Back to School

[Snoopy2645]

I am just wondering does anyone else think that 3k is outrageous for back to school stuff?? I have one child in school this year with buying her all the supplies & just a few pairs of jeans for her new clothes I probably spend about $200 on back to school but thats $100 in clothes & $100 in school supplies I cant imagine anymore especially for those with more than 1 child in school. And next year I will have 2 in school. Just wondering what everyone else spends or any ideas on how to save

[PrincessPerky]

Sorry, thats one of many reasons I homeschool . Total cost this month 0$, oh wait DD did need shoes, ok 15$.

Actually when I taught I noticed lots of kids got a brand new box of crayons and bunch of new pencils and books, after a month most were trashed, so my advice would be to clean up the house and use the old ones.

[meaghanchan]

The $3000 listed on the site, I believe, includes tuition, fees, etc. So if it averages kids in elementary/middle school (who I assume would cost $100-$300 for clothes and supplies) and kids in college... ($2000-$30,000 tuition, depending where you're going) $3000 makes sense.

[DivaJen]

We're having a shift in mindset around here, having gone from hs'ing DD to sending her to a private school. Tuition aside, we are only spending about $400 in back-to-school expenses. $300 pays for her hot, organic, vegetarian lunches through the year. $15 was for a Hello Kitty backpack , another $20 or so on a new pair of closed-toe shoes, and I splurged on a first day outfit at Gymboree. That was $42 and included socks and hair clips. It has a Siamese cat theme, and I am a HUGE fan of Siamese kitties. If they'd had it in my size I would have bought it for myself, lol!

Anyway, that's about all she needs. We already have oodles of pens, pencils, crayons, etc etc around the house, so I can't imagine having to buy any of that stuff, should it be asked for. I'm not even sure we have to provide those, come to think of it.

[robex]

For $45.00 a year per child our school provides all the school supplies. I have 3 kids and they get a new lunchkit one year and then a new backpack the next. They mostly wear hand me downs, I rarely buy them new school clothes but they do get clothes for Xmas and birthdays if it's something they really want. My older two (11 and 9) have a paper route, so if there's something extra they want for school, they will buy it themselves.

[CRFSaver]

So can someone explain to the guy with no children this? My company every year has these humungous bins for school supplies in the lobby of every single one of our buildings. They are doing it right now and its called stuff the bus. With 15k employees and a few thousand contractors they collect a ton of stuff. Where does all this go? With the amount we give you would think people shouldnt have to buy that much stuff.

[jaksilee]

Originally Posted by CRFSaver

So can someone explain to the guy with no children this? My company every year has these humungous bins for school supplies in the lobby of every single one of our buildings. They are doing it right now and its called stuff the bus. With 15k employees and a few thousand contractors they collect a ton of stuff. Where does all this go? With the amount we give you would think people shouldnt have to buy that much stuff.

A lot of times this type of collection will be sent to inner city schools to kids who's parents cannot afford the supplies, this may be what your comapny is doing!

(See HERE for a school supply drive example)

[Snoopy2645]

I wonder if they give the stuff collected also to shelters & things like that too where people including children actually have nothing at all.

[CRFSaver]

Given that stuff the bus is what the drive is called it looks like it is probably for inner city schools. Thanks!