Make back-to-school shopping a teachable moment

By Sara Croymans, University of Minnesota Extension

ST. PAUL, Minn. (8/11/2008) - Back-to-school shopping can be an exciting time for children and a potentially stressful time for parents. Given increased costs for groceries, gas and heating, family budgets may be more strained now than in previous years. Back-to-school shopping can be a great opportunity to teach children money management and consumer decision-making skills.

Consider the following tips as your family plans for a new school year:

• Obtain a list of required school supplies from your child’s school. Become familiar with any dress codes or uniform policies.
• Determine what useable school supplies you might have available at home. You may have enough left over notebooks, glue bottles and pencils from previous years.
• With your child, go through closets and dressers. Try on clothes to see what still fits. Donate unuseable clothes to family, friends, second-hand stores and coat drives.
• With the assistance of your child compile a list of the clothing, accessories and school supplies needed. Be sure to include items such as eyeglasses, shoes, backpacks and lunch boxes.
• Decide on an appropriate amount to spend on each child. This amount can be determined by the amount of money available in savings, current funds on hand, and how much you might be comfortable charging.
• Estimate the total expenses for the items currently on your list. If you are over budget, look for places to trim. Together with your child, set priorities. Youth will often be more satisfied with the results if they are involved in the decisions.
• If there is a particular item a child "must have," help them adjust their budget elsewhere. Include the children in decisions about what purchases are most important.
• Families may want to consider having the child be responsible for covering a portion of the costs. It will teach them how to stick to a budget.
• Take advantage of other resources, such as hand-me-down clothing from friends and relatives. Check out garage sales and thrift stores, and teach sewing skills to mend or alter clothing.
• Compare prices and quality to make sure you’re getting a good deal. Check newspapers, circulars and websites for sales. Clip coupons for extra savings. Carefully choose your shopping destination, recognizing that shopping near home can save on gas.
• Whenever possible, pay with cash. If you must charge items, try to pay off charges within a few months to avoid excess finance fees. Try to set aside money each month of the year for these expenses to avoid straining the budget next August.
• Save receipts. Some purchases may qualify for the Minnesota state education tax benefits, including the purchase of text books and some school supplies. For a list of qualifying and non-qualifying expenses, contact the Minnesota Department of Revenue at www.taxes.state.mn.us and search for "education credit and subtraction." It is important to save receipts for these purchases. Keep them safe them in an envelope until tax time.

Any use of this article must include the byline or following credit line:
Sara Croymans is a family resource management educator with University of Minnesota Extension.

Media Contact: Catherine Dehdashti, U of M Extension, (612) 625-0237, ced@umn.edu

NOTE: News releases were current as of the date of issue. If you have a question on older releases, use the news release search (upper left-hand column of the News main page) or the main Extension search (upper right of this page) to locate more recent information.

URL: http:// www.extension.umn.edu./extensionnews/2008/backtoschoolshopping.html  This page was updated Aug. 11, 2008 .
Online Privacy Statement.  Contact Information.

University of Minnesota Extension is an equal opportunity educator and employer.
Copyright  ©  Regents of the University of Minnesota.  All rights reserved.