Coming to the end of every July/August vacation, parents are faced with the expenses of the upcoming school year.
But unless you are a parent, you may not be aware of the full cost of these supplies.
To give an insight into what parents face every end of term vacation, the Business Day has compiled responses from two families: a single-parent family and a nuclear family.
What a single mother faces
A single mother, who asked for her name not to be used, said she faces upwards of $6,000 in school supplies for her three children at the start of the term.
[caption id="attachment_1031840" align="alignnone" width="791"] Bookstores ready their shelves in anticipation of the back-to-school rush.- Roger Jacob[/caption]
However, there may be other expenses throughout the year such as stationery – pens, notebooks, pencils etc – or supplies for a project as assigned throughout the school year.
She spends an average of $2,000 per child and broke down the expenses.
“(I pay) $500 per year in security fee (to the school) and $5 per week for class maintenance.”
She added that she usually gave her three children a stipend of $50 everyday, but was able to reduce that after her 19-year-old started university and now that her 17-year-old is out of school and awaiting Caribbean Secondary Education Council or CSEC results.
As for textbooks, this year, she said, “I paid $172 for one textbook, because I had the rest from what my other children used recently.”
The only hurdle in this cost-cutting opportunity is the school recommending the new edition of the textbooks in its book lists. Since most were reused from her older children, there was only one book to replace, but on average, ten textbooks can cost between $150 and $250 each. She suspects prices have increased since she last bought textbooks, though.
School bags cost $400. The uniform consists of pants, which are $220, and the shirt, $68 – only one set was bought this term, since, she said, she has other uniforms.
Stationery made up the bulk of her spending at $1,004, which covered the basics.
Asked how she manages the cost of these items year after year, she said, “It is a huge challenge, but since the three started school I started sou sou to cover the cost of the book list.”
A sousou is an informal savings club widely known in West Africa and the Caribbean, an arrangement between a trusted group of family or friends. Members pay a fixed, equal amount of money into a common fund every week, fortnight or month and take turns being paid on an agreed-upon schedule. The group selects a treasurer who collects the members' contributions. The pool rotates until all members have been paid their agreed share. They don't earn interest and there is no reward for recruiting participants.
It should be noted that although there are legitimate sou sous, there are also scams parading as sou sous that are illegal pyramid schemes. People are also warned about scammers using this concept for dishonest means.
Nuclear family sending 3 children to school
A father,
