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It's August, which means somewhere in your house, there is a "school supplies" list that reads less like a shopping list and more like a ransom note. Twenty-four glue sticks. A specific folder brand that is definitely sold out everywhere. A graphing calculator that costs more than your first car payment. Cool, cool, cool.
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Here's the part that made me feel better and worse at the same time: according to the National Retail Federation, families with K-12 kids are expected to spend an average of $863.86 on back-to-school stuff this year. A record high! So if you feel like the backpack aisle is personally trying to bankrupt you, you're not imagining it. You're just experiencing inflation, Trapper Keeper style!
The good news: back-to-school spending is one of the most predictable expenses a family will have all year, which means it's one of the easiest to actually plan for instead of white-knuckling through Target in early August, sweating through your shirt while you fight with your child over which pair of light-up sneakers to purchase.
Here's how to fight back (nicely):
Shop your own house first. Before buying anything, do a five-minute sweep of drawers, junk closets, and last year's backpack. Half of "school supplies" is just stuff that migrated to weird corners of your home in June.
Give the list a budget, then divide it by category. Electronics, clothes, shoes, and supplies all compete for the same pot of money. Decide your ceiling before you walk in, not while standing in the checkout line doing mental math you don't have the bandwidth for.
Check for a sales tax holiday. Several states run one every August on clothing, shoes, and supplies under a certain price. It won't fix the whole budget, but it's free money for doing basically nothing.
Buy the boring stuff used or off-brand. Nobody has ever asked a 9-year-old, "Is that a name-brand glue stick?" and gotten a real answer. Save the brand loyalty for something else. Buy generic.
Set up a "school stuff" sinking fund next year, starting now. Even $20 a paycheck from September through May means next August you're spending money you already set aside instead of money you don't have yet.
None of this is about depriving your kid of a good first day of school. It's about making sure the $863.86 (or whatever your version of it is) is a number you chose on purpose, instead of one that happened to you somewhere between the school supply list and the self-checkout line.
If you want to actually see where your back-to-school money went (brave of you), I'd recommend running a quick August audit in Monarch once the receipts stop flooding in. Nothing like a little late-August spending report to keep everyone honest, including me.
Until next time, Villagers!
-Catie
Need more help this back-to-school season? Check out my other resources!
P.S. Are you located in the Midwest?? Do you love comedy and/or the film Grease? My hit off-Broadway musical Vape! The Grease Parody is opening in Chicago THIS WEEK!! I’VE GOT CHILLS. THEY’RE MULTIPLYING.
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