How much on back to school

[parentinghacks]

Aibu to wonder how much has it cost you to get your back to school stuff?

New winter coat, shoes, trainers, polo shirts, jumpers, school logo items, new water bottle...all adds up costs me a fortune!

Coat is replaced as and when needed and I tend to buy next size in the sale as I see them.

The key is to replace things as they need replacing rather than trying to do it all at once

DD1 is starting secondary and needed everything, plus stationery for the first time so it’s cost me an absolute fortune!

Luckily I only need to get DS a new winter coat and a new logo PE shirt for DD2.

Oh, and new school shoes for all of them.

My eldest has just gone up to secondary.
I was expecting it to cost hundreds, it's an academy school and everything has to be logod. Nice surprise, the school funds every single year 7s uniform. Just had to supply sizes. The only things we've had to buy are additional shirts and trousers (£15 for two shirts and £15 for logod trousers)
Bags (rucksack and PE) 12.99 AND 5.99 from sports direct
New winter coat £40 again, sports direct. She does need that though.
Shoes £55 for a pair of Hush Puppies.

My youngest needed everything new

£24 two school logo cardis
£8 2 pairs of trousers.
£5 joggers for PE
£6 PE T-shirts
£7 white t-shirts
£13.50 for backpack from Sainsburys
£35 school shoes.

Totalling £243.50

£8 for a school bag on Vinted. £4 for a new water bottle on sale.

Total £12.
I'm counting my blessings, as secondary school next year will cost a few hundred in ludicrous specialised uniform (state school with idiotic uniform requirements and a slow 2nd hand market).

DD, Y11 - £0

First time ever! Her feet haven't grown and her school shoes haven't had much wear so haven't needed to get any this year.

DS is starting at a new independent school and I must have spent going on for £1000 kitting him out😳

3dc at 3 different schools. 2 needing blazers (I thought I'd got away with 1, but I haven't.)
New shoes, shirts, trousers, polos, socks, pe kits, 1 x new bag, 1 x lot of stationary, only 1 needs a coat at the moment

Already spent £130
Will need another 250 minimum.

And that's with 2 not needing new coats and bags. All seem to be growing at a silly rate and 2 are in the same sized clothes so can't really get hand me down trousers

Not too bad this year

Ten year old twins going into y6 so I'm not going over the top as they get any use next year!

2x skirts each
3x shirts each
Lunch boxes
Water bottles
Stationery
Socks
Tights

Coat, shoes, trainers and PE kit all still fit. Probably about £60 each.

I haven’t bought winter coats yet as the weather is still nice. I’ll buy them when needed.
I have bought 2 x pairs of school shoes (this is the first year both have needed new shoes in September, the past few years at least one have had a pair that still fits) £100
2 pairs of trainers £50
Didn’t need new PE kits, last years still fit fine as I bought a side above, and are in decent condition
4 x grey pinafores £32
4 x summer dressers £20
6 x cardigans £32
5 pack of white schools each £18
1 needed a new book bag as the last one was trashed, so £8
2x 5 packs of polo shirts £24
Didn’t need new water bottles as we have loads
Pack of labels as last years have run out, £6

So just under £300 for 2 kids

Varies massively year on year (this year, all I'm buying is some pens).

I wouldn't count things like winter coat, trainers and water bottle as back to school budget - presumably they are also heavily used out of school?

I count the trainers as part of the budget as PE kits only come home in the holidays for us.

does dc really need everything new?
we buy what and when it's needed.
one dc went up from primary to secondary and needs a calculator proteactor etc but other than that is set up (no uniform here)

@userstillatlarge

Nope, in my house we have school coats and home coats. Same as I have a work coat and a home coat.

Needs are totally different between school and home/work and home. So different coats required.

I replace when needed. So if uniform is outgrown or stained/worn out it gets replaced regardless of the months of the year. Same with shoes. Or even not, if stuff still fits then it's not replaced just because it's a new school year.

Same with bags. I think the only item which needed replacing on a regular basis was the pencil case and other stationary items. Thanks to a July birthday DD often got her bag/pencil case as a present if she wanted something specific or outside the normal budget.

This year is the first in 3 years of secondary school that I had to go and replace a lot. New shoes, new trainers, new coat, new skirt/trousers, new jumper and cardigan. And don't get me on the GCSE workbooks.

Maybe I have a child who always decided to grow in winter, we never had the so-called "summer growth spur" people are always talking about.

Yes cost a fortune as I have 4 kids at school and they all need new everything, youngest is just starting as well so will need everything

[quote JustFrustrated]@userstillatlarge

Nope, in my house we have school coats and home coats. Same as I have a work coat and a home coat.

Needs are totally different between school and home/work and home. So different coats required.[/quote]
Er - why? Presumably the point of a coat is to keep you warm and dry? Why would you need 2 (as a child; I get that you might want a "smarter" coat for work as an adult)?

I have two in secondary school as of September. It's eye watering to be honest and I'm scared to properly add it up!

I’ve had to spend £70 on a replacement PE kit alone. It’s ridiculous that schools can get away with such outrageous prices. Haven’t bought new coats yet but for shoes and PE is already over £300.

Thankfully none of them needed any other new uniform. Due to lockdowns there is still some unworn that fits from last year.

Dreading next year when my daughter goes up to high school. Can’t even pass any of the boys stuff to her so will be spending £270 for uniform for her.

[quote JustFrustrated]@userstillatlarge

Nope, in my house we have school coats and home coats. Same as I have a work coat and a home coat.

Needs are totally different between school and home/work and home. So different coats required.[/quote]
Same here. Also DD is a Scout so if she is away for a weekend her coat needs a wash and is unusable Monday mornings.

Her school coat is long to cover a blazer and school-approved black and not practical at all, her home one is short to enable her to be active and comes from an outdoor shop to keep her warm and dry.

Mine only have one winter coat for school and home… it’s only purpose is to keep them warm and dry so we don’t need more than one. If they get filthy I just wash in the evening and they’re dry for the morning.

@UserStillatLarge

Varies massively year on year (this year, all I'm buying is some pens).

I wouldn't count things like winter coat, trainers and water bottle as back to school budget - presumably they are also heavily used out of school?

We have to have school logo coats and plain black coats with no logo on. The teenagers won’t wear these outside of school and nor would I want them to really. They also tend to buy a thinner school coat due to having to wear a blazer underneath and carry it around all day so there coats for home are of their choice of colour / style and much warmer.

They always have separate PE trainers as they don’t want their decent trainers covered in mud, wet and have nothing to wear at home. They also tend to misplace things so wouldn’t want their home trainers lost.

So far...for 2 dc aged 5 and 8

-books/exercise books/stationery €170 (2 books were out of stock so I still need those)
-ds uniform approx €55 for
4 jumpers @ €5 each
4 joggers @ €6 each
6 polo shirts for €11
-dd uniform approx €44 for
3 skirts @€1.99 each
4 polo shirts @ €4.50 for 2
3 jumper @ €9.50 each

• 2 pairs of new trainers €35 and €42

So that's €346 in TOTAL.

I don't buy unless things need to be replaced so I have not bought school bags, lunch boxes, water bottles etc. Last year my dd didn't get new uniform except a jumper as her previous year stuff still fit.

I won't buy them new coats as their other coats are just fine to be honest.

I think this year is more expensive for me as I had to buy all new uniform do my dd. (Maybe next year I won't need to buy skirts)

I am VERY lucky that their school is really relaxed about uniforms, no crests, can be bought in a multitude of shops and they can wear whatever footwear they want

I'm in Ireland and spent €450 (about £385) on a 7 year old.

@Coffeeanddarkchoc 👋 to a fellow Irish parent, we posted at the same time 🤣🤣