Reply #16: At first I found that number a little hard to believe (plus how to get your shoes to the needy)

[frazzled]

So I took their number of 14 (the age at which they claim a girl buys her first pair without mom), and then figured a woman will continue to buy shoes until age 85, giving 71 years of shoe-buying. Dividing the $25,000 number by 71 gives an average of $352 a year. That's still probably a pretty high number, given that some Western women will buy their shoes at Pay-Less and some at Saks. Averages are deceiving.

I might spend almost that per year right now, since I have had to move to more expensive "comfort" shoes because of serious foot problems. I probably buy two pairs of shoes on average per year. And every five years or so a new pair of boots.

But I thought back to what an "expensive" pair of shoes cost when I was younger, and I came up with the price of $40. That same pair today would be $150. So the amount you spend over a lifetime differs dramatically depending on what age you are. Women who bought their first pair of shoes in 1964 (when I was 14) will have spent less over a lifetime than women who bought their first pair of shoes in 1994.

In other words, this article is pretty stupid. The main thing is (and I do this): donate your shoes to people who don't have them. Try, for example, "Soles for Souls" -- which sends shoes to people in poverty around the world, and has locations in 28 states:

http://www.soles4souls.org/