Victoria's Secret- Attracting Pre-school Customers!

I had an interesting visit to Victoria's Secret a couple of weeks ago. I have been avoiding the mall for months, but I did buy something there the other day. I was with my 4-year-old daughter, and the clerk asked "Do you ladies have a Victoria's Secret Angels card?" I just said "No, and I'm not interested in applying for one."

When I got home, I thought about it some more. The clerk said "ladies"...she was actually asking if my 4-year-old had a store charge card...a lingerie store mind you, a place where she won't be shopping for years! Now that I've been following personal finance blogs, I am so much more aware of marketing techniques. Even at 4 years old, they are trying to get my daughter to become a customer. In fact, she already has that cute Pink brand puppy with the polka dots that they gave me for free with a purchase a few years ago! I don't know how I'm going to be able to help my daughter understand marketing ploys, so that she doesn't get sucked into these schemes when she's an adult (or even now).

March Review- Turning Down a "Discount"

Sorry for the late update. March was a tough month. We went yet another month without using a credit card! We did however go over-budget. But, we had the emergency fund to bail us out. We went on a small vacation the first weekend in March, which ended up costing a lot more than expected. Then, we got more medical bills for our daughter's ear surgery. We also needed to have the landscapers do some much needed work that ended up costing over $1000. If not for those expenses, we would have been within the budget.

We did manage to pay down some debt this month. One of my credit cards (the one with the highest balance owed and highest interest) sent me a special "discount" bill in the mail. It said that this month the minimum due is only $15...but it will go back up to the normal amount (around $250) next month. I just laughed! They are charging me over $150 in interest every month, so it is worth it to them to have me pay less, so they can keep charging interest. So, what did I do? I paid $750 to them for this month, because that's how much extra I had to go toward the debt after refilling my emergency fund! If we can stay within budget in April, I plan to throw a whole lot more at that credit card debt, and all of our Economic Stimulus money will go toward that card too. I want that card paid off, I won't fall for their discount bill!