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Your numbers sound very similar to mine. My son is starting middle school this year. It's a modified uniform school (meaning that you have to buy the shirts through them and then follow a very strict dress code for everything else). Since this is his first year, I had to buy pretty much everything. Next year, I may have to buy new shirts depending on what condition they are in but he should get another year out of his pants, since they are all hemmed and I can let down the hem. New back pack was about $50 but will last for several years. Supplies will run about $50 although I try to take advantage of the sales as much as I can.
I never understood the point of doing big back-to-school clothes shopping. Even up here in the hinterlands of northern Wisconsin, the kids can wear their summer clothes for the first few weeks. Then we just supplement the wardrobes as necessary- so, I don't have an exact number. Buying a new backpack every year seems wasteful to me. My kids use theirs for 3 or 4 years.
I probably spend $50 per kid on school supplies.
Once the kids get past the "cute and trendy" backpack stage a good quality backpack can last several years. We used to buy a brand that offered a free back pack if the back pack ever wore out. About ten years after my son graduated from HS I found one of his old back packs held together with duct tape so I returned it to the company, now I have a brand new back pack. Yippee!!
My daughter had the wear a uniform in elementary and middle school so I always bought her new clothes for the upcoming school year. Generally the school clothes she wore the prior year were too small or just worn out looking.
I usually bought 5 shirts (polos), 4 or 5 bottoms, 1 pair of sneakers, socks, underwear and a backpack if her old one was ratty. I bought most of the clothes from Target and Areopostale so they weren't very expensive. I would guess I spent around $300 including all of the school supplies.
Once she was in high school and out of a uniform I would just give her cash to pick out what she needed. Since her clothes got more expensive as she got older she usually got less but I spent around the same amount of money.
I have a little one again and when she starts school I'll probably do things the same way.
I always stock up on school supplies when the stores have their big back to school sales. Around here that usually is three to five weeks before school starts. Right now I have about several boxes of 24 count Crayola crayons that cost 25 cents each. If you did not stock up and needed another box in February or March it probably would cost $2.50 or $2.99 at full price.
I'll share a funny back to school story.
When my son started kindergarten I found a HUGE sale on nice quality tee shirts in his size. The shirts were something like $1 each for $9 or $10 shirts. So I bought about ten or twelve of them. They were all different, but all striped. Thick stripes, thin stripes, some two colors and some three or four colors of stripes and all different.
So, our son wore these shirts every day for the first few weeks of kindergarten and we found out later that a few people thought that he must be very poor and because they thought that he wore the same striped shirt to school every single day!
We have Sales Tax Free weekend, ~2 weeks or so before school starts, that when alot of people do there back to school shopping, (School Supplies, Clothing, Computers .... )
From my daughter , she says kids get picked on if they wear goodwill clothes . she is a mother and she works but she says she refuses to make her kids a target by shopping second hand stores . I guess bullying is a big issue in school where she is sending her kids .
From my daughter , she says kids get picked on if they wear goodwill clothes . she is a mother and she works but she says she refuses to make her kids a target by shopping second hand stores . I guess bullying is a big issue in school where she is sending her kids .
Brand names were a huge deal for my foster daughter in high school. I mean a HUGE deal. She got less, but got the "names". I was morally against it but just had to take her word for it.
From my daughter , she says kids get picked on if they wear goodwill clothes . she is a mother and she works but she says she refuses to make her kids a target by shopping second hand stores . I guess bullying is a big issue in school where she is sending her kids .
It's not like they have a label that says Goodwill.
I've bought my son clothing at Goodwill that comes from the Gap or Old Navy or other name brand stores.
I'm about to take a large box of name brand clothing to the thrift store to donate. It was purchased for full price, barely worn, and somebody else is going to get a deal on it.
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