Back to school costs

[ThoseCowsAreFarAway]

I have 3 kids - eldest is going into senior infants. Papers today reporting that is costs about €350 to €400 to send a child into junior infants. I honestly don't know where they get this figure?!

Last year we had contribution to school of €90 - this covered outings, stationery, etc.
Uniform was €75 - this included white shirts from Dunnes and the rest was branded. Shoes from Dunnes were €15. And bag was €10. And the school is arranging a day where you can sell and buy second hand uniforms, etc.
Books were €65. Am I leaving anything out?

All this comes to €255. It's a lot but I don't begrudge it - the uniform is worn to death. The books are good. A lot is covered by the contribution to the school.

It bugs me when people seemed surprised at the costs every summer. And the grumbling that goes on about it!

I'll be flamed for this but people waste money on drink and fags and whinge about back to school costs every year.
They will spend a fortune for Christmas/ Easter/ Communion and Confirmation yet begrudge uniform/ book costs.
Children are expensive to rear.
So often people get new school shoes just because it's September. With my children I always checked whether they needed them or not. If the ones they had in July still fitted they didn't get new school shoes until their feet had grown.
School bags, pencil cases etc were carried forward if they were still usable.

I agree Holly!

Do you not have a voluntary contribution on top of that?

The survey quoted was probably the Barnardo's one. My two will be in 1st class and JI this year. The 1st class books were €55, and we'll be asked for around €50 to cover the stationery stuff. Bag, lunch box, etc will be recycled from last year. The JI class has no booklist so there will only be the €50 stationery fee; new bag was €40 but we'll get 3 years out of it. We will be asked for €250 voluntary contribution on to top of that (it's €140 for one child, maxes out at €300 for three). No uniform as were an educate together.