Well I am still working on the lists!! my dd will be going to 2nd grade she needs soo much this year!! so far for her I got 5 folders 10c a piece and Crayons 20c! DD who will be in Kindy I got her 6 sticks of Glue 20C for 2 of them = 60c!! she still needs more but it was not on sale!! we have a month we dont start till Spet 4th! so I figure If I start now I can do better!! and also gt the stuff we need!! last year I was struggling to get it all Target was alll out!! (I had to wait cause DH made a HUGE deal about going with!! Soo this year I sais forget him I starting here and there!!

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Kelly mom to 2 gymmonkeys!!!

I have never had to shop for my kids school supplies, well not in elementary anyway. The school provides all pens, pencils, paper, markers, glue, and such. It is a great equalizer for all the kids to have the same in the classroom. The kids aren't handed a pack of markers, pack or pencils, or pack of paper, instead there are bins in the classroom that have them and those bins are brought to the table when they are needed. Again an equalizer because everyone has the same.

For my kids who are no longer in elementary school I have had to shop. Usually aside from getting them a notebook they will find useful, which can be $$, the supplies are pretty inexpensive at the back to school sales. My one shocker was a graphing calculator for HS math. The school would provide them, but loss was still the responsibility of the child. My son is a bit of a routine child and he didn't want the responsibility of a school calculator so I shelled out the $$ for his (it was almost $100). However, he has been very careful with it and it survived his first year of High School quite nicely. Knock on wood.

I confess even thought I don't have to provide school supplies I am a bit of an school/office supply affecionado so I shell out the money so we have the supplies here at home. As it stands we are probably supplied until 2020.

We do send in kleenex when we think about it. It seems classrooms always need them and it helps keep the germs contained to have them handy. We pick up extra when we see the name brand on sale for under $1 and send them in multiples a few times a year.

I would make a suggestion, if you find you can get the list for less and you are willing to donate the time offer to help the class by purchasing the supplies and saving parents money. I bet other's would appreciate the effort and the savings.


Barb C.

We spent $60 for 2 kids that included all their school supplies, extra room supplies(paper towels, kleenex, etc.) and new backpacks. Our schools offered package deals also where you could order all their school supplies thru them, but the two packages alone would have been $80, excluding new backpacks and the extra supplies. Considering the backpacks alone that we got were $30, I think we did alright with the supplies coming in at $30. I was really happy when I figured we saved $50 alone in supplies just by going to WalMart and getting it ourselves!