comics, sweeties,

I don’t think Temu is an option that should be encouraged (for same reason as Shein) but othrwise agree - or charity shops, Tesco…

I agree with the quality of things we've brought from Claires, my 2 (7 and 10) love the shop and we've had many things break within days so I try and avoid it these days where possible. We rarely visit our shopping centre and tend to stick to the retail parks where apart from in asda theres no Claires. My 10 yr old loves hair accessories, I've started buying more of these vrom superdrug and or boots as quality is loads better more expensive but better quality x

Reduce the frequency of going into town, so there are fewer trips to Claire’s? If they’re buying to add to ever-growing piles of accessories can they do a mini shop / swap between them and their friends?

I agree that ‘my money my choice’ is an important lesson, but what alternatives could they spend on? Hobbies (buying beads and making their own accessories?) Trips?

Can you introduce ‘spend or save’ incentives to show there’s a balance of where money goes?

Maybe explain the phrase "buy cheap, buy twice" and then still let them decide after looking at better quality options

Everything they buy ends up broken within a week or two as it's such poor quality

I'm no big fan of Claire's but if every single thing they buy there is broken within two weeks, that's about how well they're looking after their stuff. It's not purely a quality thing. I've had bits from Claire's that are still on the go many years later.

More generally, why not just put a limit on it? You can spend X in Claire's, that's all.

Actually (and I hate Claires but have to defend them a little bit here), DD2 bought a Pikachu bucket hat from there about 2-3 years ago now and it's still going strong to this day and gets her a load of compliments about how epic a hat it is every time she wears it.

My attitude has always been - your money, I'll point out it's shite you're blowing it on but when it's gone it's gone and don't come crying to me if it breaks in a second - one's learnt this so far better than the other.

My youngest GD would buy any old tat, particularly if it was pink! Her room was bulging with stuff that was broken, missing a bit, worn out, unloved, redundant! The amount of plastic was obscene to be honest.
She didn’t grow out of this stage and now prefers to save up for a particular item, now she is older her tastes have changed and she is getting more responsible with her spending money.
The ‘save a bit and spend a bit’ ethos is great…….it encourages children to value money and we now find that all the GC are saving everything……..never thought we’d see that day.
The OP could consider NOT actually going anywhere near Claire’s with her children for a few weeks.

Never had an issue with breakages from Claire’s but it’s been a while since my 2 were the target market.

for things like water bottles you are better off taking them to Asda who also did have cheap jewellery but again it’s been a while since I looked. For bags again supermarkets or why not look in charity shops?

My water bottle was bought online and they had hundreds of pictures to choose from, metal so indestructible and keeps water cold, paid £12 3 years ago. I have pandas on mine

I agree. Awful quality and overpriced.
My now 13 year old wouldn’t be seen dead in there but it used to be the case that she couldn’t even walk past without begging me to go in. We laughed about it the other day in fact!

Surprised at that. Claire’s must have changed a lot since mine were younger. But no, don’t ban it. Pocket money is theirs-there shouldn’t be strings.

I spent £30 on bits from Claires and it was all broken within a week or so!! Their stuff is crap!

We took a spend half, save half for something bigger approach and I would try to help out with the larger item if savings went well. Also, encouraging them to spend on experiences, eg cinema, days out etc, as an alternative to rubbish.

I let mine use theirs for what they want. The phase of spending it on crap does end!

Really shouldn't be encouraging young kids to buy from Temu

If you direct them towards ‘better quality’ things are you going to give them more money to buy that stuff? Claire’s is relatively cheap and perfectly suited to pocket money spending. Surely if their things keep breaking they will decide to stop shopping there themselves eventually

I loved Claire's when I was younger. Happy days.

Back to the point, though. We have what we call the three day rule, which means after you've seen something, you have to wait three days before you can buy it. Put it in place when my youngest first started getting pocket money. He would be desperate to buy some random bit of tat the moment he spotted it, then disappointed with it half an hour later. Three days is long enough for the urge to buy to wear off. I think it's a good rule for life, TBH, learning that you can feel urges but not act on them.

But if Claire's stuff keeps breaking, I would have that conversation and find somewhere else.

Your kids stuff never breaks ever?

Ahhh, it's their pocket money. Let them buy the crap they want. Remind them each time about the broken stuff and if they're sure. But let them be.

They surely can't be getting that money? What maximum £10 a month at that age?

The Claire’s phase does pass! I think it’s awful quality too, and expensive for what it is.

I’m in a similar quandary with my nearly 13 year old and robux. He seems to single handedly want to make David Baszucki his next billion.

But he does his chores to get his pocket money so I guess it’s his to do what he likes with.

i have told him there are not many things you can predict in life, but I guarantee one day he will look at the money he’s wasted and regret it.

It’s all crap that ends up in landfill. I tried to discourage my daughter from buying things with varying success. Try to get them to save up for something bigger and better maybe.