Hoodies are Ingrid’s favourite type of clothing. This one she got from me, and I got it from work. It’s a very nice and comfortable tretton37 hoodie, warm and thick and with a silky lining. It’s just not in my colours or my style at all, and Ingrid is getting way more enjoyment out of it than I would.

Since her thirteenth birthday, Ingrid doesn’t have an allowance any more. Instead she gets her entire monthly child benefit in her bank account, and is responsible for buying her own stuff. Clothes, shoes, books, friends’ birthday gifts, decorations for her room… Everything and anything that she may want to buy. The only cost that is purely for her but doesn’t come from her budget is all her various activities, because I want her to keep dancing and scouting without having to weigh the cost against other things she could spend that money on.

We were talking about buying clothes, recently, since she will need to buy new winter clothes soon. Ingrid’s summary of her approach to buying clothes was something like this: “Do I need it? Do I like it? Is it a hoodie?”