2019-2020 was an exercise in teaching our elementary school-aged children personal finance, driving independence, and encouraging them to make constrained resource decisions.
As Labor Day 2019 approached, the time came once more to face the hordes at Target picking out school supplies. Pink folders without prongs and red folders with prongs and blue binders with pockets and …
School supply shopping is exciting for kids, because everything is fresh and new and clean. School hasn’t yet become a chore, and they’re looking forward to seeing friends they’d missed over the summer. The new binders, undamaged notebook spirals, sharp pencils and the scent of fresh erasers have an enticing allure.
For parents however … school supply shopping often means ignoring several pretty good supplies that litter the house. It reinforces the consumerist culture that we find ourselves living in, where the things we have are so last season. After that, they just get discarded, or remain to clutter the house.
In our household, school supplies presented the perfect opportunity to offer the gift of choice. The scene unfolded as such: Here is your budget. You may buy the new [backpack, lunchbox, earbuds, binders, folders] or you may pocket the money. Anything in-between was fair game, and upgrades came out of pocket.
Little Man (8): “But we need new notebooks!”
Mom: “You definitely need notebooks because you’ve written in the old ones.
Baby Girl (almost 10): “We definitely need new crayons and glue.”
Mom: “I know you need new glue, but do you really need new crayons? Because some of your crayons are only a little bit used.
BG: “But most of mine are used!”
Mom: “Here’s the thing - would you rather have the money, or would you rather have new crayons? I’m going to spend the same money either way. I’m either going to give it to you, or I’m going to give it to Target, Walmart, Office Depot, or whomever. It doesn’t matter to ME because I am spending the money either way."
<long pause while everyone reflected>
LM: “So there’s stuff we will HAVE to buy like glue and notebooks and new pencils and stuff. Will we have to use our supply budget on that?”
Mom: “Well you don’t have to use it, if you’re willing to use something else. The one thing you do need to do is have all the right school supplies at the end. So here’s the thing – if we find school supplies in my cupboards that we already have, and if you choose to use those, then you don’t need to buy new ones. You can keep the money.
LM: “But you said we need to buy new notebooks.” He clearly was obsessed over the notebooks.
Mom: “You definitely need to buy new notebooks. So you don’t get to keep every single dollar unless I have notebooks in the cupboard. I may have notebooks in the cupboard. Let’s go through all my cupboards and see what we already have. You can either shop for free from my little store, or you can shop with real money at a store.
LM: “But we also need to go get new markers, new rulers …”
Mom: “Do you really need new markers? Has your ruler really worn out?
LM: “It broke!”
Mom: “Oh well then you need a new ruler, unless we have an extra. How did your ruler break anyway? Did you measure too many things?
<General laughter>
Mom: “OK so you’re going to need to use some of your money to buy a new ruler that could have otherwise gone to a Nintendo™ Switch.
We then went into a general discussion about video games, and who wanted to buy what, and how much the game discs cost. We talked about the difference between buying new vs. used games, and how they seemed to work the same, regardless of how much we paid and the condition of the packaging. The parallel was drawn back to school supplies, and the kids set off to examine their markers, crayons, and other possibly reusable items.
In addition to doing school shopping right then, we reminded them of the option to change their mind later. Meaning, if they decided to reuse something early on then later decided they wanted a new item – they could always buy it at a later point in time. The artificial “now or never” urgency of school supply shopping was reduced since they each had the minimum requirements for the first day of school.
To effect real positive change, this had to be a clear win for our test subjects (not a takeaway) while they controled their outcomes
We could have forced them to reuse supplies that still had life in them. We made the conscious decision not to go that route because we wanted them to find the upside in this budget discussion. We had already budgeted for supplies, so it wasn’t a hardship for us. Future years may entail a smaller budget to drive the point home, but for year one, it was all about showing the win.
Here is how it unfolded:
Rising Fourth Grader (Baby Girl, age almost 10)
Reused her backpack from last year (and even offered an older backpack to her younger sister)
Reused her lunchbox from last year
Reused her earbuds from last year
Rummaged in the supplies cupboard for other supplies on-hand
Price shopped at the store to decide between the store brand binder and the name brand binder with a better color. Discovered to her delight that the name brand binder actually cost $0.17 less than the store brand. She loved using the price checker kiosk.
Pocketed almost her full budget, which went straight to her spending ledger. This allowance helped her afford to buy a half interest in a new Nintendo™ Switch in September.
Third Grader (Little Man, age 8)
Bought a new backpack he spotted at Costco, priced above the allotted budget. Paid out of pocket for the differential. Loves his backpack – no regrets
Declared he hates earbuds and they’re not comfortable. Bought upgraded headphones with cool colors from Amazon; paid out of pocket for the differential. Very excited to receive and open the Amazon box which was addressed to him. Very happy
Reused his lunchbox from last year
Rummaged in the supplies cupboard for other supplies on hand
Didn’t pocket any surplus and actually netted an outlay of $1.84. Happy because he has exactly what he wants for school.
First Grader (Wee One, age 6)
Reused her backpack from last year
Reused her Snoopy lunchbox from last year, which was a gift from a dear neighbor. Originally wanted to buy a new one, but when we didn’t buy it right away forgot about it.
Bought new earbuds, since hers from last year were lost or damaged – stayed on budget
Rummaged through the cupboard for pre-existing supplies, including sharpening what felt like a million pencils to meet the required number.
Pocketed the full budget, which went straight to her ledger… although she is most likely to want to replace something used later in the school year. This allowance helped get her over the threshold to be able to afford the Gizmo she wanted.
All in all, the school supplies experiment was a rousing success. The children were given reasonable budgets to fulfill their annual lists of office products. We didn’t have to say yes or no, but non-judgmentally ask how much each item cost and if it was worth spending the [sometimes extra] money or not. Empowered to make their own decisions, each took the path that felt right to them.
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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