Fun fact: According to the National Retail Federation, families in the U.S. will spend $10.2 billion on back to school shopping this year.
That fact may not be fun to parents on tight budgets. It’s not much fun to me, either, since I’ve long believed this kind of shopping has gotten out of hand.
Understand: I’m not saying your kids should get on the bus wearing clothes that are ill-fitting or in tatters, or that they shouldn’t have the tools they need for education. But to judge from the ads, our kids need all-new everything.
Hint: They probably don’t.
Obviously if a kid has outgrown his shoes (and they will do that!) then you’ll need to replace the footwear. Ditto jeans that are high-watery or a jacket whose sleeves stop a few inches short of the wrist. But it’s easy to fall down the rabbit-hole of overbuying.
According to the NRF back to school shopping survey, families plan to spend:
- $10.2 billion on clothing (and 95 percent of those surveyed plan to buy it)
- $8.8 billion on electronics
- $5.6 billion on shoes
- $4.9 billion on school supplies
That breaks down to an average of $238.89, $204.33, $130.38 and $114.12, respectively.
Keeping back to school costs down
Again, if you’ve just experienced the Summer of Growth Spurts or this is the year your kid’s taking a class that requires a graphing calculator, then my condolences: Back to school shopping is gonna cost you. (Maybe not much, though; more on this later.)
But if you find yourself thinking you have to rebuild school supplies from the ground up, banish that thought. Before you buy a single thing, take these steps:
Don’t buy new if the old still works. This is a new school year. I get it. But why do you need to replace things like notebooks, scissors, crayons, markers, and the backpack and lunchbox? Maybe last year’s glue sticks have congealed; if so, watch the BTS sales for new ones. But if your 10-year-old decides he just wants a newer, cooler lunchbox this year, tell him he has to pay for it out of his own money. He’ll either do it, or decide that the old lunchbox is just fine.
Watch for loss leaders. Office Depot/Office Max and Staples run some impossibly cheap back to school specials at this time of year. We’re talking 10-cent notebook paper and 1-cent folders. The drugstore chains have some pretty good specials, too. If you’re required to spend $5 or more to get the loss leaders, go in with another parent. (Pro tip: Try to hit the sales early, because those deals may not last.)
Don’t replace the wardrobe. If the clothes still fit and are presentable, why are you buying new ones? Again: I’m not suggesting you send your kid to school looking pitiful. But don’t start your kid thinking that everything has to be new because, well, because. Replace as needed, and consider at least one nice-to-have item (more on this below). Just don’t make it automatic.
Shop clearance. Sometimes the remaindered “summer” clothing works for the first few months of the school year, or for the entire year if you live in a mild region. Those in cooler climes can buy a size or two up for next spring. (Pro tip: Online stores have clearance sales, too.)
Use a price-comparison tool. Sites like NexTag, PriceGrabber and FindersCheapers will do the hunting and gathering for you.
Redefine “new.” A press release from the Savers thrift-store chain told me that 95 percent of the stuff sold there cost $10 or less; the average price is $4.50 per item. Locally, the Savers store is called Value Village, and it helps one of my great-nephews be outrageously stylish, from his Marilyn Monroe T-shirt to his black-with-pink-stitching Doc Martens.
Consider consignment stores, garage sales and online resale sites for back to school shopping, too. If money is tight, scan the Freecycle Network and/or propose a clothing swap with other parents. (Pro tip: If the idea of “used” clothing squicks you out, then wash it. There! All fixed.)
That new-crayon smell
It’s not that you shouldn’t spend money on your kids. In fact, a few new items can help get them back on track for another year of education.
When I was a kid I always wanted the 64-count Crayolas. No one I knew had something that luxurious, though; in fact, crayons were doled out as needed and returned to the teacher afterward.
Today’s kids are a little jaded about things like that. But perhaps your own child has his or her version of 64 crayons: a specific superhero notebook, a particular brand of shoes or, yeah, a new lunchbox because Mooooom, no one in fifth grade likes Minions and I’ll die of embarrassment!
If that’s the case, ask Dear Child to look through the budget with you:
- We have $X to spend on back to school things.
- At least some of the items on the school supply list need replacing.
- How can we make this money do everything we want?
Suggest the hacks noted above, and invite your offspring in on the action. Together you can watch the sales ads, hit thrift stores and decide how much of last year’s stuff can be reused. The further the money goes, the more likely your kidlet is to get, say, the jeans that cost $30 more than you think they should.
Try to understand where they’re coming from in terms of what they just have to have. But make sure they understand where you’re coming from. Here’s how I explained it in my first book:
“Even if your offspring are good kids they might still complain, whine or accuse you of not understanding. … Don’t take it personally. Kids are by definition self-centered, i.e., everything is about them and how it affects their place in the world. …
“Or maybe you feel that it’s your job to give them everything their friends have. It isn’t! Please don’t release an Entitlement Monster on an unsuspecting world. You’re also not doing the child himself any favors if you deprive him of the opportunity to learn how to prioritize and, yeah, to save up for the things s/he really, really wants.
“Requiring kids to pay for some or all of the cost of non-essential items will help them understand patience and determination. It could also teach them a bit about how advertising lures us in; for a hilarious example of this, see ‘Baby Heather Was Possessed! And Other Money Tales’.”
Ideally, your kids will have everything they need and at least some of what they want. That, and to sit next to their BFFs at lunch every day.
Readers: How do/did you approach back-to-school shopping? Any tips to share?
Back to school shopping is a “magical time”…full of optimism and fresh start. Our DD’s are grown but if I might suggest it’s OK to “cave” on some things. DD2 wanted index cards…special index cards…the kind that are at Staples and are colored with alternating white lines….the kind that cost MANY times what plain white ones do… I bit the bullet and bought the “fancy ones”…and to this day I’m glad I did…Thanks for the insightful blog….
Good points and I wish I knew of them years ago! We always got list of what they actually needed from the teachers prior to school starting. They were all set the first day of school so that keeping up with the new fad didn’t really exist. My kiddos were also in uniforms so that made shopping pretty easy.
Someone gave us 2 barely used L.L. Bean backpacks, which I washed and the kids used thru middle school and college. (We still have them!) I went thru markers and tossed the dried up ones, threw out the broken, stubby crayons, tested and then tossed dried up pens, etc. After about 3rd grade, they took their lunches in paper bags. I would go through their clothes to check the fit. Generally, I bought 1 or 2 new things, since I could afford to. But even in New England, September tends to be warm, so I didn’t invest in a lot of clothes. My kids took their annual growth spurt between Labor Day and Christmas, so I learned pretty fast not to stock up on clothes in September!
That all sounds reasonable to me. And yeah, hang on to those LL Bean backpacks. Isn’t that one of the companies that will repair or replace your bag if it dies on you during reasonable use?
As crazy as it sounds we…the DD’s and I….came up with a way to “re-load” the spent highlighters…back in the day. We would mix up food color with vinegar kind of like dyeing Easter eggs. Then we would remove the end caps and pour in the solution with a small funnel. We did about 6 at a time and let them rest in a cup while the solution was absorbed by the marker…Put the cap back on good to go for about 6-8 weeks…Your mileage may vary…. The Ecology Clubs at their school loved it! Saved $ and the planet….
We always got one new back to school outfit, then added as necessary during the year. However, reusing supplies, especially at the elementary level, usually won’t work. Most schools around here collect all of the items and hand them out as needed – not just crayons, but spiral notebooks, pencils, folders, Kleenex, hand sanitizer, etc. NOTHING is actually your child’s.
around here the supermarket I frequent most has awesome notebook/pen/sharpie/folder etc. sales. They also sometimes offer coupons that you can link to your store card to make it even cheaper.
We bought everything on the supplies list for several years (and then watched as some things were never used). Finally, I went through the lists, went through all our used supplies and proposed reusing them. The boys balked initially. So I went shopping and priced everything on the lists. Then showed them what we would save if they reused what we had. We struck a deal — we would split the savings with them. So the things they absolutely wanted to have new we bought, but I think it was one or two things each instead of a pageful (and then they had to put half of that money into their savings account). After that year, they just assumed they would reuse stuff.
Smart! You’re teaching them needs and wants — and making them save half the take. Good for you.
Things are so bad for us right now, I pray a guardian angel will help us this year because we are at an all time low funds wise. My student needs notebooks, paper, pens, colored pencils, erasers and sharpeners.
One year on the last day of (middle) school, my son rescued a LOT of completely unused school supplies from the garbage can at school. A student wa cleaning out his locker and tossed the stuff rather than bring it home. We regularly shop at home first, then get what we don’t have at the store. I go by the one new outfit policy, too. My teen daughter has a summer birthday and saves her gift cards for back to school, because that’s what’s important to her. (And I won’t pay for ripped jeans!)
Your son is very smart — and if anyone ever calls him on this behavior (kids can be cruel), tell him to say that he’s being ecologically friendly by preventing waste.
Your daughter is very smart, too. You’re doing a good job with these young’uns.
Thanks. Made my day. DD is now 15 and DS is now 24, btw.
I bet your son took those money lessons with him, and that your daughter will, too.
As a substitute teacher I see a lot of teacher supplies and I have seen Lysol wipes, tissues, hand gel, and paper towels from students who have left that grade YEARS ago, so I think teachers tend to get a lot of those things at the beginning of the year.
As a parent, we always saved the school supplies from year to year and reused those. I always waited until back to school sales and when those sale items were clearanced to stock up on them at the right price. I keep a tote under my bed full of them and shop from there as items are needed.
Great blog post, Donna. 🙂
With 4 kids in school, my mom had to be frugal when it came to school supply shopping!
She learned pretty quickly that the school supply list provided by the district was a recommendation and not requirements – on day one, none of us kids went to school with a 12 pack of pencils each!
We reused lunch boxes, pencil cases, pencil crayons, scissors (especially since 2 of us were lefties – lefthanded scissors were GOLD), rulers etc. Binders were reused.
I remember several years in a row, one store had an amazing deal on looseleaf paper – 400 sheet packages for 25 cents each – limit of 4 per person. So, each year, mom would line us up, each with our alloted 4 pack – I remember my 5 year old brother standing in line with his dollar bill and his paper – we stocked up because when it wasn’t on sale, it was $3 a package or more!
Generally we were allowed to get one “fancy” thing – I remember picking out a notebook with a beautiful photo of a lush rainforest waterfall on the front – it was 4x the price of the boring notebooks that made up the rest of my supplies – but I was allowed to have ONE fancy notebook.
Clothing – mom would have us go through everything we had and figure out what was needed – but she didn’t necessarily buy everyone a bunch of new clothes in September – a lot of the time she would get each of us one or two things that we needed, and then over the school year, we would continue to replace with items as we wore things out or grew out. She also had a network of friends who passed clothing around – we got a lot of hand me downs, and we handed stuff to others if it was still in decent shape. As the only girl, most of my clothing was still good when I grew out of it.
My mom also sewed a LOT of our clothing – when I was in Grade 9, she made me a bunch of tshirts (27 years later, and I STILL have a couple of them!), and my brothers wanted cool “jazz shorts” – she let them pick out fabric and made them each a few pairs – for far less than buying them would have been!
I fondly remember going back to school as a kid. I couldn’t wait to catch up with my class mates, so it really didn’t matter my backpack was old or I was re-using last year’s crayons or recycled notebooks.
The only things my parents had to spend on were clothes (growing up has that effect on kids 🙂 ) and school books. The latter were already a costly ‘investment’, so saving money on unnecessary expenses was a good idea back then.
I went through all my daughter’s clothes and donated what didn’t fit. One of my friends gave a me a trash bag of hand me downs and we combined that with what we didn’t want. I went and bought her a few new items and a new backpack for my son and daughter and took care of clothes for her. Now my son is going through a growth spurt so I will do the same for him but with less hand me downs.
As for supplies I buy almost everything on the list. I go to a local store so it was cheaper than even Walmart. I only like going to one store instead of multiple even if it saves me $$ its just less stress on me. I would say that I did see some schools in my area working with companies that would buy and deliver school supplies for one flat fee. All you do is pick up the supplies and label it. I thought that was a good idea for saving money. Another tip I want to add is SHOP WITHOUT THE KIDS if possible. LOL it’s a lot easier to buy those plain “boring” folders vs. minions ones if you shop alone.
One of my good friends nieces didn’t have any new school supplies for the upcoming year and she found the day before school started and went out bought whatever she didn’t have in her back stock. Even as a single mom struggling my kids have always had supplies for the year and clothes to wear. I will say when it comes to be frugal or following tips they come in really handy!!! Just know your advice does help people out there!
I’m glad to know that! Thank you.
When I lived in Seattle my sister and I would hit the big-box office supply stores right after church and buy up to the limits of their insane sales (notebook paper for five cents, packages of pencils for a penny, etc.). After the sales were over, we took sacks and sacks of school supplies to a food bank. One year when I was particularly flush I bought a bunch of backpacks on sale and my niece, who was visiting, color-coordinated a bunch of items: blue backpack got a blue pencil box, notebooks with blue colors, blue ruler, etc. etc. Had a great time delivering them! The food bank personnel were so excited to be able to hand out some fully equipped bags, as well as the stuff that was left over.
Guess it wouldn’t surprise you to learn that I mentioned “office supply store loss leaders” in the book, huh?
Donna, In enjoy your blog!!!
Now that I am a great grandmother, these tips become even more important – thx
Congratulations! You’re a lucky woman.