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School Supplies

August 21st, 2016 at 05:32 pm

Until now my kids have attended a K-8 charter school that provides supplies (they ask for $25 per kid, in return). I'd much rather write a $25 check than go shopping, so all sounds good to me.

Since we are getting down to the wire and given that the new school is a small charter school I thought maybe they would do the same. But I guess not. It does make sense (to bring own supplies) because it is a 6-12 school and they will be changing classrooms more often.

So here I am with a 11yo and a 13yo and I have never bought any school supplies before...

In the end I am pleased because we spent $30. & I am sure we could have gotten supplies cheaper. But as we graduate from "uniforms" and DL actually gets to pick out his clothing and his supplies, I would say at least $5 of that was splurging on some individual preferences. (Which otherwise put us in the $25 realm that we usually spend). We also just went to Target because dh had some groceries to pick up. I am sure there may be cheaper places to pick up school supplies. Or we can kind of stock up year round now that we know what is generally requested. (Dh was mentioning he sees folders for 25-cents at the electronic store).

Oh, the other nice thing about the school spending is that a lot of it was stocking up on supplies for later. With MM starting high school next year we figured we'd buy the bigger packages of school supplies.

(Oh, and I forgot the $30 included some supplies for MM's one high school class).

I've allowed MH and MM to hoard school supplies because they are useful. (& is one of those things that they like to hoard). So we did scrounge up a lot of things from supplies on hand. I found a plastic case of (working) markers that Drama Llama brought home one or two school years ago. (They don't often send home leftover supplies. I prefer that they don't, but I am glad I saved these in this case). Monkey Monkey had a stash of binders (& I have a few cast offs from work; binders are often handy). Dh had a stash of spiral notebooks. So we had a strong start. In addition to the lifetime(s) supply of pencils we seem to always have...

4 Responses to “School Supplies”

  1. ceejay74 Says:
    1471805951

    Wow, $30 for 2 kids is incredible! I went to Target for AA's list and it came to $50. We had to buy things like 24 glue sticks, ziplock bags, boxes of kleenex, disinfectant wipes -- things for the classroom to share. I tried to get the cheapest of everything but it was Target. I just didn't have the energy to go to Family Dollar knowing they probably wouldn't have everything on the list and it would turn into two trips. It's just that little bit out of the way vs. Target being right on the bus line, too.

  2. MonkeyMama Says:
    1471810190

    @ceejay - it was just for the one kid, since I just had to reimburse $25 to the other school. (It's the last year of "super easy" for at least one kid).

    We didn't have to provide classroom supplies. Well, not that I know of yet. Will see...

  3. rob62521 Says:
    1471814432

    I would say you are quite the bargain hunter if you only spent $30 for two kids. Even if it is, as you say in your reply basically one kid, you still did well. DH and I bought crayons, pencils, glue sticks for a class at one of my former schools and it was over $40. (The school is high poverty and few parents truly send in school supplies.)

  4. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1471916430

    For next year you might want to check out Staples penny deals. I'm not sure how they work, but I saw some people (couponers) come away with LOTS of supplies really cheaply.

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