Today my kid begun school and yesterday I had a huge preparation with all his new material, from backpack, to books, Pens and pencils and so on and on. How do you manage the expenses with all this material? Usually it last from one year to the other or is your kid a destroyer of material like mine was last year?
All parents find out that no matter what they do, tell their kids etc, the children will always lose some things, get their backpacks/school bags torn and so on. Because this always happens, all parents should always be prepared for the worst. Should anything survive usage for a year then count it merely as good luck because maybe before the end of the year you may have to get a new school bag or something. Personally I think most parents replace what kids need for school almost every year.
That is a fact Denis, kids lose stuff and in the case of my kid, he not only lost things (what I consider normal if it happens from time to time), but he also destroyed some of the material. I hope this year will go better, so far we are on day 3 and there are still no incidents, all the material is holding up in almost perfect condition.
I won't leave everything to buy at the same time, for a start. I will buy the simple things that kids need for school, but then if they want anything like fancy pencil cases etc they will have to get it out of their own pocket money - which they earn from doing jobs of various kinds around the house. For each job they do they get 20p (only tiny jobs, don't worry, I'm not using them as slaves) and they can "cash out" their earnings whenever they want, or save them up if there's something they have their eye on. Try to keep your eye open, and buy things like ballpoint pens in bulk packs - that way they can take one with them to school each year without you having to buy new. There are also notebooks that are much cheaper than others. Buy only what they genuinely need. It's very easy to get carried away with things, but it's an expensive habit!
Buying everything at the same time has an advantage, we can use the coupons that are issued with dates for those particular times and believe me, they are well worth it. How old are your kids Gemma? I find it a good idea to have them spend their pocket money for the fancy stuff, that helps to keep their feet on the ground.
We start shopping early for all of my children's school supplies and basically resign ourselves to the fact that they are kids and will probably need new school supplies each year. I do save for this and by shopping a little at a time it helps with costs. We have 4 children that we need to buy for so it get's very expensive to say the least! Planning and saving is the key!
That is true and that is why I feel that me and my wife make a good team, she planned it up, gathered all the coupons, the dates for them, the material list and we bought everything in advance, so I believe we saved all we could save. The kid is well instructed to preserve the material or else he knows he will get punished.