When buying your kids school supplies, did you splurge for the costly decorated spiral notebooks or apt for the 10 for $1.00 ones? I only had to buy 1, so I did buy a nicer one with the plastic cover so it would last longer. I am kind of questioning my decision. I think if I would have had to get several I would have gone for the cheaper ones. What do you think? Do the more expensive ones hold up better? My niece claims the cheap ones with the metal binding come apart and that the ones with the plastic binding don't. I don't know if that's true, or she just wanted the decorator ones. She's in 7th grade and had to have several. My dd is only in 2nd grade and only needed 1.

Cheap all the way. I use the notebooks for lots of things, including writing my to-do list and weekly menus in them, gift lists, packing lists before trips, etc. and I've never had any trouble with them. The best bargain around!!

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Better to give your kids the values you have
than the valuables you can't afford.

It depends on what I need them for. If they're for myself, I'll go cheap, as I don't plan to rip any pages out of it. If it's for one of the children, I get the kind that has the perforation along the margin so they can be ripped clean. The way it looks on the outside is of no concern. I prefer to get something more durable (plastic covers) because the spirals do tend to rip from the cardstock covers after a while. I don't like for the kids to have school work that looks sloppy.

schools supplies for 3 kids = cheap all the way

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cheap! We use them for school and for home, That 10 pack from Target I bought last year is still holding up GREAT(covers are perfect)! Bought another 10 pack this year!

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cheap cheap cheap.....the 10 cent ones we have, do have the perforated tear off margins...so no problem there...we are homeschoolers..so they really dont turn in much work, we just leave it in the notebooks..I buy usually 40 or 60 of them when they are on sale...the last time I bought it lasted two school years, I had to buy again this year, I bought 40, we also have alot of loose leaf paper that I bought 2 years ago that we havent used I may donate it to something...the boys just prefer the notebooks..

~C~

Definetly the 10c notebooks - usually get them from staples or walmart. The kids of course would prefer the ones with the dog pictures or something else on the front, but they understand.

10 cents. our school doesn't allow for the fancy ones. ours also have to be color coded. red=math, etc. my dd had to bring her fancy one back and get regular 10cent version. also, for older kids I buy cheap and if they want to upgrade,as long as it's allowed, they have to spend their own money to make up difference. you'd be surprised how many will go for cheap.

allgirls

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allgirls, mom to 3 girls

Last year we got the cheap ones, but just for home. DD was in first gr. and they did not need them.

This year she needed 2, and SPIRAL bound was capitalized and underlined twice. I was going to get the perforated ones--glad I double checked! So this year she also has the cheap ones, I use them at home, no problems.

I did let her get 2 cute folders this year. Last year they had red for school, green for home, and I just bought a pile so she could tell me if one was wearing out. The green weren't easy to find, but we had 7 first grades so all the moms must've grabbed them!

We run through those a bunch since my kids are older. I usually buy mass quantities of the 10 cent ones (I like to use them too to make "to do" lists, etc. on) and then I'll usually buy each of my kids one or two "pretty" ones.

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