It’s back to school time, and for many families, that means new clothes, new shoes, new school supplies, new backpacks, haircuts and more.
Just how much does it cost to send a child back to school these days? Are parents tearing their hair out or savoring that new-notebook smell and the promise of a quieter house? How do they save money in the face of rising costs or when outfitting more than one child?
The Enterprise talked to a number of local families to find out how they are coping.
Name: Margaret Tibbot
Children: Three boys ages 8, 9 and 11 and one daughter age 5. They attend Seaview Elementary.
Shopping list: Clothes, school supplies, shoes, paper lunch bags, socks, underwear.
Estimated total: Hundreds of dollars.
“I’m not a big plan-way-aheader, so I just do it all at once,” Tibbot said of shopping for back to school items. “The hard thing with having four is that it’s too hard to take them all to the mall at the same time.”
Tibbot took her oldest son clothes shopping a week ago.
“He wears shorts all year, even if it’s 36 degrees, so I got shorts and a sweatshirt and a few things for my daughter,” she said.
The shorts are on sale now because it’s the end of the season, she said. Often, end of season clothes are on sale, though it’s just lucky her son likes shorts all the time — it isn’t a deliberate cost saving strategy, she said.
Tibbot has used more deliberate money-saving methods in the past. She’s asked families with children a little older than hers if they have any clothes their children have outgrown. She’s also shopped at consignment stores and Goodwill. Garage sales are good, too, she said.
School supplies, though, can get expensive, she said.
“I remember it last year being close to $100 for all four kids,” she said.
Some of the teachers’ requests can be very specific and hard to find, she added — like specific binders made of vinyl or without flaps.
“(You) have to try hard to track them down,” she said. “Then (the children) go to school and say so many people have this other kind of binder.”
She said that back to school items really add up, but it’s a cost that can be absorbed.
“I feel like we’re in a financial situation where we’re pretty blessed, so we don’t have to scrimp and save,” she said.
Name: Madeline Herzog
Children: A son at Oak Heights Elementary, a daughter at Alderwood Middle School and a daughter at Lynnwood High School.
Shopping list: Clothes, shoes, supplies
Estimated total: Hundreds of dollars.
“September is a very expensive month,” Herzog said. “The back to school shopping for clothes, then the school supplies, then the ASB cards when you get to school.”
September also brings costs for joining the PTA, paying for school pictures and yearbooks, participating in fall fundraisers and sports.
“It does add up and if your kid’s at more than one school, it’s multiple,” Herzog said. “But that’s kind of how it is. You know going into it, it’s expensive.”
PTAs offer some help, she said. For example, the Alderwood Middle School PTA bought graphing calculators for classrooms so parents don’t have to buy them.
Parents don’t have to buy their children a whole new wardrobe, Herzog said, though as her daughters have grown, they don’t like hand-me-downs anymore. She takes them shopping.
“The kids get all excited and try on 1,000 things and pick out one thing,” she said. “It’s a part of having kids go back to school.”
Name: Julie Waterman
Children: Son attends Lynnwood High School and one grown daughter.
Shopping list: Clothes, shoes and a haircut.
Estimated total: About $400.
Waterman’s son buys his fall clothes online.
“He orders from different Web sites ‘cause he hates to go to the mall,” Waterman said. “We sat down at the computer one afternoon and ordered jeans and shirts and shoes.”
Buying the clothes now means he’s set for awhile, Waterman said, though the clothes aren’t doesn’t need much in the way of school supplies.
Waterman said she misses back to school shopping trips.
“I used to take my daughter shopping and I kind of miss that,” she said. “A boy is a different animal.”
Name: Lori Haugh
Children: One daughter in second grade at Seaview Elementary.
Shopping list: School supplies, haircut, a few clothes, a lunch box.
Estimated cost: $125.
“There’s great sales on back to school stuff, so sometimes I end up going a few places,” Haugh said.
She does a little shopping before school starts and the rest throughout the year. “She grows fast,” she said.
Name: Annika Karr
Children: One son attends preschool and another son is in first grade at Sherwood Elementary.
Shopping list: School supplies.
Estimated total: About $100.
Karr doesn’t have to buy much before school starts because she shops throughout the year.
“I kind of do it as I go along,” she said.
Karr thinks that school supply lists were much shorter when she was a child.
“When I was a kid, I don’t remember having to bring any supplies other than a new school bag or lunch box and maybe a little school box with some pencils and crayons in it,” she said. “I think it’s more involved ‘cause we do baby wipes, that kind of thing, but I don’t think they’re unnecessary items at all.”
Karr enjoys back to school preparations.
“I think it’s a really exciting, fun time of year,” she said. “Both my kids are really excited about their new teachers and making new friends.”
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