I know when my kids where teenagers that I gave them a budget every semester to buy new clothes. My daughter would buy less expesive items to have more and my son who was a skateboarder would use his entire budget to get two pairs of pant, two shirts and one pair of shoes. I left the choice up to them. It was simple - here is how much money I can afford and I believe is sufficient - you live with your choices., if you want more - get a job. I started this when they were around 12 and 14 because I could see that things could easily get out of control. The flip side of their choices is that my daughter bought more items and cared for them less and my son who chose to go with limited but name brand items, really took care of them. However it turned out it was a good way to encourage them to work within a budget and learn to live with their decisions. Its amazing how much more price comparing they do when they know they have a given amount to work with. It has to be a reasonable amount that is not too little and not too much and we based it on about 10% of one months of mine and my husbands combined income and gave each child that amount at the beginning of each semester that was for clothes.
