Back to School Supplies for Highschool

How can I possibly have a child starting highschool this year?  It feels like it wasn’t that long ago that I was in highschool myself. . . although considering I was the class of ’90, well, I just don’t even want to count out the years.

Maybe I have a faulty memory, but I don’t remember having a back to school list in the late 80’s.  I have some vague recollection of buying whatever notebooks I thought I’d need and then maybe finding during the first week of class if anything specific was needed.

These days back to school supplies are a tad more organized.  Most schools send or publish a list. In my kids school district they always send us a school supply list in the middle of the summer–but that means I have to keep track of it until we do our school supply shopping a month later.  Paperwork in my household doesn’t seem to stay put for that long–I’m sure it is the same for many of you–so I think it’s great Walmart has copies of the various local school supply lists conveniently located in the stores!

But back to highschool.  Princess is a freshman this year.  Ack!  I know some of you have been around reading Frugal Upstate since 2006 and remember this sweet face:

That’s right, now she’s a young lady:

This week’s assignment for Walmart was to pick up school supplies.  That was great, because we buy all our school supplies from Walmart anyway.  Who can resist $.10 folders, $.50 notebooks and $.25 crayons?  Not me!  Back to school is also the time when I stock up on all my office supplies for the year at bargain prices.  I may or may not have an entire dresser drawer full of notebooks, folders, crayons, pens, filler paper and rulers. . .

This year I managed not to lose Princess’s back to school supply list.  Actually I formed a group on facebook for her school class (2019 baby!) to share information and questions pertinent to her class (I made one for Buddy’s class of 2021 too) and invited all the parents I knew.  I asked and them to invite other parents.  Then I took pictures of the school supply list and put them in the group.  When I was in Walmart I just pulled up the photos to look at 🙂

Here’s what I got:

That’s a lot of stuff–and it ran me around $150 at Walmart, even buying the least expensive items in most cases.  Please bear in mind that the calculator alone cost $88, and the special art notebook and pencils are a pretty penny too. . . I can only imagine what the list would have cost if things had been priced at their non-BTS (back to school) prices.

So let’s look at some of the particular items of interest.  First notebooks.  I always pick up the least expensive one subject notebooks.  This year instead of just the plain colored ones Walmart had these super cute patterned ones from Mead for the same price.

There were lots more colors and patterns, that was just a sample.  I may have to pick up some more to add to my stash. . . if I can find room in that drawer I may or may not have.

I admit to spending a bit more on binders this year.  I decided to buy the heavy duty ones with the reinforced seams.  I wish I could show you a picture of what Princess’s binders looked like at the end of last year, but we threw them out because they were seriously trashed.  The seams had all split at least a couple inches in.  Several of the edges had also split showing the cardboard underneath.  Piling them up in the narrow lockers and stuffing them in the overfilled backpack daily just took their toll.  I’m hoping by spending about $1 more per binder that they will hold up better.

Now the calculator.  The list specified a TI-83 calculator.  I had NO IDEA that was going to run me $88.  Oh well, what can you do when they are that specific about an item?  (FYI–the school has some available in the classroom for students to borrow, but I’d rather leave those for the kids for whom it’s a financial strain to buy one).

Princess is not exactly easy on her things.  I can’t fault her too much–I tend to use things hard myself.  Regardless I told her in no uncertain terms that this calculator was to last her all 4 years of Highschool.  For added protection I purchased the  Walmart Care Plan for just an additional $8.

If you are not familiar with the Walmart Product Care Plans, you should really take a look at them!  They cover WAY more than a standard manufacturers warranty.  Things like cracked screens and damage from dropping, spilling things on it, heat damage and even failures due to wear and tear.  Try finding a standard warranty that covers those things!  The price of course is based on the item you are buying.  Just $8 to be able to have the calculator fixed or replaced if she drops it, cracks the screen or spills a glass of water on it (these things happen!) was totally worth it as far as I was concerned.

A little side note.  To utilize the Walmart Product Care Plan you need your receipt.  The best thing to do is to go to the Product Care Plan hub and create a free account.  Then register your item using the information off your receipt (don’t worry, they walk you through step by step).  Finally, they let you take a picture of your receipt and upload it so you don’t have to worry about losing the receipt.  I went ahead and took a picture of it with my cell phone, loaded the picture onto my laptop then uploaded the image to the account.  Now I never have to worry about losing my receipt!

The rest of the school supply list was the basics.  Pens. Pencils.  Notecards.  Filler Paper.  Highlighters. Binder pouch. Gloves for science class.  Tissues for homeroom.  We also had a USB Thumb Drive on the list, but I have plenty of those that brands have sent me, so I didn’t need to purchase one.

Now on to shopping for Buddy’s list, at Walmart of course!

****This is a sponsored post****

Disclosure: As a participant in the Walmart Moms Program, I’ve received product samples and compensation for my time and efforts in creating this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.