Okay, so it’s just a free tux rental, but the suit…that’s $400 that he gets to hang in his closet forever. And Nathan loves suits. Last year, when he did an internship with my brother in D.C., we went shopping for his very first suit. When the tailor brought out the tape measure and Nathan had to lift arms, he was in awe that people actually got treated this way. $600 later, it made sense why. That’s a lot of money to spend on a suit. And lucky for him, I was the one who pulled out the credit card to pay for this extra special attention.

But now, he’s earned a free suit. Knowing how much these things cost, when the opportunity was presented to be a prom rep for The Mens Warehouse, he jumped at it. If he got 5 boys from his high school to rent their senior ball tuxes from The Men’s Warehouse, then he would earn a free tux rental. 10 people, and he would earn a $400 suit!

So Nathan and his best friend, who also understands the value of a dollar, signed up. Both boys are responsible for their proms costs, so any way to cut down on expenses and they’re in!  They took the $40 off a tux rental coupons to the ASB secretary at their high school and asked her if she would put them in the senior ball ticket envelopes. She agreed. Slowly over the next few weeks, his sign-ups started coming in. But I didn’t know anything about this.

It wasn’t until two days ago that Nathan was online showing me the tux he was going to wear.

“Do you think I should wear the black shirt or the white shirt?”

What’s really cool about The Men’s Warehouse site (no, I’m not promoting them…it really is cool), is that he could piece together his tux and it would appear completely put together for me to see.

“I’m getting the rental for free,” he said. And that’s when he told me about the prom rep sign-up.

“Yeah, Ronnie already has a free suit. He got 10 people to sign up. I’ve gotten eight so far.”

Yesterday Nathan got two more. Today he added another one. He has “earned” his $400 suit. And the whole thing took less than a minute to sign up.

I’m not an extreme couponer. I do use coupons but don’t have the time to spend hours getting the best deal. So when an opportunity like this presents itself, well, it’s a no-brainer. And as Nathan takes off for college next year, I know he’s ready….academically and financially. Because a person can be as sharp as a tack, but if they don’t have the savvy to understand money, graduating with high honors is not going to help you much in the real world.