OMG I just nearly fell over when the shop assistant told me the price of my daughter's new boots!

[petalpower]

Just been to buy my 7 year old daughter some winter boots (leather knee high type). We went to our normal shoe shop (StartRite or whatever they call themselves now) as she has tricky shaped feet - wide feet and high instep. Finally found a pair that fitted. Went to the till to pay and they were £74.99!! Don't think I will be telling DH the price. How can they justify this?

Horrifying isn't it. I just hat to pay 73 euros for DD's winter boots, she's only 22 months so they probably wont even last until spring...

No I don't have more money than sense! Obviously if money was really tight though I would not be spending that sort of money on boots. The rest of DD's clothes tend to be ebay/sale/supermarket bargains. I just can't tell you how frustrating it is trying to buy shoes that fit my DD and how upset she gets when she can't have the same things as her friends. I have to say though that her summer sandals for beach/garden etc were reduced to £4 in JJB - velcro adjustable sports style. Fitted her a treat!

PuppyMonkey - who or what are Jonathan James? We live in a rural town with just a Clarks and a StartRite/InStep/EuropeanSole shop. Wouldn'tTouchThemWithYours no they didn't come in an exciting box like that, just a standard one. In fact because DD was so excited she wanted to wear the boots home and we nearly didn't get a shoebox at all!

i wouldnt spend that on boots for myself!

she will scuff them and grow out of them within months!

i would have cried and left without shoes!dd needs some winter shoes and i cant spend more than £30 tops.

LetThemEatCake, I had a mother like that - a very Noel Streatfeild existence! Had very few clothes as a child, always a bargain or hand made, but she was a stickler for good shoes and a good coat.

And I'm turning into my mother! Ds was born with talipes and specialist advised good study boots with supportive ankles, so have always spent more money than is probably sensible on the dc's shoes.

I never had winter boots as a child. School shoes, wellies, party shoes if I was lucky. I have never bought my dd boots and never will at those prices.

I would NEVER go to a checkout without knowing how much the item I was going to buy was. I work too hard for my money I'm afraid.

I once went to next to pick up a few clothes for the lads. about 3 pairs of trousers each, a few tops, a couple of jumpers...

best part of TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY POUNDS!!

I felt SICK. But what could I do? My pride wouldn't let me walk away - it's one thing to be poor, it's another to be seen to be poor! So I had to hand over my card with a "no big deal, about what I expected" look on my face.

Got outside I was shaking!!!

Was that a part of it for you, Petal?

My god thats crazy!

Why did you pay it?

DSs brand new doc martens were 20p lol

I got his other winter boots from TKmaxx, Geoxs, £50 in shops for £20

I would never pay over £20 for shoes you can always find them cheaper!

I'm just that a child needs winter boots. Mine have school shoes, trainers and wellies. They seem emotionally unscathed so far.

I'm amazed you bought them at that price, I would have put them back personally! I don't even spend that amount of money on my own shoes so I certainly wouldn't pay it for childrens shoes

DD has winter boots and wellies, that's it. In the summer she had one pair each of shoes and sandals and some wellies. Surely that's not excessive?

I must be such a bad Mother! My dcs have never had 'winter boots' always wellies.

DD has boots as she's a habitual toe walker & we've been advised to buy her sturdy boots by the podiatrist as this will make it much harder for her to walk on her toes. Aside from that she has a pair of wellies (charity shop) 2 pairs of shoes for nursery/everyday (both from the Clarks sale so under £10 each) & a pair of dressier shoes for weddings etc (given to us by a friend) am I just stingy?

My dd has very narrow feet so I have similar problems, in fact last week went to the thrid shoe shop to get her shoes, they had one pair which fitted her and they were £40. My mum refused to let her be disappointed a third time and paid half with me otherwise I'm not sure what I'd have done. Clarks only occasionally fit her , velcro sandals have once but thats it I think. The shoes she's now got are by ecco and I wonder if I'd been somewhere with only start rite whether they'd have found me a pair that fit ok as they have usually been fine.

DD has wellies, trainers, school shoes with velcro sandals in summer and boots in winter. No party shoes, flip flops, crocs etc. DS on the other hand has wellies, trainers and school shoes. DaisyMoo no of course she didn't NEED boots. I certainly didn't have winter boots as a child, it was school shoes and wellies only. If I could find other cheaper shoes etc that actually fitted her feet properly I would buy them. I just got these Primigi boots because they fitted her tricky feet not because I'm some sort of label snob. I do think that European made shoes have gone up massively in price this year as other posters have said.

DD has a pair of boots, a pair of shoes and wellies left at nursery. They are very practical if you live in a rural part of the world, especially when tramping up muddy lanes to fetch ds from school. Totally agree the boots easily could be another pair of wellies but they also go nicely with dresses/skirts in winter.

We used to buy winter boots when we lived in Switzerland - ds' first pair were over £50 but goretex lined and they were his only winter shoes for outdoors. I soon found the outlet to get them cheaper though !

Jajas she has very wide, flat feet. To make matters worse there are NO shops here that do width fitting shoes (am in the Netherlands) I just have to buy what fits and it is always the expensive stuff that does

I'd have been happier with shoes TBH but couldn't find any to fit...

My kids have plenty of supermarket clothes but I go to an independent shoe shop for their shoes and would never scrimp on them.

DS2 and DD have tricky feet and DS2 had a pair of Geox last month and they were £40. My converse were supposed to £45 but I got a fiver off as I am such a good customer.

Mine have school shoes and plimsols for school and trainers for home. I will be getting them wellies and slippers when the cold weather comes in.

I had to buy 6 pairs of footwear last month for 2 of our children.

I had to pay £26 for my ds 18 month old first shoes and was wishing they werent so expensive, but have been trying to find shoes that he could wear since he was one but no shoe shops stock proper shoes that narrow, so he has been walking about in leather pram shoes. Its only now that he is getting wet feet that i could face another trip to all shops, thankfully we got some to feet but they arent pretty, absolutely no choice in design at all. Looks like the next few years could cripple me financially

That's obscene for one pair!

DD ended up with four pairs of boots this week and they totalled £110 for the lot. The most expensive were £40 (kickers) and the cheapest £15 (Next)

Especially for little girls I find one pair doesn't go with every outfit, we always have at least a couple of pairs.

When they have funny sized feet it is a nightmare though, I would have paid that much if it was the only option for a nice looking pair.