Sunday, September 2, 2012

The Rentrée Shopping Bill

Yesterday morning I cleared the table, got out the lists, and started going through the stationery shelves:
Not very tidy but you get the picture - we have a lot of pens, books, papers and those beastly little plastic pockets in stock! This seemed a safe enough moment to involve the Willows - and so it turned out.
With highlighter pens, extra lists and lots of sorting, I whittled down Son 2's list for 4° in Collège (that's year 8 or 9, in the UK), using up lots of the stationery I'd already picked up whenever I found it going cheap,
and even some of his stuff left over from last year, although most of it looked like the contents of his pencil case, above!
Unusually, Son 2 wasn't helping me, as he was out in the garden with Ben, working on his bike - this seemed a good excuse to head off to the shops with only Ratty for company (I heeded Jane's warning about the likely outcome of taking Mr Toad into a French supermarket)...
Above is the physical result of our labours,
and this is the financial damage! 66€52 is a great saving on the projected cost of the Rentrée, which was estimated this year at well over 100€ per child. Son 2 has kept his cartable (school bag) from last year, as it was fantastically strong and reliable, and with a bit of care we've also re-used some books, a pencil case, a calculator etc...
And by working carefully from the Intermarché booklet I showed you yesterday, the list above shows how much money I got back on my loyalty card - about 20% of our total rentrée spend. Phew! How much does it cost to go back to school where you are?

6 comments:

Lorrie said...

Haven't done that for awhile, but I remember it costing a fair bit to set up three kids for the school year. Congrats to you, Floss for excellent management, and reusing supplies.

Elizabethd said...

It's a far cry from everything being provided as it used to be here.
Isnt it amazing to think that long ago all that was necessary was a slate and a piece of chalk!

Pomona said...

All I can say is thank goodness for schools that supply the stationery - we are so lucky over here. All I have had to buy is one skirt and two pairs of socks - and we are off on the dreaded shoe purchasing operation tomorrow.

Pomona x

Pom Pom said...

It costs A LOT! I remember kitting out four students and juggling all four lists of "necessary items" and feeling quite ill when the tab was totalled!
I'm sure Ratty was a big help. Did he get a look at a river at all?

Frances said...

My goodness! As I have never had any children, I have never had to face such back to school expenses.

Way back in the 1950's and 1960's, when I was in school, we did not have too many sophisticated required school supplies. A new looseleaf binder, some paper with pre-punched 5 holes to fit in that binder, some pencils with erasers. It was a good idea to have a wooden rulen and geometry eventually required a protractor and radius.

Well into my school days, ink entered the picture, as in bottled ink and a fountain pen.

Eventually ball point pens (biros) were invented.

Throughout all these years the important requirement was that we do our homework and bring energy and our brainpower to class.

Best wishes to you and to those young students in your home.

xo

Used-to-Bees said...

We saw quite a number of slightly harassed-looking mothers with lists and pen in hand in the supermarkets when we were in France a couple of weeks back! I sometimes wonder whether French children look after their belongings more carefully at school as their parents have had to buy it all. All too often here the children don't place much value on the contents of a pencil case and the stuff provided by school is treated carelessly.
x