A new school year also means a long list of things to buy for school, from supplies and uniform and to equipment for sports or children’s clothes. Parents are looking for solutions to fall into the budget.
Parents say the list of school supplies will be long and expensive photo: collage/am
While through resorts there are families who enjoy the last days of vacation, the shops began to chase after supplies, clothing and footwear for school. The list is long, prices have increased, only wages have remained the same, and parents are trying to cope. Some have a fixed budget and want to buy with that money and quality things, others have divided their shopping list throughout the summer, buying something every month.
The question “What budget allocated to shopping for the beginning of the school year? ” has multiple response variants. “If we do not buy the backpack anymore, because the one last year is still good, we could reach 400-500 lei. We have the pen, we bought a good one last year, 160 lei cost us, we also have pencils and pens from the summer exam, he said. says a parent who hopes to manage to “escape” with about 1,000 lei spent, although it is prepared and the amount will be higher.
If it is about two children at school, or more, obviously the costs increase. It is important and what can be reused from previous years or what expenses can be postponed, parents say.
Some parents say that they do not reinforce quality and that what may seem like an expense is, in fact, a wise decision. Buy, for example, notebooks with plastic cover, although they are more expensive, and so they do not need separate cover. Others have found from the experience of the past years that in the stationery and bookstores the prices are higher, so they prefer to buy from the supermarket. The prices of the notebooks rarely descend, for the A5 format, under 2 lei, while for the “student” notebooks, depending on the number of sheets, the quality of the sheet, etc., the prices can exceed 10 lei/piece.
It is also important the advice to check, before you start shopping, if there is something else “in stock” at home.
“We help us the list from the teacher”
In kindergarten and small classes, parents are often guided by the lists that educators and teachers usually have available from the beginning of summer, precisely because many things are needed that, gathered, represents a substantial cost. “We help us the list from the teacher, otherwise we would buy either what you do not need, or as much as we should, or we fail to buy certain things”, says a mother encountered in a profile store. Other parents are, on the other hand, disturbed when they are imposed on a particular mark. Although I understand why it is important that, especially in kindergarten, notebooks, colored pencils and various other objects, they are about the same, sometimes they say, they find cheaper variants and would like to buy those.
„ÎI didn’t receive the list, so we are waiting for the beginning of the school year. Until then we buy the other necessary things: shirts, footwear, footwear for sports time ”, says another parent.
There are also parents who, when they hear how much they have to pay for what they have chosen from the shelves, they remember all the sins of politicians. “And the education is free, right? Free is abroad. I have relatives in Australia, where you are only asked for the measure for uniform and for sports equipment, nothing else. State school ”says, angry, another parent.
It is a problem and estimate how many notebooks would actually need, because many, especially parents of high school and high school students, do not know the list of disciplines. I do not even know whether to buy more A5 or more A4 format notebooks, if they are allowed to write with the pen or the pen is needed, if you need a cardboard, crepe, waxed, glazed and what else the visual arts teachers want …
“And let’s not talk about clothes anymore, because we enter a mining ground here. Best would be to have uniform, I didn’t have so many dilemmas. My child can say that he is not pretentious and does not make a big case if he does not have a shirt from I do not know what company or sneakers of 1,000 euros, but I have family friends who face this problem ”confesses another mum on shopping.
Anti-Pope T-shirts and shopping for a lower price
The same disturbances are also in the groups on social networks. From where to buy supplies at not very peppered prices and be of quality, where there are shirts that are not destroyed at the first washing, if it is “made” to use another year the same bag, etc.
“The penal exchanges him annually to the little one (4th grade now) because he is delighted by the idea of changing the pen. The big one does not change it because he says it’s good. The backpacks do not change them too often. The IX child has the same two-year backpack, it is impeccable, it will not be changed. The little one, he has one who is two years old, does not want to change it. Handbook covers I only buy after receiving the textbooks. For spots on t -shirts/shirts I use lily for stains ”, sa parent. Another mother says she uses anti-pope shirts, and that has helped her over the school years, because she has never surprises when she gets them out of the washing machine.
Other parents say they saved their shopping online. They also escaped the tiring roads and found supplies and footwear and clothing items at reasonable prices. From a parent established abroad comes the idea of having to shop in common, at school level, because they will get a good price. So, says the parent, the parents in the school where his children learn.
Low -income parents have less such debates. In the groups in which information is requested and received about various aids and allowances the most common question is “did the allowance enter?”. Many say that the 300 lei will not even reach them for these expenses. Even in the previous months they could not save them, because they are expenses every month.
In various communities, on the other hand, collections are organized to help children in poor families so that, at the beginning of the school year, each student has if not a fully equipped backpack and new clothes, at least a few notebooks and writing tools.
