I refuse to buy my kid new school shoes so colour them in with a Sharpie to last instead – trolls call me a cheapskate
A MOTHER has revealed that she is refusing to buy her child new school shoes for the rest of term as she has come up with a handy hack to keep her current pair looking fresh.
Samantha Potts, a savvy woman from the UK, explained that rather than constantly splashing the cash each term on new school shoes, she simply uses a Sharpie pen to colour in where the material has peeled off.
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But Samantha's quick and easy trick has been met with a barrage of nasty abuse, with mean trolls accusing her of being a ' cheapskate '.
Not only this, but other parents voiced their concern that Samantha's idea could set her young daughter, who is in primary school, up for "ridicule and bullying '.
Posting online, Samantha gave her followers a close-up look at her daughter's black shoes, with half of the gloss peeled off.
But with Samantha 'fed up of buying shoes ', she got a permanent marker to give the tired footwear a freshen up for the last term.
Alongside her short clip, Samantha said: 'When it's the last term of the year at school and your kid has decided to peel off her shoes - you are now stood here colouring it in with a permanent marker because you don't want to buy any more shoes.'
Samantha then asked: 'The question is, do I pull this bit off so it's the whole front of one shoe? Do I keep it on? Who knows?'
Following this, she asked her followers: 'What will look better? I feel like at this stage it can't get any worse.'
Showing off her daughter's coloured-in patent shoes, Samantha recognised: 'I know they look bad.'
The TikTok clip, which was posted under the username @ samanthapotts05 just 15 hours ago, has clearly left many open-mouthed, as it has quickly amassed 221,800 views.
Not only this, but it's also amassed 3,324 likes, 735 comments and 296 shares.
But trolls were stunned by Samantha's purse-friendly idea and many eagerly raced to the comments to voice their opinions.
One person said: ' Shoe Zone £10. Go buy some cheapskate.'
Another added: 'Never would I send my kid to school in shoes like that, regardless of it being last term or not.'
A third commented: ' Asda do school shoes for £6, that works out at £1 a week!'
One mother fumed: 'You can't let her walk around like that for six weeks, please buy her some shoes.'
EXTRA HELP WITH SCHOOL UNIFORM COSTS
IF you can't get targeted help from your council, you might have some other options available to you.
In some areas, you can talk directly to your school, which might be able to offer you clothing.
Or, you might be able to get cheap garments from low-budget shops or charity stores.
Some charities offer help to families in need too.
But bear in mind charities often have a limited amount of money to give and usually have specific criteria which must be met in order to get a grant.
Charity Turn2Us has a free grants search tool on its website which you can use to find out what help is available to you.
Meanwhile, you can always try approaching your nearest Citizens' Advice branch.
If you don't know where your nearest Citizens' Advice branch is, you can find out by visiting www.citizensadvice.org.uk/about-us/contact-us/nearby/.
If you're not eligible for a school uniform grant you might be able to get help through the Household Support Fund.
Whilst another slammed: 'Or just buy your kids new shoes! Would you go out like that? No.. so why make your child?'
At the same time, another fuming user wrote: 'I'll buy new shoes. This is not on. I get it times are hard but there has to be a pot for this stuff.
'I wouldn't dream of sending a child to school in those. Knowing how mean children can be, you're opening your child up to ridicule and bullying.'
She is only in Year 1, most days her dresses are covered in pen or paint or her lunch from the day and she couldn't care less so I don't think a little permanent marker on her shoes is gonna bother her
Samantha Potts
But in response to the haters, Samantha later responded: 'Wow, didn't expect this to blow up as much as it did.
'Just to clear a few things up - she's got 31 days left. Nine of those are PE so she will be in trainers.
'Why would I teach my kid that intentionally ruining something gets rewarded? It's wasteful and the structural integrity of the shoes are still there, if they were broken I'd replace them.
'She is only in Year 1, most days her dresses are covered in pen or paint or her lunch from the day and she couldn't care less so I don't think a little permanent marker on her shoes is gonna bother her.'
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