…and we go from watching Snow White to living that famous song.
Just like a little member of the Seven Dwarfs, my oldest son will be marching off in only a couple weeks. For him it’s the first time. For me, because I work with families who go through this every year, it’s old hat. Well, not exactly old hat (it’s always different when it’s your own child heading off…where does the time go?).
Let’s talk about the financial aspects of preparing a youngster for school. As a matter of fact, my wife just emailed me this long note about the various types of backpacks. Ugh.
As a parent of a young child headed to school for the first time, I’m concerned about going overboard on all the expenses – there’s a difference between necessity and would be nice if… so let’s break down Back to School costs into a few categories.
1) Expenses associated with classwork – Markers, paper towels, pens and pencils. These are necessary and thankfully, pretty inexpensive. For my son’s schools, they’ve prepared for us a list of the five to ten things he needs to bring. The key is to not overspend or overbuy. If the teacher says “an 8 pack of crayons” you don’t need to, nor does the teacher want you to, buy the wiz-bang 64 pack with the automatic crayon sharpener. Save the money. Look for tax holidays to buy.
Many states participate in these by making back to school costs tax free. Check this Bankrate post: Sales Tax Holiday to see if your state has a tax holiday.
2) Costs to clothe your child. I recently saw an ad for Walmart regarding their back to school clothing prices and how affordable they are. I remember when I was a kid-I would never be caught dead in non-name branded clothes, and I successfully broke my parents budget every year complaining until I got what I wanted! Don’t fall for this trick! Children, especially younger ones, need quantity, not quality. Spend money on good shoes, but don’t go crazy buying up too-cute name-brand clothing. Consider Costco, Walmart, Sam’s club etc, or thrift stores, discounters or hand-me-downs. Ignore Banana Republic, Neiman Marcus, or Saks. Of the big box discount retailers, I like Costco – it has superior customer service and a terrific return policy.
Even if you don’t subscribe to the newspaper, you may save a ton of back to school money looking for coupons in the Sunday paper advertisements over the next couple of weeks. Consider the cost of the paper a good investment!
3) Finally, there are the “at school costs” like lunches, after school costs, and field trips. These things you need to start budgeting for today. Our school has a hot lunch program that we can pre-pay for substantial discount. The problem is that the food is less than nutritious, so we’ll be skipping that. But for the last 5 years, our son has been getting lunches at his daycare and we have to provide those now. The other “unknown” is the cost of the occasional field trip or afte school activity. Prepare for them now and you won’t be surprised when they show up later!
Ask older parents how much money they spent the prior year on these activities for ideas on exactly how much you should be prepared to spend.
Back to school shopping and planning can be a fun and exciting time for both parents and kids. The key is to not go overboard in your excitement!
Photo: School Bus: Cole 24_
Those are my three favorites. What are your favorite back to school tips?
“Ignore Banana Republic, Neiman Marcus, or Saks.”
Ha! Yes, those would be some expensive rags after a typical kids got a hold of them. Kids are typically rough on clothes, so spending major moolah on clothes ends up being a BAD deal. It is like you said: quantity over quality.
Great tips. I will definitely keep these in mind when we have kids.
There was a thing on the news yesterday about the controversy of some schools requesting laptops on the school supply list. I personally think this is unnecessary. Schools can have computer labs like they always have. I mean what are our taxes paying for? There is no reason to impose that kind of cost on families.
Wow, laptops? That’s a huge expense for some families. I don’t understand what the school system is thinking.
Holy $?!*! Laptops on the supply list??! Are you serious???? That’s insanity!
Kids are so expensive. I don’t have any yet, but I am all about used clothing for myself, so I don’t think my future kids will mind wearing seasoned clothing. Also, I don’t ever want to have my kid participate in any type of hot lunch program. Instead, I want to make fun and nutritious meals that they will be excited to eat instead of spending tons of money.
There are so many places to find used clothes for kids- second hand stores, garage sales, craigslist. About 99% of my kids clothes are used and you would never be able to tell.
It will be really interesting when/if we have kids. I have heard a lot about losing some battles to win the war, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be laying down the law at an early age and the kiddos better fall in line.
If it doesn’t fit in the budget, it doesn’t get purchased. It’s that simple. I don’t care if you don’t have name brand clothes or appear to be the poorest kid in school. Maybe I’ll take my kids to a 3rd world country or to the inner cities and show them how lucky they really are.
I love reading about back to school — the marker packs at Costco were always so tempting when I was a kid!
Make sure those older parents you ask have older kids too 🙂 kidding aside, don’t feel bad for reusing last year’s supplies. I normally tricked my parents into to buying new when last year’s leftovers would have done just fine.
We let our oldest (the only one in school) buy one or two “pricier” outfits. Which, of course, she LOVES. And then for everything else we do Walmart. It’s a reasonable compromise. I won’t have my girls getting their popularity or esteem from their clothes, but then again I don’t want them to be the playground reject simply becase we wouldnt’ let them get ONE name-brand outfit.
I look back on the school days and back to school shopping with mixed emotions. We definitely participated in the back to school mania. In retrospect, there’s a certain commercial aspect to the retailers creating the “need” for so much stuff. Who needs a new back pack and whole new wardrobe, it’s not like these kids are going down the red carpet after. What’s wrong with lasts years backpack and clothes?
Laptops are the sad reality these days. Each of my siblings have a laptop along with the main computers at home. You don’t take notes on paper anymore.
Yes, Marisa I agree with you, my nephew owns 2 Macs.
That’s really unbelievable and he’s no longer taking notes too, just like what you said.
I’ve decided that if my kids start complaining about brand name, they can mow lawns to buy their clothes. It’s so silly. Hopefully by the time they start worrying about that they’ll be old enough that other parents won’t glare at me as my children labor.
I think it’d be funny to drive through Pittsburgh and see FF’s kids with “will work for clothes” signs.
Tip #2 is the killer. I say.. buy winter clothes in the summer and summer clothes in the winter for you child. You can get 50% discount by having your kid in last years style vs current year style.
I think your advice works with air conditioners, jet skis AND school clothes!
I agree about saving on clothing, but spending a teensy bit more on quality shoes. My logic; buying cheap clothes can’t throw off your kids’ stride or mess with their balance or alignment. Cheap clothes don’t cause hammer toes, bunyons, or collapsed arches, so quality shoes for the win!
Great advice, Michelle!
We were lucky because our kids wore uniforms (Khakis & school polo shirts). Their uniforms lasted a couple years if they did not grow out of them. New shoes are a must and stuff for notes and homework. Everything else is a want!
Uniforms make a ton of sense to me for kids. No worries about name brands. Everyone has a level playing field. Focus on schoolwork.
I always left my kids at home instead of taking them with me when I went shopping for school supplies. I let them pick out their lunch box and backpack, but when it came to regular supplies I left them home. It saves time, money, and the headaches of bugging me for extras that they really didn’t need. Thank goodness for the schools that require uniforms, at least we don’t ask for the expensive clothes!