Woohoo!! As of this morning, all three of the Little Lennons were back in school! Truly a day to celebrate, at least for this mama.
As with the prior five back-to-school seasons, school supply shopping was an exercise in priorities, budgeting, and making personal trade-offs.
To be fair, supply shopping readiness actually started in June. When school let out, we shredded old papers, trashed demolished notebooks and supplies, and neatly tucked away the things that still had decent life left. I maintain an office supply cupboard, available year-round at no cost for whoever needs whatever, whenever. When I see things insanely on sale throughout the year (e.g., one subject notebooks for 10c), I stock up. This is where last year's leftovers reside.
We start with a budget. Each kid gets an allocation of funds, based on what I think is reasonable to fulfill the lengthy list of school supplies sent home by the teachers. It's around $40, allowing for backpacks, lunch bags, notebooks, pens, pencils, yadda yadda yadda. Where once we had teacher requests for 8 boxes of crayons, markers of all possible widths, and 52 glue sticks, now we have specialty art sketch pads, earbuds, and wireless mouses (is the plural of the computer gadget mouses or mice?).
We deposit funds into their spending accounts and each must decide how to fulfill the entire list. This is an important point because the one key requirement is that they have everything they need when they hop on the big yellow bus.
Next is the prioritization. Once the kids know what they need, they get to do their own shopping.
First, each kid decides what they care most about, and what they need the bare minimum on. Some years they'll upgrade to a fancy backpack, pulling in extra funds of their own. Or maybe they'll reuse last year's backpack and go for upgraded earbuds. One daughter is all about the mechanical pencils, and I don't mean the generic Target ones - she wants top-of-the-line. The others cheerfully take wooden yellow #2s from the pencil box in the supply cupboard.
Point being that each kid gets to decide where to invest in their school supply experience, and economize where they couldn't care less.
HOW they acquire everything is up to them.
Once they have a general game plan, they pull what they can from the supply cupboard. Next, we go online to Amazon or head to Target. They put everything they want into their shopping carts and pay with their personal debit cards. They hold the power. I don't care what colors, brands, styles, or quantities they choose - again, as long as the full list is satisfied.
Sometimes one or more kids will under-spend. Any budget left over is theirs to keep. The lesson: if you economize in one part of your life, you can splurge (or better make ends meet) in another.
Our goals: Let the kids control this part of their lives while learning how to budget, prioritize, and reuse/recycle before automatically buying new stuff.
Thanks for reading, and here's to another school year filled with blessings and good vibes! 🌟
Not sure how to introduce money concepts to your children? Check out my new online course: Raising Wealthy Kids
Stephanie Brooke Lennon is the author of Family Bank Blueprint, GoldQuest, and What Would Water Do? Simple Strategies for Navigating Life's Obstacles. Her titles are available in Paperback and Kindle on Amazon.com. Follow Stephanie Brooke on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Twitter, Amazon, and at BrookeLennon.com.
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