Friday, August 01, 2008

Back to School or Back to the Poor House?

There was a story in USA Today this week that said Americans spend an average of $600 on back-to-school items.

WOW?

Of course, that includes more than just paper and pencils it also accounts for clothing, backpacks, computers, cellphones and MP3 players. I guess it's debatable how much of that is actually necessary for school and that was kind of the point of the story. Families are cutting back this year.

I think I'm going to track my spending this year and see what it totals.

What do you spend on back-to-school supplies?

5 comments:

Kelli said...

I spent $16.00. Thankfully, Cate's school supplies quite a bit and since she stays at home, I don't need to buy school bags or lunch boxes.

Unknown said...

Wow! Is that $600 per household or $600 per child? And does it include college as "back-to-school?" I recall one semester where I spent about $100 on a psych book, opened it twice during the semester, then sold it back to the bookstore for $7. That was a bad semester.

But $600 for grade schoolers? Now that's just excessive.

the back door said...

well let's see...thanks to your daughters and my nephews our clothing expenses are zilch!! well, they each might need 1 pair of shoes. my supplies have been under $20 per child. i guess i must not be with it if i'm not spending that much!!!!

Livin' Life said...

Wow, I'm with Emily is that per child or total? Our main expense is clothing and shoes. We purchase minimal school supplies because our school sends out a small list of what to bring and what not too. I know we will spend a little more with 3 in school but we still stick to a strict budget. Wow! MP3's are deffinately not on our list. I might have to itemize our list this year and see the result's for our household. You are making me really nervous now.:)

Melissa said...

Each of mine will be given a budget of $50 to use for whatever they wish...clothing, backpack, lunch box, pencil bags, jewelery, whatever they choose.... I think it is fun to have some new things to kick off the new school year, but I don't want to go overboard! Also, if they would rather have a new outfit and use last year's perfectly fine backpack can be their decision to make.