Can I gripe about School Supplies?

[Dotsie]

My kids go to Catholic school - the tuition for the 3 of them this year is $8,000 The school supply list is insane but I do what others do, If the 16 pack of crayons that the teacher is requesting is $1 and the 24 pack is .25, the cheaper box is being purchased.
We have to pay $150 when we register our kids each year and because of that we do not have any fundraising.

 

[3DisneyBuggs]

My kid's school offer this but it comes form the PTA and they let us know it is a fundraiser. I chose to buy my own because it is cheaper. They want their supplies on the first day of school so it is easier to have them waiting in the classroom. We used to be able to drop the supplies in the lobby and the PTA would deliver to the classrooms. Since the school box was offered the kids have to carry their heavy bags to the room.

I started some shopping here and there but I need to make a real list and get everything before our vacation! I am not buying school supplies in Disney!

 

[NYCDiane]

Welcome to Catholic School and their ripoffs!!!!

I can assure you, that list would have easily been bought at WalMart for $30 tops. (probably more like $25 with the school sales)


Steer clear of their fundraisers. My "fave" is the one where they sell dollar store crap for $10 or their "Raffles" where the same people always just happen to win (the ones where the parents are always up the principal's butt)

I had my daughter in Catholic school for 5 years: K thru 4th ONLY because we were in a bad school district. I finally moved and she is now in public school. BEST move I ever made and her educational experience is so much better now. Don't believe the hype that your child is getting a better education in Catholic school --- they're definitely not.

 

[Callie]

I'm glad I am in college, because I can buy whatever school supplies I want (or need). I shop the sales, and have a major stockpile!

That price sounds really high for what you ended up with. My mom is a teacher, and she purchases notebooks, pens, folders, pencils for dirt cheap, and then sells them to her high school students if they forget them.

 

[Eureka]

of when they need a notebook for every subject, and some of those subjects, like computers, use about ten pages all year....why not combine computers and health? or another subject.....at least the music teacher encourages that...3rd year using the same NB, she tells them they do not have to repeat notes for things that are already in the nb from prior years

I always buy my own supplies, do not do the school box supply because I can get them on sale for so much cheaper....and I always buy doubles and triples of things on sale anyway, like crayons/glue/markes so if I have to go school shopping anyway, I don't mind getting it all

I have mine rip out the ten pages they used and reuse the notebook next year. Older DS is in middle school and can reuse some of his binders too. No such luck with his agenda binder, which he carries everywhere and doubles as a hall pass. We went through two of the $9 heavy duty binders last year just for that. I buy supplies year round, especially hen the spiral notebooks are on clearance at Target.

 

[Eureka]

That's what gets me too. Have to have specific color folders for each subject, then have to write name, grade, teacher, room number on the folders so they can't be reused!

Mr. Clean Eraser works great to get pen and sharpie'd names off of binders and plastic folders.

 

[TLuvsD]

Go get the list for the next grade level now. It will give you a chance to buy what you need at the sale (clearance possibly) price. A few items may change, but the overall savings can be huge.

 

[Shanna-like-Banana]

Our school did the pre-set supplies kit a few year ago.

Come to find out that the list they provided if you didn't want to purchase the kit, was simply just a list of the items that would have been in the kit.

There were a few items on the list that I had to ask his teacher about. She confessed that the teachers didn't even get to make the supply list, that it was made by the sales contract between the PTO & the kit company ! And that when the teachers inquired about the items, they were told to make due with what comes in the kit !

A week after school started, we got another list of the real items they needed in addition to the kit items.

So, all in all, turns out it was a "un-advertised" PTO fundraiser under the rue of it being a helpful, timesaving, pre-set kit.

 

[brertoad]

My MIL is a teacher, and she spends her own money every year on school supplies for her classroom. My FIL usually goes to Sam's Club and just buys everything, and it's really expensive even at club prices. In general, men don't look at prices, they just throw everything in the cart and that's that.
I'm sure he has spent hundreds every year.

I started buying things for her when it goes on sale, we get the Sunday paper and I look through it all for Back to School sales, usually Walgreens has the best doorbuster deals. And Office Depot and Staples also sometimes have good sales.

She buys 5 different color 2 pocket folders for all the kids in her class, plus tons of paper, pencils, mechanical pencils, markers, highlighters, sharpies, composition notebooks, glue, rulers, etc, etc.

I had bought so many supplies one year, I spread it out on our kitchen counter and took a photo, I paid about $30 for nearly $200 of supplies.

Folders were on sale for .05/ea. at Walgreens, some highlighters for .09/ea., multipacks of mechanical pencils for .20 a pack of 5, pencils .19 a pack of ten, etc.

It is upsetting that the OP got taken advantage of. They should really tell people what they are buying, it's a hard pill to swallow when you get ripped off. It really stinks. You would think the school would be honest, saying it only costs "a little more" is really dishonest.

 

[snarlingcoyote]

My dear relations go to school in a poorer area of our country and the school has this in the lower grades, but not as a fund raiser. Some dedicated volunteers get together and use their volume to make purchases, then pass the cost of the supplies on to the parents at cost. It's about what you'd pay if you're a a decent, not uber, shopper but for some working parents, especially single parent families, it's a major help because of the time saved. Also, that way, kids who would otherwise not have supplies get the same bag at school that most of the other kids get and no one at school is the wiser.

In the town I'm in now, I think they have days where kids can go and get a backpack with all the supplies for their grade level at a fundraiser off campus with no income verification required, but I think I like my hometown's way better.

 

[4HppyCamprs]

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[Jedana]

We have 2 fundraisers during the year and they send those *&^$% scholastic book flyers home once a month trying to get us to buy books all year.

Good luck. I would think for a private school they would just raise tuition $100 and get rid of the fundraisers. I would sign up for that one.

DS's school does a fund raiser a month.



yeah, one a month. One is the school carnival, another a walk a thon and on and on. However, the money goes to different things. One month, it is for the K classes, the next the 3rd grade, then the library...

Also, the book flyers? Have the teacher sign up for online ordering. Every time I order online, the class gets a book (for each order, so if all 18 kids order online, the class gets 18 books that month!) plus I get a $5 certificate for a book (which I then use the next month, get a book for the class plus another certificate...it's a vicious cycle!)

 

[lawnmd]

That's what gets me too. Have to have specific color folders for each subject, then have to write name, grade, teacher, room number on the folders so they can't be reused. Have to have 70 sheet wide ruled notebooks in colors to match those folders, and again have to have all this info on the front cover so when there are 60 pages left in that notebook at the end of the year I can't just turn around and send it for a different child or the same child in the next grade.

Some specific requirements I can understand. Crayola really is better than no-brand crayons and markers. Elmers gluesticks work better and don't dry out as quickly as store brands. Foil-wrapped pencils clog up sharpeners. Those things don't bother me, but the micromanagement of notebooks and other supplies where there is no functional difference annoys the heck out of me!

Instead of writing all that information on the front of notebook. Use a 2" x 4" white address label and write it on there. That way next year just put another one on top of that one.

 

[texasroni75]

With 3 school-age children (1 in college, 1 in middle school, 1 in elementary), I've learned to use the supply list as a guide but it's not set-in-stone. When I was working full-time and had a more flexible budget, I was able to get everything on the list exactly as they listed it. And, I would donate extra supplies for families that couldn't afford them in addition to my own children's school supplies.

Now that I'm a SAHM, and can NOT afford a $90/child school supply list, I do not feel guilty supplying the brands and sizes and amounts of supplies that my budget allows. Obviously, I won't send my child off to school without notebooks and pencils, but - an $8 pack of Expo dry-erase markers for the teacher might not make the cut. I do keep a note of things that are more for the "classroom" (hand sanitizer, tissues, etc) - and if I find them on sale later in the school year, I buy them and send them in then.

Same goes for fundraisers. I don't do them here - I don't have family within 1500 miles of here and I can't bring the stuff to work to sell because I'm a SAHM. I refuse to try to peddle chocolate to my neighbors. Thankfully they are not mandatory here.

 

[Eastern]

One year they told us the kids needed two 2" binders each. A 2" binder is HUGE. I got the 1 and 1/2" instead and they were fine.

 

[Pigeon]

Ahh, the annual school supply griping.

My kids always had to have about 8 marble composition books in elementary. They used five or so pages in each. Because they had to keep all their stuff in tiny desks, cubbies or lockers, the notebooks were always mangled by the end of the year and unusable.

We need federal legislation requiring teachers to purchase the items off the school supply list from local stores once to make sure that the specified items are actually manufactured and sold. I've spent many hours of my life that I will never get back looking for specific colors, sizes, materials and designs of post-its, folders, clip boards, notebooks, etc. that simply do not exist in this universe.

And the purely stupid stuff... There was one teacher who made the kids decorate one of said marble notebooks with actual items from their lives that were supposed to be meaningful. Suggestions included merit badges, medals, jewelry, awards, and puzzles. The items themselves had to be sacrificed, not images of the items. This was to be used as a writing journal.

This construction project was to be accomplished using a specific brand and size of laminating film. She listed a store about 15 miles away that had the film. Except that the store didn't carry the film, had never carried the film and had never heard of the film nor had any of the big box, office supply or stationary stores in the area. I know this because I spent untold hours looking for it. I finally found it online for $35.

And you guessed it, when it came home at the end of the year, five pages of the notebook had been used.

 

[CopperWife]

As long as you're griping, I'm griping, too...

My first grader needs to brings 48 sharpened pencils. Yep, forty-eight. 48 pencils divided by (approximately) 37 weeks of school equals 1.3 pencils a week. Have you ever used a pencil in its entirety? I mean, maybe once or twice. And I know this is accounting for loss and yes, I know they are pooled, but this just seems a bit much to me.

 

[bbak3030]

As long as you're griping, I'm griping, too...

My first grader needs to brings 48 sharpened pencils. Yep, forty-eight. 48 pencils divided by (approximately) 37 weeks of school equals 1.3 pencils a week. Have you ever used a pencil in its entirety? I mean, maybe once or twice. And I know this is accounting for loss and yes, I know they are pooled, but this just seems a bit much to me.

My daughter needs 72 SHARPENED pencils. That's about $18 worth of pencils if I buy them sharpened. And 72, really? They come in packs of 10. Who the heck came up with 72?

 

[Swimalie]

My son's PTO took over the school box supplies this year. The PTO added on $5 for a fundraiser and the box was $40. For $15 I've bought everything on the list. I would much rather pick out the quality than what is sent in the boxes. Not knocking the PTO (and I am active in it) but I'd rather give them the $5 than have them buy those supply boxes.

 

[Styx Fan]

The teachers at our school who asked for a certain color of folder or notebook used them to help keep the kids organized and on task. She could tell them to pull out their math folders and tell at a glance if everyone did. Same thing in the lower grades to help make sure they all took home the right homework notebooks or folders. As long as they request easy to get colors and don't get picky about the details that won't matter, I don't mind this at all.

But another one here who hates having to buy individual spiral bound notebooks only to use a small portion. I caught on to this early and learned to reuse them if only slightly used. On the other hand, I also buy the things in bulk at the super cheap sales, so they never cost me much.

I do the same stock-ups on all supplies. I always have a decent stash of all the basics purchased at rock bottom prices. The thought of having to replace colored pencils or markers at full price later in the year drives me nuts. And it's nice to replenish/refresh crayons, colored pencils, etc every now and then. Now that my youngest is going in 5th, I am not buying some things this year and just using up the surplus....washable markers, crayons, etc. I also donated a lot to a local school supply drive this summer.

I also learned over the years to not stress over things like the size of glue sticks or the brand of pencils. I do my best, than relax. Never has it really mattered. I also do not worry about getting all the extra classroom stuff right off the bat. The teacher really doesn't need 30 boxes of Kleenex in September. But I make a note of what I skipped and bring it in later.