My Kids' School Supplies Cost a Fortune!

it gets worse the older they get.

Even when I was in elementary school they wanted kids to bring their own kleenex. But soap and air feshener? Sounds like a rip off to me.

Thank goodness for places like the Dollar Tree.

In 4th grade, my son had 3 rolls of paper towels on the list. I point blank asked the teacher where she was going to store that many (3 x 30 = 90). That's when I found out most of the teachers had no say on the list for their grade, and that is why we always ended up with another list once school started.

Luckily, we don't have to deal with that anymore.

Our school asked for donations of random stuff like kleenex and other supplies for the class. I sent a few things on the list but not all of it by any means.

Yes, our list was long. I was buying all the supplies for a kindergardner.........crayons, notebooks, pencils, markers, resting mat, scissors, glue, folders, backpacks, tennis shoes, uniforms, ect ect ect.

I thought it was wierd, but I guess it is needed that we also had to buy paint smocks, paper towels, handsanitizer, kleenex, baby wipes, and several more items. I spent quite a bit for one child to go to kindergarten. I would do it again, though. As long as she gets a good education.

My son had to have one of the over $100 calculators for his math class. Wow! The list is getting longer and worse every year. We had bandaids on the list this year, which was a new one. I could see needing a couple of boxes, but one for each child is a little too much. Overall, we spent over $100 on school supplies for the kids....and now we are being nickled and dimed to death. Angela has 3 different papers requesting money.

Yes my kids school supply cost alot. I hate to say but my kids did not get everything that was requested off their school list. I am sure when we movenext month out of state, Their will be a new school supply list. I dread seeing that. If one time wasn't enough, book fees will be outrageous.

My grandchildren's school not only had a huge list here in SC, but they asked you to provide anything you could extra because so many families could not afford the stuff. Then at Christmas they sent home a paper suggesting school supplies for stocking stuffers and any extra you could send. Imagine my daughter-in-laws shock when they moved to Georgia and she rushed from work to pay the children's school fees so they could begin classes and the people in the office asked her "What fees?" There were no fees, lunches were $.80 per day as compared to $2.40 and breakfast was free. If you were there in time you could eat. They really made the most of their education lottery. I wish our state had had the God given sense to do the same. No, we are talking about laying off teachers here. I don't know about the fees in Nevada where they live now. I just know my daughter-in-law almost fainted when she didn't have to pay any in Georgia and the kids could sleep later and eat breakfast at school.

WOW.. that is a big difference! I know out here in Arizona, it's pretty bad. I think it's around $2 something for my niece who just started kindergarten to buy lunch, so my sister packs her a lunch.

that is expensive!!!

Now you have to save for the start of school just like saving for Christmas shopping! Whatever happened to that law that the school had to provide everything the kid needs including paper and pencils (they gave cheap ones and limited them)? I guess that law didn't last long. My son is a teacher and he buys a lot for his classroom out of his own money. He teaches 6th grade. I can't see kids having to take boxes of bandaids and rolls of paper towels! Maybe the paper towels are a new thing to use with sanitizer to clean desks to prevent the spread of the flu. I saw kids on TV cleaning their desks with paper towels and disinfectant.