Costly Tradition: Back To School — And the Stores

The ads are out, the school supply lists are posted and the shopping carts are filling up.

But what’s getting smaller for many families this year is their ‘back to school budget’.

“We have to get some glue sticks, paper, crayons, baby wipes,” Ruschel Veit of Bend said Monday.

Veit is getting supplies for two of her four kids, which even in a good economy adds up fast.

“He’s in kindergarten and he’s in first grade, and we spent a couple hundred bucks on school supplies,” Veit said.

Veit wants to get out the door on a budget, while local stores want to get people in the door early.

“We put out all our school supplies out the week of Fourth of July, which is pretty early. You’re thinking right about the beginning of summer, we’re putting out school supplies,” said Matt Brusse, logistics team leader at Target in Bend.

Along with paper and pencils, pricey high-tech gear is on the list too.

Zip drives, laptops for high schoolers and graphing calculators.

So just how much do those supply lists rack up?

For fourth -raders, after $1.50 here and 60 cents there, your price tag rings up around $40 to $50 per kid

As for you seventh-graders, the list gets shorter but the items more pricey — totaling nearly $100.

And that’s if you just stick to the basics.

“They’ve got little sparkles on the pens, and we have lots of different fun stuff than just the regular No. 2 pencil and things like that,” Brusse said.

Bedazzled pens and flashy notebooks grab the approval of the kids, but they’re also $2 to $3 more.

Veit makes a good point, “They like it because it’s shiny and sparkly, but how long does it last? And what happens with it? It usually disappears,” she said.

Veit’s bill: $178 for two kids — it’s when the other two, younger ones start needing supplies — then she might start to worry.

“I can’t imagine what it’s going to cost when I have all four of them in school,” Veit said.

You can find those school supply check lists in most chain retail stores on the High Desert or print one out online from your school’s website.