Just as my bank account was recovering from funding summer camps, soccer lessons, new swimsuits, pool fees, daily DQ runs and July jaunts to major theme parks, I’m being buried by back-to-school bills.
I am officially back-to-school broke and classes around here don’t start for another two weeks.
I kvetched when I saw Target and Wal-Mart employees replacing Fourth of July displays with school supplies, but then I realized that many kids are forced to head back to class at the end of July.
Thousands of year-round students that attend Chicago Public Schools start the new academic year on Monday. Meanwhile, the remainder of students in the nation’s third-largest school district head back to class next month. Kids in Atlanta and parts of North Carolina have been back in class for nearly two weeks, while students in Hawaii have been off the beach and back at their desks for nearly a month.
I’m not sure how their parents deal with the tight turnaround.
The financial crunch of filling a student’s school supply list is nothing to sneeze at.
Which brings me to Kleenex.
Why is it that each student in my kid’s school needs to bring in three boxes of Kleenex?
Kleenex… as in not Scott, Puffs or cheap generic tissue…
Students at my daughter’s school will not only be wiping their noses with the top brand of facial tissue, they will also have their desks cleaned with Clorox Wipes, their hands sanitized with Purell, and their craft projects sent home in Ziploc bags.
No generic store brands allowed.
Given the school’s strict directives I shouldn’t be the least bit surprised that the grand total for the 16 items listed on my daughter’s classroom supply list rung up at a jaw-dropping $63.12.
By the way, the national average for elementary school supplies is $38.
You don’t want to know how much I spent on uniforms, a new backpack, lunchbox, shoes and socks.
How much did school supplies set you back?
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