Tip Of The Day: Honestly? Don’t have kids – they’re way too spendy. True, they are also the most rewarding and meaningful part of your life, but have you SEEN their back to school supply lists? They require enough loot to stock a small office complex.
Read on for my comparison shopping experience, and/or watch it Fox 9 News at 5 PM today.
Tip For Tomorrow: Bread may be the staff of life, but bread – artisan bread in particular – is NOT cheap. Unless you shop at the nifty bakery in Fridley that my Ma found.
By the way, we now have a case (CASE!) of raisin pecan bread. Would you like some?
Further Elucidation Of My Cheap Deal: About 3 or 4 years ago, I went shopping with my BFF Larue and her 2 children – my first set of god-daughters – for school supplies. I thought it would be a simple trip to pick up the basics like crayons and notebooks.
I was sorely mistaken.
Their shopping list, graciously provided by the school system, was as detailed and as long as a Bridezilla’s gift registry. They need pens, pencils, this kind of ruler, that kind of scissors, crayons, colored pencils, markers, highlighters, binders, folders, spiral-bound notebooks, composition notebooks, reams of paper, glue, glue sticks, Puff’s Plus, and Purell. (Like THAT’S going to prevent school germs. Maybe they should try issuing Hazmat suits.)
I understand that funding for schools has been dramatically cut since I matriculated, but COME ON. Those school supply lists are INSANE.
Also? I know from first-hand accounts that the teachers have to buy tons of supplies, too. Apparently, each year the teachers and students are shown to an empty room, given a few textbooks, and told to have at it.
Now at this point, I could turn my post into a huge rant about our tax dollars and how they are being spent, or not being spent, on education. But that is not the purview of Cheap But Not Easy. So, moving on.
Based on this school supply insanity, and the general public’s need to save money, I decided (or rather, the talented and beautiful executive producer of the 5 PM news decided) to conduct an experiment in school supply shopping.
I would pick 5 items from an Edina school system supply list for a 5th grader. I would buy the five items at 3 different stores. And then I would compare the prices of each purchase.
Comparison shopping! The cornerstone of a frugal lifestyle! And the best part? Everything I bought was donated to charity. Yay Fox!
For the stores, I chose Walmart, Walgreens (which was rumored to be the cheapest) and my happy place, Target. The items I picked? A clipboard (because all Edina students are required to have one, don’t ask me why), highlighters in 6 different colors, 2 spiral-bound notebooks, one 2-inch 3-ring binder, and a jump drive.
That’s right, fifth graders need jump drives. I don’t even know what a jump drive IS, let alone own one, and I’m 35.
Anyway, here’s what I discovered:
1. If you compare regular, non-sale and non-coupon prices, Walmart and Target are about the same, with Walmart coming in at $1 cheaper.
2. At regular prices, Walgreens was $16 dollars more than its competition. Mostly because their jump drives are a whopping $29.99 at full price.
3. If you compare sale prices (especially for the jump drives), Walmart is the winner – $4 cheaper than Target and $6 cheaper than Walgreens.
Please bear in mind; these are sale prices, not coupon prices.
4. One item where Target kicked everyone’s butt? Highlighters. They were the only store out of the three to carry generic highlighters, including the elusive sixth color – purple.
Plus 5% of every purchase you make at Target goes to support our community, including our schools.
5. The very best price I found on any item was Walmart’s spiral notebooks at just 5 cents each.
The experiment was highly enlightening, not to mention a great excuse to go shopping (like I need one). I felt like I learned a few things about shopping for children – lessons I’ll probably never put into practice, since I’m too damn cheap to have kids.
Lesson One: Do NOT drive around town to comparison shop like I did. What you save on supplies, you’ll end up spending on gas. Just pick a store (or two stores right next to each other), and stock up.
Lesson Two: Those school supply lists? VERY confusing. In fact, needlessly confusing. If you’re reading over your child’s list, and it makes no sense to you (like John Mayer’s entire recording career), call the school. Ask the teacher, aide, or somebody who knows what stuff you’re supposed to get, before you hit the store. Don’t waste your money on the wrong item.
Lesson Three: Do the majority of the shopping ALONE. The aisles were jammed with screaming youngsters wanting this thing or that thing or a treat or a potty or a pony or WHATEVER. Get the bulk of the list bought while someone (not me) minds the kids, then let them pick out one or two special supplies. I hear High School Musical folders are very popular.
Question of the Day: What did you have to buy your kid for school that SHOCKED you?
10 Comments
I have a few friends who are first-year teachers, and apparently it's the worst for them. Not only do they have to stock up on supplies, but they have to buy all sorts of reusable items (books, decorations, etc.) to get their classroom set up.
Then they're shown to that empty classroom, which now has 5-10 more children in it than they were told there would be, and told to have at it.
I don't have kids so I can only speak from my experience of shopping for my nieces or the school supply drive at work that allows me to wear jeans on a non-Friday.
For the school supply drive at work the kids (4th, 5th and 6th graders) each need a ream of computer paper. Apparently the school no longer provides this. Exactly where are our tax dollars going???? Oh, yeah that is not what this post is about.
Kristie
I was at the Dollar Tree and they have some really good deals in the "Teacher's Corner" section. They have generic school-supply multipacks (10 sharpeners for $1, 4 gluesticks, 2 bottles of white glue, 2 pairs of scissors, 5 rulers, 6 erasers, etc.)–which are great since this stuff will all get lost and and need to be replaced by November. They also had colored pencil and marker sets, and some cute Disney and High School Musical stuff.
I don't have kids, but have you seen some of the fancy graphing calculators that kids are required to buy as early as junior high? Apparently now you need enough computing power to power a small nation in order to solve basic algebra questions.
When I was in sixth grade, I got my first 128mb flash drive and it was convenient. I could bring files home and bring them back the next day. Everyone should have a flash drive.
Doesn't a regular disk work anymore? I can't imagine a jr. high kid would write enough to fill a flash drive/jump drive??? Did anyone actually use the compass or protractors they always put on the list in jr. high?
Definitely, the weirdest thing on my kid's list? Stretchy book covers. Because Target only carries CAMO and HELLO KITTY, I had to search on line.
My tip? You can get the school supply list at the end of the previous school year. Shop in late July or the first week of August (Target always has the backtoschool stuff out then). You will get the BEST pick of everything, with very few carts blocking the aisle with kids screaming for a new pony.
Protractors were never, ever used despite being on the list. However, someone always got sent to the principal for stabbing or attempting to stab someone with the pointy end of one.
And by protractor in that last post, I meant compass.
Like I said, we never used 'em.
My parents had to buy me a graphing calculator once I got into high school, and that cost a little over $100. And I needed a jump drive because my high schools computers didn't have floppy disk slots. But it made things some what easier when my brother got to high school, because I didn't need them anymore, so he can now use them.