Kid Advantage

About a year ago something phenomenol started happening around our house. Hunter my then newly 6 year old started wearing holes into the knees of his pants. Having not experienced this before I was becoming quite annoyed that almost every week I discoverred a different pair of jeans with holes. Pretty soon he was down to a single pair. Being summer was just around the corner I took my nice stack of holey jeans and cut/ hemmed them into new shorts. The new shorts lasted all summer. As summer was coming to a close I had to start picking up a few pairs of jeans for the school year. Hunter's school has a strict policy of no holey jeans and they can only wear shorts the 1st 2 and last 2 months of the school year. I was able to pick up several pairs of jeans at some thrift stores and 2 pairs came from 80% off racks at different department stores. I never paid more then $6.00 a pair. When school started he had 6 pairs of jeans. By the end of August I was totally disgusted. All 4 pairs of jeans that came from the thrift store had a hole in them and the other 2 were becoming qute worn and I knew it was just a matter of time before they too got holes. I can not fathom what this child of mine does at school to cause so many holey pairs of jeans. I was complaining to my mom about how we don't have a money tree in our back yard therefore I can't keep spending money on this kid's jeans. At the same time I can't send him to school pantless!

My mom reminded me of Sear's Kid Advantage program. If your child puts holes in his jeans or shoes you can take them back and exchange them for the same brand/size (must be identical) for free. Let me tell you, Sears and I are best friends lately. Back in August I bit the bullet and bought Hunter 2 pairs of Levi's for $21.99 a pair. I have NEVER spent that much on a pair of pants for my kids. Six months later I have replaced these jeans 6 times. Becuase Levi's are sold elsewhere I have to keep the receipt. I have created a file folder for each of my chilren that holds there birth cetificate, ss card, etc. so this is where I keep my receipt. Sears has never given me a hard time about this and each time I ask if there is a limit of how many times I can exchange my holey jeans and they always reply there isn't one. To buy pants for Hunter in season elsewhere there usually about $10-15 unless I can find a pair at a thrift store even then they're still $5.00. I figure I've saved about $60 these past six months on not having to buy jeans for Hunter. Since these 2 pairs of jeans are all Hunter has had he wears each pair 3/4 times a week. Maybe this is why he's putting holes in them so quickly. Recently while I was making one of my monthly exchanges the jeans were on sell for $18.99 so I went ahead and picked him up another pair. I'm hoping having three pairs will help extend the life on his pants. I will definetly continue to buy Hunter's pants from Sears. I figure the last time I replace these pants after Hunter outgrows them I will put them in my 5T bin for when my next little guy reaches that size. I will then contine on the exchanges in size 6 until my soon to be 7 year old quits wearing holes into the knee's.