August, 2008

Beating Back to School Costs

It's that time of year again, where frenzied families swoop down on stores to prepare for the coming school year. According to the media, going back to school means new wardrobes, the coolest school supplies and newest electronic gadgets must be purchased if children are going to have any chance of achieving academic success. But you don't have to break the bank to realistically provide for back to school needs. In fact, how you proceed with this annual ritual teaches your children an important lesson about money and influence. After all, that's what this really is, a ritual, borne not so much out of actual necessity, but habit. What started as a need to get a few pencils, papers and extra clothes to wear a hundred years ago has morphed into a multi-billion dollar money maker for retail stores. And so the ever increasing emphasis on more, more, more....

But being the savvy shopper you are means you know better than to get sucked into the back to school money pit. Of course, we all can use a few reminders now and then on staying within our budgets, especially when shopping with kids. After all, they are watching you and learning from your every move. Are you stressed or are you relaxed about the shopping trip? Do you have a set budget for each category- one set amount for supplies and one for clothing? Do you shop the sale ads ahead of time and have a written plan of where you will shop and what you are buying? Setting limits on spending not only helps you avoid post-back to school stress from buying more than you can afford, it also helps children learn not to be swayed by advertising and peer pressure, as well as reassuring the kids that they have financial limits too, just like every other area of their lives. Remember, despite their protests to the contrary, children find limits reassuring because limits demonstrate that somebody cares. It's easier to give kids everything they want than it is to withhold things for their own good, and kids know it. What are you showing your children- the easy way or the better way? That you are interested in alleviating your own distress in the moment or that you really care about your children in the long term? kids often detect the difference very quickly.

And when it comes right down to it, instead of succumbing to the shopping hype, you've got to find a way to make school expenses mesh with the family budget. It doesn't make sense to go into debt for back to school shopping. The light bulb came on for me in the form of how I bought my children's school wardrobes. That was the biggest expense and the only area of school shopping that had a lot of flexibility. When my oldest son decided he needed designer jeans, I informed him he had a budget of X dollars for jeans. That would buy one pair of the name brands or four pair of the less fashionable brand. It was his choice, but it would be several months before I would be able to purchase any more jeans for him. Which would he prefer- several pairs or one pair to wear every day? He thought about it and chose the four pair. If he had chose just one pair of designer jeans, I would not have changed my mind and bought him more of the same. Not only would that have destroyed my school shopping budget, but his siblings were watching and it could have created an overspending nightmare for years to come. I'm not saying kid's shouldn't have fashionable clothing if it is in your budget and an important issue for your family. But it is foolish to put yourself in debt in order to meet your teen's desire for the latest, coolest pair of denim.

A few years later, when the kids were teenagers and growing like weeds, the absurdity of buying complete new wardrobes for four kids every fall then having the clothes be too small three months later caused me to take a different tack. Each child got two new outfits at the start of the school year. Then we added to or replaced clothing as the year progressed, shopping the sales as we went along. That spread the expense through the year and made 'back to school' much less stressful.

Money can be saved in other ways, too. Plain, function oriented supplies cost a fraction of the trendy stuff. The same goes for electronics. Sally might need a calculator that does algebraic functions, but the $20 model will probably work about as well as the $99 one. Just make sure you know what the basic functional requirements are before you go shopping and write them on the shopping list so you won't forget. In search of a laptop? We found a great deal through Dell. Dell sells good, refurbished laptops through the company's web site for as little as $300. It may not be as trendy as buying a top of the line new one, but they are dependable and good value for the money. And with the slow adoption of Windows Vista, Windows XP- the operating system installed on refurbished computers, is just fine.

Hopefully some of the ideas presented here will be useful. Again, don't be afraid to let your child know you have budgetary limitations or that overspending now means going without later. Not only are you making back to school affordable and reducing stress but you are teaching your kids the importance of spending wisely. make the lesson a good one for the whole family.