The Parenting Pod

Well, August is two days away. One of my coworkers just mentioned that she is all done with her sons' back to school shopping, including their class supplies lists.

Has anyone here started?

Do you buy their school clothes before school starts?

Do you wait until after school starts to buy school clothes so that they'll see what other kids are wearing or (as always seems to happen to me) they won't grow out of their new jeans before winter is over?

I don't really buy school clothes. As I see him out growing them or that he is in need (my son can ruin a brand new pair of jeans in about 10 uses )I will go buy whatever he needs. I have also stocked up on nice clothes from garage sales, I HATE buying brand new clothes, so when he ruins somthing that cost me .50 it does'nt matter as much. lol. School supplies we have been picking them up here and there but I am waiting for some better sales that I am sure will happen closer to school starting.

Kinda hard to believe he goes back in less than a month.

I haven't started yet. Next week our state is dropping the state tax so I'll probably start the school supply list. It will drop my tax from 10% to 5%.

Then closer to school, Lucy will pick out her backpack & lunch bag. This year, she also needs gym shoes that stay in school.

I'm not going to do too much on clothes until it starts getting colder. She outgrew all of her clothes in the spring so I bought a lot of stuff then. That should carries us through the 1st month of school. The we'll get stuff as we need it.

Tyson wears uniforms, so I stocked up this past week when Old Navy had a great sale on uniforms. They have their jeans going on sale this Friday ($10/ea), so I will be getting some of those then. He is like Terrie’s son, and is famous for killing the knees of all his jeans.

I have been picking up a couple items each time I grocery shop, so I hope to be completely done in the next week. I get to avoid the last minute crowds! Unfortunately, there are some pretty specific writing pads on his list that I have been having trouble finding, but I will find them.

We got DD's supply list at the end of last year, and I have most of it done from 1 decent trip to K-Mart last month. I held off on the markers & glue until I find a good sale, and I put together a box of crayons from their own playroom! We went to the outlets Sunday and got school shoes (Stride Rite was clearing out the Mary Jane "Jillian" style for $15, so I got her a blue & a black), and I over the summer I picked up some uniform items here and there for both of them. DH made a Costco run last month and got megapacks of tissues and wipes, and I ran reuse some things from last year, like zippered pencil cases and her GirlScouts backpack from Christmas.

I don't know what the list will look like for DS's preschool. Maybe they'll give us something at orientation, but I don't know when that will be.

We're almost done with school supplies. I have to pick up a couple things at an office supply store, but once I figure out what I'll need for ME I'll probably get all of that together.

I buy most of the kids clothes on clearance the year before. Briannon has most of her school clothes already. I'll have to get her a few pairs of jeans/pants... not sure if I'll do that now or wait until it starts to get cooler. She also has a birthday in September and will probably get some clothes then (although I'm hoping more pjs and dressy clothes than school clothes).

I'm almost done with school supplies. We can actually buy all the supplies in a pack from the school for $41 and a lot of my friends did that. I did one major Walmart run and have picked up a few other things here and there and have only spent $13 so far. I think I just have kleenex, wipes and watercolors left to buy. Maybe another small thing and I'm thrilled with the savings. I didn't have to do much extra either.

I don't do major school clothes shopping - I just need to go through my kids clothes and see what else they need for the upcoming season. The kids wear shorts for the first few weeks anyway. I bought pants for Adam at the beginning of the year last year and he outgrew them in a month. I feel like he's due for a growth spurt soon too so I'm hesitant to buy a lot now.

School starts here on the 10th and I just got Cassidy's supply list Monday. I manged to get everything she needed on her list and her backpack that same day. Thanks to Wal-Mart I spent next to nothing for everything.....25cents for a 24 pack of crayola crayons...I think that's pretty cheap. School clothes are a non-issue because we have uniforms. It's been like that since I was in High School hear which eliminates a lot of the "I want this because everyone else is wearing it". The only thing I am having a hard time finding is the Big & Easy coloring books...all I'm finding is the really thin ones with the really small pictures when I can actually find them. Doesn't anyone color anymore??? LOL

All of Emilie's school supplies are supplied by the school (government) even her things she needs to have at home for her homework. But I'm not impressed with the quality of the paper or the coloured pencils. The rest of it is fine. So at home, I let her use her own pencils for her homework even though technically she's not supposed to. She's got lots so I don't need to pick up anything. She got a new back pack and pencil case when she started first grade last year that should last her 3 years so we don't need to get that either. I do take the girls shopping individually for school clothes (or daycare clothes for Madelen). I decided to make a tradition where each girl gets to go shopping alone with me to pick up a new outfit and I'll pick up whatever else they happen to need in way of clothes.

I love the idea of taking each kid clothes shopping by themselves. I think I'm going to do that this year.

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Wow, Kris...That's awesome that your state tax is dropping so much!

I looked at Target yesterday and couldn't find a supply sheet for Ashlyn's school. But there were sheets for most of the other elementary schools in our district. And wouldn't you know...for 1st graders each school's list was different from the rest.

I do figure Ashlyn will need pencils, glue, tissues, wipes, etc. Because our school doesn't allow food in birthday goodie bags, she got a TON of pencils last year. Plus we've picked up a few cute packs in Target's dollar bins throughout the year. So we picked out 12 favorites from her stash to put in her pencil box and 12 that she didn't really like to take in as classroom supplies. Her crayons from last year were barely touched so we can use those again this year. Her scissors never came home so we have to buy her new ones. (Don't even get me started on that.) And we do have some things that we had to buy last year that were barely used - like the composition book that only had 6 pages written on. So at least if that's on the 1st grade list I won't have to buy another.

I so wish our school district did uniforms. Last year I took Ashlyn school shopping right around Labor Day weekend. But this year I'm going to wait and just buy things as she needs them. Same as some of you have said, they'll wear shorts for at least the first few weeks and Ashlyn has enough clothes from last year that still fit to get us through until the weather starts to get chilly. I would like to buy her more jeans because of the sales at Children's Place and Old Navy, but I just know that by Christmas they'll end up being too short even if I buy her 7's.

I do need to take her shoe shopping though. Ugh, shoes. That girl is so hard on shoes and so persnickety about them. It's a pain to buy shoes for her because she ends up not liking the way most of them feel. It's probably been 2 years since I was able to buy shoes for her without having her with me. She's got a brand new pair of gym shoes back in March because she lost one from the pair she'd used all year. She liked the shoes in the store, but then at the end of the school year said she only wore them in gym class a few times and wouldn't wear them during the summer because she didn't like the way they felt on her feet. So, hey...if anyone's DD is not picky about her shoes, wears an 11 1/2 and wouldn't mind almost brand new silver & pink tennis shoes...I've got some for ya!

I like that idea of taking each child shopping alone. I don't have to worry taking Cailyn yet (she won't start preschool until next year, and right now she's got three huge tubs of hand-me-down 3T clothes in our attic). But I think I will definitely make sure to take Ashlyn alone. Maybe we'll even make a day of it...go to the movies first, lunch and then clothes/shoe shopping.

I havent done school shopping yet. I have the list, but Ive just had SO many things going on, its impossible.

As for clothing, we put a stipulation of 100$ for her to get new clothing for school. Usually thats a few outfits, I try to go to Old Navy or Target where its "cheaper"
. Thank Goodness right now she doesnt care about brands or anything else. My mom will also take her shopping, and she loves that. My DH and I have done finances for the next 5-15 years and we feel like $100 per child for clothing is what we can afford right now. (When they are all in school, we will be dropping basically 1000$ on Supplies and clothing in september! YIKES!) It might change in the future if I start working but, really, how much do they need. They do grow so fast that I end up getting a few things during the year or for DDs birthday which is in April, anyway.

I wound up going to a teacher supply store to look for the specific writing pads Tyson needs, of which there are 12 needed. $22.38 for notebooks!!! I am glad I got such good deals on the other supplies, but man that is a lot for paper.

Wow $23 on notebooks???? That's insane!

I'm glad ours just say a specific color notebook. I go cheap & buy from Walmart.


Our school also does the program that you can buy the package for $40. But I know I can do it so much cheaper. Plus Lucy alway brings home stuff at the end of the year that hasn't even been used. So I save it & send it the next year.

12???? Are they writing Moby Dick, or what?? Angela just needed 2 composition books, so I got red ones at Kmart for 50c each

Here's a great comparison chart to help with school shopping.

http://www.saveathomemommy.com/2010/08/ ... als-81-87/

I just picked up a new backpack, folders and notebooks for DD over the weekend. I plan to get the rest of the items on her list this coming weekend. I'll get her a few new outfits but not a whole wardrobe or anything. Probably a few pairs of new jeans and new shoes; most of the shirts will likely be from the second hand store.

Heather, my DD is the same way about shoes. I have a few pairs that are practically brand new in a box in the basement because Paige says they're too tight or not comfortable...even within days of her helping to pick them out.

Cassidy is the same way. I've never seen a girl that is that hard on shoes. I don't remember how many pairs we went through last year. I skipped the sales tax holiday for school supplies this year...it's just not worth fighting with the people in the stores. I mean Cassidy's just in Kindergarten so I maybe spent a total of $30 if that on supplies and that's with buying extra stuff. The only thing I wish I would have waited on was uniforms because I have to buy them at the most expensive place in town because Cassidy is to small....she's still in a 2T in some of the stuff. LOL Plus I just found out today that they are switching the colors of the shirts this year and didn't feel it necessary to inform the parents. They're lucky I hadn't removed tags and washed so I could exchange them easily.

DH snagged the rest of the things at Wal-Mart the other day.... 25c glue, and $2 washable markers, and I think $1 for a 2-pack of Sharpies. I'm guessing at what DS's list will look like, so I told him to get some for him too.

I have a feeling I'm going to be taking back DS's stride rite brown dress shoes, but we'll see... he's never worn laces before (not since the baby booty incident ) but maybe if I double-knot them...